I know next to nothing about computers and I bought an Alienware m11xR2 last year thinking it would be good for editing video and after effects and the like (I'm a film major) as well as a decent gaming PC.
Turns out video editing and gaming are involved in two very different parts of the computer.
So what I want to do is build my own Desktop PC, as I've heard this is vastly cheaper than buying one prebuilt. I've got a friend who is going to walk me through step-by-step on how to build it, so that's not my issue. My issue is parts.
My goal is to make a desktop pc that can edit 1080p video smoothly, and then if there's still room in the budget, do some gaming as well, but the primary focus is the editing.
My goal is to get something under $400 total
I was directed by my friend to this bundle on Newegg (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.956686) but upon doing some research on the parts listed, it doesn't seem to be all that great. I'd have no idea what to look for so I'm asking GAF for help.
Short answer: In the OP there's a build marked "Standard". Buy that, but leave out the graphics card.
Long answer: You're not going to get a whole lot for $400 as far as video editing goes. My "short answer" solution will be noticeably better than your laptop, but not really a powerhouse. The first benefit is moving up to 8GB of RAM, which is about the minimum you can get away with for HD video editing. The CPU should also be quite a bit better, despite being an i3 to your i5. The issue here is that I'm pretty sure the CPUs in the m11x R2 are ULV (ultra-low voltage), which means they run at very low clockspeeds (I believe yours would be an i5 520UM running at 1.06GHz) to enable longer battery life. The fact that the i3 2120 runs at a far higher 3.3GHz would override any differences from architecture (which would probably be in favour of the i3, anyway, as it's based on the more modern Sandy Bridge design).
My advice would be either to save up some more before you build your PC, or to go with the above set-up, and upgrade as you go along. Either way, you should look to end up with the following system:
CPU: Core i5 2500K or 3570K - Quad-core chips that can be easily overclocked to over 4GHz, should do the job quite nicely for a reasonable budget. I'd advise a Core i7 3770K, which is another step up again, but given that it alone costs 85% of your budget at the moment, I'd say it's out of reach.
RAM: 16GB - When it comes to video editing, more RAM is always better, but 16GB is a good amount. If you get 16GB, buy it as two 8GB sticks, so you have slots free for further RAM upgrades later.
SSD: 128GB 6GB/s - SSDs are a huge benefit when it comes to video editing, regardless of what your other specs are. Even if you don't have one in your build initially, buy a 128GB SSD the first chance you get. The reason I say to go with a 128GB rather than anything smaller is that you're going to have your Windows install on there, all your editing software on there, all the project files for whatever project you're working on on there, and you're going to be using it as a scratch disk at the same time, which would be too much for a ~64GB SSD, but should be fine with a 128GB one. Recommended brands are in the OP (summary: avoid OCZ).
GPU: ???? - The new factor you have to take into account for video editing these days is GPU acceleration. Adobe's After Effects and Premiere (I'm assuming you're using Premiere) benefit quite a bit from GPU acceleration, but are currently only compatible with certain Nvidia GPUs. They're working on support for AMD GPUs, which should give you some more options by the time you can afford one. In particular it will be worth looking at AMD's 7xxx series, which are quite capable as far as these things go. Wait until support is official and you can see some benchmarks before you buy anything, though.
Motherboard: Z77-based - If you want to overclock, you'll need a motherboard based on the Z77 chipset. ASRock do some reasonably priced ones. Make sure you have one of these in your initial build, as it gives you the best upgrade opportunities.
The above system would far outperform your laptop, and should be quite capable as far as 1080p editing goes. If there's one item I'd advise to go with in your initial build it'd be the i5 3570K, as it's cheaper to pay the ~$100 extra upfront rather than paying quite a bit more to upgrade (as you won't get much for a second-hand i3). The rest of the items can be just added in as you go along, though, without having to replace anything.
