Optimal system specs for Vegas
 

I figured this question has been probably asked and answered a million times but what the heck, i'll ask it again :)

What specs would you guys recommend for the best running of Vegas Pro 8 with standard definition and high definition footage with some degree of compositing and a fair amount of colour grading. I'm talking of something that gives realtime previews. Any hardware that you guys recommend to enhance workflow and productivity?

Vegas is entirely about CPU speed and a healthy amount of RAM. Vegas will take advantage of multiple core processors, so get the fastest CPU you can afford and at least 2 GIG of RAM. Any of the current hard drives will be more than fast enough and Vegas doesn't use any of the hardware acceleration available in video cards, so an expensive video card isn't going to make any difference. Like I said, CPU and RAM makes the biggest difference. Here are the specs for a machine I built over a year ago and it still works really well with Vegas:

John Cline's Quad-Core System Specs

John

As with John's system, I use an Intel Quad-Core (except I have the slower q6600). His system as described is excellent and you would do well do have something similar to his.

Quad-core desktops are SO inexpensive, I can't even imagine not buying one today.

I've seen them for $599 here and there. Obviously $599 doesn't buy you top-of-the-line, but the basic idea is you can get a decent processor in a pre-built desktop for very little.

I currently run a Dell, but I am removing the processor and HDs and am upgrading.

New case: COOLER MASTER HAF 932 (has 4 fans!) $159

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS5 (connect up to 8 HDs and has e-sata and Dual raid controllers. Killer board with great OC'ing ability, should be able to go to 3.4 safely) $219

Memory: G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800) $250

PSU: ZALMAN ZM850-HP 850W $159

Using my current hard drives: Velociraptors run in RAID 0 and Caviar Black 1TB drives for Storage.

While the current crop of 7200 RPM drives work for many folks, I can't live with them as scratch drives or OS drives.

I run a very small shop, but I often have up to 10 or so weddings and business videos waiting to be edited. Many of those projects consist of 10-12 hours of footage. Even on the fastest 7200 storage drives you can buy it can take forever for peak building for 12 hours of footage. If the footage resides on a 10K drive things go MUCH faster, and Vegas is much more responsive.

For you the expensive 10K drives may be unnecessary, for me I couldn't live without them. But then I've always liked having the fastest hard drives I could afford anyway. They are such an obvious bottleneck it just makes sense to me.

Only months ago I was touting the benefits of pre-built systems for several reasons. I still believe that when purchasing something like an inexpensive quad core system, you can save money purchasing that way.

However, I cannot upgrade from where I am with a prebuilt system for less than at least triple what upgrading with a DIY system. So here I go. I have the benefit of having learned some tricks to configuring a smooth running DIY right here on this board, and that should make for much smoother sailing than my last build.

Thanks for the suggestions guys :) really helps. Jeff, where i'm at there's almost no concept of prebuilt systems. Everything is configured and put together from scratch, which is a good thing, it saves on costs and allows you to get almost any mix of components imaginable. The 10k drives haven't really hit the market here yet, but i'm sure they'll be available soon. I currently have a core 2 duo machine with 2 gb sam which is starting to show signs of age and slack, you say an upgrade in processor and ram will speed things up. I'll try that.

Ali, good luck with that. I had not noticed you were in Pakistan...I can understand how the market and what is available might be different than it is here. I hope you can find the inexpensive yet effective upgrade that will improve your performance.

I recently built a new system for Vegas 8.1/8.0c and posted info here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/non-linea...diting-pc.html

It snacks on DV and HDV. I just completed my first project on it and I couldn't be happier.

Steve

Great system Steven. Like the case you bought...very nice.

Thanks. Obviously this wasn't a budget system, perhaps contrary to the original posters' desires, but I think it will do me for years, and it is very happily married to Vegas and my Canon XH-A1. Yeah, the Lian-Li case is a whopping MONSTER of a case: plenty of room for tidy cable routing, 6 fans, and gobs of internal space for expansion. My system stays nice and cool.

Steve

Your case is superb, I'm extremely jealous. I got a Coolermaster HAF 932 and for $129 it was a steal, but it has no air filters as your does, and it is plumb ugly. But at least it is huge and very cool with tons of bays.

BTW, my new system is running close to perfectly. I have had some issues with avi files on the raid drive, but it seems to have disappeared since I re-formatted the drive and updated the drivers.

I just ordered some fast ram and am looking forward to over-clocking my Q6600. I must say this new build is a good one.

I can't say enough about the case I selected (Coolermaster HAF-932). I absolutely love it. I have 8 drives in it, and they are all running very cool. This case has "giant" fans on the top and side, front and rear fans, e-Sata, etc., and I am absolutely ovejoyed at how cool everything is. Just on that basis, I wouldn't switch cases for anything. As I remarked earlier Stephen's case seem to among the best I've seen, but I'm so happy with this one's ventilation I am happy to let it be.