Some Considerations When Buying a Video Editing Computer
A couple of bugaboos that I know of when buying any computer for video work:
Processor
Find out what your editing/video processing software is and lurk on those support sites. Find out what laptop procs are most recommended by people who use that software. Video editing software is allllll about the processor. I can speak for Premiere and After Effects when I say that it’s the processor that’s the bottleneck as far as what I can do and how fast I can do it.
Memory
The more the merrier, but don’t bother putting more than 2G in the machine if you’re running Windows XP Pro. It’s wasted — no application can use it and not even the OS will use it. 2G’s the limit for this particular OS. On the other hand, 2G is plenty of memory, even for editing a feature. (note: if you’re using Vista as your OS, then you can use more RAM)
Hard drive
Make sure the hard drive speed is at least 7200RPM. Any slower (laptops often have 5400 RPM drives) and you’ll spend too much time waiting for the hard drives to spin up while the Cylons eat your children. Plan to get a big hard drive on the laptop, but definitely plan to get a MUCH bigger portable drive, probably a USB drive. You can get a portable 1T USB drive for under two hundred dollars, and unless you’re shooting full-frame HD, there’s no way in hell a feature will overrun that. Hell, consider getting TWO, so you can have a backup.
Firewire
Not all laptops have firewire, but you probably need one for communicating with your camera. This depends on your camera, of course. Some cameras have little built-in hard drives, some have a firewire interface, and so forth. If your camera is a camera with a fire-wire interface, then you need the BIGGER firewire port. Laptop firewire ports are small and are missing two control lines. If you get a firewire CARD, it will have the physically bigger port, and that bigger port also contains the extra CONTROL lines that you will use to control your camera through your video editing software. For example, the Trendnet TFW-H2PC card. It’s only twenty bucks, so don’t freak out. You WILL use it and you will be unhappy or frustrated if you forget it or don’t get one.
Screen size
For editing video, the bigger the better, because video editing tools take up a lot of desktop space. It’s good to have lots of space for menus and tools and so forth. To give you an example, play some piece of video, using, say, Media Player. Now shrink the media player size to less than a quarter of your screen. This is about how much you can see the video as you’re editing, what with the tools and bins and timeline and other interface stuff.
Monitor
Haunt Craigslist and look for a Sony Trinitron monitor. Plan to hook that up near your gear while you’re editing. You’ll be connecting the Trinitron to your PC’s firewire via your video camera, and using the Trinitron as a standalone monitor. You will not regret this. Be sure it is a SONY TRINITRON. An ordinary TV will work, but only a Trinitron will have drop-dead fantastic color. You can often find them free, especially now that we’re switching the US to digital. You will ALSO use the monitor to connect to the camera when doing your interviews, so you (as the Director) don’t have to be squinting through an eyepiece to know what the camera’s doing. So, that monitor will be your godsend through the whole production. You might keep the Trinitron in your RV or editing area, and then just use some little TV for monitoring in the field. I have a little TV you can use.
Second monitor
Some laptops have a little fold out second monitor. I have no idea if that’s useful or not. If you want a second monitor (which can be useful), buy one with approximately the same resolution as your laptop monitor and just plug it into the 15-pin video jack. I use two monitors (three if you count the Trinitron), but when I’m out ranging, I only use the laptop’s monitor and a small TV (the Trinitron is big and too valuable for me to take it out for a workshop)
Cooler
If you can afford one of those laptop coolers, pick one of those up, too, especially once you start hard-core editing. You’re gonna peg your processor, and that laptop’s going to become one hot tamale, which will lessen its life. All the pros I know who use laptops use coolers. Most of the pros I know don’t use laptops, though. I use a laptop for doing offline effects work, and for when I run workshops. I don’t have a cooler, but I probably should.
Trackball
For editing, way, way, way better than a mouse. I ALWAYS use a trackball for editing. Specifically this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Optical-Marble-Mouse-USB/dp/B00005T406/3H5H8T7JE6WNQPJ7C
Your mileage may vary, but this made life so much easier for me I nearly wept. Some video editing suites have specialized keyboards and stuff, and if you want to experiment with those, go ahead, but a trackball, for me, was a godsend. It sucks for action games, but you can always hook up a mouse or joystick if you also want to play games.
A “gaming machine”
You might occasionally read a review or have someone tell you “if it makes a good gaming machine, it’ll make a good video editing machine”. That opinion is not accurate. If you want to buy a machine that you will use for video editing, talk to people who professionally edit video, and look on sites and reviews for video-editing. As it happens, the reverse is true — if your machine is well-kitted for editing, it’ll probably be a decent gaming machine. But, you’re not going to load games on your editing machine anyway, are you? I didn’t think so.
Video adapter
Most any video adapter will work — you don’t need some crazy-screaming fast thing or anything fancy. Video gaming is fast-paced and exciting. Video EDITING is slow and tedious.
For everything else you do, all the stuff that makes video editing tolerable makes everything else just fine.