Dual Athlon Setup
 

This is just my .02 but I would probably just stick with a one processor setup, and put the money towards more HD space and xtra software packages.

I have been running 3.5 on my Single Athlon XP1800 setup on a Soyo Dragon Plus Platinum MB for about $350 total. One fast processor renders FX pretty fast, and is plenty sufficient for recording/playback/Realtime FX with no problems. With the savings of the Xtra processor and board that supports it you could buy another 20 Hours worth of storage.

Just thought I would chime in.

-Brad

I'm running dual AMD chips with XDV and I haven't had any problems. True they are not supported by Avid, but Avid only offers free support for 30 days, then you have to pay for the support period...And let me tell you, their support isn't very good to begin with. I find the Avid forums to be of greater help.

If I were building a system JUST for XDV I would go with a single processor. XDV doesn't really take advantage of the second chip. I've heard XDV performs only 25 to 50% faster than a single chip machine. If you do a lot of After Effects work...then I do recommend dual processors. AE is true multithreaded software.

As far as the Pentium Xeons VS AMD, many will tell you the dual Xeons are worth the extra money over the dual AMDs, but I can't justify it just yet. The latest AMD MP chips run a bit hotter but overall they perform extremely well.

If you do decide to go with the dual AMD chips, be prepared to tweak Windows XP Pro to the max.

thanks all. what exactly does "tweak to the max" mean? my knowledge of computers is limited.

XP tweaks...

http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html

effects software w/ avid xpress dv3.5
 

what is the best effects/color correction software to work with on a system with avid xpress dv 3.5?

regarding AE:
i know of conflicts between avid xpress dv and premiere if on same system.
does after effects cause the same conflict? i though it might since its also adobe.

thanks.

No, After Effects works like a charm with XDV. Get Automatic Duck and it will work even better.

And XDV has really really good in App Color Correction.

Boris Continuum Complete

The plug-ins a re seemless wit the Avid interface. They render fast as hell. real-time FX are coming by year end (FREE download to registered users)

Check out this new insider interview for more info http://www.videoguys.com/videoguy-bfx2.html

Gary

cool so as far as image control with after effects or with boris, i should have no problems using xdv 3.5.

what about sound software? i've read a couple of threads listed here on the subject, but didn't really get an idea if there is sound software which works better/worse with xpress dv 3.5.
basically interested in the following:
protools
cubase
sound forge
sonar

thanks.

XDV 3.5 includes a suite of audio tools. It alos includes about a dozen pro-tools plug-ins. Ypu can add additional pro-tools plug-ins to XDV.

Gary
Videoguys.com

I would not go with a dual processor system either. Put your money
that you save elsewhere. Memory and especially harddisk space
(or a DVD burner?) is much more interesting in my opinion.

And if AVID is not multi processor aware you will not gain
any speed increase at all (almost).

Good luck with your choice.