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I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
I can soup up a desktop to do the job?

Thanks in advance!

On 2006-01-18, sysadmin <> wrote:
> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
> will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
> a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
> wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
> I can soup up a desktop to do the job?
>
> Thanks in advance!

I don't think there is any official distinction between what constitutes a
'workstation' and what makes a 'desktop'; todays 'desktop' PCs are far
faster and more powerful than the 'workstations' sold a few years ago.

Whatever you buy, make sure that the hardware is at least up to the
'recommended' specification for the software you intend to use. Ideally,
talk to a PC builder about what you want the system for and ask for their
expert advice. Ready-made systems are unlikely to be optimised for your
special purpose.

You probably could 'do video editing' on the cheapest outfit on sale in
your favourite chain-store - but it would be a slow and frustrating
experience if you want to do very much of it.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

In article <JKtzf.2323$>,
says...
> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
> will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
> a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
> wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
> I can soup up a desktop to do the job?

If the builders on the same site classify two different systems, one as
a workstation, one as a Desktop, you typically find this:

Workstation:

Either designed for a managed environment, may not come with software,
may come in very-low end (like for Terminal Server client only) or very
high-end for CAD/Graphics work.

Desktop:

Anything goes, could be high-end or low-end, normally has a lot of
fluff/crap loaded with it.

If you are doing PhotoShop you want as much RAM as you can afford, at
lest 2GB. With you do a lot of Video, then you want more than one hard
drive, a source files drive and a finished files drive - this lets you
save a LOT of time by reading files/source from drive 0 and writing them
to destinatio drive.

If you get a Intel CPU, get one with a 2MB CACHE on the CPU, and get one
that is Hyper-Threaded and faster than 3.2Ghz...

Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read the reviews online
about them, something with 256MB RAM.

--


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On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 09:24:25 -0500, sysadmin wrote:

> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
> will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
> a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
> wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
> I can soup up a desktop to do the job?
>
> Thanks in advance!

Really no difference if both have the same CPU muscle, video and memory.
I used to call a PC a "workstation" if it was an office PC networked and
sharing resources located on the network such as printers and file servers.

Leythos wrote:
> In article <JKtzf.2323$>,
> says...
>> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
>> will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
>> a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
>> wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
>> I can soup up a desktop to do the job?
>
> If the builders on the same site classify two different systems, one as
> a workstation, one as a Desktop, you typically find this:
>
> Workstation:
>
> Either designed for a managed environment, may not come with software,
> may come in very-low end (like for Terminal Server client only) or very
> high-end for CAD/Graphics work.
>
> Desktop:
>
> Anything goes, could be high-end or low-end, normally has a lot of
> fluff/crap loaded with it.
>
> If you are doing PhotoShop you want as much RAM as you can afford, at
> lest 2GB. With you do a lot of Video, then you want more than one hard
> drive, a source files drive and a finished files drive - this lets you
> save a LOT of time by reading files/source from drive 0 and writing them
> to destinatio drive.
>
> If you get a Intel CPU, get one with a 2MB CACHE on the CPU, and get one
> that is Hyper-Threaded and faster than 3.2Ghz...
>
> Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read the reviews online
> about them, something with 256MB RAM.
>

Why do some people assume a high-end video card is necessary for video
editing? It is NOT!

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus

"sysadmin" <> wrote in
news:JKtzf.2323$:

> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the
> applications I will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop,
> After effects). There is a huge price difference between workstations
> and Desktops and I was wondering if somebody can tell me if a
> workstation is really necessary or if I can soup up a desktop to do
> the job?

Spend as much as you can afford. The more powerful the system, the more
effects you will be able to preview in real-time. If you want to build
your own system, start by choosing the video card (Matrox, Canopus) with
the features you want and then build around that.

http://www.videoguys.com/
features most of the best hardware.

--
fred

In article <43ced032$0$23574$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-
01.iinet.net.au>, says...
> Leythos wrote:
> > In article <JKtzf.2323$>,
> > says...
> >> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
> >> will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
> >> a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
> >> wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
> >> I can soup up a desktop to do the job?
> >
> > If the builders on the same site classify two different systems, one as
> > a workstation, one as a Desktop, you typically find this:
> >
> > Workstation:
> >
> > Either designed for a managed environment, may not come with software,
> > may come in very-low end (like for Terminal Server client only) or very
> > high-end for CAD/Graphics work.
> >
> > Desktop:
> >
> > Anything goes, could be high-end or low-end, normally has a lot of
> > fluff/crap loaded with it.
> >
> > If you are doing PhotoShop you want as much RAM as you can afford, at
> > lest 2GB. With you do a lot of Video, then you want more than one hard
> > drive, a source files drive and a finished files drive - this lets you
> > save a LOT of time by reading files/source from drive 0 and writing them
> > to destinatio drive.
> >
> > If you get a Intel CPU, get one with a 2MB CACHE on the CPU, and get one
> > that is Hyper-Threaded and faster than 3.2Ghz...
> >
> > Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read the reviews online
> > about them, something with 256MB RAM.
> >
>
> Why do some people assume a high-end video card is necessary for video
> editing? It is NOT!

Why do you assume High-End is the same in all cases. There are HIGH-END
gamer cards, high-end 2D cards, high-end 3d cards, etc... I find that
the generic High-End cards have a faster clock rate which makes a BIG
difference using Photoshop and shading.

There is a lot more to the world than just gaming.

--


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Leythos wrote:
> In article <43ced032$0$23574$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-
> 01.iinet.net.au>, says...
>> Leythos wrote:
>>> In article <JKtzf.2323$>,
>>> says...
>>>> I need to purchase a PC for doing video editing. Mostly the applications I
>>>> will be using are from Adobe (Premiere, Photoshop, After effects). There is
>>>> a huge price difference between workstations and Desktops and I was
>>>> wondering if somebody can tell me if a workstation is really necessary or if
>>>> I can soup up a desktop to do the job?
>>> If the builders on the same site classify two different systems, one as
>>> a workstation, one as a Desktop, you typically find this:
>>>
>>> Workstation:
>>>
>>> Either designed for a managed environment, may not come with software,
>>> may come in very-low end (like for Terminal Server client only) or very
>>> high-end for CAD/Graphics work.
>>>
>>> Desktop:
>>>
>>> Anything goes, could be high-end or low-end, normally has a lot of
>>> fluff/crap loaded with it.
>>>
>>> If you are doing PhotoShop you want as much RAM as you can afford, at
>>> lest 2GB. With you do a lot of Video, then you want more than one hard
>>> drive, a source files drive and a finished files drive - this lets you
>>> save a LOT of time by reading files/source from drive 0 and writing them
>>> to destinatio drive.
>>>
>>> If you get a Intel CPU, get one with a 2MB CACHE on the CPU, and get one
>>> that is Hyper-Threaded and faster than 3.2Ghz...
>>>
>>> Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read the reviews online
>>> about them, something with 256MB RAM.
>>>
>> Why do some people assume a high-end video card is necessary for video
>> editing? It is NOT!
>
> Why do you assume High-End is the same in all cases. There are HIGH-END
> gamer cards, high-end 2D cards, high-end 3d cards, etc... I find that
> the generic High-End cards have a faster clock rate which makes a BIG
> difference using Photoshop and shading.
>
> There is a lot more to the world than just gaming.
>

FFS. You said *"Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read
the reviews online about them, something with 256MB RAM."*

I did not mention games or gamers, or Photoshop or shading, or even the
relative merits of so-called high-end video cards. I stated, and will
repeat. "Why do some people assume a high-end video card is necessary
for video editing? It is NOT!"

Comment on what was said, not what you think was said.

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus

In article <43cf157d$0$23552$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-
01.iinet.net.au>, says...
[snip]
> > Why do you assume High-End is the same in all cases. There are HIGH-END
> > gamer cards, high-end 2D cards, high-end 3d cards, etc... I find that
> > the generic High-End cards have a faster clock rate which makes a BIG
> > difference using Photoshop and shading.
> >
> > There is a lot more to the world than just gaming.
> >
>
> FFS. You said *"Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read
> the reviews online about them, something with 256MB RAM."*
>
> I did not mention games or gamers, or Photoshop or shading, or even the
> relative merits of so-called high-end video cards. I stated, and will
> repeat. "Why do some people assume a high-end video card is necessary
> for video editing? It is NOT!"
>
> Comment on what was said, not what you think was said.

Because based on the OP's question, you appeared to be going after
something other than what was asked. In many cases, a HIGH-END card will
help with ALL of the programs that the OP mentioned.

Why don't you go back and read what the op asked about. I stand by my
suggestion for a High-End video card as being a must.

--


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Leythos wrote:
> In article <43cf157d$0$23552$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-
> 01.iinet.net.au>, says...
> [snip]
>>> Why do you assume High-End is the same in all cases. There are HIGH-END
>>> gamer cards, high-end 2D cards, high-end 3d cards, etc... I find that
>>> the generic High-End cards have a faster clock rate which makes a BIG
>>> difference using Photoshop and shading.
>>>
>>> There is a lot more to the world than just gaming.
>>>
>> FFS. You said *"Video is another area, a quality HIGH-END card, read
>> the reviews online about them, something with 256MB RAM."*
>>
>> I did not mention games or gamers, or Photoshop or shading, or even the
>> relative merits of so-called high-end video cards. I stated, and will
>> repeat. "Why do some people assume a high-end video card is necessary
>> for video editing? It is NOT!"
>>
>> Comment on what was said, not what you think was said.
>
> Because based on the OP's question, you appeared to be going after
> something other than what was asked. In many cases, a HIGH-END card will
> help with ALL of the programs that the OP mentioned.
>
> Why don't you go back and read what the op asked about. I stand by my
> suggestion for a High-End video card as being a must.
>

Then you are either stupid or misguided. Photoshop does not require
anything of the kind. On one of my computers here I run it (along with
Elements) with a low-end generic 64 Meg Nvidia chipset video card, and
it runs very well. The computer is a 3.0 Gig PIV with 1 Gig RAM, PATA
and SATA HDDs and is used for video editing and label and cover design.
(In fact I have only recently taken out the 256MB Radeon RX850 XT
Platinum Edition to put into my grandson's gaming machine, and there has
been no difference in performance at all.)

If the OP has the latest Premiere Pro 2 then he will need a better card,
and between 1 and 2 Gig of RAM, but for earlier versions virtually any
video card will be fine.

--
Cheers
Oldus Fartus