Hi
I was asked by a friend to select hardware for his new system, he is gonna use it for photoshop and video editing. His current system can’t keep up and isn’t configured well.
Current system specs
-core 2 duo e7500
-Gigabyte ga-945pl-s3 (don’t know the revision number)
-Geforce GT 210
-DDR II 400 (1Gb x 2)
New specs
-Intel Core i5 3570K
-ASRock Z77 Pro3
-RAM(Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) (4Gb x 2)
-Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W
I know photoshop and video editing task’s rely heavily on CPU so do think his old Geforce GT 210 is still enough for these task’s? If not recommend a good card(nVidia card because of CUDA).
Is a separate audio card necessary for video editing?
If he is gonna complain about the cost i am gonna go with AMD FX 8150(yes new board is required).
That’s a good start! I wouldn’t bother with the GT210, as the HD4000 is faster in 3D. And I’d be willing to bet that a nice fast processor like the 3570k would perform DSP tasks in software faster than a GT210 could in hardware via CUDA.
I recommend a GTX 560. They should be quite cheap now that the 660s are out, and the 560 easily has enough muscle to make CUDA worthwhile. Plus, if your friend uses a version of Premiere Pro with the Mercury playback engine, that 560 will really get things going.
“Is a separate audio card necessary for video editing?”
No. But if he cares enough about audio quality that he’s considering a sound card, tell him to look into USB DACs. A good external DAC will beat the pants off even the best internal sound card. However, external DACs can be pricey, so he’ll probably want to start off with the integrated audio.