I am looking at a new core duo Pentium D 940 system at 3.0 Ghz per core for a price below $800. I am considering it for an upgrade to an Avid workstation, presently running with a Pentium 4 HTT 3.4 Ghx processor. But I'm starting to wonder if I should hold out and pay extra bucks for a core 2 duo as a longer term solution. My understanding is that the core duo is a 32 bit processor, and the core 2 duo is a 64 bit processor. I don't know if I can run windows XP on a core 2 duo machine, but since I think Vista was created precisely to take advantage of the 64 bit capabilities, I have some doubts about the advisability of trying to do XP in a core 2 duo system. In that case it would not be a wise choice for an Avid Liquid Pro workstation. Anyone care to comment on that?


But that gets me to the reason I am bringing this up here. I know that Liquid 7.1 and earlier were especially 32 bit versions. Is that also true for 7.2? (I suspect it is.) Does anyone have any idea how far down the road we might look for a version of Liquid that calls for a 64 bit processor and operating system? I don't want to be too short sighted in my buying decision.

Am I all wet in my reservations about using Liquid 7 with a core 2 system?

I don't know how to sort all this out.

- Stephen

Hi Steve,

Liquid 7.2 is 32 bit. I'd imagine version 8 will be Vista 64bit or x64 based. I run twin Xeon with XPPro and Chrome Xe on an HP XW8200/Quadro box. There is a computer cookbook up on Avid's site that will give you guidelines for your system. I highly recommend getting an HP XW series machine that is certified on the compatability list (if it's in your budget).

XW8200 with twin Xeon is also ready for Vista whenever Liquid 8 comes out optimized for x64.

Hi Steve,
There is a computer cookbook up on Avid's site that will give you guidelines for your system. I highly recommend getting an HP XW series machine that is certified on the compatability list (if it's in your budget).


I looked at the generic cookbook, which is only current up to 7.1, and the system I'm looking at exceeds the optimal recommendations (not just the minimal requirements) by a small margin. Since budget IS very much a factor, the only comparison I can make at this time is between a Pentium D (dual core) and a Core 2 duo. The system I am considering purchasing would move me to a Pentium D with dual 3.0Ghz cores, up a notch from a single core 3.4Ghz HTT processor. But it would also let me improve my drive configuration from a 250 GB boot drive and 400 Gb dedicated video drive, to a 400 Gb boot drive with 2x500 Gb drives in a Raid 0 dedicated to video. Memory would stay at 3 Gb.

My fear is that what I shell out for a Core 2 upgrade will take the drive upgrade out of reach. [Another part of the deal is that my wife ends up with a nice machine upgrade from my leftovers, so we can do video conferencing with our son in Italy.] That's a lot of upgrade for $750 plus the cost of one drive and a raid card. Still, if there is enough of a performance difference between Pentium D and Core 2 duo in the running of Avid Liquid (7.x or 8.x when it comes) then maybe I should wait.

I don't have quite enough information for an informed decision on that, and that's the rub.

Are you having performance problems with the system you're on?

Stephen Knapp - You will get a boost over what you have. I was forced to go from a Dual Xeon 3.06 machine to a Core Duo E6600 (motherboard problem). While the chip is much faster than what you are looking at, it is a similar jump for your systems on processor. A linear timewarp now renders almost real-time. Dropping a 640x480 MP4 file into the timeline renders at real-time.

I added a X1950Pro 512MB into it to, but have not done a lot of GPU stuff yet. A 15 frame cross-fade renders in 1 second. All SD so far. Having to rebuild a project I lost when the C: drives (RAID0 Intel controller is failing), I don't have my old projects to compare yet. I have a HDV project to test, but the latest died with the machine. The backup is pre-final cut. I will have time to try it after the 4th of May.

I posted this on the Avid forum. Standard configuration with Media and Render on seperate drives. I was fully able to carry all those files over. Since I used the preview pane to mark in and out, and the send to timeline button, I won. I was able to recreate the last project in about 6 hours as all my mark ins and outs were still associated with the clips. I just opened the clips and sent them to the timeline. Yippee!