Will you guys help me build a computer?

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Basement Dweller

mac pro imo, but its 2.5 g's

Jun 25 2010 12:00AM

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bustinthejus

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Wait... are you planning on upgrading your laptop? Or straight up building a new rig? Will it be desktop or laptop?

Jun 25 2010 12:06AM

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Basement Dweller

building a new rig, and it will be a desktop

Jun 25 2010 12:14AM

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Jwenz

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Crazy Fool

honestly you dont need more than a mbp. i edit dvcproHD (hvx footy) in a breeze. shit is illin. 4gb ram. so dank

Jun 25 2010 12:27AM

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Basement Dweller

prores4:2:2 is larger than DVCproHD

Jun 25 2010 12:33AM

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Basement Dweller

stupid h.264 :(

Jun 25 2010 12:33AM

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Jwenz

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Crazy Fool

well you clearly know more thanme. just figure out how to build a dumb pc yourself. mac is far superior via editing. get learned dumbass

Jun 25 2010 12:36AM

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Basement Dweller

oh yea I'm going to run mac os on it

Jun 25 2010 12:38AM

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bustinthejus

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Right now I have a macbook:
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
120 GB Hard Drive
Airport Extreme Card
Intel GMA X3100 graphics card

From what i've researched, I am going to need:
a lot more RAM, maybe 8GB?
a large and fast hard drive
probably a solid video card
a faster airport card or a good ethernet port (I am aware that it depends more on the Interwebz provided than the actual connection, but mine does suck right now)
a kickass cooling system (water cooled?) because shits going to get hot when I'm cranking stuff out.
USB and Firewire 800 ports. Maybe get some USB 3.0 or an eSATA port?

But what else am I forgetting? A motherboard? certain wiring? Am I in over my head?

Alright then um let's see...

First of all a solid 4gbs of ram is probably alright for video editing. 8 will definitely be enough. If you want a fast hard drive, look into getting SSDs - they're pretty expensive but insanely fast. A solid video card is definitely a must when it comes to video editing. Ethernet ports, just grab a cheap ethernet card off somewheree, I don't know much about cooling but watercooled is probably more trouble than it's worth and you probably won't need it - Some good wire management, fans, and a good case should be just fine. Finally, USB and firewire ports will typically be on your motherboard and so you really won't need any kind of expansion card unless you really need more ports.

Also, you're missing a PSU, a processor, and motherboard :P Plus some monitors if you don't already have some.

Jun 25 2010 12:44AM

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Basement Dweller

what would you suggest?
and I'll probably need like 8 usb ports... :\

Jun 25 2010 1:03AM

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Play Ball

Is it even possible to build a desktop and run mac without hackintoshing?

Jun 25 2010 1:07AM

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Basement Dweller

I'm pretty sure you can buy an mac os x disk at the apple store

Jun 25 2010 1:16AM

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Basement Dweller

or maybe not. I'll hackentosh

Jun 25 2010 1:18AM

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KiDCuDi

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you can buy os x at the apple store... but it would be impossible to run it on a custom built system.

Jun 25 2010 1:20AM

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mattytru

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no, it isnt, i remember a thread a whileeeee ago about some really computer smart nser trying to do it without hackintoshing, and he couldnt figure it out

even hackintosh is really sketch though, you arent going to be able to build a pc and run a mac os on it basically, wayyyyyy too unsatable for all that editing, if you can even get it to work

Jun 25 2010 1:21AM

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Play Ball

Dude, if you wanna run a mac, cop a iMac. I got one (last gen) 24" 2.93ghz core duo 4gb ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120. I love it, runs everything i use (FCP, AE, etc) like butter.

You could also wait for the new iMacs, likely to come out in the next few months. They'll all be running i5 or i7 and be real legit. You'll spend 1000 bucks building a sick desktop, 200-300 on a display and then risk it all hackintoshing. Just spend 1500 on a legit setup, you wont be disappointed.

Jun 25 2010 1:28AM

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Play Ball

You can get a 27" with i5 for about 1900 right now, but it sounds like thats out of your price range. The new iMacs will probably be i5, 4gb and a good video card and 21.5" will be like 1300 total.

Jun 25 2010 1:29AM

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Basement Dweller

thats probably what I'll do, that or gainsaver a mac pro with like 8gb ram and hella pimped out accessories for like $1400

Jun 25 2010 1:40AM

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Insane

Okay Ill try to help you out a little here...

First off, curious of why you need 8 USB Ports? You dont want to try to edit off of 8 different hard drives. Trust me, its extremely slow. Using 3 externals at once is annoying and slow.

I actually still use my macbook pro sometimes which is the same specs as your macbook to do a lot of my editing and graphics. It works perfectly fine. That being said, I do understand why you want/need more out of your machine.

What are you shooting with to convert to ProRes 4:2:2? Unless you are working with a RED or something of that level, then your data rates and size will not be bigger then DVC Pro HD. The AVC HD with ProRes runs at the same data rate as DVC Pro HD. The RED at 4k 24p comes in at about 225 if your wondering.

I can run FCP and AE on this machine at the same time (although its a little sketch, but thats also adding in I hardly have any room on my hd). 8 gigs of ram really wont be necessary either if your doing stuff for editing. 8 gigs and up is pretty much for people doing 3d animation like animated movies.

4 or 6 gigs will do you just fine. Any of the new stock processors will work just as well too. Quad Core or 8 Core will do the trick.

Im not too knowledgeable on graphics cards, but I would suggest an HD one.

Make sure you do somehow get a nice screen. Your monitor will be key for Color Correcting and you wont regret forking out some cash for a nice HD monitor.

Here is what I am running: (and its more then I need even running AE, FCP, Color, Magic Bullet Looks, and other small programs at once)

Mac Pro:

3 gig processor with 8 cores

6 gig memory

4x ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics cards (you only need one I believe)

23" Cinema HD Display

1x 500 gig internal drive

That is all more then you would need. The set up cost me under 4, which might be out of the range your looking for, but I also bought this over 2 years ago, so it should be cheaper now. Plus if you going to college you can get an insane student discount with these things if you buy it through apple.

As for what E Heath said, I would strongly suggest that set up instead. The only thing about the iMacs is that they pretty much are as they come. What I mean by that is they are not easy to upgrade and add anything. The Mac Pros you can add/upgrade graphics cards, add memory, add displays or get new ones, add internal hard drives, change out processors, ect. Which is really why people get them. Could save you some money 5 years down the road.

Jun 25 2010 1:43AM

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Basement Dweller

^ I'm filming with a t2i, its not that big but its definitely slowed shit down a LOT

as for the 8gb, thats what I have been using in a class here and I love it. Rendering takes about 3 seconds and everything is speedy as fuck, but maybe its overkill and 6gb could hold up fine. I would like the ability to fool around with the internal shit and be able to upgrade, and I can snipe a good deal on it. How many ram ports does it have? Because buying ram not as an add on is 100x cheaper

Jun 25 2010 2:16AM

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Insane

Yeah t2i at ProRes is going to be the same as DVC Pro Hd. Could be less, but doubt it. Well I am also assuming your computer is old, which is a legit reason its slowed down.

Quick rendering speeds are nice. You most likely wouldnt notice the difference between 8 and 6 gig since you wouldnt even be using all of the 6 gigs up unless you were running a lot of stuff at once. At the same time, if you have the extra like 80 or 60 bucks (whatever those things run at these days) then why not?

That is the awesome things about Mac Pros is you can pretty much do whatever to them, so 5 years down the line you dont have to buy a new machine, you just have to throw new stuff in it, which you can also mostly do all by yourself.

The RAM ports are kinda weird. There are 8, but there are two docks of them of 4. The annoying thing is each dock has to have the exact same size of RAM cards. For instance, Im running two 1 gigs on one dock and two 2 gigs on the other dock. You cant have lets say a 2 gig card and a 4 gig card on one dock.

I bought 2 2 gig ram cards for like 120 bucks btw, and it was cheaper doing it that way then getting the machine with 6 gigs.

Jun 25 2010 2:29AM

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Basement Dweller

noob question, but how many pins are the ram ports?
and i'm guessing the multiple hard drive slots are 3.5 inch. I'll probably get a bare bones 2.66GHz Two Dual Core Xeon model (processors dont matter as much as ram from what i've heard but I could be wrong) and just build stuff onto it (sstate HD's and really really cheap ram according to the size)

Jun 25 2010 2:39AM

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Insane

Yes I know the Hard Drive slots are 3.5 inch for sure. For hard drives, I would recommend mirroring them to back them up if you plan on using your internals a lot more then externals. This is much more logical and cheaper in my mind then using externals. Its just not too travel friendly that way.

As for the RAM ports question, im not entirely sure. It really might vary on what version you get. If you get the newest though your going to want to find DDR3 ECC SDRAM when you get your additional RAM.

If you get the two dual core (quad core) then you only have one RAM bay (8 core is just two quad cores, which is how there are two RAM bays), and Im pretty sure its still that you can only use the same size in each slot (4 of them). Thats something you will just have to be careful for. So when you buy your machin make sure it doesnt come with 2 1 gig cards or something like that.

Jun 25 2010 2:54AM

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Basement Dweller

If it came with two 1 gig cards, I could just swap it out with two 2 gig or two 4 gig cards?

Jun 25 2010 12:52PM

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AssMunch

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One thing you should know about RAM is: I can have 1GB Ram and you can have 6GB my 1GB ram would still own yours because my RAM is "better" Just because you have 8GB it dosent mean they're good at all. Get my point? :) If you buy ram go for Kingston ram with 1000+ mhz

Jun 25 2010 1:48PM

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Basement Dweller

thats good to know dawg

Jun 25 2010 9:40PM

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Insane

Yes you can take them out. Just everything in the dock has to be the same thats all...

And to that other person talking about RAM speed, the RAM in the new Mac Pros that you need is 1337 mhz I believe, so thats not a problem there.

Im still using 887, but it works wonders for me. Just compressed a 2 minute teaser last night in like 2 minutes.

Jun 26 2010 2:15AM

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McLeod

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Insane

bentley when are you dropping said teaser?!

Jun 26 2010 12:47PM

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FMeissner

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Ridiculous

www.newegg.com

Also, not sure if you already did, but you should specify a price range.

Jun 26 2010 1:36PM

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Basement Dweller

lol vegas blows, I need FCP. But thank you for the links, I'll look at em

Jun 26 2010 3:04PM

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Basement Dweller

I would rather not have a laptop. I'm looking for a desktop so I can have have a more functional work station. It's also easier to customize a desktop of sorts and upgrade it if I need to than to upgrade a laptop.

Jun 26 2010 5:33PM

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Play Ball

Well the you're fuck with mac unless you get a mac pro...

Jun 26 2010 5:50PM

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Basement Dweller

guess that's what I'll have to do. Thanks for your help everyone.
If anyone has any suggestions for what specific parts(drives, ram, externals, add ons, etc) I should get I'd love to hear them.

Jun 26 2010 6:10PM

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Play Ball

Yeah definitely get the most stock mac pro and upgrade it with other parts apple charges like 150%

Jun 26 2010 6:25PM

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Basement Dweller

I can get one from gainsaver for like 1,100 or snag one on ebay

Jun 26 2010 6:28PM

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Insane

Well, what I compressed was the rough draft. Theres a few touch ups to be done, a little bit of Color Correcting, the DVD Cover Art, a quick few seconds of graphics, and a couple of other things. I would say 5-10 days on the estimated time. Our new website is pretty much finished, so that was another big thing that needed to be done.

Our teaser will be dropped with immediate pre order available and a free copy of Overlooked for the first 50 or so pre orders. We will also have other pre order deals.

So yup, 5-10 days is the estimated time. If your good at hacking passwords, you can find it on my vimeo account ;).

Jun 27 2010 3:34AM

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FMeissner

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Ridiculous

You'd definitely be better off building your own desktop and using a program like Vegas or Premier, you'll save a lot of money and have a far faster setup than if you buy a Macbook Pro. And if down the road you want to upgrade, you'll be shit out of luck with a Mac. Also, the biggest Macbook Pro is what, 17"? You can grab a 24" monitor for close to $150 these days.

Your choice obviously, but if you're looking to save money and not sacrifice power, build a desktop.

Jun 27 2010 9:39AM

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kfilenda

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Ridiculous

vegas has a tendency to lag at times, even when avchd (.mts) files were converted to .avi files it ran slow, this was on a quad-core 64-bit machine too, so having used vegas for 5 years now I have made the switch to fcp and it has been running smooth on a stock 13" mbp.

Jun 28 2010 12:47AM

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Insane

Hes looking to get a Mac Pro, not a MBP.

Mac Pro Monitors are 23 and 27 I believe. Maybe bigger. You really dont want to be editing off of a 150 dollars screen either for color purposes. Yes, there are cheaper monitors then the Mac ones that are just as good, just saying though.

Jun 28 2010 12:59AM

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