Calling quad-core owners....

Khaled Chatila · August 18th, 2008, 01:37 PM

Quick question, if i get a DDR3 Mobo - does that mean i can ONLY use DDR3 RAM Chips?
or am i able to install DDR2 RAM and then maybe upgrade later or something?

atm, there exists quite a large price diff between the 2 types of RAM!

Thanks!

Robert M Wright · August 19th, 2008, 06:58 AM

If you get a board that only supports DDR3, then you cannot install DDR2 on that board. I believe there are a few boards that support both DDR2 and DDR3.

Bill Ravens · August 19th, 2008, 07:34 AM

Q6600 on an Intel DX48BT2 mobo, 4Gb DDR3 RAM on my system. OC'ed to 2.9Ghz, the system screams and runs cool and solid. May I suggest that I love Cineform's Neo HD, however, their complaints against Nvidia are not serious enough to warrrant not using them. I have both Quadro FX1500 and Quadro FX1700 cards in my systems. Many people think these cards are overpriced, however, if you ever plan to run any 3D apps, these are the only cards that will work without a flaw. AVID, Boris, most 3D CAD apps, and a slew of other mainline 3D apps all require these cards. I'm sold.

Let me add that I've recently been working on a borrowed workstation with an Avid Mojo that outputs to a real HD-SDI monitor. The difference in color and resolution between the HD-SDI monitor and the computer LCD is no less than astonishing. If you are serious about color timing, HD-SDI monitoring is a necessity, IMHO. Otherwise, you're best off leaving cc to a professional colorist.

Marcus Marchesseault · August 21st, 2008, 03:47 AM

I think I read recently that Cineform has resolved issues with newer nVidia cards. The older 7000 cards were apparently okay.

Nobody has mentioned that raid 5 may have a HUGE performance penalty if the controller doesn't have a fast brain on board. The raid 5 card must calculate parity and balance the data amongst a random number of drives so it has a big job to perform. If you don't get a fa$t raid card with lots of onboard RAM you can get unbelievably poor speed. I have a friend that installed 5 10,000rpm scsi drives on a raid 5 card with 128Meg/ram and he was getting less than 10Meg/sec write speeds.

I've said this many times before so I'll keep it short this time. Raid does not accelerate random read/write speed in any manner. It only increases transfer speed and that is already approaching 20x the data flow of HDV/DV across the entire sata drive surface. The only way to get better random r/w performance is to get drives with faster revolution and head speeds like those in 15,000rpm scsi drives. Current hard drives have almost the exact same random performance as drives of the same rotational speed from ten years ago.

Nicholas de Kock · August 21st, 2008, 07:10 PM

Don't buy the latest Quad Core right now, Intel is bringing out a new chip later this year with 8 cores. I would suggest you buy a Q6600 which is good value for money, by the time the 8 cores are here you can upgrade again with the money you saved.

Bill Ravens · August 21st, 2008, 07:12 PM

yeah, right!
And in 6 months, there'll be something else to wait for.

Dan Herrmann · August 23rd, 2008, 08:40 PM

Cineform is more than a intermediate to help with the processing power it is a codec that retains quality generation over generation. HDV quality very quickly.
With the processing power of today the cineform codec for shear ease of editing is not the reason to buy it.
CineForm HDV Quality Analysis

Philip Younger · August 28th, 2008, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oren Arieli

Don't overlook a good case and power supply. I'm using a Mushkin 580W modular that is a piece of art (as well as super-quiet and highly efficient). My Antec P180 case is the best case I've owned so far (I've built about 6 computers already).
Aftermarket CPU cooling is quite helpful. The quads run hot. Stick with all-copper if budget allows.

I would REALLY echo that.
I just built my Quad core setup Intel X9770 on an Intel DX48BT2 mobo 8mb DDR3 and LG Blu-ray RW.

I have RAID0 for Drive C which only contains dual-boot operating system (Vista 64bit Ultimate & XP Pro 64bit) and programs, and RAID1 on drive D which contains all files / data etc. I have an easy install disk image of drive C:

I was getting a lot of blue screens, unexpected shut downs / re-starts when someone suggested I try a new power supply unit. I managed to borrow one and was running it for three days without any problems (a record!) so I got the best 850w I could afford (Forgot the name of it now) In fact I wish I'd gone for the 1000w now, just to be a little future proof.

Also just as important do not forget cooling a quad core system will get hot and you need lots of cooling fans and, don't forget, plenty of space around the case for ventilation so do be watchful over placement of the PC unit

Adi Head · August 28th, 2008, 07:46 AM

I'm shopping for a similar system as the one in question here on this thread. I'll be using Vegas and After Effects CS3. I don't have the budget now to get a true open GL video card which After Effects can take full advantage of. I'm trying to decide between:

Nvidia 8800GT and ATI Radeon HD2600XT

Does any one have any experience with these cards?

Also, I was thinking of getting the mobo mentioned here - the Intel BOXDX48BT2, but then read something about it only recognizing 2 sticks of DDR memory - which means if I get now 2x1GB of memory, I'll have to toss them when I decide to upgrade to 4GB.
So.. now I'm leaning towards the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe board with the new intel P45 chip.

Philip Younger · September 4th, 2008, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adi Head

Also, I was thinking of getting the mobo mentioned here - the Intel BOXDX48BT2, but then read something about it only recognizing 2 sticks of DDR memory - which means if I get now 2x1GB of memory, I'll have to toss them when I decide to upgrade to 4GB.
So.. now I'm leaning towards the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe board with the new intel P45 chip.

Well, I don't know who's telling you that but I have a total of 8gb 4x 2gb sticks and all are performing well - There are issues with Vista not recognising more than 4gb in certain circumstances and it has been mentioned on many computer related message boards that installing Vista with 2gb in then adding the other stick will then work OK.
I have to say that when I got my mobo I was told by the seller to make some changes in the BIOS settings to overide the default memory settings, whether this is just a tweak, a means of combating the aforementioned Vista install problem or perhaps even the problem you mention, I don't know. I would be happy to give you my memory details and settings if you want to go with that mobo

Adi Head · September 4th, 2008, 09:32 AM

Quote:

...if you want to go with that mobo.

too late :-)

i already got the asus. system running nice so far. i'd probably be happy with either. thanks

August 23rd, 2008, 08:40 PM	#22
Dan Herrmann Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: villa park CA Posts: 81	No issues with Nvidia and Cineform Cineform is more than a intermediate to help with the processing power it is a codec that retains quality generation over generation. HDV quality very quickly. With the processing power of today the cineform codec for shear ease of editing is not the reason to buy it. CineForm HDV Quality Analysis

August 18th, 2008, 01:37 PM	#16
Khaled Chatila New Boot Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Dubai - UAE Posts: 24	Quick question, if i get a DDR3 Mobo - does that mean i can ONLY use DDR3 RAM Chips? or am i able to install DDR2 RAM and then maybe upgrade later or something? atm, there exists quite a large price diff between the 2 types of RAM! Thanks!

August 19th, 2008, 06:58 AM	#17
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	If you get a board that only supports DDR3, then you cannot install DDR2 on that board. I believe there are a few boards that support both DDR2 and DDR3.

August 19th, 2008, 07:34 AM	#18
Bill Ravens Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: santa fe, nm Posts: 3,264 Images: 10	Q6600 on an Intel DX48BT2 mobo, 4Gb DDR3 RAM on my system. OC'ed to 2.9Ghz, the system screams and runs cool and solid. May I suggest that I love Cineform's Neo HD, however, their complaints against Nvidia are not serious enough to warrrant not using them. I have both Quadro FX1500 and Quadro FX1700 cards in my systems. Many people think these cards are overpriced, however, if you ever plan to run any 3D apps, these are the only cards that will work without a flaw. AVID, Boris, most 3D CAD apps, and a slew of other mainline 3D apps all require these cards. I'm sold. Let me add that I've recently been working on a borrowed workstation with an Avid Mojo that outputs to a real HD-SDI monitor. The difference in color and resolution between the HD-SDI monitor and the computer LCD is no less than astonishing. If you are serious about color timing, HD-SDI monitoring is a necessity, IMHO. Otherwise, you're best off leaving cc to a professional colorist.

August 21st, 2008, 03:47 AM	#19
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	I think I read recently that Cineform has resolved issues with newer nVidia cards. The older 7000 cards were apparently okay. Nobody has mentioned that raid 5 may have a HUGE performance penalty if the controller doesn't have a fast brain on board. The raid 5 card must calculate parity and balance the data amongst a random number of drives so it has a big job to perform. If you don't get a fa$t raid card with lots of onboard RAM you can get unbelievably poor speed. I have a friend that installed 5 10,000rpm scsi drives on a raid 5 card with 128Meg/ram and he was getting less than 10Meg/sec write speeds. I've said this many times before so I'll keep it short this time. Raid does not accelerate random read/write speed in any manner. It only increases transfer speed and that is already approaching 20x the data flow of HDV/DV across the entire sata drive surface. The only way to get better random r/w performance is to get drives with faster revolution and head speeds like those in 15,000rpm scsi drives. Current hard drives have almost the exact same random performance as drives of the same rotational speed from ten years ago.

August 21st, 2008, 07:10 PM	#20
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	Don't buy the latest Quad Core right now, Intel is bringing out a new chip later this year with 8 cores. I would suggest you buy a Q6600 which is good value for money, by the time the 8 cores are here you can upgrade again with the money you saved.

August 21st, 2008, 07:12 PM	#21
Bill Ravens Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: santa fe, nm Posts: 3,264 Images: 10	yeah, right! And in 6 months, there'll be something else to wait for.

August 28th, 2008, 07:46 AM	#24
Adi Head Major Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 642	I'm shopping for a similar system as the one in question here on this thread. I'll be using Vegas and After Effects CS3. I don't have the budget now to get a true open GL video card which After Effects can take full advantage of. I'm trying to decide between: Nvidia 8800GT and ATI Radeon HD2600XT Does any one have any experience with these cards? Also, I was thinking of getting the mobo mentioned here - the Intel BOXDX48BT2, but then read something about it only recognizing 2 sticks of DDR memory - which means if I get now 2x1GB of memory, I'll have to toss them when I decide to upgrade to 4GB. So.. now I'm leaning towards the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe board with the new intel P45 chip.