New PC for Sony Vegas Pro 12

[John Rofrano]

[sminkal kacha] “I am looking to move to a Work Station with Win 7 and multiple monitors. My budget is up to $2,400. “

You didn’t say if you would entertain building one. I built mine from the VideoGuys.com DIY9 specs:

Videoguys’ DIY9: It’s Time for Sandy Bridge-E (DIY 9.5 Update)

This is what I built:

Intel Hex Core Video Editing Workstation

[sminkal kacha] “Processor (AMD versus Intel)”

AMD is far, far behind Intel with regard to performance IMHO. I would go with Intel.

[sminkal kacha] “Graphics (AMD v/s nVidia v/s Intel)”

Lots of applications only support CUDA which means you need NVIDIA so I would recommend NVIDIA over AMD again.

[sminkal kacha] “Any standard PC/workstation (any brand or model) that fits perfectly.”

If I wasn’t building my own and I wanted a PC I would go with one the HP Z800/820 workstations. You could also buy a boutique gaming system. Those are usually great for video editing as well.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Sminkal Kacha]

Hello John,

Thank you for the detailed, and succinct inputs. This is very helpful.

I looked up HP’s Z800/Z820 and they look expensive. Based on the two links you you provided, DIY or building my own seems like the logical option both from cost and customization to exact components.

Though, going through the links, it looks like I would need
i) advanced understanding of computers (e.g. your comment about updating memory count in BIOS to stabilize the system)
ii) ability to assemble, each of these components from scratch.

Any advise on how one would go about getting exact, step-by-step instructions and seek help in case of issues that would address points i) and ii) above. I not in a hurry so can wait to order, spend time to understand and assemble and then test, tweak etc. but not sure about if I can do without a step-by-step guide.

Thank you.

[John Rofrano]

If you haven’t built a computer from scratch before it can be quite overwhelming at first. There are a lot of people who will tell you that it’s easy. Well… it’s only easy if you have done it before and everything goes as planned; but as soon as you get a bad memory module, or defective motherboard, or graphics card that’s dead, it can be quite frustrating trying to figure out what went wrong because everything is new and nothing can be trusted to work. I’ve experienced this and it’s not fun looking at $2,000 worth of parts wishing it was a working computer already.

If you Google “build your own computer video tutorial” you will find lots of great step-by-step videos. Watch a few and see if it’s something you are willing to attempt.

If not, you can look at other HP workstations like the Z620 or Z420 line which are a bit cheaper. The point is to buy a “workstation” and not a “home computer”. Workstations are made with higher quality parts and will perform better for video editing workloads.

As I said you can also buy a high-end system from a boutique builder like iBuyPower.com. These are built from off-the-shelf parts so it’s very easy to upgrade them and they are usually very powerful.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com