Setting Up Your Own Editing Suite at Home

Continuing from last week, I hope I've managed to pique a little bit of interest in the exciting space of video editing for you. Trust me, it's a fun activity, even if it's just a hobby.

Now clearly, if you want to try your hands at it, you're not going to run out and buy the most expensive equipment out there. The truth of the matter is, video editing can be an expensive process even when on a budget. Still, I'm going to show you how to set up three types of suites at home, one on a budget, one with some looser purse strings and one all out.

Budget Editing - Total Rs. 48,117

To edit on a budget, the software of choice is Windows Movie Maker which can be downloaded for free here.  This software can be used on any Windows machine. The system requirements can be viewed here. Choose any Windows based PC for this software. Here's one for Rs. 48,117.

Above Budget - Total Rs. 116,175

To go a little above and beyond, here are the specs for using Adobe Premiere Pro. This is an assembled system and will cost you a total of Rs. 59,375.

System Requirements
Motherboard: MSI 890GXM-G65 (AMD 890GX) – Rs 7,400
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, 2.8 GHz – Rs 10,500
RAM: 2x 2 GB Strontium DDR3-1333 MHz – Rs 4,800
Hard drive: WD-Caviar Black WD5001AALS (7200 rpm, 500GB): Rs 2,875
Graphics card Nvidia GeForce GT240: Rs 5500
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium: Rs 6,300
Thermaltake Matrix VD 2000 BNS: Rs 2,800
Cooler Master GX550: Rs 4,700
Asus Xonar DX 7.1-Channel: 5,000
Microsoft Desktop 500: Rs 800
Optical Drive: Sony BC-5100S-OB, 24x SATA Blu-ray combo: Rs 8,700

Total cost: Rs 59,375

In this configuration, there are components that can be replaced depending on your requirements. For instance, you may replace the Blu-ray drive with a standard DVD-Writer which costs about Rs 1,100. You can even use onboard sound and save on the sound card as well. So by replacing two hardware components, you've saved Rs 12,600. So without the sound card and Blu-ray drive, you land up  spending about Rs 46,775.

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