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

System Tray
 

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

new system
 

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

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.

Ga-p35-ds4
 

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

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128064

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

HDTV as single monitor?
 

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.