Easy To Use/Get Into Video Editing Software

My brother wants to build a 'video editing' PC, but I don't know what to tell him besides that he needs a strong cpu & plenty of RAM . He wants a desktop btw.

Is there any good (and easy to use) software that we should know about? He's an amateur(as in, very little, to no experience) when it comes to video editing but he wants to do it for his acting classes.

This probably isn't in the correct section, but I'm guessing a dedicated GPU, a recent and strong cpu as well as some fast RAM is what he should looking for if were going to put this PC together?

I'm sure there are benchmarks for these kinds of systems? What is the '3dmark' of the Video editing benchmark programs?

 

If he's just looking for basic editing, you can do a lot with either Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. For advanced work, I like Final Cut, but there are any number of good Non-linear editing programs, but they will cost $$$, so try cheap/free versions first. There is a good Linux program called Cinelerra, if you are comfortable with Linux systems.

On the hardware side, the GPU is not the most important item--you are doing 2D work, not 3D. I would look for fast bus speed, quad-core, and on-board RAID. Install the OS on the fastest drive you can afford, and then put your video files and scratch files on a RAID 0 array with as many drives as you can throw at it. If you go with Linux, you can always use the render farm set-up in Cinelerra to turn any other computers sitting around into extra rendering power for large files or effects-heavy clips.

 

A mac would be the best system for video editing (mostly due to great software), but if you're looking in the PC section I'd say that getting a fast drive and a cpu with a high FSB is a must, but you do also need some sort of graphics card, depending on the type of vidoe you're rendering. I frequently render and edit in full 1080p HD, and my GeForce 8500gt works just fine. You could pass with a lower end video card too, but it's best to have one.

Software-wise, I don't recommend Windows Movie Maker at all, unless you're just doing very simple editing for youtube. I currently use Sony Vegas Pro 8 ($549.95), but it's pretty high-end. If you want something cheaper, both Vegas Movie Studio ($74.95) and Vegas Movie Studio Platinum ($114.95) are great. For something free, try Pinnacle's VideoSpin ( videospin.com).

 

So things to consider are:

(1) Consider a Mac because they have great software
(2) He needs a fast CPU with quick bus speed, high FSB, and a 7200RPM or faster hard drive
(3) Get a mainstream, or just a dedicated GPU
(4) Check out Vegas Movie Studio ($74.95), Vegas Movie Studio Platinum ($114.95), final cut if he wants something more advanced. Or for free he should try Pinnacle's VideoSpin, or Windows Movie Maker as the 'starter' software programs.

If I'm missing anything please let me know

Thanks for the help.

 

should be good

 

I use Vegas Movie Studio Platinum but if he has never used any video editing software i would suggest learning with windows movie maker first, it is fairly easy to learn and use. A high end expensive editing program is great but if you have no clue how to use the software it is useless, movie maker is great to learn the basics but if you want to do some more sophisticated stuff it is very limited.