I've got a quadcore computer with a 9450Q CPU, 4 gigs of 1066 Ram and a 8800GTS card. Does anyone out there have a similar setup (for realtime MPE playback of 2 HDV tracks I know I've got to get at least a GTS 260 card) and how is the realtime performance with a quadcore and 4 gigs of ram?

Can I get by with 4 gigs of ram or would I need 8 or 12 gigs? (The two HDV tracks will be edited in a standard def project.)

I'm trying to upgrade with the minimal investment now, hoping that in a year or so I can finish the upgrade and edit realtime with Scarlet 3K footage, hopefully still with the quadcore CPU. So if you have experience with pre i5 and i7 quadcore CPUs, please let me know how they do.

Best is to edit hdv in a hdv timeline and then downscale to dvd.
If you machine cant handle hdv (which i doubt) then downscale to DV in the camera.
CS5 would run better on W7/64, i7 9xx, at least 8 gig RAM, 3 HDD's and a 'certified' graficscard.

Ann, I edit HDV in a SD timeline so I can 'pan & scan'. I shoot live theater with one camera. Scaled down to about 44%, the HDV is full frame- in SD it's a wide shot. I can scale the hdv footage up to about 80% of its original size in the SD frame for 'close-ups'. This is for home audiences, most of whom don't have a HD DVD player yet.

I'm not sure if my motherboard will take i7 CPU's and under any circumstances, they aren't in my current budget. That's why I'm hoping to get info from people running similar systems.