Well it was bound to happen but my POS acer I bought for $200 five years ago has finally given up. Overclocked the crap out of it, ran programs without hitting that minimum requirement, and frankly I'm impressed it held up for so long.

Now comes the hard part - buying a new PC made for video/audio editing. I've decided to build it but I've got no idea where to even begin looking at what I need. Do you have any recommendations for places to buy parts, common problems, helpful hints or things to watch out for? Any advice would be helpful.

I pretty much always start by looking at tigerdirect.com for a barebones kit. It won't have everything you need, but they're generally good components and they'll be compatible with each other. The thing to keep in mind though is the RAM, make sure that it fits in one slot as you'll be wanting to match it up with the same type and spec to max out the rig.

EDIT: And get the 64bit version of Windows or whatever OS you decide to use. Otherwise you'll be limited to a total of 3.25gb of RAM that Windows can get at or something like that.

Acer laptops are more fragile than a cancer patient

I have an Acer Timeline X laptop and it's going on strong for 17 months. I love this thing. Right combination portability, battery life, and processing/graphics power.

really fuck I am using an Acer laptop right now (latest model) guess I have to save my programs just in case

Newegg is one place to start.

As is Tiger Direct.

You can get a lot of good deals on both sites, especially if you are wanting to build a system.

for an OS i highly recommend http://ubuntustudio.org/ its designed from the ground up for audio video and art creation....

on top of that focus on 4 things..

a quad core CPU or greater
4 gigs of ram or more
7200RPM hard drive
and 64bit OS as standard

as for GPU go for something with the tegra chip, linux can do some magical stuff with it. but you'll hit compatibility issues. ATI works a lil better in linux...

if your dead serious on the audio/video then a mac book pro is your absolute best but there insanely expensive...

Acer laptops are pretty much the lowest end of the market.
If its mainly video/audio get as much ram as u can get, then get best CPU you can get.
I dont suggest a laptop . Go desktop .
High end video card is not necessary...Nor a fast HD to be honest.

Thanks for all the tips everyone.
Currently looking at cases... do those LED have any pros/cons to them? I've seen some narly looking cases that seem like nightmares from H.R. Giger

Desktop, lots of ram (vid editing I'd look @8-16 as the floor), good gfx card (what bells and whistles do you need on the i/o? make sure it has it esp. if you need HDMI or mutiple ins and outs, etc), multi-core CPU.

Check newegg. You can get a good ibuypower for @900. You'll still need to put more RAM in for video editing though. May want to get an SSD too. Obvi, that'll cost more. Personally I think they're overrated.

Has anyone ITT done IRL video editing? Many of you aren't suggesting realistic builds. 4gb RAM? Are you kidding me? That's a fallacy, macs are much slower and more expensive than PC's and all the major video editing programs are PC now. 10-15 years ago, I'd agree with you.

I've got a case that has a ton of green LEDs on it. No real downside that I can see other than the desire to match the case LEDs to the LEDs on other things in it, like the PSU and video card.

One pro that I can think of is that if you have a case with a clear side to it, the LEDs can help you keep track of whether or not your fans are spinning, by providing a lighted interior.

Given what you want it for, buy RAM and HDDs like you're stockpiling them. For RAM at least get a pair of 4GD sticks. That way you can buy another couple of identical sticks should you find that inadequate. It doesn't need to be too fast. Capacity is more important in this case.

For HDDs get one that's quite fast (7200RPM) for the operating system and buy cheap, slow 'green' ones for storage as and when you need them.

Make sure you install the 64bit version of Windows 7 too. Otherwise that RAM will go to waste.

You don't want to skimp on the monitor either, if yours is as old and generic as the computer you're using it with. I've heard good things about the ViewSonic VP2365. But you might want a larger model, depending on your needs.

I am afraid I have to agree with this one. My first laptop/notebook was of Acer brand. The lid cracked, the sound card broke, both the battery and the DVD died (maybe after about two years or so), just to name a few of its problems back then.

While it's a bit older now, there was a study done by Squaretrade that does third-party warranties. They took the, at the time, last three years of laptop warranties and compared on a manufacturer level whos laptops broke more often in a three year span.

You can read the PDF here http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

In the end, they found for laptop quality, the best brands starting from the best quality are:
Asus, Toshiba, Sony, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Gateway and HP.

Hope this helps
What Asus model is it? In turn my Asus has no issues in graphical performance and runs rings around any MBP last time I checked. (I have an Asus G53JW-A1)