Hey guys, Ive been around forums for a few years so I know how they operate but I just got into video editing and have some questions about computers...

Alright after completely maxing out the memory on my familys PC after uploading a 5 minute video from my new camera (sony dcr-hc21), Ive decided its time that I get my own, Ive got an old PC in my room, its runs Win. 95 so its pretty much obsolete... Can anybody recomend anything? Mac or Windows? Id probably perfer a lap top over a desk computer. But If I used it only for videos and music (all the games and internet are on the family computer) would I need the "turbo charged, liquid cooled, high-octane" models?? Cause videos and music are allt hats going to be taking up memory... and I dont have thousands of dollars to spend lol ....

[Lakeuk]

What's your budget?

The following I've got does the business and can be built for around £650-700

Core Duo 2 E6600
2Gb DDR2 memory
250Gb HDD
Lightscribe DVD Rewriter
Dual Montor 7600GS GCard
plus usual case, keyboard, mouse

(plus cost of OS / video editing software and monitor)

Im not super with the currency converion, but about £650 is about $830 here I think, and thats about what im looking to spend ...

[Lakeuk]

You're abit out £650 converts to $1200 US Dollars

[redsox_mark]

US prices are different, especially as they don't include VAT... so taking a UK price and converting it will be likely more expensive than what it would cost in the US.

Any new PC can edit DV. You need a good size hard drive - DV is 12+ GB per hour. 1 GB of memory is enough, though of couse more can help. If you want to edit HDV then you need a higher spec machine.

[MarkE19]

Video editing on a laptop can be done, but it can cause a few problems. Most laptop HDD's only spin at 4200rpm which can be a little slow and cause dropped frames. If you can get a HDD at 5400rpm then this should be fine, else get an external firewire drive and do all capture to that.
Other than the above just make sure it has a firewire port and as Mark said 1Gb RAM will speed things up, but 512Mb will do if the budget is tight. A DVD burner (fairly standard now, even in laptops) to output your edited video is a good idea, as is a large screen as the workspace can get very crowded when editing.

Mark.