Hi guys,

Just set up my new computer.

3.2ghz P4 Northwood, dual monitors, 1gb RAM, Western Digital 70gb SATA Raptor boot drive and a 250gb SATA video clip storage drive and my old 160gb ATA to store rendered files on, and a Terratec DMX 6Fire soundcard.

Runs like a dream, and even runs Magic Bullet at a nice rate. Okay, so it's still slow by comparison to most other filters, but it still plays back in the preview window at a frame rate that seems to be 12fps even with some levels and my anamorphic footage stretched out to 16:9, so it's totally watchable.

Dual monitors have increased productivity by an order of magnitude!

Thanks to anyone here who answered my sometimes basic questions while I was thinking through this new system!

Good to hear everything is working well.

Nice! Sounds like a sweet machine- good luck with everything!

Btw, noticed you updated the page Edward- looks good. Email me if you need anything.

>Western Digital 70gb SATA Raptor boot drive

Nice move here. I have one, too. This is an underappreciated beauty for an overall system speed up.

Yep, that boot drive is fantastic and Windows XP boots double quick time.

I can also say that the Lian Li PC-60 case was also well worth the outlay and saved me several headaches while building the system!

I did have a few issues figuring out the hard drive and CD drive configurations for the Abit IC7 Max 3 motherboard though. It got me completely confused at first because of how the SATA interface works alongside installed ATA133 drives. But I got it figured out in the end.

Simon,
Congrads on the system. What kind of monitors are you using? I just got V5+DVD Production Suite and a new machine and am now deciding whether to upgrade monitors or not. I currently have a 19" CRT that is O.K. but with everything else being new .... well, you know how it goes.

Your input, or anyone elses for that matter, will be appreciated.

Thanks, Nick

At the moment I am using 2 LG 1710B LCD displays, and output to a ws TV for realtime previewing. It's not ideal. But it's within my budget. My next big purhase will be a set of good studio monitor speakers.

What kind of soundcard and graphics card are you running?

My soundcard is a Terratec DMX 6 Fire 24/96. My graphics card is an Nvidia based dual DVI card. I can't remember the exact model as the box is currently sitting under a whole pile of stuff.

I got the soundcard as it was very highly rated and can use the ASIO drivers.

That audio card has more plugs than a hair transplant recipient. You could wire an orchestra with that thing!

Simon, thanks for the info. My new system has a Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 and the soundcard is Soundblaster Audigy2.

Yeah I'm running an Audigy 2 as well...that and a Radeon 9800 Pro. Just itching to buy the new X800 gpu- though, who has time for games! UGH!

If your final product is output to DVD (or even PTT), why do you need an upscale soundcard? Is it just to ensure you can hear the quality of sound on the audio bed while editing? Wouldn't a cheap soundcard and a really good set of headphones be just as good?

DSE says the Sony MDR-7506 are the industry standard anyway? I'm not trying to start trouble here, but I'm having a NLE machine built as we speak and was planning on putting the extra C-note on the Sony ear-muffs instead of a primo audio card. Mistake? Do I have to have both?

Well, to be perfectly honest there is not much difference in price between the Terratec and a normal top end sound card. The Terratec is known for it's sound quality so I went for it as a result. I can tell you that there is a difference in sound quality between the Terratec and the Hercules Digifire 7.1 in my old machine. The Terratec brings out a lot more detail and seems to have better bass management.

Not only that but it has a lot of connectivity. Sound is very important to me. So no, a cheap soundcard to me is a false economy. If it was as simple as that then most people who shoot and edit for a living (such as myself) would just go with the on board audio of the motherboard. As it is, a better quality soundcard brings out better detail and more clarified sound.

Now I just need a really good set of monitors. Headphones don't cut it for 5.1 sound editing.

On-board sound is crappy. I have ok headphones (AKG66) and I can tell you:
A- on-board sound is hissy. My basement is semi-loud so I don't hear it until it's nighttime.
B- When the computer is doing certain tasks, interference will make all sorts of weird noises in your headphones. You need a quiet room to hear this stuff.

I don't know about frequency response or distortion- don't have anything better to do an A/B comparison. I used to have even worse on-board sound where the bass was definitely lacking.

However, some of the things above aren't really needed. Hiss isn't too much of a problem depending on your recordings and your target format. Interference from motherboard parts is disturbing, but not really a problem. If you have good monitors + some sound treatment in your room, then a sound card might help you with deeper bass and less distortion.

2- You probably don't want to go with Creative if you want good quality sound. Their specs are really lacking and their drivers suck (bloatware... and the old ones were unstable). For gaming they're good cards since they take some of the load off your CPU. But for a machine that also does video editing, you probably have CPU cycles to spare since you should be getting a fast processor and upgrading it often.

M-Audio Revolution or more expensive alternatives seem like the way to go. USB/firewire devices are nice if you do field recordings with a laptop.

3- Don't mix on headphones. Headphones are useful for dialog editing, testing out certain effects/plug-ins/filters (i.e. noise reduction), and for monitoring audio at shoots. But your mixes will be wrong when you listen on headphones. You may also notice problems you may/do not need to fix.

4- For listening to music and/or playing games (doing things for fun), then a good sound card + good headphones would be nice.

Certain Sennheiser models are lustful. They have a lot more detail and extended bass compared to my headphones, and are super comfortable. Bay/Bloor Radio in Toronto has a setup where you can compare various headphones.

In-ear canal headphones I have read are even better sounding than traditional headphones.

see http://headroom.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=3&subTopicID=26