How to Build a PC for Editing HD Video

Video production is one application of the personal computer that requires all the processing horsepower the current technology can provide. But with maximum processing power and hard disk speed, a PC can be configured as an advanced high-definition (HD) video-editing workstation. Fortunately, with the right choice of computer hardware and software, equipment once costing tens of thousands of dollars is now within reach of the hobbyist or small-business professional. The ability to produce a polished HD video presentation can help you start your own video production business or launch a career as an independent filmmaker.

  1. Choose a computer case with ample room for additional hard drives, optical drives and expansion slots. The computer case should also include two cooling fans and a power supply with a minimum output of 500 watts.
  2. Step 2

    Select a main board that supports at least 16 gigabytes of DDR3 memory and a quad-core Intel i7 CPU. The main board should also include an integrated eSATA RAID controller and at least three PCI-E expansion slots.

  3. Step 3

    Install the quad-core Intel i7 CPU. The more powerful the CPU, the less time you will spend waiting for video effects to process.

  4. Step 4

    Install 16 gigabytes of DDR3 memory.

  5. Step 5

    Install the hard drives. You need one 7,200 RPM hard drive dedicated to the operating system and software applications. Install a minimum of three additional eSATA hard drives with a disk rotational speed of 10,000 RPMs.

  6. Step 6

    Configure at least two of the hard disks as a RAID 0 array for HD video encoding.

  7. Step 7

    Install a high-quality video display adapter with dual video outputs.

  8. Step 8

    Connect two 32-inch HD monitors to the video display adapter.

  9. Step 9

    Install an internal eSATA Blu-Ray disc burner to output your completed HD project.

  10. Step 10

    Install Microsoft’s Windows 7 64-bit operating system.

  11. Step 11

    Install a certified HD real-time input and output card designed specifically for your video-editing software. This card will handle connections to external video and audio sources, as well as provide HD outputs to a video monitor. Real-time HD cards include the Matrox RT.X2 and Blackmagic’s DeckLink HD Extreme.

  12. Step 12

    Install and configure the video-editing software suite. Leading software titles for professional HD video editing and effects creation are Adobe Production Premium Creative Suite 4 (CS4), Avid Media Composer, Canopus Edius and Sony Vegas Video.

Tips & Warnings
  • The only video-editing software available for the PC is designed to work best with the most recent 64-bit versions of Windows.
  • Video-editing software works most efficiently when configured to use one disk array to encode and store HD video files and another hard disk dedicated for rendered effects or temporary files created during the encode process.
  • Choose disks with as much storage capacity as you can afford. Uncompressed HD video files take an enormous amount of disk space.

    • Adobe

  • Avoid using your HD video-editing workstation for other computing tasks. Additional software installations and hardware configurations can cause unintended conflicts with the video-editing software or hardware.
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