I've just ordered the parts for a new computer system and was wondering what sort of performance I should expect from it running Vegas 7 and Cineform Connect? Oh, and David, I'll place my order for this once the computer's up and running which will be around Tuesday.

After doing a bit of research I decided to go with these components:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - This appears to offer the best value for money
Asus P5B-E Motherboard - All the features I need within my budget
2gb Corsair DDR2 6400 800mhz ram
Antec P150 case with 430 watt power suply - A quiet case
Leadtek Quadro FX560 - This one is apparently a lot faster than the FX540. I use Maya for 3d aswell, so a card like this should come in handy there too.

And possibly 2x Samsung 400gb SATA 16mb cache hard drives set up in a RAID 0 array. I'm still yet to order these. Samsung drives are cheaper, but I'm exactly sure how good they are. I have a 300gb IDE model that I've never had any problems with.

I guess my main question would be whether or not it will be possible to edit video in real time with colour correction, levels or other effects applied to the footage?

As you are using Vegas 7 that has more impact of performance when we do. We only truly accelerate Premiere Pro with Aspect HD and Prospect HD. The CineForm codec makes decoding easier but all the effects and color processing are Vegas filters. So my guess about that PC, for 720p24/25/30 yes easily real-time, for 1080i it pretty quick about I know know it it will be always full frame-rate real-time (always depends on the filter used.) Under Vegas 6 this would likely be faster (we are finding 6 is faster than 7.) Sony will hopefully fix the issues the slows Vegas 7 down.

Hi David, and thanks for the reply. That's interesting. I went from Vegas 5 to 7, so skipped 6. How about Vegas 5? I could easily still use that for video editing. So far with 7 I've only captured clips in the native HDV format. They'll playback in close to realtime on my laptop, but since I'm using an SGPro 35mm adapter, once flipped upside down I lose that real time performance. So your capture app would be a great benefit for that alone.

Without any effects though, I should get a pretty decent performance?

One last question.. Going for 16mb cache hard drives as opposed to 8mb cache drives, would this make much difference in a Raid 0 array?

The drive cache at 8 or 16mb, both are good, so not really an issue. Vegas 7 it still probably the way to go, I'm just frustrated that we could direct Sony away from some of the changes they made in time for Vegas 7. They are well aware now for Vegas 8. :)

Yes, users of 35mm adaptors really benefit from the rotation feature in capture. As you are shoot for a film look you are likely going for progressive also. As many of the HDV camera don't resolve above 720p, I recommend converting and rotating your 1440x1080 to 1280x720p with Connect HD's HDLink, the resulting 720p files have the same detail but they will run much faster and use less disk space.

Yes, 720p would probably do the trick for most of what I do. I'm still new to the 35mm adapter, and sometimes end up with a bit of vignetting in frame depending on what lens I'm using. In whuich case I'd prefer 1080p and then crop off the edges. I also have the DV Film deinterlacer which works quite well with most footage.

Also, does Aspect work with Premiere Elements in the same way as Premiere Pro?

Aspect HD is not designed for Elements. Some features might work, but we don't test that product.

Ahh ok, just thought I'd ask as Elements comes free with something I was thinking of buying.