Critique requested for quiet system spec'd for video editing

I'm building a desktop system for general purpose usage at very low
noise & also video editing.
Below is my proposed spec and I'd grateful for any critique that might
point out some flaws or oversights.

Case Antec SLK3700BQE
CPU AMD Athlon XP-M Barton 2500
Motherboard Abit NF7-S or AN7
RAM Twinmos PC3200 2.5, 2 * 512 MB
Drive 1 Samsung SP1614C, SATA 150, 8 MB cache, 7,200 rpm, 160
GB
Drive 2 as above
Optical drive NEC ND-2510A, 8X Dual format, Dual Layer
Heatsink/Fan Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
VGA Gigabyte , GV-N52128D, FX5200, dual monitor, DVI &
D-SUB, TV-OUT, 128 MB
Monitor 1 Samsung 17" TFT, 710T, 1280 * 1024, DVI & D-SUB.
Monitor 2 15" TFT


The rational behind choosing the AMD socket A platform is that it is
very mature, stable, inexpensive & it allows me to buy a new unlocked
processor. My other choice is Athlon 64 on Socket 754. I have
reservations due to its current lack of value for money and its
relative immaturity.

The two advantages I see with Athlon 64 are:
1. It potentially promises a 20% performance increase in the future,
as the higher clocked chips become more affordable. If I were buying
now it would only be a 2800+ with 512 cache, which is probably not
even going to beat the XP-M, which I can overclock while keeping the
rest of the system within spec easily enough.
2. Future 64 bit performance in Video Editing, which is a big unknown
and would require more software expenditure down the line.

OK, I just talked myself out of the Athlon 64 as I'm only looking in
terms of the next 6 months, so I've pretty much made up my mind on
that.

The Abit AN7 is more appealing on paper due to being more fully
featured than the NF7-S. I have questions over its stability and
overclockablity, which I need to research further. My take on
overclocking is that I usually only overclock the CPU where I can do
so whilst keeping the rest of the system strictly within spec.

The RAM is branded Twinmos PC3200 2,5 CL, which seems fine to me
unless I have a change of heart and decide to bump the FSB above 200.
In this case I guess I'd need PC3500 or similar?

My only question with the disk drives is whether its worth considering
using RAID 0 or 1, rather than simply using a separate drive for video
footage? I'm not clear enough in understanding the process of video
editing to know which is more pertinent. For rendering I'm assuming
that 2 discrete drives would be a big advantage, if the source and
destination files are on separate discs.

I've specified a low-end video processor as I'm not aware of video
editing software taking advantage of GPU power. Is this correct or
should I look for a card with faster RAM or GPU? I specified the
Gigabyte as it has dual monitor support and TV-OUT and they are a
respected brand. Most of these cards use a fan, which seems excessive
for their low spec. I'm hoping that it will be okay to use without a
fan, as I've seen in the past GPU's of this class that only use a
heatsink.

The Zalman heatsink/fan combo is for low noise usage. It seems a good
value option where I live, and has been well reviewed.
The Samsung drives are an easy choice for their combination of
performance, low noise and 3 year warranty.
The NEC DVD burner seems a no brainer as it offers 8x burning in both
formats, as well as dual layer +R at 2.4x I think.
Both the Abits come with Firewire on board.

The main monitor is a difficult choice. I've specified a Samsung
provisionally but I need to look at this in more detail as I am not
clear what makes a good TFT for video editing! The same with the 2nd
TFT, but to a lesser degree. I have a Philips TV for monitoring via
the TV Out assuming that is possible!

I plan on trying out software that allows you to dynamically alter the
CPU multiplier and voltage from within Windows. www.hasw.net/8rdavcore
This way I can keep things low power and quieter in everyday usage and
bump up the horsepower without a reboot. Likewise I will be using
Speedfan, to control the fan speeds surprisingly, also automatically.

My choice of video editing software will come later. First I need a
machine to look at the demo versions on.

Any thoughts on the above?

Love

Smiling Crow

 

(vast amounts of computer spec stuff snipped)


Crow,

It seems to me you're preparing very well for a career as a computer video
systems integrator.

And not very well at all as a video editor.

You don't START learning how to make videos until you get all the computer
nonsense behind you.

All this time you're spending trying to create the "ideal" video editing
array will be nearly totally valueless in about a year when any hardware
you study and purchase today will be supplanted by newer, better, cheaper
stuff.

Time to decide what you really want to do. Be a computer fiddler. Or a
video fiddler.

To do either well, requires massive amounts of dedication and years of
experience.

Video hardware is a commodity these days. There are hundreds of off the
shelf PC and Mac models that will do EVERYTHING you need in terms of
cutting any kind of visual content.

My advice. Stop worrying about whether you have the perfect piano and SIT
DOWN AND LEARN TO PLAY.

If you don't, some kid who starts next week and DOESN'T spend waste his
time fiddling with the damn box will be in line ahead of you when it comes
time to get hired to make someone's video and he or she will SMOKE you
because they'll have concentrated on what's really important. Learning to
USE the tools. NOT learning to construct them.

Good luck.

 

LOL. I dig where you're coming from bro and concur. But hey, I ain't
gonna slap down a couple of G's without doing a bit of research

Anway, the lid is off and my fingers are arching!

Love

Crow