Is this computer good for video editing?

[lalalagirl]

I disagree with some of the above. Is it really that much of an upgrade if you don't use it? I think this big of a jump is just, well, overkill. She shouldn't pay for power she won't use.

Also macs do just fine with FireWire drives.

I'd be more verbose, but iPhone is small.

My computer is about two years old now so should I still stick with it or not? *How long do you think it'll last until It burns out XD*

[Kionon]

Mine is a few months old but isn't really more advanced. Put bluntly, unless you're telling us that you expect to be doing 3d stuff, or heavy use of AfterEffects/Motion, I just don't think you need much more. By the time you do, then we can talk again. And things will be cheaper and faster and smaller too.

Vegas is midrange. Prosumer by a hair, maybe. Specs that high are just unnecessary, IMO.

[milkmandan]

Also macs do just fine with FireWire drives.

yeah, PC's do fine with FireWire as well, but thats not the point. I was more over referring to lighting smooth editing.

Mine is a few months old but isn't really more advanced. Put bluntly, unless you're telling us that you expect to be doing 3d stuff, or heavy use of AfterEffects/Motion, I just don't think you need much more. By the time you do, then we can talk again. And things will be cheaper and faster and smaller too.

Vegas is midrange. Prosumer by a hair, maybe. Specs that high are just unnecessary, IMO.

i had a computer very similar to lalalagirl.
P4 2.4Ghz, 1GB RAM, Windows XP, plenty of hard drive space though, and editing was fine. i made all my amvs on that machine (minus my latest one). Editing was fine, and easy.
You are right, she doesn't "NEED" more power, but then again who does? I've seen people edit on machines way worse than her mac.
but that isn't the point.

If lalalagirl has, and is willing to spend more for a smoother AMV creation experience, getting a new computer will help.

[milkmandan]

My computer is about two years old now so should I still stick with it or not? *How long do you think it'll last until It burns out XD*

your computer will never 'burn' out, unless you cover all the airflow vents and let the computer over heat time and time and time again.
or start dropping your computer down a flight a stairs once a day.

there is no exact time as to when computers 'BURN' out, they don't. they are made to run for years. of course this doesn't happen, due to non optimal operating temperatures, but they 'can'. your computer is just 2 years old. I've had a computer with me for 7-8 years and it still ran. of course at the end of it's life, you'll notice problems, like 'not booting up' all the time and other problems. but you should be fine.

2 years is still a good computer. 5+ and it is kinda old.

Specs that high are just unnecessary, IMO.

Those so called 'specs' are really not high.
a Q6600 is trash now compared to the new i7 and it is dirt cheap.
used to be over $400~500 bucks for that cpu, now it is $199 :\

if lalalagirl ever does get into AE or motion graphics, it would be much better she have a computer that can 'handle' it..rather than find out "oh i wanna use AE, but oh wait my computer SUCKS to much to even do anything, guess i need to buy a new computer now". she may end up hating using AE for AMVs, and wasting money on something she doesn't like.

for video editing, simply put, the better computer you get, the more you can do with it, and the smoother your editing experience will be.
render times will drop, things might not lag as much...etc..

if lalalagirl just wanted a bare minimum computer that can handle the bare scratches of AMV creation, she wouldn't be here, she is obviously looking for something better than what she currently has.

[Kionon]

Those so called 'specs' are really not high.
a Q6600 is trash now compared to the new i7 and it is dirt cheap.
used to be over $400~500 bucks for that cpu, now it is $199 :\

I wasn't talking about money. I was talking about that vague concept known as "power."

if lalalagirl ever does get into AE or motion graphics, it would be much better she have a computer that can 'handle' it..rather than find out "oh i wanna use AE, but oh wait my computer SUCKS to much to even do anything, guess i need to buy a new computer now". she may end up hating using AE for AMVs, and wasting money on something she doesn't like.

Her MacBook can handle it. How do I know? I have the same processor. True, I have a bigger harddrive and more ram, but as stated, she can easily upgrade both. Not as far as I can, based on the limitations of the motherboard on her MacBook versus mine, but compared to what she has now, the difference is huge.

I can run Motion on a 3.2GHz P4 single core with 3GBs of ram. I am sure I can run it on an 2.1 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with the same ram. I imagine I would not see an issue with AE if I wanted to run it, which, frankly, I don't, but I'd be happy to test if you so desire. However, I still don't think she's going there right away, or even in the immediate future. She can correct me if I am wrong.

for video editing, simply put, the better computer you get, the more you can do with it, and the smoother your editing experience will be.
render times will drop, things might not lag as much...etc..

I am afraid that's not quite true. At least not in my experience. And how do you define better? It depends on many, many factors, but mostly, as I said earlier, how you edit, and what you edit with. If she could clarify just what kind of work she's going to do, I could tailor my responses better.

if lalalagirl just wanted a bare minimum computer that can handle the bare scratches of AMV creation, she wouldn't be here, she is obviously looking for something better than what she currently has.

She doesn't have a bare minimum computer. Her MacBook was top of the line two years ago, and I just bought practically the same one a few months ago, and it is currently my main editing computer. And I'm doing a lot more effects on my recent videos than I ever did previously. If she can bring it up to even close to mine, which she can, as I have shown above, she should be absolutely fine. Overkill is not necessary. By the time things have changed enough to require her to get a new computer, she will probably need one anyway, so I say, save your cash now, go with the upgrade options of the MacBook, and in another two years, say, get the top of the line MacBook Pro.

But that's just my 2円.

[Kionon]

Crap, missed this one. Maybe some repetition to follow:

Also macs do just fine with FireWire drives.

yeah, PC's do fine with FireWire as well, but thats not the point. I was more over referring to lighting smooth editing.

So was I. I meant I have experience with macs doing smooth editing from firewire devices. Hell, I used to edit on a mac via direct live firewire streams.

You are right, she doesn't "NEED" more power, but then again who does? I've seen people edit on machines way worse than her mac.
but that isn't the point.

Actually, it is. Unlike me, who wants to spend money for the hell of it and buy a Mac Pro, even though I know I don't need that much power, lalalagirl does not seem to be the type to want to just throw money all over the place. So, since she wants to be reasonable with her money, she shouldn't pay for what she doesn't need. That IS the point.

If lalalagirl has, and is willing to spend more for a smoother AMV creation experience, getting a new computer will help.

Or maxing out as many specs as she can on her current one. I promise you, she is NOT utilising that MacBook to its potential right now, and she hasn't even maxed it. If she does max it, I'd be very, very surprised if she came back and said "wow, I see no difference at all, this." It just won't happen.

[mirkosp]

A quadcore is close to being a minimum requirement nowadays, actually. The HD is taking over, Kio, and not all the dual cores can handle it well, especially when it comes to editing with said footage. A quad core, on the other hand, will give her a pc that can work with 720p and 1080p footage in real-time... so yeah, that's something she might like. When it comes to 1080p, I know that some dual cores can't even playback it properly, so yeah... considering the situation nowadays, getting a prebuilt with a q6600 and 4gb ram isn't useless, nor will it cost an insanely high price. She doesn't have to buy an i7, but a more basic quad core is certainly something she will want to look into.

[Kionon]

A quadcore is close to being a minimum requirement nowadays, actually. The HD is taking over, Kio, and not all the dual cores can handle it well, especially when it comes to editing with said footage. A quad core, on the other hand, will give her a pc that can work with 720p and 1080p footage in real-time... so yeah, that's something she might like. When it comes to 1080p, I know that some dual cores can't even playback it properly, so yeah... considering the situation nowadays, getting a prebuilt with a q6600 and 4gb ram isn't useless, nor will it cost an insanely high price. She doesn't have to buy an i7, but a more basic quad core is certainly something she will want to look into.

I am currently in 1080p right now on the macbook, and have no problem with HD footage on it, and I have the same processor. Granted, I also have 4GBs of ram, and I am running Snow Leopard.

If she wants a quad core, then yes, she'll need to buy a PC. The only quadcore Mac is the Mac Pro. And that's a lot of overkill.

I'm still unconvinced. I think you people are projecting what you want or what you will do onto her. If she was serious about editing at your level, it is my opinion she would not be looking at a pre-built system from one of the mainstream brands. If she didn't want to get her hands dirty (and I don't blame her, I don't like it either) she could find a smaller, custom company with warranties and service. However, I think she is basically asking if it will handle making the average AMV, and for that, the MacBook is more than enough. How many AMVs come out in 720p or 1080p now? How many editors have blu-ray drives? Very few. Again, in a few more years, when these things become more common place, then she can spend the money for a really, really nice system. No need to go bargain basement HP at this point. I just don't think you're being very practical.

[milkmandan]

I'm still unconvinced. I think you people are projecting what you want or what you will do onto her. If she was serious about editing at your level, it is my opinion she would not be looking at a pre-built system from one of the mainstream brands. If she didn't want to get her hands dirty (and I don't blame her, I don't like it either) she could find a smaller, custom company with warranties and service. However, I think she is basically asking if it will handle making the average AMV, and for that, the MacBook is more than enough. How many AMVs come out in 720p or 1080p now? How many editors have blu-ray drives? Very few. Again, in a few more years, when these things become more common place, then she can spend the money for a really, really nice system. No need to go bargain basement HP at this point. I just don't think you're being very practical.

I wouldn't assume what she wants. She asked for suggestions, of course we will project what we would prefer she do. That's why shes here asking O_O
No need to be so defensive.
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But yes, you are right, for what she wants, a simple upgrade will help greatly and will be much cheaper. I can believe your Mac can handle ur everday AMV needs just fine. My old P4 (specs way worse than yours handled AMVs just fine as well).

however she did ask specifically that she wanted a system that wouldn't slow down and etc.
Since she has had this Mac for 2 years now, it probably is pretty filled up with crap in the HDD and is acting very sluggish
if she doesn't know anything about how to optimize her HDD or even bother to clean it up and is willing to just buy a new computer, getting a PC would be recommended.

[milkmandan]

for video editing, simply put, the better computer you get, the more you can do with it, and the smoother your editing experience will be.
render times will drop, things might not lag as much...etc..

I am afraid that's not quite true. At least not in my experience. And how do you define better? It depends on many, many factors, but mostly, as I said earlier, how you edit, and what you edit with.

oh how wrong you are..
i defined "better" right in my quote O_o

the more you can do with it, and the smoother your editing experience will be.
render times will drop, things might not lag as much...etc..

Why does the industry render on such powerful machines then?
getting a better computer is always going to improve rendering speeds.
Pixar has to send their films to a render farm to get rendered.
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I have a dual quad workstation sitting in my room right now, just come on over and create your average AMV, the experience will be smoother and when you are all done...your final export (RAW uncompressed video) wont take more than 5 minutes.
better computer = shorter render times = get things done faster.