Minumum Requirements for Video Editing

[sammyman]

I am looking for my 2nd mac. Just got a 12" powerbook and love it. Now, because of my 60GB hard drive, I am looking for a 2nd desktop. Ideally the machine would be good enough for video editing and thats it. In fact I don't even have a strong desire for Final Cut. iMovie will suffice.

What is the minumum hard drive to do home movies?
What is the minumum processor speed? G4/G5?
What is the minumum video card?

When I say minumum, I do not mean the lowest specs that can manage, but the lowest specs that will do a decent job. I already know that I do not need a DUAL processor, but would like some help deciding from iMovie users.

 

[Brigrat]

I use a 12' PB 1.33, with 1.25GB of ram, and a 250GB lacie firewire external drive. I upgraded my internal Har drive fromt he stock 4200rpm 60GB to a 5400rpm 80GB with 8mb buffer. This setup works really well for me. Sure, a Dual G5 would be better, and more than likely an iMac would do better as well, but this setup works great for me. If you are looking for someone to convince you that you need an iMac, then trust me...You must get one, there is no way you can live without it

The more Ram, the better, the faster the hard drive, the happier you'll be, and the better the video card, the better off you are.

your 12"PB is more than capable with a few upgraades, the biggest upgrade for me was getting a nice big flat panel display to work from.

Good luck!

 

[Jopling]

Setup

At first I started with a 17 inch powerbook 1.33 ghz, 1 gb ram, 80 gig hd with final cut pro. Unfourtunately it wasn't fast enough when I needed to render. That should work with you around those specs, but I'd definitely up the HD space. I am working on a 20 inch iMac G5 1.8 ghz processor, bt, 1.256 gigs of ram, 120 gigs ( i think)hd. I added on an external 250 gig harddrive which works beautifully. I still feel like I need to get a PowerMac G5 that can support more ram for effects and what not. If you are only using iMovie, I strongly reccomend an iMac G5 with at least 1gb of RAM, and the biggest harddrive you can get.

 

[jestershinra]

I am looking for my 2nd mac. Just got a 12" powerbook and love it. Now, because of my 60GB hard drive, I am looking for a 2nd desktop. Ideally the machine would be good enough for video editing and thats it. In fact I don't even have a strong desire for Final Cut. iMovie will suffice.

What is the minumum hard drive to do home movies?
What is the minumum processor speed? G4/G5?
What is the minumum video card?

When I say minumum, I do not mean the lowest specs that can manage, but the lowest specs that will do a decent job. I already know that I do not need a DUAL processor, but would like some help deciding from iMovie users.

Get a 7200 RPM drive!. You will notice the difference. As far as size, I'd get as big as you can, within reason. 400GB is probably a bit much, but 250 is not.
Proc: if you can swing the G5, do so. You'll notice it.
Card: As of now, video editing doesn't require a particularly great GPU. I'd look for something with at least 128MB VRAM, but you don't really need a 6800 Ultra. It would help, but the money is better invested in more RAM or something like that.