Hi there

Have a dual core 2GHz G5 PCI-X machine with the regular AGP card, 3.5GB RAM and 500GB SATAs, with a PCI-X SATA controller leading to a 4xHDD SATA bay. FCP 5.1.4 Studio at the moment.

What's the best order or upgrading to boost this system up to more speedy rendering times?

a) add more RAM
b) upgrade to X800 XT AGP card
c) stripe SATA drives

Mainly HDV 1080i60, 1080ip24 footage at the moment but will get a Kona 2 setup soon and probably the HDCam EX later on this year or early the next.

Eventually, this system will have all the above upgrades, it's just deciding which order to implement them.

Finally, the machine will move over to be a B machine for render farming and input-output only.

Having a dual 2.0 ghz and the new FCS 2 suite, AND having upgraded to an X800 card just to run the new FCS, I don't recommend putting any more money into your rig.

The X800 made things livable, but the machine will never be as fast working with 1080p XDCAM HD material as I've experienced on a new Mac Pro. The difference on the new machines is almost dramatic.

If you must squeeze a little more out of the machine, I guess I'd say the X800, but only if you can get one for significantly less than the $500 I see them going on Ebay for.

[edit: I didn't realize until I posted you mentioned wanting to speed up Motion as well. The answer in that case is the X800 for sure; it will have a drastic impact on how well Motion runs. Motiion is usable for me now with the 800, it was not really with the previous GeForce 5200]