will my PC setup be ok for CS3 vs HD?
 

Hi,

I've just recently bought PPro CS3, with the intention of editing in HD at long last.

Before I get stuck in, do people here think my current setup will be ok?

Intel Dual Core (2 x 3.4GHZ),
Windows XP, SP2
2GB RAM
500GB HDD
Dell 2407WFP 24"
nVidia 7600GT

Is there anything that people can see that would instantly require an upgrade (e.g. graphics card?)

MANY THANKS
Richard

Only one hard disk? What's its speed?

Your graphics card should suffice for now, but I also agree with Colin's comment. If you're going to edit in HD, it would be wise to get yourself a RAID 0 setup with a pair of 500GB (or larger) hard drives. That way, you'll be able to maximize performance and your editing experience. Another suggestion would be to bump up your amount of RAM to 3 GB if you can. That will also boost your performance without causing too much of a hit on the ol' pocketbook.

He could even use a 6 year old graphics card (Matrox G550, like i do) and it would still suffice. Editing/rendering is (in most cases) software based and asks cpu, ram power for editing/rendering and hd power for fast writing/access to hds. Make sure you have a nice dual or quad core, 2 (XP) or 3 (Vista) gigs of ram and fast hds. You will be set.

I think your basic setup is pretty good but I would add a couple of things.
-A second internal 500GB 7200RPM drive
-Cineform software

If you're going to do anything but short (<5min) projects, Cineform is a virtual essential. I'm working with a long project using the native HDV files and the main problem with that workflow is that it takes nearly 30 minutes to open it. I'd go with Cineform but I'm on Vista and I don't believe Cineform is ready for Vista yet. (Long and painful story that I won't bore you with.)

You can go with a RAID if you want, but I'm not convinced of the cost/benefit ratio yet. It will help but I think there are some other things like Cineform, a good graphics card and a second monitor that will help you more at this point.

Are you editing uncompressed HD or HDV? To very different formats. You should have enough horse power to do HDV, although your graphics card is more of a gamer's card and you may have issues with video playback on a second monitor. The Quadro series is more designed for video based applications. A second single hard drive connected via SATA II would work or a RAID setup would be even better for storing your content.