Dual Core

[Gary Harper]

Any new updates about dual core, Premier Pro/Aspect performance?
Also, are any of the new dual core units hyperthreaded?
How about the Intel D 840 or 840 EE?
Intel D vs. AMD X2's??
Thanks,
Gary

[David Newman]

Dual Core = great performance with Aspect HD. That is the news.

840EE is hyperthreaded, whereas the Pentium D 840 is not.

I haven't tried a X2 yet, I used an 840EE (wow) and 830 (pretty nice.)

[Gary Harper]

Thankyou for the reply.
I am considering, either an Intel 840EE or an AMD 4800, for my edit platform. I have observed on a few Gaming forums, that there is great praise for the AMD4800. However, editing with Cineform HD may have other requirements. What might your (David), or any ones thoughts be, regarding making this choice? Will Cineform be testing a 4800 with Cineform HD in the near future? I am sure that I would be satisfird with either, but just curious since I have some time before I will be making my final decision!!!
Thanks,
Gary Harper

[David Newman]

I don't know if we will get an X2 system in the office any time soon. It isn't possible for a small company like CineForm to have one a every PC type. We have many Opteron systems which are awesome, so I expect the X2 to be an excellent chip. CineForm needs are fast memory bus a little more than a high clock speed, so which ever has the edge in memory performance is likely faster.

[Mick Guzauski]

I'm in the process of putting together an X2 system. I'm replacing my dual Xeon motherboard because it only has an AGP graphics slot and I want to use a Parahelia APVe. I'll let you know how it goes and how it compares to the Xeon as soon as I get the system together.

Mick Guzauski

[Gary Harper]

Thanks David and Mike, Keep the topic/thread updated on any progress.
David, I am not sure what to look for in the specs. pertaining to "high buss speed" in my comparison shopping. I am almost computer illiterate!! and have to rely on you more informed folks to educate me.
Thanks again,
Gary

[David Newman]

Gary,

Fortunately all the newest CPUs have a fast memory bus. Look for a dual core CPU that has dual channel DDR that runs the memory at 400 or 533Mhz. (which means a front speed bus of at least 800Mhz.) All of today performance systems have this.

[Mick Guzauski]

Hi,

I just got my X2 system together. I'm using an Athlon X2 4400+ in an Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard with 1 gig of 400 mhz ddr ram. The system drive is a 250 gig Hitachi SATA drive, the video raid is 2 x 250 gig Hitachi SATA's in a raid 0 configuration. The cpu is overclocked 10% and has been completely stable. (2.4 ghz core speed, 880 mhz front side bus, and 440 mhz memory speed) The video card is a Matrox APVe driving 2 x 19" 1280 x 1024 displays for the desktop and a Samsung 23" LCD 1366 x 768 hdtv display (YUV component in).

The performance seems very good. It will capture 10 minutes of 1080i video in just over 11 minutes. I can view 3 streams of 1080i video continuously with no dropped frames. 4+ streams for short periods of time with no dropped frames.

Note: Because the Samsung display is natively 720p, I have the video card set to 720p 60 output. This seems to look a bit better than letting the monitor scale down from 1080i. Also the performance seems slightly better in this configuration.

This system performs slightly better than the dual Xeon 3.2 gig that I was previously using but really in the same ballpark. The X2 system runs much cooler and quieter than the Xeon system. The Matrox APVe is far superior, in my opinion to any AGP card available. (that's the main reason for my changing motherboards)

Premiere Pro 1.51 and Aspect HD 3.3 installed and ran with no issues.

The computer can be assembled for about $1600 including drives and video card. The entire system with software and monitors can be assembled for under $4000.

I feel this is a very good system that is both economical and high performance.

Mick Guzauski

[Joseph Clark]

Originally Posted by David Newman

Gary,

Fortunately all the newest CPUs have a fast memory bus. Look for a dual core CPU that has dual channel DDR that runs the memory at 400 or 533Mhz. (which means a front speed bus of at least 800Mhz.) All of today performance systems have this.

I'm going to be using Adobe Premiere Pro and Aspect HD 3.3 for a new system I'm putting together. Here are the specs:

Asus A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon x2 4400+
Corsair Twinx 2048-3200Pro - 2 GB RAM
Matrox APVe Video Card
Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum Edition Sound Card (ASIO compatible)
1x Western Digital 120 GB 7200 rpm IDE system drive
1x Western Digital 120 GB 7200 rpm IDE auxilliary drive
2x Hitachi 500 GB 7200 rpm IDE video drives in RAID0
2x Pioneer dual layer DVD recorders (108 and 109)
RocketRaid 454 IDE RAID card
Adaptec IDE controller
Antec Truepower (or PC Power and Cooling) 550 watt power supply
2x 120mm case fans
Cooler Master Centurion 520 case (5x 5 1/4" bays and 5x 3 1/2" bays)

I have a Sony HDV camcorder and have used the Aspect HD trial for the last couple of weeks. I used to have a Matrox RT2500 real time DV editing system. The combination of Premiere Pro and Aspect HD reminds me of the quick response I got from that system (only much better). With my old system and the Aspect HD trial I could get two streams of 1080i to play back smoothly most of the time, but I'm hoping at least three with this new rig.

Any thoughts on this configuration? This is a mixture of parts from older systems and new components. I'm especially interested in feedback on the ASIO sound card, since I'm interested in doing surround mixing in Premiere.

Joe Clark

[Mick Guzauski]

Hi,

The A8N-SLI premium motherboard has 8 SATA raid connectors and just about any combination of raid arrays and single drives can be configured. I would think that an add on IDE or RAID controller may compromise performance because it would rely on on the legacy pci slots rather than direct connection to the Nforce chipset.

That Corsair RAM is the same that I'm using and it has no problem overclocking to 440Mhz.

You may want to check out one of the external ASIO firewire audio interfaces like the MOTU 828 mark 2. This device has 10 channels of balanced analog I/O, digital I/O, SMPTE time code, and MIDI. I would suspect that its A/D - D/A conversion would be better than an internal sound card. You might want to add a firewire card to the computer so that this device would be on a seperate bus from your camera.

You will get at least 3 streams of video from that system. More for short duration stuff (transitions P in P etc.)

Mick Guzauski

[Joseph Clark]

Mick,

I wanted to go SATA, but I had the two IDE 120 WDs, 2 IDE DVD burners and I got a great deal on the 2 Hitachi 500 GB IDE drives at the CompUSA 6 to midnight sale the other day (about $170 per drive after all the math). I don't think the onboard IDE supports RAID on the Asus, does it? I already have the adaptec controller and I'm using the RocketRAID controller in a HTPC, where it performs well. With this configuration, I can at least keep everything on IDE Primary channels. In the future, it's SATA if at all possible. Both the mobo and the case have plenty of room for expansion.

Thanks for the info on the USB audio device. I'll check it out. The specs for the X-Fi are pretty impressive, though, and I suspect my needs for audio may be a lot less demanding than some. I simply want to be able to mix and steer surround channels in Premiere, which you can't do without an ASIO compatible sound card.

Good news about the Corsair RAM. I'd planned on overclocking the system about that much - nice to know it runs stable at that speed. Are you using any special cooling or just the standard heatsink/fan?

Joe Clark

Originally Posted by Mick Guzauski

Hi,

The A8N-SLI premium motherboard has 8 SATA raid connectors and just about any combination of raid arrays and single drives can be configured. I would think that an add on IDE or RAID controller may compromise performance because it would rely on on the legacy pci slots rather than direct connection to the Nforce chipset.

That Corsair RAM is the same that I'm using and it has no problem overclocking to 440Mhz.

You may want to check out one of the external ASIO firewire audio interfaces like the MOTU 828 mark 2. This device has 10 channels of balanced analog I/O, digital I/O, SMPTE time code, and MIDI. I would suspect that its A/D - D/A conversion would be better than an internal sound card. You might want to add a firewire card to the computer so that this device would be on a seperate bus from your camera.

You will get at least 3 streams of video from that system. More for short duration stuff (transitions P in P etc.)

Mick Guzauski

[Mick Guzauski]

Hi,

The Asus does not support IDE raid, only SATA. I'm sure what you have will work well though.

Here is the link for the MOTU interface
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828/body.html/en
I don't know if its overkill for what you need but its a great interface for the money.

I'm using only the stock heatsink and fan that came with the processor plus 1 chasis fan. The processor idles at about 35 degrees C and rises to a maximum of 46 degrees C under full load. (overclocked 10 percent)

Mick Guzauski

[Joseph Clark]

Thanks, Mick, for that link. I think it's a lot more than I'm going to need now, but it does look really interesting for down the line, and the price is right. It also works with USB 2, I see. Have you actually used the unit?

One more question - how would you rate the quality of the Parhelia output to the Samsung LCD you have?

Joe Clark

Originally Posted by Mick Guzauski

Hi,

The Asus does not support IDE raid, only SATA. I'm sure what you have will work well though.

Here is the link for the MOTU interface
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828/body.html/en
I don't know if its overkill for what you need but its a great interface for the money.

I'm using only the stock heatsink and fan that came with the processor plus 1 chasis fan. The processor idles at about 35 degrees C and rises to a maximum of 46 degrees C under full load. (overclocked 10 percent)

Mick Guzauski

[Mick Guzauski]

Hi,

I've used the 828 with audio software on both PC's and MACS and it works great. I haven't tried it with Premiere yet. I'll give it a try in the next few days.

I really like the look of the Samsung but I'm new to HDV and definitly I'm just a hobbiest. It looks really clean to me. The gamma and contrast seem much more accurate than a computer monitor for video. The color seems a bit more vivid than reality. I run the Parhelia component outs at 720p 60. It seems to look a bit better than letting the monitor scale up to 1080. Also motion seems a bit smoother with this setting. BTW this monitor is available at Costco for about $800.

Mick Guzauski

[Joseph Clark]

Mick,

Can't find the Samsung monitor on the Costco website or in the store. Where did you find it?

I'll be looking forward to a report on how this device works with Premiere.

Joe Clark

Originally Posted by Mick Guzauski

Hi,

I've used the 828 with audio software on both PC's and MACS and it works great. I haven't tried it with Premiere yet. I'll give it a try in the next few days.

I really like the look of the Samsung but I'm new to HDV and definitly I'm just a hobbiest. It looks really clean to me. The gamma and contrast seem much more accurate than a computer monitor for video. The color seems a bit more vivid than reality. I run the Parhelia component outs at 720p 60. It seems to look a bit better than letting the monitor scale up to 1080. Also motion seems a bit smoother with this setting. BTW this monitor is available at Costco for about $800.

Mick Guzauski