The low budget photoshop / video editing machine

Its really easy to recommend the newest intel i7 or even the amd phenom II x4 with all the ddr3 1600 ram you can fit in the mobo, but what about trying to build a machine that costs very little and can still edit pics and video at a reasonably fast speed?

So lets hear what you would recommend as a low budget build that can still pump out thise pics and videos!

Define "low budget".

Editing video is no easy task. It will take one heck of a machine to churn out your work. Photos are less intensive, but still demanding. Core2 Quad at a minimum, 4GB RAM, Decent size hard drives, good PSU and you are at $500 easily.

Low budget $600, core 2 quad 8200, 4gb ram
Low budget $800, i5 750, 4gb ram
Low budget $1000, i7 860, 4gb ram

Those are min specs you should be able to get for the price

Core2Duo will work. But I agree with the others -- if we're talking about building a *new* system today, you'd be dumb to go anything less than Core 2 Quad....especially since the cost difference between the Core2Duo and Core2Quad is so small now.

BeritOlam wrote in post #9204124
Core2Duo will work. But I agree with the others -- if we're talking about building a *new* system today, you'd be dumb to go anything less than Core 2 Quad....especially since the cost difference between the Core2Duo and Core2Quad is so small now.

Core 2 Duos start at $120, Core 2 Quad start at $140 (with 2.66gh one at $160), and motherboards run between $80 and $120 for decent ones, so you're looking at +10% difference in price for +50% or more difference in performance. Yes, Quad is the way to go, unless you need something small, ultra cheap, and uses less power on idle.

elitejp wrote in post #9201694
Its really easy to recommend the newest intel i7 or even the amd phenom II x4 with all the ddr3 1600 ram you can fit in the mobo, but what about trying to build a machine that costs very little and can still edit pics and video at a reasonably fast speed?

So lets hear what you would recommend as a low budget build that can still pump out thise pics and videos!

Like the others said, low budget's vary. An i7 will chew through video very well, but that isn't the only factor when considering a machine for video editing. For instance, typically, you don't want to scrimp on the motherboard or power supply. Video is very demanding. It requires good through-put from the point of entry (video card, capture card, bus, memory and so on). I do 90% of my video work on a Mac Pro despite my PC being more than adequate for video work because OS X, Final Cut Studio and the hardware are very predictable.

The best system's are the ones that act predictably. Here are some general rules that 'usually' work well for video work. When getting a system, try to stay within the same company/chipsets. If you get a motherboard by (or with) nVidia for instance, also get an nVidia video card. It's more likely (but not always true) that a company will test their own products together more than they would with competitors. Intel chipsets are usually very good with video. Since Intel put's out the templates that manufacturers base their systems on it's typically also true that they will be more compatible. Start with the motherboard. Find one with a solid record, isn't the least expensive and one that is over clockable (but DO NOT over clock it). When rendering video your computer is going to be pushing very hard for a long time - sometimes for hours. If it's a good over clocker that will 'probably' mean that it will have less voltage droop, has better capacitors (which take the heat) and would glitch less due to heat issues. When it comes to CPU's - just about all of them are fine - just get as much power that you can afford with the most amount of cores. Video rendering is very multi-thread friendly. Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Avid, Premiere will use every CPU you give them.

After motherboard and CPU choose a video card (with the criteria from above) that supports OpenGL (no problems there). It doesn't have to be the latest and greatest, just enough to push things along. Many video plugins are very 3D intensive so at least get a card in the $150-$200 range from nVidia or AMD. Other, specialty video cards are probably out of your price range though.

RAM should be fast. Don't get cheap RAM and get at least 6GB if you plan on doing anything semi-serious. If not, then 3 or 4 will be fine - but plan on seeing it top out with RAM previews and start cacheing to the HDD. The slowest RAM I would get would be 1066. Though timings on the board or CPU may slow things down, the bandwidth will help overall because the RAM will not be taxed and later you fell more confident you can look into changing the timings of the RAM if the voltage is being met.

The only thing I can say about hard drives is get as much as possible and again, try to get the fastest you can afford. I personally go with Seagate drives, but WD blacks are fine. I personally use Velociraptors for the main drives and Seagates for data. I've had a bad string of luck with WD Black's - four have died on me in the last two months, but I'm a very heavy user.

As far as optical media, just about anything will do, but for high scale media I went with Sony's blu-ray rom's - who better than them to make a blu-ray drive?

Case - I use an Antec 900 - cool, roomy and not too expensive.

Monitors are actually not 'extremely' important for video work so whatever works for photos will work fine for video. Final Cut comes with Color and built in color scopes that are more accurate than any computer monitor you'll get under $1000. Eyeballing color for video is a no go - you won't be able to do it well enough without other more expensive equipment if you plan on making broadcast quality video.

That all might sound a bit difficult for the average person, but it really isn't. All said, I could probably put together an OK video editing station for about $900 with a Core 2 Quad or $1400 for an i7. I wouldn't much like to go under those prices if I wanted an 'OK' video editing computer. And if I was truly serious about video work I would look into a workstation from Dell, HP or Apple, but those all cost a pretty penny.

MaxxuM wrote in post #9205066
After motherboard and CPU choose a video card (with the criteria from above) that supports OpenGL (no problems there). It doesn't have to be the latest and greatest, just enough to push things along. Many video plugins are very 3D intensive so at least get a card in the $150-$200 range from nVidia or AMD. Other, specialty video cards are probably out of your price range though.

That buys you a Radeon 5770 or GTX260... Overkill for most things actually, but don't work well for workstation things, and some adobe products are actually better suited for workstation cards. And for under $300, the only workstation cards you'll get are 2-3 year old models that will have marginally better rendering speeds than something like a geforce 4770 (<$100) in most workstation programs, but far lower performance in everything else (hell, no DXVA)

I haven't been in the video card market for a while - my cards are still running $140+ (4850's). I was basing my prices on them. I did a little looking around. Now I remember why I haven't read up on the latest cards - it's damn confusing at first glance. Nothing special is needed really, and a 5770 really only gains you DX11 over the 4850's.

MaxxuM wrote in post #9206477
I haven't been in the video card market for a while - my cards are still running $140+ (4850's). I was basing my prices on them. I did a little looking around. Now I remember why I haven't read up on the latest cards - it's damn confusing at first glance. Nothing special is needed really, and a 5770 really only gains you DX11 over the 4850's.

Actually 5770 is 4870 with dx11 (including dxcompute and other nice things like that) and less than half the idle draw (and 20-30C cooler). And the 4850 is currently $100-120, even the overpowered XFX dual slot cooler version is $120.
But yes, nothing special needed, even a 3450 (about $40) is good enough for photoshop, 4650 ($50-70) is good for multiple hd video feeds.

awesome info guys! Obviously low budget is different for everybody but I like how everyone has chipped in and didnt all recommend the intel i7 but has recommended other cpu's that can still handle things quite well, howbeit not top of the line fast.