Need advice on desktop computer
 

Greetings

I just picked up a HV20 and would like to up my processing HP. I have a couple of laptops but neither of them are really power-house type machines.

Anyway, can someone give me a recommended setup for editing HDV with cineform? I'm leaning toward the following (but very open to help in finding the right setup).

Dell 9200 with Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB) 4 GB of RAM
MONITOR 24 inch UltraSharp 2407FPW
2ND MONITOR 19 inch Ultrasharp 1907FP

Operating system: which version of Vista?

Drives will probably be a single 'serial' 7200 for the OS and a RAID-0 for the video files.

Dell offers the 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS for the 9200 but the nvidia FX540 and Matrox Parhelia Apve are recommended on the cineform site. ??? Any difference/preference.

I would like this machine to be future compatible with the BM card. Oh, if there is some super-duper processor near release please let me know. I could struggle for another month with my current setup.

I am using PP2.0 and will upgrade to 3.0 when it is released.

Sorry, if this has been asked before................... if there is a convenient thread please attach the link. :-)

Thanks
JohnG

Briefly...that looks like a nice setup.

PPro2 is not officially compatible with Vista - some people have reported success, others have had big problems. Personally I would stick with XP-ServicePack2 at least until until Premiere 3.0 is out.

The Parhelia provides simultaneous output to 3 monitors - you may not need that. Graphics card choice depends in part on how much 3-D Open-GL type rendering you'll be doing (Premiere doesn't make much use of hardware acceleration, but Aftereffects and some other NLEs do.)

Graham

Thanks for the response!

I won't be using 3 monitors or 3-D graphics at this time so I can probably 'get by' with a lower end video card. Would like to get the fastest for PP3 + cineform though. ???

Ah, I may just wait for PP3 as I don't really want to switch operating systems. Is there an official release date for PP3?

Thanks much
JohnG

I believe it's July

In terms of a 'low end' card, something like a 7600GS can be had for under $100 - including models that come with a HDTV cable in case you sometime want to connect to an HDTV rather than a 2nd computer monitor.

I use one that has a heatsink rather than a fan, which is nice because it's completely silent.

Greetings Graham

Wow................ just found a bunch of info on the expected Intel CPU price drop this 22nd April. Looks like the Dual core E6700 (2.66 GHz) chip will street for around $320. :-)

Anyway, to take 'quick' advantage of this processor price drop I'm now considering building a desktop box.

MB: Asus P5b-e: http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...3&l2=11&l3=307

Video: Nvidia 7900GT:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7900.html

I'm open to other MB/video suggestions.
edit: removed question about 64 bit OS.

TIA
JohnG