Dual Core
 

Any new updates about dual core, Premier Pro/Aspect performance?
Also, are any of the new dual core units hyperthreaded?
How about the Intel D 840 or 840 EE?
Intel D vs. AMD X2's??
Thanks,
Gary

Dual Core = great performance with Aspect HD. That is the news.

840EE is hyperthreaded, whereas the Pentium D 840 is not.

I haven't tried a X2 yet, I used an 840EE (wow) and 830 (pretty nice.)

Amd 4800?
 

Thankyou for the reply.
I am considering, either an Intel 840EE or an AMD 4800, for my edit platform. I have observed on a few Gaming forums, that there is great praise for the AMD4800. However, editing with Cineform HD may have other requirements. What might your (David), or any ones thoughts be, regarding making this choice? Will Cineform be testing a 4800 with Cineform HD in the near future? I am sure that I would be satisfird with either, but just curious since I have some time before I will be making my final decision!!!
Thanks,
Gary Harper

I don't know if we will get an X2 system in the office any time soon. It isn't possible for a small company like CineForm to have one a every PC type. We have many Opteron systems which are awesome, so I expect the X2 to be an excellent chip. CineForm needs are fast memory bus a little more than a high clock speed, so which ever has the edge in memory performance is likely faster.

I'm in the process of putting together an X2 system. I'm replacing my dual Xeon motherboard because it only has an AGP graphics slot and I want to use a Parahelia APVe. I'll let you know how it goes and how it compares to the Xeon as soon as I get the system together.

Mick Guzauski

Thanks David and Mike, Keep the topic/thread updated on any progress.
David, I am not sure what to look for in the specs. pertaining to "high buss speed" in my comparison shopping. I am almost computer illiterate!! and have to rely on you more informed folks to educate me.
Thanks again,
Gary

Gary,

Fortunately all the newest CPUs have a fast memory bus. Look for a dual core CPU that has dual channel DDR that runs the memory at 400 or 533Mhz. (which means a front speed bus of at least 800Mhz.) All of today performance systems have this.

Hi,

I just got my X2 system together. I'm using an Athlon X2 4400+ in an Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard with 1 gig of 400 mhz ddr ram. The system drive is a 250 gig Hitachi SATA drive, the video raid is 2 x 250 gig Hitachi SATA's in a raid 0 configuration. The cpu is overclocked 10% and has been completely stable. (2.4 ghz core speed, 880 mhz front side bus, and 440 mhz memory speed) The video card is a Matrox APVe driving 2 x 19" 1280 x 1024 displays for the desktop and a Samsung 23" LCD 1366 x 768 hdtv display (YUV component in).

The performance seems very good. It will capture 10 minutes of 1080i video in just over 11 minutes. I can view 3 streams of 1080i video continuously with no dropped frames. 4+ streams for short periods of time with no dropped frames.

Note: Because the Samsung display is natively 720p, I have the video card set to 720p 60 output. This seems to look a bit better than letting the monitor scale down from 1080i. Also the performance seems slightly better in this configuration.

This system performs slightly better than the dual Xeon 3.2 gig that I was previously using but really in the same ballpark. The X2 system runs much cooler and quieter than the Xeon system. The Matrox APVe is far superior, in my opinion to any AGP card available. (that's the main reason for my changing motherboards)

Premiere Pro 1.51 and Aspect HD 3.3 installed and ran with no issues.

The computer can be assembled for about $1600 including drives and video card. The entire system with software and monitors can be assembled for under $4000.

I feel this is a very good system that is both economical and high performance.

Mick Guzauski

System Specs
 

I'm going to be using Adobe Premiere Pro and Aspect HD 3.3 for a new system I'm putting together. Here are the specs:

Asus A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon x2 4400+
Corsair Twinx 2048-3200Pro - 2 GB RAM
Matrox APVe Video Card
Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum Edition Sound Card (ASIO compatible)
1x Western Digital 120 GB 7200 rpm IDE system drive
1x Western Digital 120 GB 7200 rpm IDE auxilliary drive
2x Hitachi 500 GB 7200 rpm IDE video drives in RAID0
2x Pioneer dual layer DVD recorders (108 and 109)
RocketRaid 454 IDE RAID card
Adaptec IDE controller
Antec Truepower (or PC Power and Cooling) 550 watt power supply
2x 120mm case fans
Cooler Master Centurion 520 case (5x 5 1/4" bays and 5x 3 1/2" bays)

I have a Sony HDV camcorder and have used the Aspect HD trial for the last couple of weeks. I used to have a Matrox RT2500 real time DV editing system. The combination of Premiere Pro and Aspect HD reminds me of the quick response I got from that system (only much better). With my old system and the Aspect HD trial I could get two streams of 1080i to play back smoothly most of the time, but I'm hoping at least three with this new rig.

Any thoughts on this configuration? This is a mixture of parts from older systems and new components. I'm especially interested in feedback on the ASIO sound card, since I'm interested in doing surround mixing in Premiere.

Joe Clark

Hi,

The A8N-SLI premium motherboard has 8 SATA raid connectors and just about any combination of raid arrays and single drives can be configured. I would think that an add on IDE or RAID controller may compromise performance because it would rely on on the legacy pci slots rather than direct connection to the Nforce chipset.

That Corsair RAM is the same that I'm using and it has no problem overclocking to 440Mhz.

You may want to check out one of the external ASIO firewire audio interfaces like the MOTU 828 mark 2. This device has 10 channels of balanced analog I/O, digital I/O, SMPTE time code, and MIDI. I would suspect that its A/D - D/A conversion would be better than an internal sound card. You might want to add a firewire card to the computer so that this device would be on a seperate bus from your camera.

You will get at least 3 streams of video from that system. More for short duration stuff (transitions P in P etc.)

Mick Guzauski

Mick,

I wanted to go SATA, but I had the two IDE 120 WDs, 2 IDE DVD burners and I got a great deal on the 2 Hitachi 500 GB IDE drives at the CompUSA 6 to midnight sale the other day (about $170 per drive after all the math). I don't think the onboard IDE supports RAID on the Asus, does it? I already have the adaptec controller and I'm using the RocketRAID controller in a HTPC, where it performs well. With this configuration, I can at least keep everything on IDE Primary channels. In the future, it's SATA if at all possible. Both the mobo and the case have plenty of room for expansion.

Thanks for the info on the USB audio device. I'll check it out. The specs for the X-Fi are pretty impressive, though, and I suspect my needs for audio may be a lot less demanding than some. I simply want to be able to mix and steer surround channels in Premiere, which you can't do without an ASIO compatible sound card.

Good news about the Corsair RAM. I'd planned on overclocking the system about that much - nice to know it runs stable at that speed. Are you using any special cooling or just the standard heatsink/fan?

Joe Clark

Hi,

The Asus does not support IDE raid, only SATA. I'm sure what you have will work well though.

Here is the link for the MOTU interface
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828/body.html/en
I don't know if its overkill for what you need but its a great interface for the money.

I'm using only the stock heatsink and fan that came with the processor plus 1 chasis fan. The processor idles at about 35 degrees C and rises to a maximum of 46 degrees C under full load. (overclocked 10 percent)

Mick Guzauski

Thanks, Mick, for that link. I think it's a lot more than I'm going to need now, but it does look really interesting for down the line, and the price is right. It also works with USB 2, I see. Have you actually used the unit?

One more question - how would you rate the quality of the Parhelia output to the Samsung LCD you have?

Joe Clark

Hi,

I've used the 828 with audio software on both PC's and MACS and it works great. I haven't tried it with Premiere yet. I'll give it a try in the next few days.

I really like the look of the Samsung but I'm new to HDV and definitly I'm just a hobbiest. It looks really clean to me. The gamma and contrast seem much more accurate than a computer monitor for video. The color seems a bit more vivid than reality. I run the Parhelia component outs at 720p 60. It seems to look a bit better than letting the monitor scale up to 1080. Also motion seems a bit smoother with this setting. BTW this monitor is available at Costco for about $800.

Mick Guzauski

Mick,

Can't find the Samsung monitor on the Costco website or in the store. Where did you find it?

I'll be looking forward to a report on how this device works with Premiere.

Joe Clark

Hi,

Doesn't look like Costco carries it anymore. Here's a link to it at B&H. Its nice because it has 2 component inputs so I keep one connected to the computer and the other to the cable for the camera. Keep in mind that this monitor is not native 1080 but its scaling works pretty well and letting the Parhelia scale down to 720 to this monitor works great.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation


Mick Guzauski

Thanks, Mick,

Funny, but just yesterday I was in Costco again and found the Samsung being displayed. Go figure.

My Parhelia is not here yet (most of the other components have arrived). Do you know if the Parhelia could scale to the native resolution of the Samsung, 1366x768?

Joe Clark

Hi,

The Parhelia scales very well to the resolution of the monitor. I think the motion is smoother if you let the card scale down rather than have it output 1080 and let the monitor scale down.

Mick Guzauski

Dual corewise, I just got an Opteron 165 which is a 939 socket opteron. These are dual core and have 2MB cache for a lot less than the x2 4400 (same cache). Since it is a server cpu is tested more and can usually be overclocked better and with more stability according to a lot of the overclocking forums.

I also just got and evga 7800gt video card which comes with a component out cable and dual dvi ports and just ordered an Acer 24" lcd monitor which seems to be running about $800 right now. Worth looking into.

Parhelia Availability
 

I'm suddenly having trouble finding the PCI-Express version of the Parhelia. Anyone know where I can find it?

As for the nVidia, does it allow you to drive the DVI monitors and a component monitor at the same time? That's the draw of the Parhelia. Videoguys has a good deal on the nVidia card, but it won't do that.

I can report that the evga 7800gt nvida card works for component HDTV 1080i out to my direct view CRT HD TV and there is no delay while scrubbing the timeline in PremPro with Cineform.
I don't need the three monitor setup as yet so I have not tested that.

Hi,

I got my Parhelia from Page Computers in L.A. Here's a link.
http://newsite.pagecomputers.com/sto...ct%5Fid=753989

Mick Guzauski

Now that I know where to get the Parhelia, I'd really like to know if the 7800gt can drive two analog monitors and the component HD preview output at the same time. If it can, with no blips in timeline playback, I might go that route.

My monitors are analog - 18" NEC LCDs with only VGA inputs.

Much apprecitated, Jeff and Mick.

Joe Clark

Will not work...even though the cards have three outputs,since they are only dual headed, you can only use 2 at the same time. The matrox card has 3 heads so you can with it.

Well I just captured 30 minutes of video from a sony hdr fx1 using my new opteron 165 dual core system. Not overclocked on this test so it is taking the 1.8ghz speeds an extra 14 minutes to convert to the intermediate.
Oh, the 14 minutes was the estimated time listed in the cineform conversion window - I did not clock what the actual time was but will on next test.
Not so great, but this is just my first test.

Parhelia
 

Thanks, I've ordered the Parhelia. One possible complication is that the video card I've ordered is a Sound Blaster X-Fi. I noted that one of its requirements is for a DirectX 9 compatible video card. I read that the Parhelia is not fully DirectX 9 compatible, so I might have to switch out the sound card.

Joe Clark

So far, no incompatibilities have popped up, although the most daunting challenge in this experience is going to be the sound card. This X-Fi is massive in the scope of its capabilities. Makes the Premiere learning curve look like kindergarden.

I just got my activation number for AspectHD and have been enjoying capturing and editing with Premiere. This is a great combination.

Mick,

If you're still following the thread, I have the Parhelia and can't get it to display on the HDTV monitor. The two LCD's work fine, but nothing on the HDTV display. Do you remember having to do anything special to get the display? There's a plug-in on the Matrox disk for Premiere, but David Newman says it shouldn't even be necessary. My next stop is Matrox support, but they won't be answering it seems until next week. Thought you might have some thoughts, since your setup is so similar to mine.

Jeff,
Question 1: Is your HDTV set up as your second monitor then?

Question 2: Do all 7800s offer component out or are you refering to the DVI port?

Question 3: What motherboard are you running the Opteron on?

Thanks,
-- John.

The evga 7800 has an external vivo breakout box that attaches to a port above the 2 DVI connectors. I am using this for my component monitoring as my hdtv does not have dvi port. Nividia recognizes this tv as a dual monitor setup.

I am running the evga nforce4 sli motherboard. Newegg and other dealers are offering a combo deal when you buy both of these products together.

question...
 

is Premiere actually designed with multiple Cpu or Dual core cpu in mind??? My question is simple, can the current version actually utilize the full power of a 64 bit dualcore cpu without a major update?

Premiere is multi-processor aware, but with Aspect HD it is much more so. Although 64-bit stuff has little value for video editing.

Just harking back to the early part of this thread, Newegg lists both the ASUS A8N5X and A8N-E motherboards (NForce4 and NForce4Ultra, respectively) as having both Parallel-ATA and Serial-ATA RAID capability.

I took this to mean they will indeed support IDE drives in a RAID configuration. Can anyone confirm or deny whether this is so? (I have been planning on getting a A8N5X to make use of some spare IDE drives that I have.)

Both can be used in RAID. You can also do IDE/SATA combined RAID.

Thanks, Ken!

I've been browsing this thread for a while now. Currently looking at either buying or building a new machine for HD editing, using Cineform of course. For the least amount of money if possible.

Now I've noticed the Athlon X2 4400+ processors seem to be quite popular. Judging by the CPU shootout at www.tomshardware.com I can see why. They appear to offer better overall performance than the Dual Core Pentium range in the same price range. What I'm not sure about is how these processors differ from the Opteron range? Since I'll be using the computer for 3d work aswell, I've been comparing various AMD based workstations from different companies. Some have X2 cpu's, others have dual Opteron 242, 244, 250's etc, whilst some just have a Dual Core Opteron.

As I've not been following the latest updates in computer technology, all of this seems a bit confusing. How would a single X2 4400+ PC compare with with a dual Opteron 250 cpu based machine? How about a Dual Core X2 4800+ vs an Opteron Dual Core 265 or 270? They're all a similar price. Which would be the best option for HD editing + 3d animation?

Graphics cards are something else I've not kept up to date with. Ideally I prefer using just a single monitor to work on, rather than two with a line down the middle. Dell have just released a 30" monitor (same size as our tv) which is much the same as Apple's, but a lot cheaper. It looks impressive, but I'd probably rather buy their 24" model for half the price. Anyway, I think I read on the Cineform site where David mentioned that the Matrox Parhelia is a good choice for a video card as it offers component out aswell. He also mentioned the Quadra FX 540, but said there was a delay. Out of the two, I know the Quadra FX would be better for working with 3d aswell. But I believe both monitors support dual monitors? Are there other options that will support just a single monitor + component out without the delay for monitoring the output on a TV?

Any help here would be much appreciated.

Glenn

The reason Dave mentions the Parhelia was that it's fairly unique in supporting TWO monitors PLUS component out to a third (i.e. 3 monitors total).

However, if you only want one monitor, plus component out, then there will be more options (Newegg.com has a video card selection tool that will list them) ..... although I can't tell you anything about about their delays, sorry.

Hi,

Here's a couple of links that describes in detail the differences between the Athlon and the Opteron processors.

http://www.devx.com/amd/Article/27340

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/136


Mick

Cheers for the replies.

Mick, good articles. They do explain things a bit more clearly. Thanks for the links.

So I can confirm that a 52 minute capture ended showing 73% had transcoded during the capture. It took another 15 minutes to finish the transcoding process.
This is with a dual core Opteron 165 overclocked to 2ghz with 1GB ram and video being captured to a striped raid drive.
Is anyone doing any better with Opteron 170 or 4400?