Originally Posted by Mike McCarthy (Post 1590761)

As far as RAM goes, there are limitations about certain configs working better, but it has nothing to do with Win7. 5500 based Xeons (Nehalem Based) and newer use triple channel RAM, while 5400 series Xeons (Core2 based) use Dual chanel RAM. That is channels per CPU, so with dual sockets it becomes 6 channel vs 4 channel.

In order to utilize all of the channels in dual proc workstations, RAM sticks should be installed in sets of 4 or 6. The Precision 490 is Core2 based, so you want sets of 4 sticks. This gives you the options of 8GB (4x2GB) 16GB (4x4GB) 24GB (4x4GB+4x2GB) 32GB (8x4GB or 4x8GB) and any other config you can create wth sets of 4. With a newer Nehalem based system, you need to install sets of 6, giving you the options of 12GB (6x2GB) 24GB (6x4GB) 36GB (6x4GB+6x2GB) 48GB (6x8GB or 12x4GB) etc. If you use a different number of sticks, the system will revert back to single channel failover mode, cutting your memory bandwidth by 33 or 50%.

(Apple was selling Nehalem based MacPros with 16GB as a default option, which cut memory bandwidth by 33% compared to 12GB. So the lower amount of RAM would give better performance.)

Originally Posted by Mike McCarthy (Post 1593593)

20GB is a fine option if configured properly with sets of 4 stick. So 4x1GB plus 4x4GB should give you optimal performance, as would 4x1GB plus 4x2GB for 12GB total. (Don't be confused by the fact that Nehalem systems have totally different requirements for optimal performance, those limitations don't apply to your system.)

Originally Posted by Jay West (Post 1578197)

I second what Tim said above about running CS3 under Win 7 (or Vista 64). I add the following six comments to the intervening discussion.

1. First, for Ron Little and John Gerard and your "crashing" problems: have you tried cleaning the media cache database? An overfull, unattended media cache database can produce those symptoms. In CS4 and CS5, you click on Edit -->Preferences-->Media and then click "clean" next to the second item down. It has been a couple of years since I last used CS3, so I do not recall the exact keystrokes (and I can't find my CS3 manual) but I believe the process was similar.

Also, for Ron, if you are working with AVCHD when you are getting crashes, you might want to try an Adobe CS5 "AVCHD" sequence preset to see if the crashing issues persist.

2. Second: for John: before moving from Win XP to Win 7, check to be sure that there will not be any hidden hardware gotchas before getting and installing Win 7. Dell systems have a reputation for being finicky about this so you want to run the Microsoft Windows Upgrade Advisor. (Google it to find the free MS download site).

3. Also for John: as for whether it is worthwhile upgrading from CS3 to CS5, it ultimately depends a lot on what you edit and what you edit for. In addition to what Tim pointed out, I'll offer a few more specific things to consider.

Are you working mainly with SD video or are you mainly working with HD formats? If SD, stay with CS3. If you are using mostly HD video, I can say that. CS5 has been a very good thing for me. I do mostly mutli-cam editing with HDV and AVCHD, and also (like Tim) I happily use a Matrox Mini for an external display . I have found CS5 much preferable to CS3. While I've had to figure out some quirks and work-arounds, working with HD under CS5 has been as easy for me as working with SD under CS3. (Come to think of it, there were quirks and work-arounds there, too.)

If using HDV, do you use a third party capture utility like HDVSplit or Cineform's HDLink? These cure the audio synch problems that some CS3 users -- myself included --- had when using PPro CS3's own capture utility; a problem that has gone away with CS5.

Do you need to work with mixed formats, such as SD and HDV and/or AVCHD in the same timeline If you got Cineform's Neoscene or NeoHD, you can convert everything to run under CS3. CS5 does not need necessarily the conversions (though there are be other reasons to use Cineform.)

Do you need/want the ability to make Blu-ray disks with menus. Encore CS5 does this, CS3 does not, If you are not burning BD, you don't care.

How much multi-cam and multi-track editing editing do you do and how much do you work with layers of effects? The more of this you do, the more you may want to consider CS5.

Can you add a Cuda capable video card to your system? This not absolutely necessary. Some folks find software MPE sufficient for their needs. This is subjective, though.

Do you need to edit LPCM audio with your video? CS5 does this, CS3 does not (although NeoHD will now ingest it.) If you do not have a Sony NX5 or somewhat specialized audio recording equipment you do not care about this.

There was discussion above about using an external editing display for HD editing with a Matrox Mini. You need CS4/5 to run the Mini. Since you are holding off on upgrading your computer hardware, I'd guess that you do not care about this.

4. Be aware that perceptions of suitability are subjective. For example, I think your system specs are a bit underpowered for CS5. While I'm not sure that 8 mb of RAM and a dual core processor is enough, there are numbers of forum members who have reported happily using CS5 to edit on laptops with lesser capabilities than your current system.

5. If you want to add to your RAM and going to Win 7, consider getting a separate hard drive for this if there is room in your Dell case for one. From experience with my own and several other folks upgrading to Win 7, I can tell you it is far easier to do a clean install on a new hard drive. You still have you XP drive available if and when something does not work under Win 7. There is something to watch out for here, though. You probably know that you can install your copy of CS3 (or CS5) on two computers (as long as they are not used at the same time, Adobe treats installations under different operating systems as separate computers.) So, if you've got CS3 on the laptop you mentioned, you probably want to deactivate it before trying out CS3 under Win 7 on your main system.

6. Finally, the easiest way to deal with the internet is to just unplug the ethernet cord from your editing system. You only plug it in when you need to update.