My edit bay

[Martin Catt]

Just got through upgrading my editing machine this morning and thought I'd post a jpeg.

The computer is a 3.2 ghz I5 on an ASUS P7H55-M motherboard, eight gigs RAM, with an EVGA Geforce 9400GT dual-display card, running Win 7 Pro 64-bit. The system drive is a 300 gig SATA, while projects are stored on separate SATA drives that swap in and out of a receptacle below the two optical drives. The case is new, necessitated by the addition of a new BluRay writer. The old case only had two 5.25" bays, and I wanted to keep the original DVD write drive in addition to the BluRay drive.

Internally, the computer is pretty spartan, with only the EVGA video card and a Firewire card. This is a specialist machine, used ONLY for video work. A 600-watt power supply is more than enough to power the whole thing. A multicard reader in the 3.5" bay lets me pull in clips from CF and other memory cards.

The system runs Premiere Pro CS5, along with some audio software for working soundtracks. The monitors are a pair of 22" LCD screens, along with a Logitech illuminated keyboard, Bamboo graphics pad, and a three-button scroll mouse. Everything mounts in a custom frame on top of an old conference table, powered by a 1500 VA uninterruptable power supply. On top of the rack, partly visible, is a laser printer and a VHS deck used to convert old tapes to DVD. The third "monitor" is a Compaq laptop I use for logging notes and information.

For the most part, the system stays disconnected from the internet unless I'm checking for upgrades. Virus protection is Microsoft Security Essentials (the free stuff). I gave up on Norton a couple years back as it gave PP CS3 fits. I've had exactly zero issues (or infections) with MSE.

I use the system for SD and HD work. I have Cineform installed to support some older HD projects shot on the 5DMk2 that were done in PP CS3, but only for legacy support. All new work is done using the native PP CS5 support for the H.264 material.

While maybe not the hottest editing machine around, it's stable and reliable. I've only had CS5 go off in la-la land a couple of times, and that was when I was working with some mongrel footage from a spycam that used some offbeat codec.

And, no, the workstation isn't usually this cluttered -- this is CLEAN compared to how it usually looks.

Regards;
Martin