New PC up to scratch?
 

Just bought a budget PC which I hope will enable DV editing, but I wonder...

It's a Celeron 1.7ghz running on a FSB133 mhz mainboard and meory 256 RAM (needs to be more??)

One 40GB hard drive partitioned into 2, with 30 GBfree as a video capture drive. Snag....its 5,200 RPM drive. However I checked the write time with a software tool and it gave me a consistent write speed of continual data in a sustained test of 5.1 MB a second....is this fast enough for full quality DV capture?

The only problem I can see that is certain is the onboard graphics chip which shares 64 MB of the main memory, which always slows down graphics. Perhaps bypassing this with a dedicated video card with a better spec, or will this make no difference to capture speed or rendering.

Any hints, before I take the plunge and spend everything on the best capture card I can find, without regard for more RAM or a 2nd 7000 RPM drive as a dedicated proper capture drive instead of a partition?

Two things...

You'll definitely need a dedicated video card. And you should really consider a second hard drive dedicated solely to video capture. A 5400rpm drive is all you need for this. But if you're using a single drive split into two partitions, one for the application software and one for video capture, you're going to run into trouble with dropped frames and such.

The good news is, 5400rpm drives are cheap. Nothing's stopping you.

How are you getting DV into the computer? Are you going to use a simple OHCI FireWire card, or a real-time DV editing card such as a Matrox, Pinnacle or Canopus product?

firewire card & various
 

Thinking of buying a cheap standard PCI firewire card and connecting to my TRV240E camcorder. There is no reason why this method should not work....of course I would prefer something a little better, but really dont want to spend too much at the present.

Yes, I think a 2nd hard drive is essential. Would 7000 RPM really make a fantastic difference in capture quality though. DV needs 4MBS a second continual write speed, and the 5400 new drive manages more than this anyway. I suppose older 5400 drives would not have such impressive data transfer rates, but the latest ones do impressive stats.

Just trying to work out premiere 6, its not exactly easy to get going straight away like Vegas Video, for example. However, everyone seems to use it. I hope it will recognize my Sony camcorder as its a digital 8 machine, but a 2002 model none the less.

<< Would 7000 RPM really make a fantastic difference in capture quality though. >>

No! It should be clearly understood that the drive's spin rate has absolutely no impact on capture quality whatsoever. DV is DV is DV and does not change. The DV codec you're using can slightly affect capture and playback quality, but as far as the drive itself, the only issue is going to be the chance for dropped frames. And actually, you could easily capture to a 4400rpm drive without dropping frames. But I would not want to edit with complex titles and transitions on such a drive.

5400rpm is overkill for assuring an error-free DV capture. The issue with 7200rpm drives is that they run hotter and produce more noise, which may or may not have an impact on your editing environment.

get a GOOD known firewire card .. IMO the pyro basic is excellent ( around 50) ... if you get somethimg from canopus , pinnicle, matrox make sure your computer meets their approval list - you might have to know the mother board etc ...

see how your computer works with it .. then if it looks like a go i would double your memory to 512 mgs ( the shared should be fine then ) ... agree with CHRIS get a dedicated HD for video.
i use both 5400 & 7200 rpm drives ... 5400's test out at 26-29mgs read/writes .. 7200's test out at 44-49 mgs read/writes.

IMO a new computer should have FASTER sustained read/write then 5.1mgs ?? don't know what you are using to test it but i would test it with REX test or rap test both available for free download at canopus ..then let us know the results ..

http://www.canopus.com/US/products/free_utilities/pm_free_utilities.asp

rap
 

ran both RAP and REx tests:

READ 23 MBS
WRITE 22 MBS

Sounds pretty good me.

Oh and OVERLAY was fully supported, whatever that refers to. Perhaps the onboard graphics is not tooo bad.