Videoguys DIY Avid build
 

I'm dropping Vegas 9 for Avid, and I'm in the midst of putting together a home editing workstation to go with my EX1. I won't be working this machine eight hours a day, and I don't have a serious need for speed. I do want real time and smooth workflow.

I'm essentially copying the Videoguys' latest DIY build. But I'm questioning the need for a raid. What would I lose without a raid?

RAID??? BAH! RAID would give you some redundancy, but other than that, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Decent processor, and a quadro card, and you'll be well on your way. If you're plugging in an EX1 your workflow is going to be so fast, you won't believe it.

Looks like I have to wait until June to get my Avid system, but brother I can't WAIT!

Thanks, Perrone.

I haven't built myself a new computer in so long that I can barely understand the terminology anymore - if I did to start with.

Savings on the raid will go straight into mobo\ram\processor, and possibly even an FX3800 if my research turns up good results (this is also what videoguys recommend) vs the 1800.

I'll tell you, I tried it with an 8-core setup and an FX4800. And even the non-realtime effects were realtime.

I had asked in the Avid forums what changes I could expect moving from Vegas, and was told that the speed would get my attention. That was an understatement of EPIC proportions. When you hit the spacebar or scrub the timeline, it's moving RIGHT NOW.

I remember moving the scrubber through the timeline of a multi-cam project and seeing what appeared to be EVERY frame go through the previewer.. no hiccups at all. I was floored.

So I got my system going. Currently running a very old 17 inch flat screen, which is about to be replaced, possibly with a dual setup.

Fast? Yeah, real fast.

Only issue so far has not been Avid related. The 3800 pops up an error message from time to time, that it has stopped working with the driver, kernal error, and has recovered. This, unfortunately, causes the video to stop working in Avid but not the audio. So I have to get out of Avid, then back in.

Various searches on the net pulled up various scenarios to diagnose and solve this issue. I've disabled hyperthreading (I think), and am running video quality in Avid at Best Performance. Until I disabled hyperthreading, I had most of my trouble in trim mode. After the tweaks, trim works.

No issues so far rendering\exporting.

Problem could be related to the old monitor (read that somewhere on the net), or Avid and Windows 7, which as most of us know, won't be supported until V5.

Anyhow, the system is clearly working. The card needs tweaking. But, man, Avid works smooth.