I am considering switching from mac based FCP workstations to CS5.5 Windows 7 based workstations, this is mainly due to me having several quad core PCs lying around that offer far superior hardware specs to my current mac setup. My core 2 duo iMac has never missed a beat to be fair but I would still like to run the two setups alongside each other and see which come out on top. My main questions for you all are what are you setups and what could you not live without?
I love my iMac screen and have never had anything of similar quality on the PC. I am considering buying a 27" Hazro IPS panel in 2556x1440 which should offer great quality and great screen real estate. Anyone have any monitors they swear by? I also have my eye on a Matrox MXO2 mini so I can then output a full HD preview to my current 1920x1080 27" panel. I have seen a few people mention a third monitor for multicam previews, I have never seen this in action but am intrigued enough to want to try it, is it an important part of your workflow? Also, i am very used to apple chiclet keyboard and magic mouse, are there any keyboards and mice that you find offer that reassuring feedback and responsiveness? Final question is should I be ditching desktop speakers for dedicated amp and monitor speakers? I already have a auzen tech forte sound card in my PC.

Thanks upfront for any replies, I appreciate that you guys get alot of switchers posting.

Stephen,

You don't necessarily need an output card like Matrox to monitor video from Premiere. But in case you decide on one, we have been using BlackMagic Intensity Pro and Decklink 3D for monitoring, and they are quite capable. Every card will have its own share of issues though.

What's good about those cards is that they have their own audio output, and there is no need for additional hardware sound card for audio monitoring. Definately get some active speakers though.

As far as keyboard and mouse are considered, I absolutely love Microsoft Natural Keyboard, but it is a specialized piece of hardware, and very few people who are not extensive typists tend to appreciate it.

Thanks for your reply Bart. Any opinion on monitors at all? I am used to 27" so I don't really want to drop below that. 2556x1440 will be a big jump in Res for me though. From what I hear IPS panels are really the way to go!

If you don't have money for a proper broadcast monitor, I'd go for Eizo, HP, Dell or Nec, in this order. It depends on how much you are willing to spend.

Bumping this thread as I have a couple of other questions. I have now ordered CS6 and will start moving over from FCP. I am most looking forward to being able to upgrade my PC as this was never an option with my iMac. My question is should I be aiming to have my OS and CS6 installed on the same SSD? Is there any benefit to having a seperate SSD for just CS6 installs. Should I also have a dedicated scratch drive and will a single 7200RPM HDD be sufficient. I already have a 4 bay RAID enclosure that I could use via eSATA for my video drive but I want to keep that on my iMac FCP setup for now. Will a RAID 0 array of 2 x 1TB 7200RPM HDDs be a suitable video drive in the interim? Those of you using PCs are you using hardware RAID cards or are you using your motherboard internal RAID software? Finally, how big a difference does RAM make? I have 8GB in my system currently but could upgrade to 32GB easily.

Thanks upfront for any help with this :)

With computers for video post...it really doesn't matter what you're talking about...more is almost always better.

First-RAM Yes...get as much as you can shoehorn into the machine...I have heard that 2 GB per physical core is a common guideline, but Adobe applications need RAM and will reward you for your efforts if you put it in.

SSD...it depends on what your intent is and what else you run on the machine. FOR ADOBE AE and PPRO SPECIFICALLY...if you only put in one SSD, leave the system and applications on another drive (Adobe apps launch completely into RAM anyway so you'll gain speed on launch, but otherwise having the OS on an SSD will benefit the OS and other applications...use your second SSD for system/apps.

...use your first SSD as a cache drive. Just leave it sit there and accumulate your cache files for AE and PPro and you'll notice an operational difference, certainly.

The other thing is of course, a CUDA-capable display card will change your world...it's worth the investment.

Here is my watercooled overclocked monster I built for CS6 and RED editing:

Coolermaster HAF X case
Intel I7 3960 CPU (overclocked)
ASUS|RAMPAGE IV EXTREME X79 MB
EVGA GTX580 1.5GB Nvidia Card (GUI)
EVGA GTX580 3.0GB Nvidia Card (GPU)
PSU SILVERSTONE| ST1500 1500W power Supply
(2) CORSAIR 240gb SSD (RAID 0)
BlackMagic Extreme HD 3D
RED Rocket Card
Areca SAS external controller
External SAS 16tb Raid
Corsair Vengance 32gb DDR3 memory
HA100 closed loop liquid cpu cooler

It is wicked fast

Tim & Matt, thanks for your input. My system is as follows:

i7 860 (quad core) OC'd to 3.8Ghz
8GB of System RAM (Plan to up to 16GB)
GTX 580 1.5GB VRAM
OS installed to 128GB SSD
Games to 128GB SSD
2 x 1TB 7200RPM HDDs
Coolermaster HAF 932

I was considering jumping to a 3930k and an X79 motherboard but I have decided to run with what I have for now and see how it compares to my iMac. No doubt it will be a big jump in performance.
Matt, would you mind giving me some more info on your GPU config. I can see you have 2 x 580s which you have labelled GUI and GPU. What is the usage there? I was considering changing to 2 x 3GB VRAM 580s but I read that CS6 doesn't like SLI. From your labelling it doesn't appear you are SLI'ing them either. What is your use of them?

The "GUI" board would likely be for Open GL interface...Resolve works this way...NVIDIA's Maximus configuration also works this way.

The "GPU" is probably meant to designate that board as the "compute" or CUDA processing board...actually executing the code that PPro send to the GPU for processing when a qualified NVIDIA card is installed.

PPro only sees one GPU for CUDA operations...you can have more installed to light up more displays for instance, but PPro will use the first CUDA card it sees in line only and ignore anything beyond that.

Even a card with dual GPUs on one card (I think the 590 is this way?) will only run with one half being used for CUDA operations.

Tim is correct.

The first 580 runs Resolve's GUI and the second is horsepower for both CS6 and Resolve's GPU acceleration.

Resolve is somewhere long down the line for me. So I guess a single 580 will be fine for now. I should have the cs6 software by Wednesday. I will probably buy my ram, a black magic intensity pro and a 2nd monitor ready for then. Really looking forward to it!

I have seen a few people mention a third monitor for multicam previews, I have never seen this in action but am intrigued enough to want to try it, is it an important part of your workflow?
Thanks upfront for any replies, I appreciate that you guys get alot of switchers posting.


I switched and now I'm glad I did. I never have a need for multicam but here's my 3 monitor setup I just purchased late last year for editing independent films. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a152/USCJC/system.jpg
Love it and Premiere Pro.

Intel Core i7 -2600K processor overclocked
4.5 GH 8 meg cache
16G Mushkin DDR3 memory
GTX570 1280 MB GDDR5
Blackmagic Intensity Pro
4TB Source Drive (Video and audio storage) SATA HDD 64 Meg Cache
4TB Render Drive SATA HDD 64 Meg Cache
2 TB system Drive
Logitech 5.1 Speakers
3 Samsung 27" P2770FH HD LCD monitors

Windows 7 CS5.5 production premium (upgrading next month to CS6).