Computer purchase help. at DVinfo.net

Simon Denny · October 29th, 2007, 01:23 AM

Hope I have the right fourm for this as I use Vegas.
I will be upgrading my PC and would like some advice on what others are using?
This might help me in the selection upgrade procces.

I use a Sony PD 170 soon to get the Sony Z1.
Vegas 6.0d soon to upgrade.

My PC has has taken it's last render and is now only good for surfing the net.

I guess I would need to be up and running for HDV.

Cheers
Simon

Brian Luce · October 29th, 2007, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Ash

Hope I have the right fourm for this as I use Vegas.
I will be upgrading my PC and would like some advice on what others are using?
This might help me in the selection upgrade procces.

I use a Sony PD 170 soon to get the Sony Z1.
Vegas 6.0d soon to upgrade.

My PC has has taken it's last render and is now only good for surfing the net.

I guess I would need to be up and running for HDV.

Cheers
Simon

Unless things have changed in the last two months, I advise avoiding Vista.

Mike Kujbida · October 29th, 2007, 08:10 AM

Simon, I upgraded to a quad core this spring and remain VERY happy with it.
I based my machine's specs on John Rofrano's who based his on John Cline's.
I didn't bother with a RAID array. Instead, I went with a 250 GB Seagate SATA for drive C and 2 x 500 GB. Seagate SATAs for drives D & E.
OS was XP Pro.

Simon Denny · October 29th, 2007, 01:23 PM

Thanks guys.
I was going to go with XP Pro also.

Chris Barnes · November 27th, 2007, 12:29 PM

I have looked at the list of equipment in John's computer and havesearched around looking for a system that gets good performance. I really don't to live in Hardware He!! and would like to find a reasonably priced Quad core system. Of those I can get information on, I don't find any with the motherboard used in John's system. So my question is - What is lost by not using that motherboard? I have a limited budget, but want to maximize my performance. Are there other motherboards that are recommended?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

Kenneth Johnson · November 27th, 2007, 01:29 PM

Simon Get a Mac. After being a windows nerd for 10 years I went with a Mac 6 months ago and could not be happier. Less problems. I run 2x30inch plus a crt monitor at the same time and love the work flow. no crashes and faster editing. only took about 1 month of using it to get used to the differences. give it a try

ken

Edward Troxel · November 27th, 2007, 01:43 PM

Ken, Vegas won't run on a Mac unless he runs Windows on it too. So he'll still be using Windows even if it's on Mac hardware.

Kenneth Johnson · November 27th, 2007, 02:43 PM

I stand corrected. But IMO, after having spent all the years on a pc I am loving the mac. might be worth him looking at FCP. If going to invest in a new system Simon, it might be worth the trip to the mall and visit the apple store before spending money on a new pc. most of the programs that I used on windows are available on a mac. Have not installed windows on the mac yet and most likely will not at this point. FCP was very easy to learn. I also shoot with a pd170, canon xl2 and jvc 5100. all connect by firewire to the mac and I do lots of live capture that way. pd170 is a great camera

Now if I could figure out a way to capture all three cameras at once to the mac I would be in sitting pretty

ken

Seth Bloombaum · November 27th, 2007, 05:00 PM

Ken, I use FCP and Vegas and respect your point of view. I've chosen Vegas as my primary editor, but I can certainly see why many other people would choose FCP.

In my experience this forum is not anti-mac or anti-fcp (there have been some interesting and fair discussions on the subject), but a suggestion to "switch to mac and fcp" is not IMO particularly helpful to someone who uses vegas and wants advice on upgrading their system.

Glad the mac/fcp is working out for you - it's a good system.

Seth Bloombaum · November 27th, 2007, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Barnes

... Are there other motherboards that are recommended?

I'm a big fan of genuine Intel motherboards. A lot of people went to ASUS & such when they introduced SLI tech (a good way to get 4 monitors), but now the Intel mobos have it too. And you get all that compatibility...

I've built two this way, the current one is a D965WH. It's been totally stable and crashless with Vegas and many other apps. Although I only put it together in January for a Core2 Duo, these things change fast.

It looks like there's a whole series of 965 chipset boards for about $100. Also look into a 775 series board to support a quad core processor, especially if you're editing HD.

Stuart Campbell · November 27th, 2007, 05:26 PM

Ken,

I'm sure there are thousands of people out there who'd love to have a mac running FCP. However, for the price of a basic, decent mac running FCP you could just about buy the fastest most powerful pc out there!

I'm running a Pentium dual core 2.67 processor with two 500gb raid 0 structure drives for video and 2g of memory. I have an additional 80g drive for software and xp. I added one of the best graphics cards around to run two dvi widescreen monitors.

Apart from a series of crashes caused by bad video format on a rushes tape some time ago I've had absolutely NO problems whatsoever. Everything that's cut on this edit only system is HDV and I find render times more than satisfactory and performance perfectly adequate. The edit machine cost me less than 1200 pounds 12 months ago (about 2000 dollars). You can get a better spec machine for less now!

I've always been a mac user and I love them, and I'll be honest, some mac users never really admit to the crashes, and I had a few! I find PC's equally reliable. I'd rather have an all singing and dancing mac suite running FCP, but my company budget just won't allow it right now! In the mean time, the PC edit station works just fine and I see no reason to change! Furthermore, I find Vegas is actually better to work with than FCP!!

Kenneth Johnson · November 27th, 2007, 06:41 PM

Stuart
Thanks for the reply. I have never worked with vegas and only know premiere pro and fcp. I am curious how much your system cost you. I did look at a good editing pc but decided to try the mac. i am very happy with it,, might also be just the change from windows. I have found it more stable than windows but at this point I only edit photos and video on it. Maybe in another year I will start to have problems as I have heard other mac users have had but for now it is a clean machine. I did put an investment into it over 4k plus monitor but just wanted to purchase one machine for the next several years and it seems to be reliable at this point. what editing machine did you finaly purchase and how is it set up??

thanks ken

Stuart Campbell · November 28th, 2007, 01:32 AM

12 months ago I had a 'build to order' pc company build me a;

Intel Pentium Dual Core (or Core 2) E6700 (2x2.67Ghz)
ASUS p5wdeluxehd motherboard
2 Gig RAM
80Gig Sata Drive for data (XP, Vegas, Cinescore, Photoshop etc)
2 x 500Gig Sata Drives for video storage RAID 0 configured
NVidia GeForce 7950 GT (dual DVI and HD) 512 Mb
Decent Audio card (can't remember)!!
4 port Firewire Card
Some extra nice cooling (can't remember what it is sorry)
Top spec DVD writer (can't remember what that is either, I'm useless)!

I then purchased 2 x Dell 2007wfp 20" monitors

I already had a sony 9" CRT field monitor which I use for reference and preview and an analogue to dv converter box to wire up all the vtrs (HDV, BetaCamSP, DVCpro and svhs all switched using a patch bay jack field). I wired in a Spirit Folio audio desk for monitoring and plugged in the speakers and I was away!

Sadly, the CRT has given up the ghost since (it's had a hard life with me over the past 10 years) and the Spirit is showing signs of age too. So those two things are to be replaced!

The PC only cost me 1100 UK pounds (less than 2000 dollars then) which is (or was) excellent value. As I said, I wanted to build a mac suite, but was looking at over 4000 pounds (7500 dollars) including the monitors, there was no decision to make really.

As I keep the machine as an edit only terminal, I have a hassle free life with it, which is great. The only issues arise with bad rushes (had a big problem once which turned out to be hdv format changes on the tape).

For the price and it's reliability so far it was the right choice.

The mac would have definitely looked better!, and may probably even have performed better, but I'm still able to feed my family...which is the most important factor for me!!

I'm sure you can now get a Quad Core and more fancy bits for the same price, or even less! If you are interested in the UK company its

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

They were excellent, and knew exactly what I needed once I specified it as an edit machine! Build quality superb, quick delivery and excellent support to solve a couple of minor issues on first start ups.

Simon Denny · November 28th, 2007, 04:18 AM

Thanks guys for your input. I'm staying with Vegas as I have invested all my time and effort into this software and what I cant do with it I will use After Effects etc....
I have looked at going down the Mac route but it's very expensive here in OZ and I can do the same on PC as what a Mac will do. Who knows one day I might have to go Mac.

I have sourced all my new components and this is what I'm doing.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHZ 1066mhz
ASUS S775 Quad core P35 motherboard
2 Gig RAM Corsair 800Mhz
160Gig Sata Drive for data
I have other Sata drives for storage
XP Pro
NVidia GeForce 7950 GT DVI and HD 512 Mb
Audio card, just a cheap one.

This should see me through for a while and it has'nt cost an arm & leg.

Cheers
Simon

Renton Maclachlan · November 28th, 2007, 12:46 PM

About a month ago I got a new machine with the following:

Core 2 Duo E6850, 3.00GHz, 1333MHz FSB, Socket 775, 32/64-Bit, Retail pack with fan

GA-P35-DS3P, Socket 775, Intel P35 Express Chipset, 1333MHz FSB, 4xDIMM DDR2, 2xPCIe-16, 2xPCI, 3xPCIe-1, 8xUSB2, Firewire, Audio, ATA, RAID, ATX

2x (4 altogether = 2mb) Kingston HyperX 1GB DDR2-1066 Non-ECC Kit CL5 1066MHz CL5 (5-5-5-15) Kit - two 512MB Modules

Sapphire HD 2400 XT Video Card, Radeon HD 2400 XT, 256MB, DDR3, PCIe-16, TV out, DVI, HDTV, CrossFire, Dual head

Raidmax X1 ATX Mid Tower Case, 520W PSU, Side Window, 3 fans, Silver/White

I already had an internal 400gb drive but decided to get another one - a Sata 2 as my primary one so as not to slow anything up. I also have a 500gb and a 150gb drive.

It goes like a rocket. Cut rendering on one project from 16.5 hours to 2hrs 10 mins.

October 29th, 2007, 01:23 AM	#1
Simon Denny Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,409	Computer purchase help. Hope I have the right fourm for this as I use Vegas. I will be upgrading my PC and would like some advice on what others are using? This might help me in the selection upgrade procces. I use a Sony PD 170 soon to get the Sony Z1. Vegas 6.0d soon to upgrade. My PC has has taken it's last render and is now only good for surfing the net. I guess I would need to be up and running for HDV. Cheers Simon

November 27th, 2007, 12:29 PM	#5
Chris Barnes Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 66	Another question? I have looked at the list of equipment in John's computer and havesearched around looking for a system that gets good performance. I really don't to live in Hardware He!! and would like to find a reasonably priced Quad core system. Of those I can get information on, I don't find any with the motherboard used in John's system. So my question is - What is lost by not using that motherboard? I have a limited budget, but want to maximize my performance. Are there other motherboards that are recommended? Thanks in advance for any help. Chris

November 27th, 2007, 01:43 PM	#7
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Ken, Vegas won't run on a Mac unless he runs Windows on it too. So he'll still be using Windows even if it's on Mac hardware. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

November 27th, 2007, 05:26 PM	#11
Stuart Campbell Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Hannover, Germany Posts: 400	your money or your mac! Ken, I'm sure there are thousands of people out there who'd love to have a mac running FCP. However, for the price of a basic, decent mac running FCP you could just about buy the fastest most powerful pc out there! I'm running a Pentium dual core 2.67 processor with two 500gb raid 0 structure drives for video and 2g of memory. I have an additional 80g drive for software and xp. I added one of the best graphics cards around to run two dvi widescreen monitors. Apart from a series of crashes caused by bad video format on a rushes tape some time ago I've had absolutely NO problems whatsoever. Everything that's cut on this edit only system is HDV and I find render times more than satisfactory and performance perfectly adequate. The edit machine cost me less than 1200 pounds 12 months ago (about 2000 dollars). You can get a better spec machine for less now! I've always been a mac user and I love them, and I'll be honest, some mac users never really admit to the crashes, and I had a few! I find PC's equally reliable. I'd rather have an all singing and dancing mac suite running FCP, but my company budget just won't allow it right now! In the mean time, the PC edit station works just fine and I see no reason to change! Furthermore, I find Vegas is actually better to work with than FCP!!

November 28th, 2007, 01:32 AM	#13
Stuart Campbell Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Hannover, Germany Posts: 400	12 months ago I had a 'build to order' pc company build me a; Intel Pentium Dual Core (or Core 2) E6700 (2x2.67Ghz) ASUS p5wdeluxehd motherboard 2 Gig RAM 80Gig Sata Drive for data (XP, Vegas, Cinescore, Photoshop etc) 2 x 500Gig Sata Drives for video storage RAID 0 configured NVidia GeForce 7950 GT (dual DVI and HD) 512 Mb Decent Audio card (can't remember)!! 4 port Firewire Card Some extra nice cooling (can't remember what it is sorry) Top spec DVD writer (can't remember what that is either, I'm useless)! I then purchased 2 x Dell 2007wfp 20" monitors I already had a sony 9" CRT field monitor which I use for reference and preview and an analogue to dv converter box to wire up all the vtrs (HDV, BetaCamSP, DVCpro and svhs all switched using a patch bay jack field). I wired in a Spirit Folio audio desk for monitoring and plugged in the speakers and I was away! Sadly, the CRT has given up the ghost since (it's had a hard life with me over the past 10 years) and the Spirit is showing signs of age too. So those two things are to be replaced! The PC only cost me 1100 UK pounds (less than 2000 dollars then) which is (or was) excellent value. As I said, I wanted to build a mac suite, but was looking at over 4000 pounds (7500 dollars) including the monitors, there was no decision to make really. As I keep the machine as an edit only terminal, I have a hassle free life with it, which is great. The only issues arise with bad rushes (had a big problem once which turned out to be hdv format changes on the tape). For the price and it's reliability so far it was the right choice. The mac would have definitely looked better!, and may probably even have performed better, but I'm still able to feed my family...which is the most important factor for me!! I'm sure you can now get a Quad Core and more fancy bits for the same price, or even less! If you are interested in the UK company its http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk They were excellent, and knew exactly what I needed once I specified it as an edit machine! Build quality superb, quick delivery and excellent support to solve a couple of minor issues on first start ups. Last edited by Stuart Campbell; November 28th, 2007 at 01:37 AM. Reason: I hate making spelling mistakes!!

October 29th, 2007, 08:10 AM	#3
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Simon, I upgraded to a quad core this spring and remain VERY happy with it. I based my machine's specs on John Rofrano's who based his on John Cline's. I didn't bother with a RAID array. Instead, I went with a 250 GB Seagate SATA for drive C and 2 x 500 GB. Seagate SATAs for drives D & E. OS was XP Pro.

October 29th, 2007, 01:23 PM	#4
Simon Denny Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,409	Thanks guys. I was going to go with XP Pro also.

November 27th, 2007, 01:29 PM	#6
Kenneth Johnson Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida Posts: 70	Simon Get a Mac. After being a windows nerd for 10 years I went with a Mac 6 months ago and could not be happier. Less problems. I run 2x30inch plus a crt monitor at the same time and love the work flow. no crashes and faster editing. only took about 1 month of using it to get used to the differences. give it a try ken

November 27th, 2007, 02:43 PM	#8
Kenneth Johnson Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida Posts: 70	I stand corrected. But IMO, after having spent all the years on a pc I am loving the mac. might be worth him looking at FCP. If going to invest in a new system Simon, it might be worth the trip to the mall and visit the apple store before spending money on a new pc. most of the programs that I used on windows are available on a mac. Have not installed windows on the mac yet and most likely will not at this point. FCP was very easy to learn. I also shoot with a pd170, canon xl2 and jvc 5100. all connect by firewire to the mac and I do lots of live capture that way. pd170 is a great camera Now if I could figure out a way to capture all three cameras at once to the mac I would be in sitting pretty ken

November 27th, 2007, 05:00 PM	#9
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	Ken, I use FCP and Vegas and respect your point of view. I've chosen Vegas as my primary editor, but I can certainly see why many other people would choose FCP. In my experience this forum is not anti-mac or anti-fcp (there have been some interesting and fair discussions on the subject), but a suggestion to "switch to mac and fcp" is not IMO particularly helpful to someone who uses vegas and wants advice on upgrading their system. Glad the mac/fcp is working out for you - it's a good system.

November 27th, 2007, 06:41 PM	#12
Kenneth Johnson Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida Posts: 70	Stuart Thanks for the reply. I have never worked with vegas and only know premiere pro and fcp. I am curious how much your system cost you. I did look at a good editing pc but decided to try the mac. i am very happy with it,, might also be just the change from windows. I have found it more stable than windows but at this point I only edit photos and video on it. Maybe in another year I will start to have problems as I have heard other mac users have had but for now it is a clean machine. I did put an investment into it over 4k plus monitor but just wanted to purchase one machine for the next several years and it seems to be reliable at this point. what editing machine did you finaly purchase and how is it set up?? thanks ken

November 28th, 2007, 04:18 AM	#14
Simon Denny Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,409	Thanks guys for your input. I'm staying with Vegas as I have invested all my time and effort into this software and what I cant do with it I will use After Effects etc.... I have looked at going down the Mac route but it's very expensive here in OZ and I can do the same on PC as what a Mac will do. Who knows one day I might have to go Mac. I have sourced all my new components and this is what I'm doing. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHZ 1066mhz ASUS S775 Quad core P35 motherboard 2 Gig RAM Corsair 800Mhz 160Gig Sata Drive for data I have other Sata drives for storage XP Pro NVidia GeForce 7950 GT DVI and HD 512 Mb Audio card, just a cheap one. This should see me through for a while and it has'nt cost an arm & leg. Cheers Simon

November 28th, 2007, 12:46 PM	#15
Renton Maclachlan Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New Zealand Posts: 1,180	About a month ago I got a new machine with the following: Core 2 Duo E6850, 3.00GHz, 1333MHz FSB, Socket 775, 32/64-Bit, Retail pack with fan GA-P35-DS3P, Socket 775, Intel P35 Express Chipset, 1333MHz FSB, 4xDIMM DDR2, 2xPCIe-16, 2xPCI, 3xPCIe-1, 8xUSB2, Firewire, Audio, ATA, RAID, ATX 2x (4 altogether = 2mb) Kingston HyperX 1GB DDR2-1066 Non-ECC Kit CL5 1066MHz CL5 (5-5-5-15) Kit - two 512MB Modules Sapphire HD 2400 XT Video Card, Radeon HD 2400 XT, 256MB, DDR3, PCIe-16, TV out, DVI, HDTV, CrossFire, Dual head Raidmax X1 ATX Mid Tower Case, 520W PSU, Side Window, 3 fans, Silver/White I already had an internal 400gb drive but decided to get another one - a Sata 2 as my primary one so as not to slow anything up. I also have a 500gb and a 150gb drive. It goes like a rocket. Cut rendering on one project from 16.5 hours to 2hrs 10 mins.