what's your set-up? at DVinfo.net

Chet Hardin · November 16th, 2003, 09:29 AM

What sort of heardware set-up are you guys: how much and what kind of RAM, what processors, hard drives? I am building a new system and want some idea of what is working for other people. Thanks. Chet

Aaron Koolen · November 16th, 2003, 01:56 PM

I'm currently running

P4 2.8c (Hyperthreading) Ghz
1gb corsair RAM
Abit IC7
2x120GB IDE drives 7200RPM of course. Non raid, non dynamic disk.
Windows XP
Dual monitors. 1x19" and 1x17" @ 1600x1200.
Matrox G550
Soundblaster Live Audio (This is going to go)
Crappy speakers (These are DEFINATELY going to go ;) )
Vegas 4
TV for video output

I find this setup pretty good for the stuff I do, which is short movies, news style reporting and events. If I had the cash, I'd probably get a pro broadcast monitor for preview and good speakers.

SCSI RAID wouldbe nice but I haven't found it necessary yet.

Aaron

Ed Frazier · November 16th, 2003, 03:33 PM

Hi Chet - After editing with an old PII 450 Dell Dimension system and Matrox RT2500 for the past two years, I finally decided it was time for a new system. This is what I built:

ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe MB
Pentium 4 - 3.0GHz HT Processor w/800 MHz FSB
Antec Tru550 - 550W PS
1GB Kingston DDR400 PC3200 Ram (2 X 512)
Matrox G550 32MB DDR 4X AGP Display Card
Dual Display - (2) ViewSonic VP181b (18" LCD)
Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - System Drive (Primary Master)
Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - Export Drive (Primary Slave)
Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - A/V Drive #1 (Secondary Master)
Sony DRU510A DVD Burner (Secondary Slave)
Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - A/V Drive #2 (Promise P-ATA Controller on MB)
Samsung 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Logitech Cordless MX Duo - Keyboard/Mouse
Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 Sound Card/Interface Box
Kingwin KT-424-BK 10-Bay Mid Tower Case
Windows XP Pro - SP1

Video/Audio Editing:
Matrox RT.X100 Extreme Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Audition
Adobe Encore
Adobe After Effects
Adobe PhotoShop

I'm currently using a 20" Sony WEGA (KV-20FV300) TV for a monitor, connected to the Matrox BOB. After I recover from spending all this money, I'll probably look for a good broadcast monitor.

Both A/V drives are housed in Mobile Racks by ViPower (VP-10KFU-CE-133) Currently none of the drives are in a RAID configuration and I still have the SATA controller available for future expansion.
I have several 120GB drives in removable trays that can be swapped out depending on what project I'm working on at the time. Since I typically have several projects going at any given time, I find removable hard drives a convenient way to go. This system has been up and running for about three weeks and it's been GREAT!

Good Luck with your new system!

Arnaldo Paixao · November 19th, 2003, 10:38 AM

Hi Ed.

Most of it the same as I use. Removable trays = a blessing!

Do you author DVDs? If so, as soon as you can spend the cash, get two 10K rpm SATA WD Raptor drives and build a RAID 0 array. You will love them, since the process of multiplexing the DVD files is a very disk intensive task, those babys will speed up the process and don't cost the insane cash asked for SCSI drives and controlers.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Ed Frazier · November 19th, 2003, 01:22 PM

Thanks Arnaldo for the tip. I acutally had a couple of SATAs ordered with the other components, but the vendor was out of stock, so they'll be added soon.

I'm assuming the RAID should be configured as the Export Drive. Is that correct?

Yi Fong Yu · November 20th, 2003, 12:22 AM

http://fongunlimited.com/htpc/

currently it's my entertainment palace but come spring time it'll be my digital movie making studio... as you can see, most of the stuff i need is already there. all i need now is the canopus capture card+more HD. been trying to decide the newer 74GB raptors (10k rpm) but they are WAAAY too expensive per MB. probably will just get the 250GB maxtor sata and raid 0 4 of them together for 'almost' a TB. we'll shee.

Arnaldo Paixao · November 20th, 2003, 03:39 AM

Hi Ed.

"I'm assuming the RAID should be configured as the Export Drive. Is that correct?" --> Yes.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Ted Springer · November 20th, 2003, 04:24 AM

I am surprised not to see any AMD's in anyone's setup so far. To the people who choose Pentiums... why do you choose them? Same question could be asked of AMD users. I have AMD's in my PC simply because they are cheaper and seem to run extremely well.

Arnaldo Paixao · November 20th, 2003, 04:47 AM

Hi Ted.

I started with Pentiums and have been happy with them. Also, as I work with several machines fitted with Pentiums and Celerons, having CPUs within the same family gives me the chance to switch between CPUs and motherboards when upgrading.

Having said that, I like to keep an open mind, and in the near future I plan on assembling an AMD machine to have a feel how the two camps mesure against each other (performance, compatibility and stability). If my experience with AMD is a happy one and the price is right, I'll have no trouble in going that route.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Aaron Koolen · November 20th, 2003, 05:07 AM

Ted, I used to use AMD's. Before I had my P4 setup I had an AMD. When I upgraded I looked at the benchmarks and the price and felt the P4 edged out ahead this time.

Aaron

Yi Fong Yu · November 20th, 2003, 10:59 AM

TED, if you look @the link i posted above my system consists of dual AMD MP2800s.

Jon Yurek · November 20th, 2003, 11:33 AM

Here's my setup:

MSI K7D Master-L motherboard
Two AMD MP2000+
512MB PC2100 RAM (defnitely not enough -- get 1GB)
80GB Seagate Barracuda IV
100GB WD Special Edition
200GB WD Special Edition
80GB WD Special Edition via FireWire
48x Lite-On CDRW
16x Acer DVD
PNY GeForce3 Ti200
3dfx Voodoo3 PCI
Dell 171FP LCD monitor
Some generic 15" CRT monitor
Antec TruPower 460W power supply

Unfortunately, I don't have a monitor for watching video on yet. I also don't have good cooling in my case, so one of the processors is running at around 60C. I need some more money to dump into upgrades.

David Mintzer · November 20th, 2003, 03:49 PM

Just built my first machine!

P4 3.0ghz
Asus PC4800 Board
1gig Corsair 3200
App Drive--Western Digital 120gig
Video Drive200 Gig Sata drive
About 500gig of drive space on assorted firewire externals---primarily Western Digital with ADS enclosures
Matrox 550
Two Hitachi 17 inch LCD's with 16ms repsonse time
M-Audio Revolution Sound Card (haven't bought the speakers yet)
ADS Pyro Card
Sony NTSC monitor
Vegas, Premiere Pro, A.E, Photoshop are my apps.

I'm in heaven!

Yi Fong Yu · November 20th, 2003, 08:41 PM

john, thermalright's slk900a fits on the tiger mpx board. i have the tyan flavor and it works beautifully =^). just fyi. 40 C idle and 50 load.

Ed Smith · November 21st, 2003, 03:46 PM

Well heres my setup:

Editing
Dell optiplex gx260:-
2.4 GHz intel pocessor,
1 GB DDR RAM
Matrox G450 graphics card
40 GB system drive
80 GB media drive
Creative sound blaster live
Pinnacle DV500 capture card (looking at upgrading to RTX 100 Extreme)
Premiere 6.5, Photoshop, Reel DVD
Win XP Pro
Pioneer A05 DVD writer
2x 17" dell monitors
Logitech Wireless Keyboard and mouse
Mackie 1202VLZ audio mixer
Sony Trinitron 14" colour TV.

The editing station is then firewired networked to my old editing machine which now serves as my typewriter, video archive and web browsing machine.

outline spec of that machine:
Intel 550MHz processor
12GB system
40GB media/ archive (in removable caddy)
Studio DV firewire card
and a few other bits and bobs.

They aren't as much as some peoples machines but they do the job!!!

Heres how the setup looks: http://uk.geocities.com/ejjsproductions/Edit.html

cheers,

Ed

November 16th, 2003, 03:33 PM	#3
Ed Frazier Major Player Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Las Cruces, NM Posts: 343	Hi Chet - After editing with an old PII 450 Dell Dimension system and Matrox RT2500 for the past two years, I finally decided it was time for a new system. This is what I built: ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe MB Pentium 4 - 3.0GHz HT Processor w/800 MHz FSB Antec Tru550 - 550W PS 1GB Kingston DDR400 PC3200 Ram (2 X 512) Matrox G550 32MB DDR 4X AGP Display Card Dual Display - (2) ViewSonic VP181b (18" LCD) Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - System Drive (Primary Master) Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - Export Drive (Primary Slave) Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - A/V Drive #1 (Secondary Master) Sony DRU510A DVD Burner (Secondary Slave) Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache - A/V Drive #2 (Promise P-ATA Controller on MB) Samsung 1.44MB Floppy Drive Logitech Cordless MX Duo - Keyboard/Mouse Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 Sound Card/Interface Box Kingwin KT-424-BK 10-Bay Mid Tower Case Windows XP Pro - SP1 Video/Audio Editing: Matrox RT.X100 Extreme Pro Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Audition Adobe Encore Adobe After Effects Adobe PhotoShop I'm currently using a 20" Sony WEGA (KV-20FV300) TV for a monitor, connected to the Matrox BOB. After I recover from spending all this money, I'll probably look for a good broadcast monitor. Both A/V drives are housed in Mobile Racks by ViPower (VP-10KFU-CE-133) Currently none of the drives are in a RAID configuration and I still have the SATA controller available for future expansion. I have several 120GB drives in removable trays that can be swapped out depending on what project I'm working on at the time. Since I typically have several projects going at any given time, I find removable hard drives a convenient way to go. This system has been up and running for about three weeks and it's been GREAT! Good Luck with your new system! __________________ Ed Frazier

November 19th, 2003, 01:22 PM	#5
Ed Frazier Major Player Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Las Cruces, NM Posts: 343	Thanks Arnaldo for the tip. I acutally had a couple of SATAs ordered with the other components, but the vendor was out of stock, so they'll be added soon. I'm assuming the RAID should be configured as the Export Drive. Is that correct? __________________ Ed Frazier

November 20th, 2003, 12:22 AM	#6
Yi Fong Yu Trustee Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Vulcan Posts: 1,564	http://fongunlimited.com/htpc/ currently it's my entertainment palace but come spring time it'll be my digital movie making studio... as you can see, most of the stuff i need is already there. all i need now is the canopus capture card+more HD. been trying to decide the newer 74GB raptors (10k rpm) but they are WAAAY too expensive per MB. probably will just get the 250GB maxtor sata and raid 0 4 of them together for 'almost' a TB. we'll shee. __________________ bow wow wow

November 20th, 2003, 05:07 AM	#10
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	Ted, I used to use AMD's. Before I had my P4 setup I had an AMD. When I upgraded I looked at the benchmarks and the price and felt the P4 edged out ahead this time. Aaron __________________ My Website Meat Free Media

November 20th, 2003, 10:59 AM	#11
Yi Fong Yu Trustee Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Vulcan Posts: 1,564	TED, if you look @the link i posted above my system consists of dual AMD MP2800s. __________________ bow wow wow

November 16th, 2003, 09:29 AM	#1
Chet Hardin Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Troy Ny Posts: 60	what's your set-up? What sort of heardware set-up are you guys: how much and what kind of RAM, what processors, hard drives? I am building a new system and want some idea of what is working for other people. Thanks. Chet

November 16th, 2003, 01:56 PM	#2
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	I'm currently running P4 2.8c (Hyperthreading) Ghz 1gb corsair RAM Abit IC7 2x120GB IDE drives 7200RPM of course. Non raid, non dynamic disk. Windows XP Dual monitors. 1x19" and 1x17" @ 1600x1200. Matrox G550 Soundblaster Live Audio (This is going to go) Crappy speakers (These are DEFINATELY going to go ;) ) Vegas 4 TV for video output I find this setup pretty good for the stuff I do, which is short movies, news style reporting and events. If I had the cash, I'd probably get a pro broadcast monitor for preview and good speakers. SCSI RAID wouldbe nice but I haven't found it necessary yet. Aaron __________________ My Website Meat Free Media

November 19th, 2003, 10:38 AM	#4
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	Hi Ed. Most of it the same as I use. Removable trays = a blessing! Do you author DVDs? If so, as soon as you can spend the cash, get two 10K rpm SATA WD Raptor drives and build a RAID 0 array. You will love them, since the process of multiplexing the DVD files is a very disk intensive task, those babys will speed up the process and don't cost the insane cash asked for SCSI drives and controlers. Best regards, Arnaldo

November 20th, 2003, 03:39 AM	#7
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	Hi Ed. "I'm assuming the RAID should be configured as the Export Drive. Is that correct?" --> Yes. Best regards, Arnaldo

November 20th, 2003, 04:24 AM	#8
Ted Springer Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 328	I am surprised not to see any AMD's in anyone's setup so far. To the people who choose Pentiums... why do you choose them? Same question could be asked of AMD users. I have AMD's in my PC simply because they are cheaper and seem to run extremely well.

November 20th, 2003, 04:47 AM	#9
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	Hi Ted. I started with Pentiums and have been happy with them. Also, as I work with several machines fitted with Pentiums and Celerons, having CPUs within the same family gives me the chance to switch between CPUs and motherboards when upgrading. Having said that, I like to keep an open mind, and in the near future I plan on assembling an AMD machine to have a feel how the two camps mesure against each other (performance, compatibility and stability). If my experience with AMD is a happy one and the price is right, I'll have no trouble in going that route. Best regards, Arnaldo

November 20th, 2003, 11:33 AM	#12
Jon Yurek Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Worcester, MA Posts: 64	Here's my setup: MSI K7D Master-L motherboard Two AMD MP2000+ 512MB PC2100 RAM (defnitely not enough -- get 1GB) 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV 100GB WD Special Edition 200GB WD Special Edition 80GB WD Special Edition via FireWire 48x Lite-On CDRW 16x Acer DVD PNY GeForce3 Ti200 3dfx Voodoo3 PCI Dell 171FP LCD monitor Some generic 15" CRT monitor Antec TruPower 460W power supply Unfortunately, I don't have a monitor for watching video on yet. I also don't have good cooling in my case, so one of the processors is running at around 60C. I need some more money to dump into upgrades.

November 20th, 2003, 03:49 PM	#13
David Mintzer Rextilleon Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Pleasantville, NY Posts: 520	Just built my first machine! P4 3.0ghz Asus PC4800 Board 1gig Corsair 3200 App Drive--Western Digital 120gig Video Drive200 Gig Sata drive About 500gig of drive space on assorted firewire externals---primarily Western Digital with ADS enclosures Matrox 550 Two Hitachi 17 inch LCD's with 16ms repsonse time M-Audio Revolution Sound Card (haven't bought the speakers yet) ADS Pyro Card Sony NTSC monitor Vegas, Premiere Pro, A.E, Photoshop are my apps. I'm in heaven!

November 20th, 2003, 08:41 PM	#14
Yi Fong Yu Trustee Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Vulcan Posts: 1,564	john, thermalright's slk900a fits on the tiger mpx board. i have the tyan flavor and it works beautifully =^). just fyi. 40 C idle and 50 load. __________________ bow wow wow

November 21st, 2003, 03:46 PM	#15
Ed Smith Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 1,545	Well heres my setup: Editing Dell optiplex gx260:- 2.4 GHz intel pocessor, 1 GB DDR RAM Matrox G450 graphics card 40 GB system drive 80 GB media drive Creative sound blaster live Pinnacle DV500 capture card (looking at upgrading to RTX 100 Extreme) Premiere 6.5, Photoshop, Reel DVD Win XP Pro Pioneer A05 DVD writer 2x 17" dell monitors Logitech Wireless Keyboard and mouse Mackie 1202VLZ audio mixer Sony Trinitron 14" colour TV. The editing station is then firewired networked to my old editing machine which now serves as my typewriter, video archive and web browsing machine. outline spec of that machine: Intel 550MHz processor 12GB system 40GB media/ archive (in removable caddy) Studio DV firewire card and a few other bits and bobs. They aren't as much as some peoples machines but they do the job!!! Heres how the setup looks: http://uk.geocities.com/ejjsproductions/Edit.html cheers, Ed __________________ Ed Smith Hampshire, UK Good things come to those who wait My Skiing web www.Frostytour.co.uk For quick answers Search dvinfo.net \| The best in the business: dvinfo.net Sponsors