P Pro and dual or single core

[Terry Lyons]

Hi all, I have p pro and am thinking of getting into HDV. I have a single core 3.0 pentium 4 and 3 gigs ram and 2 sata hard drives at 7200 rpm that are raided for speed (it splits the signal and writes to half to both) that works well with sd. I am going to build a new computer for HD and am wondering if dual core is the way to go. My single core runs flawsly right now and am wondering if the dual cores are not as stable. I have read here that hd timelines that have transitions, color corection, etc. make computers run very slow. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, TAG

[Miguel Lombana]

Originally Posted by Terry Lyons

Hi all, I have p pro and am thinking of getting into HDV. I have a single core 3.0 pentium 4 and 3 gigs ram and 2 sata hard drives at 7200 rpm that are raided for speed (it splits the signal and writes to half to both) that works well with sd. I am going to build a new computer for HD and am wondering if dual core is the way to go. My single core runs flawsly right now and am wondering if the dual cores are not as stable. I have read here that hd timelines that have transitions, color corection, etc. make computers run very slow. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, TAG

Terry I currently have a Dell Workstation with a dual core extreme edition pentium processor, it runs great and I do some HDV editing. I also have a single 2.8g P4 chip and it's performance it really not that much off for editing. I just inherited a Compaq Proliant Dual Xeon server and am loading it up this weekend for some testing to see what it can and can't do.

The bottom line is that you need a buffer such as Aspect HD to bridge the performance gaps with any of these types of systems <period>. From what I've been able to test and seen on my boxes, the CPU typically runs at about 35-50% when rendering out a video from the time line for production AVI to DVD, I honestly expected some amazing performance jumps when I went to the EE chip and didn't get it.

You may actually have more than enough machine for your needs right now if you just get Aspect HD working, the trial is free for 15 days, capture some video, edit it and see what you think. If you're not pleased, see if you can buddy up with a friend at a PC store and build out a test system (try before you buy) to get what you want.

The Raid array is a must btw...

Miguel

[Harm Millaard]

You did not mention the budget, but this may be a good machine at the current time:

# Motherboard: Supermicro X7DAE (Greencreek)
# CPU: Two 5345 Clovertown processors
# At least 4 GB FBDIMM's 677
# Chassis: Supermicro SC 745TQ-800
# Areca ARC-1230 SATA Raid controller
# nVidia Quadro 1500 or higher
# 8 x 400/500 GB SATA HD's in Raid5 or 6
# WD Raptor150 for OS

This would be the intial list IMO.

[Pete Bauer]

More cores are better, as Adobe apps are supposed to be multi-processor aware, and Cineform definitely says their software is. A dual-proc quad-core Xeon system (8 cores) would just be too awesome, but personally can't make myself spend THAT much on a computer and I just don't know how the cost/benefit of a very expensive 5345 or 5355 dual proc system would stack up...so for now the QX6700 is my personal line in the sand money-wise.

In terms of total system cost, the QX6700 isn't that much more than a Core 2 Extreme (6800), now that the QX is becoming somewhat available, and is reported to perform 50-80% faster on renders than the 6800. I'm going to build a QX6700 system any day now.

For the HDD's, RAID 0 for video editing, and RAID 5 or 6 for storage. Hardware RAID 5 has much slower write speed because of all the parity data that must be created and written across the array along with the data. My setup is 2 x 150GB RAID 0 Raptors in my editing box, and my old P4 3.0 now has a RAID card running 5 x 750GB Seagates as a networked archive to which I'll generally write a file to once, and then copy media files back as needed to the editing box for projects.

FWIW, I've read a couple of favorable online reviews for the eVGA 680i motherboard. Can't personally vouch for it yet, but unless something deters me that's probably the board I'll be buying for the Quad system.

[Chris Barcellos]

I am running a now a bit "dated" AMD Dual 3800+ on a fairly non-descript mother board. 2gig memory on board, standard 7200 rpm drives, IDE set up. Frankly I thin RAID is overkill, and I have seen some on this forum indicate it actually will slow rendering. I edit HDV native in Premiere Pro 2.0, as well as Vegas 7, without problem.

I understand Premiere will also use the Video card to assist in processing video. I am not a tech geek. I use a 256 mgb X700 from ATI.

Again on this forum, the gurus seem to indicate moving to the new Core Duo chips from Intel is the next big step....

[Mike Teutsch]

Premiere does detect multiple processers. My system has 3.4ghz P4 with hyperthreading and it detects that as dual precessor too. With 2g memory and Aspect HD, it runs HD just fine.

Mike

[Steven Gotz]

I have, so far, the best score for one Dual-Core chip on the benchmark.

http://mysite.verizon.net/wgehrke/ppbm/

My PC specs are: http://www.stevengotz.com/pc.htm

Premiere Pro seems to like the dual core, and yes, Cineform takes advantage of it as well.

[Miguel Lombana]

Steve cool link and thanks for posting, I ran it here and on the HDV side, I should be slipping in right behind you and Bill at #2 on my box, DV I came in at roughly 18th to 20th.

Again thanks for letting us know about this link.

Miguel

[Daniel Cegla]

I had a timeline that I used as a benchmark for render time before I switch my processor from a single to dual core (no other components changed, I just swapped an Athlon 3700+ for an Athlon X2 4800+ dual core).

The render time was cut in half.

[Chris Barcellos]

Daniel:

Just processor ? No motherboard change ?

[Daniel Cegla]

Originally Posted by Chris Barcellos

Daniel:

Just processor ? No motherboard change ?

just proc, no mobo change. both are socket 939.

[Terry Lyons]

Thanks you all very much for the replys. Sorry it took so long to reply, we were out of town for a few days. Actually got to go look at the XH A1, what an awesome camera. Anyway it looks like I have nothing to be afraid of building a dual core system, other than finding extra money at Christmas time. Well Im off to see my computer buddy (what would I do without a computer buddy) to talk parts and price. Thanks again everyone for the help. TAG

[Even Solberg]

I've got a quad-core Dell (XPS710) and Premiere is as happy with it as a tornado in a trailerpark, to steal a quote from Cars. :)

[Terry Lyons]

Hi everyone, thanks again for the help. I just ordered from my computer buddy a new motherboard, dual core 3.4 pentium, 4 gigs of ram, 1.25 terabites of storage, a quadro pro 1500 video card, sony dvd burner, 500+ watt power supply and an awesome rack mount case with removable drive bays. The mother board comes with raid and firewire already on it. Anyway thanks again and I cant wait to see how it runs. TAG

[Denny Bryant]

Originally Posted by Terry Lyons

Hi everyone, thanks again for the help. I just ordered from my computer buddy a new motherboard, dual core 3.4 pentium, 4 gigs of ram, 1.25 terabites of storage, a quadro pro 1500 video card, sony dvd burner, 500+ watt power supply and an awesome rack mount case with removable drive bays. The mother board comes with raid and firewire already on it. Anyway thanks again and I cant wait to see how it runs. TAG

Well unless you are going to be running a 64 bit OS, you will only utilize about 3 gigs of that RAM .. 32 bit OSes such as Windows XP (the 32 bit version) & Vista will only see approx 3 gigs of RAM.