Dual CPU
 

If I had to build a pc that has 8 core i7.
would Vegas benefit of it?

Yes. Vegas supports multiple processors.

Actually, Vegas won't benefit. But you'll be able to render (but not edit) faster.

This is not particularly good news at this stage of the game, as in fact Vegas still uses the CPU exclusively, completely ignoring all the GPU cores you might have.

Hard Drive
 

what about Solid State Disks, is that going to help at all for real time?
As well if I had to buy a computer that will work the best with Vegas, and let say that money is not an issue.
What will be the best computer out there?

SSD's will help speed up file access. But still won't help you edit any faster.

I think you're asking the wrong questions. I mean, are you really a millionaire and money isn't an issue? I just delivered a couple video editing workstations and they were both quad cores. That was the best cost-to-performance buy at the moment.

Yeah, I'm a little confused by this post as well. If money is no object, then purchase 20 SSD's and RAID them altogether. That will help Vegas load optimally and make sure that rendering is not slowed down by disk access. It'll also help with playback on the timeline.

Buy a basic video card because Vegas doesn't make use of it anyway (that's the GPU thing the guy was talking about above).

Go with 12Gb of RAM, and purchase the fastest i7 processor Intel makes.

Jon

well, I am not a millionaire, yet.
All I am trying to understand is what will be the best setup for Vegas and at what point it will be overkill.
Raid or no raid?
how many sets of raid?
external Raid bay hard drive or internal?
what kind of Raid?
Vegas with computer network?
and so on...
thank you for all the replys

It depends. Sorry. There is no one "best" answer on raid - it's really dependent on what your projects are, how video is being acquired, and what workflow you're using.

Cutting DV or HDV with minimal efx - good sata drives work fine. Make sure this is a separate drive from your system drive.

Got a workflow that goes multi-layered HD on the timeline? Or, Cineform intermediates? Good raid 0 gets you more preview performance.

Using a tapeless workflow? Would a data failure be catastrophic? Check into raid 1 for best data security.

Need both qualities and have the money? Raid 0+1, sometimes called raid 10 (minimum of 4 disks).

How about archiving on HD - does it matter? Eventually the raid becomes full. Most people who have this need archive to bare drives in external enclosures (perhaps in a caddy) that goes on the shelf. If backups are needed/justified, better mirror that to a 2nd drive, too.

Not all raid 0 is created equal, whether internal or external. There's a lot to learn about OS managed raids vs. motherboard chip managed raids vs. dedicated raid control with a pci-e card. You have to know the throughput you want to make sense of the various specs.

So... what are you editing? How much efx?

All my editing is HDV and not long ago the I got the 7D and it is even harder.
I have a quad core machine that I build my self about a 1 year ago but I have so many problems with rendering stop in the middle and preview is not the best.
My computer is like a roller-coaster I have good days and bed days, but over all i am always behind with my work because of it.

I am also constantly using Magic Bullet Looks for color manipulation/correction

Ah, files from the 7d. Yes, sharing your pain on that one!

I just started a project with footage from the 5d in a QT wrapper - I worked on it for about a half hour before deciding that I had to convert all source footage to cineform at 1440x1080p or lose what hair I have left!

And, yes, I find myself in the same situation - time to upgrade that core2 Duo to an i7!

The way I run - an internal MOBO chipset controlled SATA raid 0 for ingest and media storage. Projects archive to external usb drives as above. I'm not mirroring my archives (though perhaps I should).

I think this is a fairly common approach, but, some people swear by dedicated raid controllers and external arrays.

I'll probably start with internal raid (my computers frequently travel) and see how it goes.

Have you read through the very lengthy thread on i7 configurations?
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-hap...users-yet.html

Magic Bullet - a real resource hog! Perhaps you're aware that although Vegas doesn't care much about your video card, MB renders in Vegas *can* be accellerated with the right GPU. I'm not an MB user, but, that's worth some research!

Yeah, this kind of information really helps..

With the 7D, definately budget $100 or so for Cineform. It's the only way to go when editing in Veges..

Generally speaking for good Vegas editing you'll want....

- Fastest Processor You can Get
- Ample RAM
- Large, multiple hard drives, probably don't need to be in a RAID configuration provided you are buying fast drives (Black series from WD, or even the Velociraptor).
- Basic Video Card is Sufficient
- I recommend two large monitors (24")

That's about the best you can do. On a good i7 machine, editing HDV and Cineform 7D files should be about as fast as cutting DV on a slightly older Intel/AMD X2 type setup.

Jon

If you are using Magic Bullet Looks, anytime other than at the end of your edit, then Magic Bullet Looks WILL SLOW YOUR COMPUTER CONSIDERABLY!

Magic Bullet Looks uses your video card - even a mighty video card will be humbled by it!

DO NOT start using MBL until you've finished editing and you are ready to colour correct/add MBL FX,

My computer is fairly fast, my GPU is killer fast and with MBL applied my previews on BEST (FULL) will barely reach a couple frames per second.

(If Cineform can make FirstLight as flexible as MBL, that would be a killer app)