Jon,
I've been following this thread and have priced out the system you spec'd at the beginning.
I'm thinking Quad Core is the way to go to be ready for the future along with 4GB RAM.
Is the Q6600 the latest Quad core from Intel or is there another newer version?

Also, mWave is out of stock on the Antec P182 and I really like the specs on it. Can you recommend a compatible case?

Thanks
Jim

Jon,
Excellent thread. I'm afraid that I have to flaunt my ignorance: how does one actually connect HDs in a RAID configuration? (I've done some reading, so at least I tried before I posted.)
1. There is software and hardware RAID, hardware generally being the better choice, correct?
2. There are PCI card controllers, I know, allowing connection of internal HDs. Is this the solution? Drop in a card and connect/configure? If yes to the card, which would you suggest?
3. Do some MoBos, such as the one you suggested on page 1, obviate the need for an additional RAID controller card?

Thanks,
Steve

Hello Jim,

The Quad Core is in fact *not* the most recent or fastest Quad Core processor, it just happens to bring the most value per dollar. This chip runs 4 processing cores at 2.4Ghz on a 1066Mhz FSB 4Mb X2 L2 Cache for roughly $280.00. The next fastest Quad Core runs at 2.66Ghz on a 1066Mhz FSB as well but costs $550.00. Kinda of absurd when you think about it that for literally an extra 10% of processing performance increase (not system speed, just the processor) costs you TWICE as much.

For the record, the $275 Quad Core if you *really* wanted that extra performance is known to overclock pretty well with a good aftermarket cooler. Most people seem to get this processor to run at the 3.1 - 3.3Ghz range, at 2.8Ghz or 3.0Ghz should be easily attainable..

There are other places to pickup the P182, newegg.com is a good one. The P180 is usually cheaper and frankly is about 95% the same, so that's a good option as well.

I ended up getting a system built by someone with almost the same specs as Jeff. It's costing me about $500 more, but I'm paying to have it professionally over-clocked to about 3.3 GHz. I'm also getting the nVidia 8800 card. Same HD setup for booting etc... I also play MS flight simulator! This should be a rig that will make HD/HDV and Prospect HD editing MUCH easier than my "old" dual Xeon (it's almost 4 years old - ancient by today's standards).

This is a great thread and has been helpful to me as I made this investment.

Thanks Jon.

Stuart

Stuart,

You're going to love that 10k hard drive. It really screams loading up the new software and the OS seems to be cooking as well. MS Flight Sim is running with many of the graphic selections set to high. I'm sure the graphics card is a big help, but all my programs are loading with lightning speed.

I'm going be doing some HD editing pretty soon. We'll see how that goes. It sure is a posiive experience having such a responsive rig doing video editing now!

Jeff

It's hard waiting for the rig! My builder needs about 7-10 days, but that will go by quickly. I'm also having him run some tests to check the software speed if he throws two of the 10k boot drives in, setup as a RAID 0. I know some people are doing that for gaming, but it would be interesting to see how it helps (or not) with editing software. For those few moments I get for Flight Simulator, this machine should be a thrill too!

It's hard waiting for the rig! My builder needs about 7-10 days, but that will go by quickly. I'm also having him run some tests to check the software speed if he throws two of the 10k boot drives in, setup as a RAID 0. I know some people are doing that for gaming, but it would be interesting to see how it helps (or not) with editing software. For those few moments I get for Flight Simulator, this machine should be a thrill too!

Awsome that you found somebody to build one and then overclock it for you. Good stuff... The $500 extra you are paying probably isn't too bad considering what they'll be doing to it and the fact you got a video card that is $150+ more. If you're happy with what you end up getting, do tell who this builder is so I may reference him for others here.

Jon

It's hard waiting for the rig! My builder needs about 7-10 days, but that will go by quickly. I'm also having him run some tests to check the software speed if he throws two of the 10k boot drives in, setup as a RAID 0. I know some people are doing that for gaming, but it would be interesting to see how it helps (or not) with editing software. For those few moments I get for Flight Simulator, this machine should be a thrill too!

Problem with RAID 0 on the system drive is that we're talking about is a 2X greater failure rate and when you throw in a 10K drive, it's probably a little higher. You also have noise and heat issues to be concerned about. I too would like to see the performance advantages of this, but I suspect it's probably still best to go with one 10K drive as the system drive.

Jon,

Thanks for the concern about the dual 10k drives. I agree it's an issue. Right now he's only testing the idea. If it results in significant performance gains I'll consider it. Either way I always keep a back-up clone of my system drive just in case! All my data is on the second drive and/or my RAID drives (where my raw video files go). I'll keep you posted and will certainly be willing to give out this guy's name if all works out.

Stuart

a great thread, folks, ive learnt lots from it. I too will be soon embarking on a new PC mission and have some choices to make. It sounds to me like the Intel Quad Core is the way to go, especially since I'm a Vegas user, but the price of the newer Duos is very appealing. Here's my CPU options: (prices from microdirect.co.uk)

Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz - £118
Quad Core Q6660 2.4GHz is £168

I believe the quad core will outperform the E6750 (but only in situations where all 4 processers are used such as rendering in Vegas) but is it really worth the extra 40% cost to get the quad?

Another quick question, I currently have two drives which i want to buy clones of to make a RAID 0.

One is a 320GB the other a 500GB (both Seagate Barracuda SATAII). I plan to get another 500GB but is there any disadvantage at raiding such a large drive? am i better getting 1 or 2 more 320GB for speed (it'll obviously cost more)?

thanks,

baldwin

Hey Baldwin,

The Quad core in this case is still the way to go. Yes, it's a 40% increase in the CPU cost, but considering the entire PC purchase, it's really a small price increase. Also throw in the fact that in the NLE speed game, CPU is the chief component (In Video games, it's often the Video Card which plays a huge role). So I think going for the Quad is your best bet for sure.

Jon

In addition to keeping the system tray empty of unneeded software, another good idea is to disable unnecessary XP services. I used a guide I found online to do this, but that one isn't there anymore :-/ But as an example, who wants to use system resources to enable data to be sent to MS when something crashes? I sure don't! Getting rid of these extra services has made an older system last a bit longer for me. Should help even on a high end system like this, which I am about to put together.

Thanks Jon!

In addition to keeping the system tray empty of unneeded software, another good idea is to disable unnecessary XP services. I used a guide I found online to do this, but that one isn't there anymore :-/ But as an example, who wants to use system resources to enable data to be sent to MS when something crashes? I sure don't! Getting rid of these extra services has made an older system last a bit longer for me. Should help even on a high end system like this, which I am about to put together.

Thanks Jon!


Yep, this is true and there are some good resources on the net regarding this. The key here though is obviously to only disable background sources which you *know* are not needed. I find that most of these resources in actuality use a small amount of memory and processing cycles and with dual core/quad core processors performance barely suffers if at all, so I tend to just leave it alone. Not installed *extra* software into the system though such as virus checkers, firewalls, spyware stuff, etc can make a noticeable difference so I do avoid those.

Jon

Hi folks,

am about to take the plunge with the following specs - already picked up my Intel Quad Core 2.4Ghz Q6600 so can't change that but the rest is still unbought:

Antec Sonata III Silent Case w 500W Earthwatts PSU
2GB Corsair 6400 DRAM
Primary Drive 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache
2 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache Hard Drive set at RAID 0
NEC Optiarc AD-7170A-0S DVD burner
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P Intel P35 Express LGA775 1333 FSB Motherboard
Gigabyte 7600GS PCI-E 256MB graphics card silent pipe HDTV/DVI/VGA

I like the Gigabyte motherboard cause it has 6 internal SATA connections (as i always envisage numerous extra HDs) and the fact its firewire is by Texas Intsruments as my Alesis I/O 26 soundcard is a bit touchy when it comes to firewire chipsets. Has anyone had experience with this board?

Re the graphics I'm not so sure - I've read that an extra 256MB isnt really going to make a difference (im not a gamer) but am I going for the right kind of chipset? I run Vegas predominantly but will be using After Effects a little and was toying with the idea of Avid Xpress too. Does Vegas 8.0 (I'm on 7.0 at the moment) still not use any GPU acceleration?

Come in at under £500 which is pretty good though am sticking with these old monitors for now. Any thoughts most welcome.

Cheers,

Baldwin

Looks great to me Baldwin...

My only recomendation is to go with an 8600GT or 8600GTS video card over the 7600 series you are looking at. Vegas does not utilitze GPU acceleration but what the 8600 series of cards give you is a better quality playback of video files in general with less CPU overhead. I'm not saying the 7600 isn't adequate, but the 8600 is really not much more and will be a little bit better with the added benefit of just being a more current product (DirectX 10 vs DirectX 9).

Thanks Jon, looks like a Gigabyte GeForce 8600GT 512MB Silentpipe is the way forward then, about £20 more. A bit of a miscalculation on the last message looks like this beast totals around £700 (not £500!) before any of you ask where I get my bargain components!

baldwin

I'm considering whether to get 4 X 1G Kingston PC 5300 DDR2 667 Cl5 or simply 2 X 1G PC 6400 DDR2 800 Cl5. Does the speed makes a different for Vegas? The former cost 60% lesser than the latter(each piece).
I'm still using Vegas 6.0b (ya, its old I know). But I guess its still okay for editing HDV right? Will be getting Q6600.

A few points here..

#1) Remember that Windows XP Pro or Vista cannot address and take advantage of a full 4Gb of memory. Most people report a best case scenerio of around 3Gb, but there is also some speculation as to whether or not apps will even see greater than the 2Gb. This has been hottly talked about and I've not taken the time to truly understand exactly what's been going on. Needless to say, 4Gb is not going to give you much, if any, of a performance increase. As far as the speed is concerned 800Mhz ram will be faster than 667Mhz ram assuming there is no overclocking going on. But again, we're dealing with a few % points here.

#2) Vegas 6.0 is *NOT* a good version to edit HDV. Of *ALL* the money you are spending, your best dollars will be spent upgrading to Vegas Pro 8.

Hi folks,

almost there with the new PC, just one last decision on the graphics card:

256MB Gigabyte 8600GT Silent Pipe II, PCI-E (x16), GDDR3, 2 x Dual Link DVI-I, HDTV, HDCP

or:

512MB Gigabyte 8600GT Silent, PCI-E (x16), GDDR2, GPU 540 MHz, Dual Link DVI-I, HDCP

basically, is it better to get 256MB less RAM which runs at a higher clock speed or more RAM at a lower speed?
Both are practically the same price.

Cheers,

Baldwin

I personally would choose the lesser ram but higher clock speed when it comes to gaming. However in video editing scenario, I guess both are pretty on par since both are not pure video editing card. Just my personal opinion. :)

Kenny

I agree with Kenny, the extra RAM on the Video Card means nothing. You'll be fine with the 256Mb card.. What NLE do you use anyway?

Thanks guys, I've just got home from a spending spree and got the 256MB card as you recommended. I use Sony Vegas, so I guess it won't make much difference anyway, though I'll be using After Effects a bit in the future. Anyhow, the PC still ought to be a bit of a beast. Unfortauntely got a call today from the other supplier who i was going to pick up the antec case from saying they wont have it til monday. darn, i'll have to wait. will report back on the PC's performance once it's up.

cheers,

baldwin

Thanks guys, I've just got home from a spending spree and got the 256MB card as you recommended. I use Sony Vegas, so I guess it won't make much difference anyway, though I'll be using After Effects a bit in the future. Anyhow, the PC still ought to be a bit of a beast. Unfortauntely got a call today from the other supplier who i was going to pick up the antec case from saying they wont have it til monday. darn, i'll have to wait. will report back on the PC's performance once it's up.

cheers,

baldwin

Yes please give us a review. I am going to setup a PC myself, roughly the same specs as yours. Just that I'm still using Vegas 6.0b. Will try to edit with it 1st before committing on Vegas 8 Pro. Just wish to know how necessary is it to upgrade to 8 when editing HDV.

Hey Jon... any thoughts on this rev. 2 board, the GA-P35-DS4? Things change so fast :-/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128064

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
Ultra Durable 2, ultra cooling

Edit: This link is deactivated... not sure why... but nevermind

One more question as I get ready to place orders:

Am I insane to think that I can use my 50" Plasma Panasonic HD monitor (720p) as my (only) editing monitor?

It will be connected from the video card via HDMI. I'm trying to use the editing system to also view other content on the big screen. Not live TV, but web content, music, etc.

One more question as I get ready to place orders:

Am I insane to think that I can use my 50" Plasma Panasonic HD monitor (720p) as my (only) editing monitor?

It will be connected from the video card via HDMI. I'm trying to use the editing system to also view other content on the big screen. Not live TV, but web content, music, etc.

50", it will be great if it is full HD. I don't think it is insane. However I think it will pose a small prob if you are playing game with it. The resolution is too low. For video editing I think it is good.

Hey Jon... any thoughts on this rev. 2 board, the GA-P35-DS4? Things change so fast :-/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128064

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
Ultra Durable 2, ultra cooling

Edit: This link is deactivated... not sure why... but nevermind

It's a good board, certainly worthy of a look.

One more question as I get ready to place orders:

Am I insane to think that I can use my 50" Plasma Panasonic HD monitor (720p) as my (only) editing monitor?

It will be connected from the video card via HDMI. I'm trying to use the editing system to also view other content on the big screen. Not live TV, but web content, music, etc.

50" at 720p is going to be a problem if you sit close to the monitor. You're going to have to be about 5 - 6' away at a minimum. Frankly, I'd feel better about it if it were a 42" monitor at 1080p.

Looking to purchase a new computer for HD editing, and need opinions on the below specs. Anything I should add or remove or change?


Case: ADK - ADK Tower: 7 3.5" bay, 5 x 5.25 Bays up to 13 HDD's with hot swap bay.

Power Supply: Thermaltake - 550W EPS12V 16DB 8 sata

Motherboard: Daw Core/Penryn P35 chipset DDR2 1066, 3 PCI, 3PCIe. TI Firewire, 6 Sata DD

Processor: Intel - Intel Q6600 Quad Core, Boxed processor, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8 MB Cache,

Memory: SuperTalent - DDR2-800 1G/128x64 CL4 Memory PC 6400.
Memory 2: SuperTalent - DDR2-800 1G/128x64 CL4 Memory PC 6400.

Hard Drive 1: SEAGATE - Seagate 80G ATA100/7200Rpm 2 meg ST 380215A
Hard Drive 2: SEAGATE - 500G 16Meg Sata II Perpendicular ST3500630AS
Hard Drive 3: SEAGATE - 500G 16Meg Sata II Perpendicular ST3500630AS

Video: XFX - XFX nVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB 540MHz 2DVI/HDTV PCI-Express Video Card

CD/CD-RW/DVD Panasonic - Panasonic Blu-ray SW-5582

Sound Card Onboard

NIC LinkSys - WIRELESS -G PCI CARD 54

Operating System Microsoft - WINDOWS XP Professional OEM full version w/manual and keycode.

Hello Chris,

That looks pretty good to me... I'll make some specific comments..

ADK Tower - Never heard of it. If you've seen it and you like it, great..

Motherboard: Daw Core? If Daw is a brand, I've never heard of it and would stay away. If it's not a brand and you meant dual, then stick with a good brand such as Gigabyte, ASUS, Intel, etc.

NIC: Just be carefull to set your wireless system with lots of security in mind.

Memory looks fine, though I've never run SuperTalent memory, should be okay.

Hard Drives, I would not use that 80G drive as a system drive. It's an older slower unit. Purchase a new, larger faster hard drive as your system drive. RAID up the two 500G hard drives into a RAID 0 for fastest performance.

Is that panasonic Blu-Ray drive a burner or just a reader?

Video Card is perfect..

Jon

Hello Chris,

That looks pretty good to me... I'll make some specific comments..

ADK Tower - Never heard of it. If you've seen it and you like it, great..

Motherboard: Daw Core? If Daw is a brand, I've never heard of it and would stay away. If it's not a brand and you meant dual, then stick with a good brand such as Gigabyte, ASUS, Intel, etc.

NIC: Just be carefull to set your wireless system with lots of security in mind.

Memory looks fine, though I've never run SuperTalent memory, should be okay.

Hard Drives, I would not use that 80G drive as a system drive. It's an older slower unit. Purchase a new, larger faster hard drive as your system drive. RAID up the two 500G hard drives into a RAID 0 for fastest performance.

Is that panasonic Blu-Ray drive a burner or just a reader?

Video Card is perfect..

Jon

Thanks for the help. The BD drive is a burner.

Made some changes based on your input - let me know if this is better.


Motherboard: Asus - P5W64 WS Professional : Intel Core"2 Extreme / Core"2 Duo Ready Quad-cor

OS/Programs Drive: Western Digital - RAPTOR 740GD SATA 74G 10K

Kept everything else the same.

Also - should I upgrade the sound card?

Which is a better choice, 2 X 500GB or 3 X 320GB when it comes to raid0?

Which is a better choice, 2 X 500GB or 3 X 320GB when it comes to raid0?

Hope you are not asking me, because I have no idea.

Hope you are not asking me, because I have no idea.

Haha. Anybody has any idea?
I was tinking of either raiding 2 X 500GB or 3 X 320GB. I think the chance of HDD failure is higher with 3 HDD than 2 right? Hmmm...

it is a personal choice. 3 drives stripped together will be faster than 2 but there is a greater chance of failure with 3 drives. in the past year i have had 5 hard drives fail so i ended up running a 1+0 raid. it is more expensive but there are still the benefits of stripping with the advantages of mirroring.

I joined a week or two ago, just saw this thread. Happens that in June, after researching what the custom shops were building, I set aside plan to build P5B type system and built instead: Tyan s2696, Antec Titan 550, Xeon 5130 (just one to start) 2x1GB SST 667 FB-DIMM, one 160GB NCQ Barracuda system drive, two (eventually 3) 320GB data drives RAID 0, PNY Quadro FX560, Blackmagic Intensity--a really affordable system, scarcely more money than a Core 2 quad or extreme NLE with gaming GPU. And this system has turned out to be awesome, capturing from my new Canon HV20 with HDMI, w two Acer 22" I got at Best Buy for $190 each (!), and driving a cheaper HDTV with the Intensity for RT monitoring of the timeline in Premiere Pro 2.o
Why don't more people opt for these really affordable 54-bit platforms? have I missed something?
solo

Which is a better choice, 2 X 500GB or 3 X 320GB when it comes to raid0?

I would say 2 X 500Gb. The performance will be just fine and you'll have less risk in that setup.

it is a personal choice. 3 drives stripped together will be faster than 2 but there is a greater chance of failure with 3 drives. in the past year i have had 5 hard drives fail so i ended up running a 1+0 raid. it is more expensive but there are still the benefits of stripping with the advantages of mirroring.

5 hard drive failures for personal use in one year is a sign that something is seriously wrong. If you were running several hundred drives, I could see it. You should seriously look into seeing if you are having some power issues at your location. Investment in a good UPS with AVR might help cut down on those failures.

Jon

Looking to purchase a new computer for HD editing, and need opinions on the below specs. Anything I should add or remove or change?



Chris,

I just built my first system (with a lot of help and input from Jon) and I went with following drive for the operating system and program files:

WD 150GB WD1500ADFD SATA150 16MB 10,000RPM

I've dedicated the system to doing mostly NLE and multimedia work. So far I've edited a project in Studio 11 Ultimate and just recently downloaded Vegas 8 and have been tooling around with that a bit. The new system is really running smoothly, in fact it's just plain awesome. It handles the whole NLE process fantastically thus far. The OS and programs load noticeably quicker than any other systems I've had. Flight Sim (oh ya, multimedia work haha)... runs with no hiccups at high graphics settings. I'm certain that the drive has something to do with this as well.

I wanted to tie into my network wirelessly also (28 windows updates after I loaded the OS!). I added the Belkin F5D8051 Wireless N USB Network Adapter. Even though the reviews I saw were not favorable I went ahead and got it anyway. It installed in a matter of moments with no issues. I'm getting upwards of 275 Mbps with this hookup, plus you can remove it from the cradle and plug it into a usb port directly if you like. The pci cards all have antennas hanging out of them anyway. The Belkin adaptor is not only kind of slick looking and but I think it gets better reception as well.

I went with the 1 TB Hitachi instead of RAID'ing out several drives. There's room for 2 more in the Antec case I put it all in. So, I could get another drive and mirror it if I get nervous about loosing something.

Anyway, there's 2 cents from a newbie! Good luck.

Let me share my experience with the question of striping drives for massive, fast video storage.
As i mentioned earlier, I built a dual CPU xeon NLE. For data storage, I first had 2 x 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA drives. These were RAID 0. I happened to test this array along with everything else in the system using the PassMark test suite. later, I added a drive to the array, and tested again, using several different 'strip' sizes. Turns out this does make a difference. and adding a drive (going from 2 to 3) made a big difference too.

So my opinion, based on a few experiments, is a larger number of smaller drives (up to wahtever the limit is on your condroller hardware/RAID management software).

The ESB2 controller, part of the Intel 5000x chipset, will actually add a drive to an existing RAID 0 array, while you are working--you don't even actually have to shut down. and there's a windows storage utility called 'Matrix Storage Manager' that does RAID expansion/conversion (RAID 0 to RAID 5, for example. And this identical RAID implementation is not just on the xeon chipsets. It's also a feature on the following controllers;


• Intel(R) 82801HBM Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH8M)
• Intel(R) 82801HEM Serial ATA RAID Controller (ICH8ME)
• Intel(R) 82801HEM Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH8ME)
• Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO Serial ATA RAID Controller (ICH8R)
• Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH8R)
• Intel(R) 631xESB/632xESB SATA RAID Controller
• Intel(R) 631xESB/632xESB SATA AHCI Controller
• Intel(R) 82801GHM Serial ATA RAID Controller (ICH7MDH)
• Intel(R) 82801GBM Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH7M)
• Intel(R) 82801GR Serial ATA RAID Controller (ICH7R)
• Intel(R) 82801GR Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH7R)
• Intel(R) 82801GH Serial ATA RAID Controller (ICH7DH)
• Intel(R) 82801GH Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH7DH)
• Intel(R) 82801FR Serial ATA RAID Controller (ICH6R)
• Intel(R) 82801FR Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH6R)
• Intel(R) 82801FBM Serial ATA AHCI Controller (ICH6M)

The Intel Matrix Storage Manager consists of the following components:

• Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver
• Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console
• Event Monitor
• Intel Matrix Storage Manager option ROM

anyone who is planning to use the hardware RAID support of current Intel chipset should read the Intel Matrix documentation, which can be found on the intel website.
solo

hi folks,

finally got the new machine running and its flying. here's the final specs:

Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4Ghz
Antec Sonata III Silent Case w 500W Earthwatts PSU
2GB Corsair 6400 DRAM
Primary Drive 250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache
2 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache Hard Drive set at RAID 0
NEC Optiarc AD-7170A-0S DVD burner
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P Intel P35 Express LGA775 1333 FSB Motherboard
Gigabyte 8600GT PCI-E 256MB graphics card silent pipe HDTV/DVI/VGA

Have transferred a feature film which i'm in the middle of audio dubbing from the old PC and it's editing nicely in native HDV with previews in Good or even Best without dropping frames. I can even preview with Magic Bullet Look at Good without dropping many frames.

A few things about the build: was disappointed the Antec case didnt have a front firewire port for some reason i thought it did... it is really quiet though although the CPU fan is a noisy bugger. i'll probably invest in a quieter one - any suggestions?

Gigabyte dont provide a back plate for the extra USB ports and Firewire ports which is a bit mean - there's only 1 firewire port on the standard back plate which is annoying if you have a firewire soundcard (mine's an Alesis I/O 26) and want to plug a camera. Those USB/firewire back plates are at least £10...

Apart from that very happy with it - havent done a big render yet but hope it'll breeze through.

Tried the HDTV component output to my Samsung 42" HD LCD which actually looked pretty poor - not so noticeable when playing video but you can see terrible ghosting and softness when you're looking at the desktop. however, i connected via the VGA input of the TV which was crystal clear - who needs HDMI!

Thanks to everyone who's given advice, especially Jon, it was most helpful.

Best,

Baldwin

just another note: ive decided to NEVER allow the new machine anywhere near the internet - a bit annoying when having to transfer latest drivers etc. from my other PC from a USB drive but i think worth it. i've therefore not ran any Windows Updates - i had to install NET framework manually for Vegas which was fine - i could have made up an Windows install CD with the updates already i guess but, question is, is it worth geting the updates anyway? i think most of them are 'security' based and since im not on the net it isnt going to be an issue. and who need windows media player 11 when there's VLC!?

baldwin

Baldwin,

I think you are wise to do manual updates and I think it's absolutely spot on about all the security stuff from Microsoft. If you're not on the internet, you won't need 'em... Funny how the internet which has turned into the "lifeblood" of computing is also the greatest weakness. Simply removing that equation from your working computer nearly makes you free from any possible harm from the outside.

In regards to the case... this is another reason why I strongly recommend the P180 or P182 from Antec. Front firewire and it's design is focused around silent operation.

As for the TV. You definately wouldn't want to run the TV-Out to the HD LCD. That would give you a horrible display. The best way to go about hooking that up should be to get a DVI-HDMI connector and use that big LCD as your secondary display. Be sure to lookup the resolution of the device and configure that exact resolution with your NVidia display properties (maybe either 1280x720 or 1920x1080 <- hopefully that one). You want that display to be showing pixel perfect and that should create a crisp tight display.

Jon

just another note: ive decided to NEVER allow the new machine anywhere near the internet

I've been thinking along those lines too - Is this what most people do?

Keep their editing computers isolated from the Internet?

I've been thinking along those lines too - Is this what most people do?

Keep their editing computers isolated from the Internet?

I think, personally, this might be a litte bit of hyper thinking. There really is nothing inherently more dangerous on the internet than anything else in the world. I think the balance for a editing/work type machine though is to simply only hook up the machine for software updates and maybe some very simple basic web browsing and then to disconnect the system from the internet. Occasional intermittant internet use I feel is virtually completely free from risk. I think once you eliminate any email use + visiting questionable websites, it's probably safer than sex with condoms and birthcontrol pills.

Jon

Hi Jon

First off, thank you so much for sharing you wisdom on this topic, it has been such a big help.

Secondly, as a bit of time has elapsed since you began this thread I have a couple of questions that I'd love to hear your (or anyone else's) answers to:

1. Do you think it's too early in their lifespan to be investing in the Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 or ASUS P5K3 Deluxe? If so, is the GA P35-DS3P still the latest, safest bet?

2. Are the DDR2 boards peaking now and is it worth getting a DDR3 mobo, even if DDR3 memory (from what I read) isn't up to the same performance standard as DDR2 yet?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

As a whole, the P35 chipset is fairly mature now and there doesn't seem to be really any problems with this chipset. I don't think, honestly, there is really that much variation between particular P35 motherboards within the same manufacturer or even across manufacturors for that matter. I particularly like the Gigabyte boards because they've been good to me in the past, but I've also had good success with MSI, Asus, Abit, etc. There happens to be a pretty good motherboard out on the market now by Abit the IP35 Pro that seems to be packed with features at a reasonable price as well.

I would stear clear of DDR3 for now. Too expensive, simply no real advantage and again, you are treading in new waters. Who's to say your favorite NLE app might not be absolutely 100% compatable with DDR3? I'm not saying it isn't, I'm just saying I know everything created in the last 2-3 years has had DDR2 in mind. I've even heard rumblings there may be a jump to a DDR4 standard before the DDR3 one really takes place... Who knows...

Jon

Hey Baldwin, how much did the machine run you?

I think the balance for a editing/work type machine though is to simply only hook up the machine for software updates and maybe some very simple basic web browsing and then to disconnect the system from the internet.

This would require a security program though, right? Like VET or whatever, yeah?

And I'm told that they are one of the biggest causes of system slow-downs you can find.

If you didn't go near the Internet at all, would you need one?

How about just for software updates? Would you need a security program like VET?

No security software, no anti-virus, no windows firewall, nothing....

What I'm suggesting here is that you don't run any of that junk on your editing machine. Think of it like driving without a seatbelt. If you drive a lot, the odds are probably going to end up that you'll get in an accident at some point and not having it on will *probably* something you wish you had... but you could drive for years and years and it may never be a problem... Seeing as how you won't be using your editing machine to access the internet hardly at all, I personally don't think there is really a true risk in not running all that junk.

Heck, it wasn't very long ago (at least in my eyes) that none of this stuff really existed and wasn't mainstream at all...

Jon