While we always try to tell you as much as we can here on our website, we still greatly prefer that you contact us for more information, and so we can be sure that you're getting the best possible computer for your needs without spending more than you have to.

All our systems can be made very quiet. Our standard Video system is below 40DB and we can go as low as 12-14 DB.

The first thing to consider when choosing a new Avid system is the software package you'll be using. Avid offers three basic software packages, each adding more features to the basic package.

The basic Avid package is Xpress Pro DV. This software is designed solely for DV editing (firewire input), with no analog capability, and does not include the Avid Mojo. While basic, Xpress Pro DV is often enough to get started, and will produce the quality for which Avid software is renowned.

The next step up is Avid Xpress Pro. The standalone version of Xpress Pro supports more codecs than DV, and now comes with built-in HD editing support! Including features like Avid's Open Timeline, multi-camera capability, and Avid Marquee (integrated titling software), Xpress Pro is the choice for professional editors. Xpress Pro is also compatible with (and can be bundled with) the Avid Mojo breakout box, allowing analog input and output and accelerating the editing and playback process.

The third choice for Avid software is also the biggest: Avid Xpress Studio Complete. Studio Complete includes Xpress Pro with the Mojo breakout, and adds a wide variety of tools and software to take your work from camera to finished product. Avid 3D is a powerful, easy to use 3D animation package; Avid FX adds titles, advanced effects, and more; Avid DVD creates sophisticated, interactive DVD titles quickly and easily; Avid Pro Tools LE uses the included Digi 002 audio interface and control surface to bring your audio to life.

Look below for more information on these software selections, and also some useful tips for selecting the Avid system that best meets your needs without blowing the bank. As always, while the information provided here will help you select a great system at a great price, please feel free to call us for more assistance and to find out about the newest technologies that may not be featured on this page yet.







There are a few things you should consider when making a choice for Avid Xpress. If all you will ever use is a DV camera and have no need to output to Analog or input from a VHS or analog camcorder, and will not use 3D effects then the Avid Xpress DV software is all you need.

However, a client will often bring you analog footage to use in their project, so having the ability to accept analog inputs can be both convenient and cost-effective (as opposed to having to hire someone else to digitize the footage for you).

Avid Xpress Studio Complete - It’s everything you imagined. Integrating Acadmy Award™ winning, professional video and audio editiong tools from Avid and Digidesign with industry-leading 3D animation software from Softimage. With visual effects and DVD authoring software developed by industry leaders like Boris FX and Sonic Solutions, Studio Complete offers a feature set never before offered in a single software suite. Go all the way from DV to DVD without missing a beat!

Avid Xpress Studio Essentials     End-to-end functionality in a single integrated package: Avid Xpress Pro, Avid Pro Tools LE, Avid 3D, Avid FX, And Avid DVD by Sonic. Plus the Digidesign Mbox dual-channel micro-studio. All for only $3995 USMSRP (compared to a total retail value of more than $8,000 USMSRP for products purchased individually)

Avid Xpress Pro HD    Avid Xpress Pro HD software gives you everything you need to do more: the Academy Award® winning Avid editing environment, an unmatched array of video and film editing features, and powerful native HD support—in one affordable package.    As a standalone solution or portable offline editor, Avid Xpress Pro HD delivers end-to-end, concept-to-conform creative flexibility you simply won't find anywhere else. These are the tools used to create nearly all of today's feature films and prime time television shows. Tell your story with Avid Xpress Pro HD software.

Avid MOJO Avid Mojo brings the power of Avid's Digital Nonlinear Accelerator (DNA) technology to Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress Pro HD software. Compact enough to take on location yet powerful enough to serve as the core of a video-editing suite, Avid Mojo hardware connects to both laptop and desktop systems with a single IEEE-1394 cable and, unlike other NLE add-on hardware, lets you capture audio or video while also providing output of the same source. Its real-time DV and analog I/O ports deliver simultaneous output to both client monitor and tape, real-time downconvert of HD output for display to SD monitors, and optional uncompressed SD over component analog.

Avid Xpress Pro HD & Mojo Avid Mojo provides much more than simple I/O. Its hardware DV decompressor means that more cycles are available to your computer for other tasks, such as effects processing. That means more real-time effects output and more real-time video streams, simultaneously output to both a broadcast monitor and to tape. Mojo's hardware decoder also scales up draft resolution video for display on a broadcast monitor, providing unsurpassed performance with uncompromised image quality. No matter how strong your computer's real-time performance, Mojo makes it better.

Avid Xpress DV    Avid Xpress DV is the affordable, real-time DV studio from the company that ignited the digital video revolution. Featuring more customizable real-time effects than any other product in its class, Avid Xpress DV combines legendary Avid ease of use with the powerful tools that continue to define the editing industry. With Windows and Macintosh versions for one low price, Avid Xpress DV is perfect for anyone who wants to explore the exciting world of digital video. Buy Avid Xpress DV for only @489.00

Avid Xpress Pro HD Power Pack Avid® Studio Toolkit HD includes three powerful applications that work seamlessly with Avid Xpress Pro HD: Avid 3D , Avid FX, and Avid DVD by Sonic. Add motion tracking, vector paint, and advanced titling—without leaving the editor. Set DVD chapter marks and thumbnails right from the editing timeline. Grab video for backgrounds and textures in 3D animations. Avid FX – 3D Compositing & Effects Plug-In $1595 value This is a custom version of the award winning 3D effects plug-in Boris Red, optimized for Avid. Avid DVD – Professional DVD authoring software $1995 value This is a special version of Sonic DVD Producer software. It offers a library of menu templates and expert authoring features, while removing the expertise typically required to create sophisticated interactive DVD titles. Avid 3D – 3D animation software $995 value Avid 3D is a template based animation tool from Softimage.Create animated logos, or add animated 3D objects to your videos. Buy Xpress Pro HD Power Pack for $2200

Avid Xpress Pro HD Power Pack & Mojo Want even more power? Consider the Avid Xpress Pro HD/ Avid Mojo PowerPack bundle. Not only do you get the HD editing power of Avid Xpress Pro HD, and the ability to monitor your HD footage on your SD monitor with Avid Mojo, but you also get three powerful content creation applications found in Avid Studio Toolkit HD: Avid FX for sophisticated titling and composites, Avid 3D for easy-to-use 3D animation, and Avid DVD by Sonic for comprehensive DVD authoring. Purchased individually, these components would cost over $6,500 , but they can all be yours for

Help Choosing the right Video Editing computer for Avid Video Editing Software/Hardware.

For Professional Video Editing we recommend a minimum of three hard drives in your computer. One drive is for your operating system and programs, the second is your Source drive (where imported video, audio, and images are stored), and the third is your Render drive (where both temporary and final rendering is performed).

You may also want a backup or archival drive, which can be internal or external. Internal drives can be a little faster, not to mention space-saving, but they can also be damaged if something nasty happens to the computer. External drives, on the other hand, can be detached and stored in a safe place when not in use. You can also split the difference with a removeable hard drive bay (either IDE or SATA), which gives you the speed and space savings of an internal hard drive, but allows you to remove the hard drive from the front of the case to store it in a safe place.

When it comes to hard drive space, more is usually better, especially as hard drive prices continue to fall. While DV video doesn't really take up all that much space, if you are running uncompressed and/or HD video, you can easily fill a drive or two. The following chart shows the approximate drive space usage for several common types of video:

DV/Firewire	13 gigs/hour
Uncompressed	77 gigs/hour
1080 24p	330 gigs/hour

A single SATA drive benchmarks about 40 megs per second. This is plenty fast enough for DV capture without frame drops and playback.
For larger projects or uncompressed we recommend two Maxtor 300 gig SATA hard drives, one for Source, the other for Rendering.
For the more adventurous with a need for speed or uncompressed video, a pair of Sata drives in Raid 0 for both Source and Destination (for a total of five drives) is the way to go.

We strongly recommend a PNY Quadro 1300 PCI-E video card or better. The Quadro series video cards are optimized for OpenGL, giving you better performance for realtime video playback when running Avid software.
We offer several Avid systems, for a variety of needs and production levels:

Intel Core 2 Duo: a relatively simple yet very powerful system, useful for basic video editing projects, some wedding videography, light corporate training videos, and some visual and 3D effects work.

Dual Intel Woodcrest Xeon: a more powerful system, suitable for many more advanced productions, including Full HD.

Dual AMD Opteron: the king of the hill and the fastest home computer architecture in the world, it can handle pretty much anything.

Dual Quad-Core Xeon: the most powerful system we offer, utilizing an incredible EIGHT processing cores for maximum editing and rendering power.

Laptop: while not as powerful as a desktop system, our recommended Avid laptop has enough power to get the job done, and being a laptop it is of course portable.

For wedding videography/ small training/corporate Videos and some effects (Avid Xpress DV) a single P4 will be fine as well as the laptop.

For serious production work or full length films we recommend either the Dual Core Dual woodcrest Xeon or Dual Core Dual Opteron. They will allow for more advanced 3D effects and far faster render times. Dual CPU computers will render 2 times faster than single.

IF you are using Avid Xpress Studio; using the Mojo and Digi 02 at the same time you need a muilti PCI bus motherboard and some serious storage. While we list a link below we really would prefer you call us to discuss your video editing needs.
Avid only recommends Intel Processors, we feel they are doing thier customers a disservice not recommending the Dual Opteron as this is by far the fastest computer available today.
For an interview with Matt Allard of Avid who recommends AMD Opteron computers Go Here. It would be nice if all of Avid was on the same page as Matt's department.


For the Single P4 Go here.
For the Laptop Go here.
For Dual Xeon Go here.
For Dual Opteron Go here.
Full uncompressed HD (dual quad-core Xeon) Go here.