Ultimatly I'd love to have 2 desktop computers one for gaming/internet and one just for work. Unfortuantly I only have one computer to do both. I do have a laptop but don't use it to do actually edit projects, I use it mainly to learn/practive all the new program I'm trying to learn.

What are the stats on your Vegas editing machine?
Mine:
Athlon 2200+
Asus A7V333
XP Home
512 mgs DDR 2100
40 gig Maxtor ATA133 (OS/Program drive)
80 gig Maxtor ATA133 (Dedicated video drive)
G-force 4 ti4600
Sony DRU500a
Lite-On CD-RW
Soundblaster Audigy 1
Klipsch Promedia 5.1s
Sony 21" E540 CRT display

Also what is your dream Vegas editing system?
I'd love to upgrade to a:
Asus Nforce Ultra MB
Athlon 3200+
1 gig of paired PC2700 DDR
Serial ATA Raid 0 (two Maxtor SATA 120gig drives for video)

Lastly what are your feelings regarding AMD vs Intel for Vegas editing? Any benefit going with Intel over AMD. I know the benchmarks on the Athlon always outperform Pentium 4 with Premiere but I wonder if that translates over to Vegas.

Before I say this, let me assure you that I've always been an AMD junkie in the past. They've consistently in the past churned out better processors at cheaper prices. The 1.4 Ghz computer I have at home and the 1.7Ghz computer I have here at work both are Athlons and were the top monsters when I built them.

Unfortunately, currently, Intel is winning the race in pretty much every arena (except cost, of course). When the next wave of architecture changes finally hits the street, this may be different, but in the mean time, see good ol' reliable Tom's Hardware site in the CPU section for details and specific explanations that pretty much sum it up.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/index.html

As it stands today, mid-2003, if you purchase a system today that you want to be top PC dog, it should be an Intel. But this subject must be revisited at the end of the year when the next wave of 64-bit PC processors hit the streets.

I know that Athlon can't keep up with the clock speed and most benchmarks that the P4 is churning out- however anytime they use an NLE and video encoding as a benchmark the Athlon always seems to come out on top. Why, I have no idea- I don't know how/why the winmark and business program benchmark results don't carry over to NLE video encoding but it doesn't.
Tom's Hardware is a great site- it's been set as my "homepage" when I log on to the internet for a long while now. Another good resource for benchmarks is Maximum PC. That's where they benchmark using NLE encoding. Though, like I said, it's based on Premiere.

Regarding 64bit processors I think AMD might beat Intel to the punch- their Barton 64-bit processor is slated to come out fairly soon. I'm holding off upgrading to find out which MBs this new processor supports. Also benchmarking figures would be nice- I don't want to pay a premium if it's not going to benefit me in encoding/gaming speed. If it turns out they aren't what they are cracked up to be (the Bartons that is) I'll have to go to back to Intel with whatever their fastest CPU is at that particular time. It'll be the first Intel PC I've owned since my ooooold Pentium 120. Wow technology moves fast.

One guess I have for the performance discrepancy, is that Premiere being an older NLE (until Premiere Pro comes out), it may be that it is not optimized for the latest P4s architecture. Whereas the AMD, by all counts, is functioning in a way that has not developed to the point of P4s. As Toms Hardware suggests, AMD seems to have stagnated a bit. This is probably because they are a smaller company with limited resources, and are probably devoting most of their resources to developing the next level chip which should whoop the Intel. Intel being big enough to be able to devote time to up the current technology while still developing the next-level technology without skipping a beat.

Anyway, that being the case, it may be very likely that in Vegas, it being a more optimized application with current technology, may function much faster with an Intel chip.

But this is just conjecture. Don't hold me to it... just a scientific hypothesis.

I wonder if anyone could benchmark Vegas's performance under an Intel chipset vs AMD. That would be quite interesting. The results would easily influence my decision when upgrading my computer beings I ditched Premiere to run an all Vegas workflow.

That's one of the reasons I started this post, to see what most Vegas users were using- though that wouldn't be a "benchmark". Hmm maybe I should ask some techs over at Sonic Foundry.

What are the stats on your Vegas editing machine?
(This is also my general purpose, do everything computer)
HP Pavilion 793
3.06GB Pentium 4 w/ Hyperthreading
512 MB pc2100 DDR RAM
40GB ATA 100 (OS/Program Drive)
100GB ATA100 (general storage drive)
120GB ATA 133 with PCI controller card (dedicated video)
ATI Radeon 7500 All-In-Wonder AGP video card
Onboard USB 2.0 (2 front,4 back) & Firewire ports (1 front, 1 back)
Onboard sound
On board video (disabled)
2.4x DVD+R/RW
Vegas 4.0 +DVD
XP Home

Also what is your dream Vegas editing system?
All of the above in a laptop with widescreen LCD

Lastly what are your feelings regarding AMD vs Intel for Vegas editing?
Intel rules with 3+ GB CPU's & Hyperthreading, but I'm very curious where AMD's 64bit processors will take us -->>>

Antec 1080 480w server tower
P4 2.4 533FSB 512cache (soon to be upgraded to H/T CPU)
Abit IT7 Max2 mobo Series2 10xUSB 4x1394, multimedia portRaid disabled and used as IDE, with extra 1394card installed.
1x 80WD 7200RPM 8mb Cache HDD (system and stock material)
2x 120GB WD 7200RPM 8 mb Cache HDD (Video and Audio doubles as temp for DVDr and Cd Writing)
SBLive Audigy running ASIO drivers
Radeon9000Pro 128mb AGP gfx card overclocked to 200mhz(soon to be upgraded to 9800)
1Gb Corsair 3200 DDR Ram 400mhz
Yamaha F1 44x CDR-W writer with Disc t@2
Pioneer A05 4x DVDr writer
Kenwood 5050 110w x5 5.1 Surround Amp
Custom built speakers and sub (made em myself)

Soon be getting 2xLCD monitors

XPPro
Vegas4 + DVD
Soundforge6 and the rest of the Sonic Foundry kit
Pinnacle Studio7 + Hollywood fx (only use it for HFX)
and loads of other apps...

This is just the workstation....pls dont ask what the full kit list in the studio is (synths keys samplers etc etc.. LOL )

i have another system but its so old its only used for covers, accounting and general cd burning.

as for Hyperthreading and the P4 i have some benchmarking on main concept running on Hyperthreading CPUs but its on another board which i admin...
Ill find the link to the benchmark and post it here, but its about 20% faster than a CPU without....

take particular note of the Main Concept encoding comparison...

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030521/800fsb-12.html

Lian-Li aluminum chassis
Intel D850EMV-R motherboard
512 MB Samsung 1066 RDRAM
Intel 2.26 GHz P4
1x 40 GB IBM ATA133 HDD (OS & apps)
2x 80 GB IBM ATA133 HDD, RAID-1 (working video)
1x 80 GB external firewire HDD (archives)
GeForce 4 Ti 4400 video card
Promise ATA133 raid card
Adaptec 4 port firewire card
Viewsonic P95f monitor
Yamaha YST-M15 computer speakers
Sony DRU-500A DVD burner
Internal Zip & floppy drives

MS Win XP-Pro
Vegas 4 + DVD
Acid Pro 3 with SoundForge XP 5
Oh, and some games :)

Currently I'm filming my short movies using Sony TRV-900 cameras. Would like a Panasonic DVX-100 tho ;)

I agree that the dream system would be a super powerful laptop, with the ability to hook it up to big external monitors & disk drives when at home.

I also just built a gaming system out of a Shuttle XPC barebones system. They have the latest 400 MT/sec nForce chipset in one model, as well as the latest 800 MT/sec P4 chipset in another model. If you don't need a lot of PCI cards or disk drives, these systems are really nice (small and quiet, too).

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Jefferson : take particular note of the Main Concept encoding comparison...

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030521/800fsb-12.html -->>>

Wow thanks for the heads up- welp guess that settles it, Pentium is the way to go for Vegas encoding speed. Hmmm gotta come up with the cash to build a new Pentium 4 rig!

makes a hellofadiference doesnt it... LOL

20% boost...
and apparently Main Concpet support dual CPUs so the results shoudl be similar if running a dual CPU system...

Why because of hyper-threading? Is there any configuration involved in setting up hyper-threading or is it some sort of default feature on the Pentium 4s? Also at what speed does Pentium offer hyper-threading?

H/T on Intel is minimum of 2.4 and upwards... not bad really...
and the fact you can overclock it is even beter...

hyperthreading with XP in lamens terms confuses the machine in thinking that its runnign 2 CPUS... its alot more complicated than that, but thats just a basic way to look at it...

Do you have to run XP Pro to take advantage of HT? I know it's not two logical CPUs but I'm asking because only Pro can handle dual processors to begin with.

In addition to that- does the program have to be written to take advantage of HT, or does it occur naturally with all apps?

depends on the application, but usually you dont have to do anythign as XP Pro will configure resources according to priority.

Win XP Pro is the only OS which supports H/T technology at this time..

Woah I didn't know that. I was planning on breaking down my old machine for spare parts and installing my XP home on the new machine. I guess it would benefit me to go and pick up XP pro to take advantage of the Intel HT. Hmm, doesn't XP pro come with a boat load of services, etc that I wont need- how do I know what services I do and do not need. If I got a copy of XP Pro I'd want it to be spick and spam, with no extraneous junk that I wont use.

well, im sure they will release an service pack to be able to utlilise H/T eventually.

as for bloatware, XP itself is bloatware however you can easily configure during install, or even run a dual OS system

Unless I'm being deceived, tech support at HP told me in the beginning that nothing special needed to be done for my system to utilize the HT on my 3.06GB Pentium 4. I just checked device mgr. in control panel, and it lists two identical cpu's. The same result using "system inf" under accessories. Unless they're scamming me big time, I'd say XP Home ver. supports and utilizes Hyperthreading.
Try Intel's page:
http://www.intel.com/support/platform/ht/os.htm
Hey, you had me going there for a minute. I also vaguely remember that Vegas capitalized on the hyperthreading as well. The Vegas part would need to be confirmed indepedently, though.

Hmm can anyone confirm this? I'd love to be able to build a new machine and not have to buy another OS. Especially beings the "upgrade" for XP PRO being $179 retail. UGH That money could be better spent towards my paired Corsair 512 sticks! :)

<<<-- Originally posted by Sam Houchins II :
Try Intel's page:
http://www.intel.com/support/platform/ht/os.htm-->>>
You can believe them, can't you?

Hi,

My setup:

Peter, have you checked that link- it does list both home and professional as supporting HT. Could it be a typo? How can we substanciate this?

My understanding was that XP - no matter the flavor - supported HT. True multi-processors - that is a different story.

Just picked up Vegas recently and hope to be using it soon along with Avid Xpress Pro. My editing machine (which was originally built for Avid Xpress DV):

Dual 1800MP AMD
Tyan Tiger 2460 Motherboard
2GB Corsair 2100DDR Memory
40GB Maxtor 7200RPM System Drive
200GB Western Digital 7200RPM 8MB Cache RAID 0 (2X100GB)
30GB IBM 7200RPM Drive for Ghost Images/Page File
Pioneer DVD-ROM Slot Load
Pioneer DVD/RW DVR-A04
Gainward GeForce3 64MB
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
ADS Pyro Firewire Card
Highpoint Technology ATA/133 RAID Card
Antec TruePower 550W PS
Addtronics 7890A Server Case

Looking to upgrade to dual Opterons once more motherboards with AGP are available (only a few out now).

I just finished putting together my DV editing machine. I have not received my copy of Vegas 4.0 + DVD yet (placed the order yesterday). Here are the stats.

P4 2.8 Ghz
Corsair XMS DDR 400 Memory 2GB
Asus P4C800 Deluxe MB
Thermal Take Xaser Case (7 cooling fans).
Thermal Take P4 Spark 7+ CPU fan.
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card 128 MB

System Drive :
Maxtor Ultra DMA 133 40 GB 7200 RPM

Page File Drive :
20 GB EIDE 7200 RPM drive(Not installed yet)

Data Drive :
SATA RAID 0 Stripe Set

Seagate 120 GB 7200 RPM x 2.

Sony DRU-510A DVD R+-W/ CD-RW drive.

Windows XP Pro.

Monitor : NEC Multiscan FE991.


Camcorder : Canon GL2.

Hmm very nice-
Not too far from mine

CPU- P4 3.0ghz
MB- Asus P4C800-E
RAM- Corsair matched pair DDR3200 (1gig)
HD- OS/Program drive Maxtor 80gig ATA133
Dedicated Video Drive SATA Raid-0 (maxtor 120gig x2)
Video- Gforce FX 5900 Ultra 256mgs
Sound- Audigy 2
Optical Drive- Sony DRU500A


CASE- Coolermaster ATC-111b
POWER SUPPLY- Antec True 480watt

Already own:
Speakers- Klipsch 5.1 promedias
Displaly- Sony Trinitron 21" E540


Cameras- DVX100
GL-1
Still- Sony F717

All on order...waiting to pick it up later this week!

Do you guys recommend the RAID-0 configuration over the standard prim - sec, mast. - slave setup? Do you notice the speed increase?
Thanks

I have the same display as you do, Glenn. Its not one of the higher models unfortunately, but I think its alright for the price. How do you like yours?

Forgot to mention my speakers: a pair of Mackie HR626s (http://www.mackie.com/products/hr626/index.html)

Sounds like a fun machine to build, Glenn.

Hey, if anyone just upgraded to a new system and would like to sell their old one, send me a message (buckskinslim@earthlink.net) or give me a call --(970-209-4310). I'm moving up from a dual P3-500/512MB pc100 system. I typically buy one or two generations behind the bleeding edge. I may miss out on the advantages of hyperthreading, but I'll get it next time.

Scott Brickert

MSI K7D Master
Dual AthlonMP 1900's running at 1.6Ghz each
1024MB Registered DDR2100 ram

Primary HD: Western Digital 120GB w/ 8mb cache
Secondary HD: Seagate 80Gb drive.
Backup drive: 40GB External USB drive

Geforce Ti4400 128mb
Sound: M-Audio Revolution

Windows XP Pro.

Displays:
19" Samsung SyncMaster900NF
19" ViewSonic GS790 (crap)

Camera: GL-2

Enjoying your video distortion, Christopher? =\ I just upgraded from a Tyan Tiger MP motherboard. I've lived with it's various defects for the past year... but enough is enough! The K7D Master is a great motherboard though.

<<<-- Originally posted by Christopher Go : I have the same display as you do, Glenn. Its not one of the higher models unfortunately, but I think its alright for the price. How do you like yours?

Forgot to mention my speakers: a pair of Mackie HR626s (http://www.mackie.com/products/hr626/index.html)

Sounds like a fun machine to build, Glenn. -->>>

I'm very happy with the E540 Sony I would love to have picked up the .22 dot-pitch Trinitron (forget the model #) but I didn't have the spare $1,200 laying around!
I was a bit upset recently when Maximum PC did a comparison of a bunch of 20"-21" montors under $600. Our E540 came in dead last....though I don't experience any of the problems (blurryness) that they report. And as a graphics professional I have pretty discerning eyes.


About your Mackie speakers- they look nice. As you see I went the 5.1 THX Gaming route. I wonder how much better a set of Makie studio monitors are compared to my Klipsch? Also do you need to use some sort of special sound card with them? Lastly are they shielded- can you have them close to your monitor?

" I wonder how much better a set of Makie studio monitors are compared to my Klipsch? "

Much, dynamic range is much broader and freq range would really stand out. Alot more accurate when configuring EQ's for Surround projects as well...


Also do you need to use some sort of special sound card with them?
((soundcard, not really, but maybe a small mixer or amp dependng on teh model.
Some models of studio speakers come Powered or even include inbuilt EQ's. Depends on which ones you go for. Best thing to do is to go to a musicl instruemtn store and check outthe studio gear. This way your not flooded with stats, you can easily compare the same soounds with different configs.. Also studio mons arent cheap as theyre designed for production use, not listening. Sounds strange, but these types of speakers (monitors) are designed to bring out all the frequencies across a broad range, allowing an accurate reference for control during production. This is why theyre sensitivity is MUCH higher than a "listening" set of speaker which doesnt need to be as accurate.


Lastly are they shielded- can you have them close to your monitor?"
((Most of teh latest models are shielded. Again, i wouldnt jump for jsut any Monitor, as different environmetns will produce a different output. Experiment and do some research. This will save alot of heartache.

For my audio (not the video config here) im using a pair of Mackie HR824. Small tight and bloody beautiful!
The Berringer Truths are also a great (and cheaper) alternative at almost half teh price now of the mackie

Go here for a cool lil review of Monitors
http://www.creativemac.com/2002/10_oct/reviews/monitor_shootout.htm

Glen, you don't have top pay that much for an XP Pro upgrade. I just got the tip posted under subject from the excellent http://www.dealnews.com/, which I often check when I get to my PC in the morning.

FYI, http://www.techbargains.com/ and http://www.edealinfo.com/index.shtml have also helped me and a nonprofit organization I work for save litterally thousands of dollars.

Finally, I recommend one always checks an unknown online vendor at http://www.resellerratings.com/

I hope this helps.

Miles

>>About your Mackie speakers- they look nice. As you see I went the 5.1 THX Gaming route. I wonder how much better a set of Makie studio monitors are compared to my Klipsch? Also do you need to use some sort of special sound card with them? Lastly are they shielded- can you have them close to your monitor?
<<
Glen, I have a pair of 626s also. The klipsch are designed to emphasize certain areas of the sound spectrum (highs and lows) that appeal to people playing music/movies and or games on a pc. The Mackies are desinged for completely accurate reproduction of sound. In fact you can use them to judge the audio quality of a CD. Poorly engineered CDs that sound good on enhance consumer speakers, sound awful on a set of studio monitors. This is important if you take the audio of your movie seriously.
If you use a pro sound setup when editing ,if it sounds good on your Mackies, then it will most likely sound good on consumer oriented systems. Mackies and other pro studio monitors are like studio video monitors, desinged to bring out all the warts so you can fix them before final output. Thats why most audio pros will tell you to avoid equipment that enhances or changes the sound in any way during the capture and editing process.

But if you have a nice Home theater, don't be afraid to use it. Those Mackies hr626s are going for 450.00 USD a piece right now.

bTW in my system I have both a creative audigy and an esi-pro waveterminal 192m for pro recording and mixing.

I may have to check out the berringers myself.

About your Mackie speakers- they look nice. As you see I went the 5.1 THX Gaming route. I wonder how much better a set of Mackie studio monitors are compared to my Klipsch? Also do you need to use some sort of special sound card with them? Lastly are they shielded- can you have them close to your monitor?

The Mackies accept 1/4 Phone, XLR, or RCA connections. Since I only have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, I had to purchase a Y-adapter to go from Phone to the plug on my consumer rated sound card. That was a limitation of Avid: Avid Xpress DV only officially supports consumer audio cards, presumably to keep the competition from their Protools products but this has been changed with their upcoming Avid Xpress Pro.

I'll be upgrading to a new sound card once Xpress Pro comes out but in the meantime I'm gonna try Vegas too.

Joe, how are your speakers connected? And where'd you find that $450 price? I bought the HR626s a few months after they were first released and they cost me $1100 total. I think the HR824s or HR624s might be $450 each?

I bougth them at Sam Ash locally. Search around on line. They are reguallarily priced at 450 a piece.
BTW, I meant 624, not 626. The 626 is a center speaker and goes for over 700.00
samash.com has them for 449.00 each.

Thanks for that site, Joe. The Mackie HR626 goes for $749 for each speaker there. Although it makes a great center speaker, it can also pull monitoring duty as well. According to Mackie:

The HR626 is the ideal monitor for those who need lots of bottom end, along with the low-level accuracy of the mid range for mixing and vocal placement. Thanks to its D’Appolito driver alignment design, the HR626 can be used in both vertical and horizontal positions. Placing the HR626 in a vertical position provides extremely accurate reference monitoring for mid-to large-sized studios. See this page (http://www.mackie.com/products/hr626/index.html) for the product page and where I obtained that quote.

The Mackie HR626s were apparently used to help Danetracks, the company responsible for sound on the Matrix trilogy: click here (http://www.mackie.com/products/Users/articles/2003/danetracks/index.html). In the picture on the lower right hand corner, you can see a pair of the HR626s sitting there if I'm not mistaken.

I apologize if this has gotten off-topic, but Vegas is supposed to have great audio capabilities. I'm anxious to try Vegas out for this reason. I also wanted speakers with more bass capabilities and so I opted for a pair of HR626s instead.

Wouldn't it be great to have a pair of HR824s, a center HR626, and one of Mackie's high-end subwoofers?

Just thought I would update.
I just purchased a system exclusively for media editing.
mobo Gigabyte 8KNXP
cpu PIV 2.8 HT
Intel 875p chipset
ram 2 gig 3200 this mobo has 6 memory slots.
on board Intel gigbit ethernet
on board ATA133 raid
On board Silicon Image and Intel SATA raid connections (up to 4).
lots of USB2 and firewire connections on board.
on board realtek audio with some sort of autosense tech that
figures out what you plugged into the sound ports. Supports surround sound if I want it to.
nvidia fx 5200 ultra with 128meg, it will be replaced with
an ATI Rage 9500 w 128 in the near future.

I will be adding addtional storage drives, planning up to
at least 600 gig if not more.

Near future is to get a laya24 audio card and add more studio monitors for surround mixing.

Anyone have opinions on the Behringer B2031 truth monitors? I heard they are as good as the Mackies, but less than half the price.

I recently decided to go RAID with my setup, and figured it would be a great time to finally go XP Pro from my current Win2k setup. Then I convinced myself it would also be a good time to upgrade the CPU to the best my board could take.

So now I've got an Athlon 2400 (2Ghz). Overall the change isn't that drastic (though noticable at times for sure) from my 1.4Ghz Athlon, but it was such a cheap upgrade it was totally worth it. Something to think about if you want to squeeze more out of your system and are planning an OS re-install...

And the RAID... well my Gigabyte's built in RAID, though promising, gave me nothing but serious headaches due to it not liking my Geforce 2 MX vid card. So I ended up getting a PCI Highpoint ATA 100 RAID card and it's working swimmingly.

However, I find that my GeForce 2 doesn't like running in dual monitor mode too much now that I'm in XP Pro. Seems to work intermittently even though I have the lastest nVidia drivers. I'm ready to chuck it anyway since I've never like that card too much (Gainward)... what dual monitor vid cards are some of you using, and are you happy with them?

I'd like to get that new Matrox P750 which does the triple head but without the cost of the Parhelia. The thing that's always been great about Matrox is that their drivers are always oh so stable and they work amazingly well and with great stability for 2D applications. I don't think the P750 is readily available yet though.

I'm about to build an editing system on a low budget soon.

CPU – 2.4CGHz P4 HT
MB - MSI Neo2-LS 865PE (or Gigabyte GA-8PENXP – RAID, onboard IEE1394)
RAM – 2x256 MB PC3200 (DDR400)
HDD – OS, docs – IBM 40GB, 7200 rpm, 2MB
HDD video – Matrox 80 GB, 7200 rpm, 8MB
VGA – GeForce4 MX440 64MB, TV-out (or 128MB GeForce FX5200)
DVD-RW – Pioneer DVR-A06-J
OS – Windows XP Home (or Pro)
IEE 1394 board – Canopus DV Raptor RT Light

Sorry for the ignorance but do I really need Real Time IEE 1394 board for use with Vegas? I don’t see what Fire Wire cards others are using so recommendations are welcome!
Can I preview 2 pc monitors with the video cards listed above?
Is onboard sound sufficient?

Thanks in advance for the replay!

Bogdan....
If you use the Gigabyte 8knxp you will have a Texas Instruments 1394 chip that is OHCI compliant. Vegas uses any OHCI compliant 1394 interface. Most people recommend the TI based chip.

I chose the Gigabyte because of reviews and all the onboard connections (true full duplex Gigabit Ethernet, firewire, usb2, 6 memory slots,raid...) that actually make it a pretty good bargain for a single chip mobo. Plus they have the dual power feature that protects all the components and a dual bios you can fall back to if you screw things up.

If you are referring to Canopus and their ACEDVio system, I don't know much about it, but if you need dv, plus analog to dv to analog capabilities, it sounds like a good bundle. And it looks like you get both the Vegas and Canopus codecs, but I'm not sure about that. Canopus has a deserved reputation for quality.

It that is what you want,you should try to see if you could get it for less from a third party retailer.

System:
MSI NForce2 mobo
1.5GB PC2700 DDR 300 RAM
Athlon 2000+ (OC'ed and watercooled)

Drives:
250GB WD HD, 7200RPM (System drive)
160GB WD HD w/ 8mb cache, 7200RPM (Backup Drive)
2 x 120GB WD HD w/ 8mb cache, 7200RPM (Running on RAID 0+1)
2x 80GB WD HD, 8MB cache, 7200RPM (Running RAID 0+1 -- Dedicated Video)
40GB Maxtor 5200RPM Drive (Music/Docs/Files/Whatever)

Graphics:
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800Pro (Primary Monitor)
GeForceFX 5200 Ultra, PCI (2nd Monitor)
PNY GeForce2 MX (3rd Monitor)

Optical Drives:
Sony DRU-510A DVD Multi-Format Burner
Plextor Premium 52x CDR/RW Drive

OS:
winxp Pro SP1

P4 2.4c ghz 800mhz fsb
Intel RockLake BoxD865PERL (awesome & stable all bells & whist.)
1gig crucial DDR 400
128meg DDR TI4200 Gforce4
60gig maxtor 7200
Pioneer A06
Aopen 7in1 card reader
Antec SBX 1040 400watt server (lots of room & runs cool)
AC97 sound (better than I thought)
XP Pro
VV3 soon to be 4
Photoshop7 (I love mixing stills with video)
19" 955DF Samsung (not the best but was 189 bucks)
Artic silver ceramique & standard fan/sink ( 39 degrees cent.)

The first time I rendered in Vegas 3 it didn't render everything, program started to print to tape without completing render. re-installed everything same thing, found out it was rendering everything, 22 minute wedding rehearsal rendered and started to print to tape in less than 5 minutes. I was shocked!! Admittedly it had few transitions or effects but still, I spent 2 hours reinstalling because I was sure something was wrong!!

<<<-- Originally posted by Bogdan Vaglarov : I'm about to build an editing system on a low budget soon.

CPU – 2.4CGHz P4 HT
MB - MSI Neo2-LS 865PE (or Gigabyte GA-8PENXP – RAID, onboard IEE1394)
RAM – 2x256 MB PC3200 (DDR400)
HDD – OS, docs – IBM 40GB, 7200 rpm, 2MB
HDD video – Matrox 80 GB, 7200 rpm, 8MB
VGA – GeForce4 MX440 64MB, TV-out (or 128MB GeForce FX5200)
DVD-RW – Pioneer DVR-A06-J
OS – Windows XP Home (or Pro)
IEE 1394 board – Canopus DV Raptor RT Light

Sorry for the ignorance but do I really need Real Time IEE 1394 board for use with Vegas? I don’t see what Fire Wire cards others are using so recommendations are welcome!
Can I preview 2 pc monitors with the video cards listed above?
Is onboard sound sufficient?

Thanks in advance for the replay! -->>>
Your motherboard has a built-in firewire port does it not? You would not need a firewire card then. Those RT boards don't work with Vegas.

Thanks for the replays, Joe and Chan.

This is what I needed to know. I knew that Vegas is doing different way of real time (software with slightly lower quality while previewing). But the new real time boards all use scalable technology (they grow as the processor power grows) so in fact they are kind of software too.
A bit ugly explanation but corect me if it's not true.

Joe, Gigabyte GA-8PENXP is identiacal to GA-8KNXP in everything exept the chipset (865PE vs. 875). In toms hardware recent review it even performs slightly better for video encoding but the advantage is only the lower price.

I still wonder how do you get 2 PC monitors working together with TV monitor. Usually video boards have just one connector - do you need 2 video cards (like Bryan Gateb's setup for example)?

Cheers, Bogdan

Some/most video cards from Nvidia and ATI support dual monitors.

To hook up your NTSC monitor (or TV) you could hook it up to your deck (or camcorder acting as a deck). In Vegas you should click the firewire preview box.

first of all, misconceptions re: ht capable OSes:
http://www.intel.com/support/platform/ht/os.htm
google is your friend =D.

secondly, on with the games!
What are the stats on your Vegas editing machine?

http://www.fongunlimited.com/htpc/htpc.jpg
http://www.fongunlimited.com/htpc/internal.jpg

lian li pc70 case
tyan S2466-4M tiger mpx v.4.05
ttgi 520w
generic 1gb ecc reg pc2700
wd 10krpm raptor
maxtor 40gb 5krpm
aiw 8500dv
promise SATA150 TX4
siig usb 2.0
live 5.1
52xsony cdrom
16xliteon dvd
52x24x52 litone cdrw
apple keyb
ms i3 mouse
Nokia 445Xpro 21" (19.8" viewable) can do 1880x1440x75hz =). still proud that i got it 3 years ago for under $400 =). now eyeing 1600x1200 18" lcd.

Also what is your dream Vegas editing system?

actually my dream computer doesn't exist yet. it's in excess of 5ghz both cpu speed and fsb. i hate that modern fsb speed is still so slow. *sigh*. but if i had to pick it'd be:
-Tyan k8w
-2 redundant 600+w psu
-dual 240
-16gb pc2100
-u320 raid 5
-radeon 9800pro
-any viaht24 chipset audio card.
-10x u320, 73gb hd 15krpm
-plasma for monitor
-100' front project for preview

Lastly what are your feelings regarding AMD vs Intel for Vegas editing?

dunno. haven't used vegas yet =D.

actually both nv+ati support dual monitors via software. let's say you have a video card installed on agp port. you can just install a pci version and voila, instant dual monitor. just have to d/l latest drivers =D

Originally posted by Glenn Chan : Some/most video cards from Nvidia and ATI support dual monitors.

Don't need a second video card to do dual monitors. Just connect the second monitor via the DVI or Analog port and configure it in Nview (if your using an Nvidia card). Running two 17" NEC lcds now. Desktop is spanned across both @ 2560x1024. Works like a charm, all on one video card.

yesh there are vid cards that supply dual display on one card but i guess i was addressing the people that don't have that card yet.

Originally posted by Glen Elliott : Don't need a second video card to do dual monitors. Just connect the second monitor via the DVI or Analog port and configure it in Nview (if your using an Nvidia card). Running two 17" NEC lcds now. Desktop is spanned across both @ 2560x1024. Works like a charm, all on one video card.