Computer for HDV editing?

Hi, I'm going to buy a computer for HDV editing sometime next month and I would appreciate any suggestions.
I realize that this isn't a video editing forum, but perhaps some of you know.

I plan to buy:
* core 2 duo 2.4ghz
* 4gb RAM
* 2x500gb hd raid-1
* 256mb graphics card, I don't know anything about modern graphics cards
* 22" monitor. Which monitor would you suggest?
* dvd burner with lightscribe

Any advices?

 

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I am sitting in front of an HDV editing machine now same CPU, 4 gig ram, 300 gig sata raid, recently upgraded the vid card to GeForce XFX 8800 w/ 512 mb it made a HUUUGE difference in editing, I can actually scrub across the timeline in after effects and not have to wait for it to render.

Monitor is hard to say which as they vary alot in price, get something with a decent response time and from a known name, samsung, sony, Viewsonic etc.

 

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Can you suggest a lot cheaper graphics card?
What about this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125062

I haven't upgraded my pc in years, so I'm outdated in this greatly.

 

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If it were me I'd sacrifice 1 gig of ram for a better graphics card than that maybe this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127284

video editing is really a pain in the arse with an underpowered video card.

 

Thanks for your advice!
Unfortunately in Latvia that card costs $210

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So is that card worth double the GIGABYTE GV-NX85T256H GeForce 8500GT price?

 

Hard to say I haven't actually tested either. You can work with the card you linked (especially if you're not under tight deadlines) it's just nicer with more horsepower.
What editing package are you going to use?

 

Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects

 

Yeah that's what I'm using. The newest suite's seemless functionality is great.

 

How many inches for the monitor?
Is 20" good enough or should I go for 22"?

 

The wider the better ideally multiple monitors.

 

You definitely want multiple monitors. Getting 2 moderate-priced monitors is much cheaper, for the amount of area you get, than getting a single large monitor.

 

Why two monitors?
I plan to attach a HD TV to see the output.

p.s. I'm a total newbie in video editing, so excuse my ignorance.

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As you get into it you will find there are loads of tool and effect palettes, project window, timeline (which can get very large in itself) etc. You will also need to see the comp video you are editing on a monitor not an attached tv when editing in the timeline. A tv to see the finished film on is great to have since it gives you the real impression of the output.

 

Thanks!

So one more question that has been bothering me - LCD!
I've been told that LCD's are inferior to CRT's, I have seen the colour diagrams and agree that the half tones are shown better on CRT's, but (!) all the new tv's and monitors are LCD's, so even if I make a video based on an LCD impression, it's the same impression most of the people will have that will see my video, so imo it's more important to make the video look good on LCD these days.

What are your views and experience in this?

 

the new LED LCD screens have better color representation, but even they are not as good as CRTs.

CRT pros:
better color rendition
cheaper

CRT cons:
large
use more electricity
lots of bad chemical in the guts that hurt the environment once you get rid of them


One important note that you suggest in your post: LCDs have worse color reproduction, but that's really an issue when your final output is going to be print media. If you are creating a magazine, your on-screen image better look exactly what the final print looks like.

For video, it's not quite as important. You can get the best CRT, and callibrate it perfectly with external hardware callibrators. If the end-users screen is off-balance, then the difference between LCD and CRT on your end will be minor overall.

 

Also you said you had a HDTV to view your film on, that is better than having a good CRT monitor, best if it is hooked up to your editing machine so that you can view it "on the fly"