Jeff, thanks again for the great advice - I really appreciate it!

My last Dell came with reinstall discs for both Windows and Dell apps, so I should have both. I was actually interested in getting a 160GB drive for the OS and applications, and using the 750GB for media (in addition to another external drive). I'm not using external preview or plug ins right now so I should be okay with 8.1 ... but what other advantages would there be to installing 8.0c after I install 8.1? Thanks again -

Sam

If you're getting a 160GB drive after your computer arrives you might consider the Western Digital Velociraptor. Fastest "regular" drive around. They have 150GB size and 300GB. Worth every penney.

Be careful that your power supply is more than 400w. My last Dell had a weak power supply and caused me all kinds of issues because I ran it maxed out. You should likely need at least 500w and preferably more. I was warned befored I bought mine, didn't listen and was sorry. That was a reason I built my own computer this time, because you can't upgrade power supply on all Dells. On your model you might be able to, I don't know, but if you do you will have to buy it from Dell, you can never upgrade to non-Dell PSU.

Advantages to install 8.0c? Well, first of all if you use any plugins with Vegas they will not work with 8.1. If you do not use plugins, you don't have to install 8.0c. But if 8.1 doesn't work right for you you can always install 8.0c later, you don't have to install right away.

I too am taking delivery of 17. Has some software preinstalled which I would rather have not had, but that was the 'deal'. PLan to install 8.1 first, as I guess that is the recommendation, (I have 8c on my dual core) which was an upgrade from 7 and from 6 etc.
Where do I get my install codes and how does that work as they were upgradess?

Also where do I find the Vista tweaks mentioned? I have always used XP and have some reservations about Vista.

If I may suggest, if your system comes with a copy of OS, not just a restore disc, you might consider cleaning HD and installing OS by itself. As soon as I take new system out of box first thing I do is have a floppy disc ready with a format utility.

Vista will work fine, don't even worry about it. Your PC was designed for Vista. Do a search for Vista Tweaks...you'll find plenty!

I just builit from the ground up a completely new i7 system over the weekend, installed Vegas 8.0c and 8.1... Everything so far has been extremely positive for me.. The system hasn't had one single hickup and I've even overclocked it to a modest 3.0Ghz (from the 2.66Ghz stock 920 chip). It's absurdly fast and I hope to have the time in the next few days to write a detailed review and show some performance numbers when I'm done.

Jon

I just got my Dell i7. I am very envious of those of you who can build your own systems, mainly because of the upgrading and tweaking that you can do. I have always had good luck witth my Dell systems and that is why I stay with them but they apparently use some proprietary parts that keep you from doing things like overclocking!! Apparently you can't even increase the size of the power supply without going to Dell for the part.
Now my question-- I notice on the MoBo that there is only one PCI slot (I think thas what it is called) and it is occupied by the video card (ATI) There are three other slots but I have never seen slots like them before - really short like an inch or so long. Can someonne tell me what these are and what DELL PART you could pay dearly for to place in them. Can't see how you could go with dual video cards or add an audio card unless its some new kind of card.

Those are PCIe slots, Terry. That's PCI Express.

PCIe slots are not exclusive to Dell, so don't worry about that. Most any add in card should be available in PCIe nowadays. PCIe is the new, faster version of PCI, that's all.

Can you post your exact model name for me? I'd be interested to check out the specs, if you don't mind.

Jon, that is way cool, we'll be wating for you review!

Jeff, if you were asking me for the model number I will get it when I get home tonight. Might also have a list of how it was configured. (Fairly minimally) (But what do you want for $1200) :>)
Another question. It was supposed to be configured with a 19-1 card reader built in but they forgot to build it that way. I got a notice that they will send me a USB 19-1 card reader free. Besides plugging up one of the USB ports will this external reader function as fast and as well as one built in. I don't know what the differences in connections are. It is USB2.

By the way I bought this Dell from Costco online. It was shipped from Dell. It appeared to be a couple of hundred cheaper than what I could configure from Dell themselves. I have always dealt dirctly with Dell before.

That's a good question about the card reader. I don't know how it would have been hooked up before. Possibly with a cable directly to a connection on the motherboard. Will the USB version be as fast? Hmmmm.

What kind of cards are you going to need to have read, anything in particular?

Hopefully some Vegas guru with experience with card readers will respond. Overall it should be fine, I just don't know if you are using cards with video files on them if that will be too slow or not.

I wouldn't get upset about your predicament. I get hacked off at all the un-necessary drives that show up on my computer as a result of this 19 in 1 reader.

Jeff,

I went through all the Dell I7 computers.

The model number I ordered is this, xps 435 MT. Ironicly I wet to the sigth to look it up and could not fined it, just the 730x which was my first choice but really was a high profile gamer.

I bought it Bas. I did not want card readers, you can buy a usb card reader for peanuts if you want one!!

If I can overclock the computer, what kind of cooler should one put on it??? preferably not an expensive 500 dollar dell liquid cooling system!!!!

Has anyone tried overclocking the del I7's???

for tweaks, just google it and there are several obvious tweaks and they give specific directions to do so!!

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/s...eaks.htm#seven

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

some of these have no value to the editor, but as you can see some do!

Sorry Dale. If you got a base model you cannot overclock it, I would almost guarantee it.

If this bothers you be sure to return it immediately. Only the higher end gaiming Dells can be overclocked, and they are usually overclocked at the factory.

Otherwise, congratulations on your new purchase! Sounds like fun!

Dale, if you use BVs tweaks, I personally do not believe it is wise to disable UAC. Many, including myself, have found issues with Vista after disabling. Otherwise I do like Black Vipers's list of items to disable in Vista. His was the first site I used for tweaking info years ago.

BTW everyone, I can't believe the price on the Intel Core i7 920, its under $300 at Newegg.

Jeff,

Well, I was going to run it natively anyway and then over clock if necessary. I suspect that I should be able to edit hd with this computer.
What do you think??

I reckon one could edit in proxy files (right?) then render to hd when completed.

I plan on using my Vegas software which I had purchased just for that purpose, and now I love using it over my adobe 1.5 suite.

the Hd is a new step for me as I have been using an xl2 to date.

Jeff & Dale,
Here is a link (I hope) to the computer I bought (although it came without the card reader):
Costco - $1,299.99 after $500 OFF Dell XPS 435MT Core i7-920 2.66GHz 6GB DDR3 640GB HDD.
If the link does not work just copy the address into your browser.

With a 23" monitor? That is insane. You got the deal of the century for such new technology, and you got an e-Sata port. Absolutely ridiculous!

Only thing I personally don't care for is the size of the case, you can't add many HDs. But who cares?

At that price you can work around that!

Yes Dale you can edit Hd with that.

Dell are doing some crazy deals at the moment. You simply couldn't get close to what theyre spec was going down the DIY route. The UK version didn't have the 23" monitor but DID come with a Blu Ray burner and 19 in 1 reader. The eSATA (if it works) gets you around the lack of hard drives. Just swap em out!

Now....lets add Windows 7 into the equation. Hearing good things about it!

It was supposed to come with the 19-1 reader. They forgot to configure it that way. I got an email saying they were going to send me an external USB2 reader.

Whats the major differences between eSATA and Firewire external drives? I would hope the eSATA was operative.

Also I did not get an OS disc, so staring clean will be nearly impossible to do - at least for me.

eSATA transfer speed is 300 MB/sec
Firewire 800 transfer speed is 98.25 MB/sec
USB 2.0 transfer speed is 60MB/sec

eSATA gives you a MUCH faster data transfer speed which should make things run a lot more smoothly.

It effectively gives you the same ultra fast internal connection your hard drives have but externally.

I use a caddy that lets me drop in bare 1tb drives so I can just hot swap them with different projects.

My only problem is that the eSATA port dies on my new Dell. Was supposed to get a new MOBO fitted but they are now just giving me a full new PC (bit of a pain as I spent 3 days configuring this one!)

You mean more than once? Thats not good - not that once is good - well you know what I mean.

Thanks for the information on the connection speeds. I have a bunch of external firewire harddrives. Lookos like I'll be collecting eSata drives now.

BTW I didn't get a BR burner because I felt that I could get one and install it for less than they would charge, besides it wasn't included in 'the package'.

I have been following this thread with great interest as I am in need of getting a new computer, my old HP 120 gig HD) is on its last legs. I do a lot of editing with Vegas 8.c I can see needing an i7 processer, and the deal at Costco ($1,299.99 for the Dell XPS 435 mt) looks great. Has anyone looked at the Gateway FX-6800-01e for $1,249.99? How would that compair to the Dell XPS 435? Bob

If you prefer 3GB of ram to 6GB, and you do not need the 23" monitor that comes with the Dell the Gateway looks fine.

The Gateway case appears larger.

Just saw the Dell XPS 435mt at Costco for $999.00 without the 23in monitor.

MOBO, CPU and ram alone will cost $800.

Good Morning,

Sata is great because you can configure it in raid 0, Correct??

I found out even with the old p 4 that it was always better to have the hard drives in the case as apposed to using external hard drives. With the external sata port one could get a super box or external house that can have two or more drives in it, provided they can hook up sata.

I saw the same deal with the monitor but passed on it as I already have a 22, 28, and dual 19's. the price is amazing. I do not think I could have bought the components for that, and then have to deal with building and configuring it as well, oh yea and buying a new os too.

It was supposed to be here yesterday, I am getting anxious.

Shot my first xlh1 footage yesterday and want to process it!!

Alastair,
What caddy do you use for your external drive and would you still recommend it?

I don't see that the FW ports are FW800. Do the ports look the same and how do you tell?

Newegg.com - eSATA docking station

Take your pick!

I just picked Firewire 800 as an example to demonstrate how much faster eSATA was.

Check out Dell outlet for great deals on the XPS 435MT i7. I picked up the following for $699

i7 -920 (2.67 Ghz)
6GB Mem
ATI 4850 - 512MB
2 500GB - in RAID 1 configuration

Crazy deal, it was $750 after tax and shipping. I do like to tweak my own systems and generally build my own, but couldn't resist. At some point the x58 motherboards will drop in price and I may just upgrade the motherboard to overclock. The standard system are locked in the BIOS to prevent all overclocking. I have a power supply from my current computer that will be more than enough. It is a mATX motherboard, so it could require I move it all to a new case also if mATX prices are too high.

Oh, and Dell outlet will come back w/ no systems a lot because of ebayers are scarfin up the deals. Check out "Outlet Scanner". A Tool that will continuously refresh and add systems to your cart. I used it to pickup this great deal, and alwasy check out slickdeals.net for the latest Dell coupons.

Hope this helps out some i7 buyers.

Can't wait, mine arrives on Thursday.

Josh, congrats. Remember that Dell cases won't take non-Dell MOBOs. They are designed that way deliberately. Same with power supplies.

I keep meaning to set aside some time to make a post here regarding my most recent system build but for some reason can't quite get around to doing a review the way I would want to, so I'm just going to chime in on some of the highlights here...

- Built my own X58 based i7 2.60Ghz setup on a Gigabyte Motherboard (DS4) with 6Gb of Triple Channel RAM. Spent approximately $1900 on the build including two 24" Acer Monitors (killer deal at newegg, couldn't resist) which means the 'box' cost me about $1300.

- I don't typically overclock, but because I put an expensive $80 cooler on the chip, I figured I had to, so I clocked it up to 3.0Ghz (a modest overclock). It was a piece of cake to overclock and my system temps are relatively very low and I have a *very* quite PC running inside an Antec P182 case which are my favorite cases.

- I'm running a 10,000rpm 160Gb WD hard drive as my main system (application/OS) drive. I have a WD 1TB Caviar Black Drive for storage, and I hooked up 2 - 500Gb WD drives into a RAID 0 using the motherboards SATA controller.

- My OS of choice is Vista Ultimate 64-bit and, of course, I'm running Vegas 8.1 alongside Vegas 8.0c.

Boys.... Let me tell you.... I've built my fair share of systems over the years... This is my favorite computer build by far... I've not yet had a single hickup or error of any kind whatsoever. I burned in with Prime, etc and the system passed with flying colors. This thing just flat out kicks booty. I've not taken the time to benchmark it and I probably won't because I don't need to. It's extremely snappy in terms of load times, etc and as stable as it could possibly be. I *highly* recommend anybody moving into a new system very seriously *only* consider a pc built on this i7 chip.

In terms of editing performance....
Unfortunately, I've not had the time to really load a whole lot of footage onto the timeline and play around but what I have done has left me quite impressed. Video Preview speed is one of the biggest factors as to why I took the upgrade plunge and thus far I'm very satisfied. HDV 1080i footage on the timeline is pegged at 29.97 almost regardless of what I do to the footage and how large I preview it. I've done a little bit of full screen preview, but I mostly work (and am totaly satisfied) with my video preview being 1/2 resolution at 960x540.

A couple of small Vegas quibbles
I'll be quite honest though in that I think I'm frankly a little frustrated in the preview quality of images in the preview window in Vegas in general - not performance but just the visual quality. Maybe my standards have just come up but I think Vegas really needs to go back to the drawing board on this functionality of their software. I viewed similiar HDV footage on a MAC computer the other day and Final Cut did a much better job of previewing video on the timeline. I was frankly a little embarassed.

I'm also really wanting to find and invest in a really good archival intermediate codec to use that will perform very well on the timeline and allow me to get the video out of the highly compressed HDV stage and into something a little more allowing for me in terms of color space and bit-depth. Cineform is close, but their HD package is $500 and doesn't yet support 64-bit version of Vegas, so I'm left in need there...

Anyhow, from a value standpoint, the Dell systems are going to offer far more bang for the buck and I'd recommend them highly. If you are comfortable building your own rig and don't mind spending a few extra bones though, you can build a great system...

Jon

Regarding preview quality, I've always thought PP had great playback quality. I have it, and won't install it. It's just too darned awkward to use.

I agree Vegas could use some work in this area.

Congrats on your new system.

Well...it would appear that when rendering, Vegas WILL use all 8 cores of my i7. Whereas DVD Architect only uses one.

Rendering a 2hr 6min m2t file as an MPEG2 PAL stream in Vegas and it is on schedule to complete in 1hr 18mins....woohoo!

Near enough the same file as part of a DVD with a small Highlights and Messages sections is showing as 1hr 6mins complete with 9hrs 6min still remaining......BLIMEY!

I should add, both those renders are running at the same time and i can still happily open another project and edit away whilst browsng yada yada yada.

That will be the last render I let Architect do!

Anybody got any good tips on how to avoid the lottery of rendering a file that ends up just too big for the DVD (which is why i always liked letting Architect fit to disc option)

Oh....and i totally agree that the preview quality of Vegas is one of the major frustrations. Some kind of hardward assisted option would be great.

Use a bitrate calculator to determine your encoding settings.
That way all DVDA has to do is a quick "Prepare" (after you've created gorgeous menus, of course!!).
Here's a link (to a zipped file) to the one I use all the time.
Thanks to John Cline for hosting it.

Would 12gb memory instead of 6gb give you much better performance with Vista Home Premium 64 bit? I am looking at the ASUS P6T motherboard.

Currently I'm only working with 6Gb in Tripple Channel mode and though I can't say for sure, I get the 'feeling' that the extra 6Gb wouldn't do me much good. I know 64-bit software can recognize more memory, but I also understand that it actually physically uses more memory. With that said, 6Gb is still a lot of memory and it's my hunch that only the harshest of projects would benefit from more at this point.

Jon

Thanks. Reading this thread is dangerous to my wallet :) I just ordered the parts to build a new I7 system 64 bit Vista system, including a 6 Gb triple channel memory set.

I have a Geforce 7600 250 Mb video card from my old system. Would upgrading to a Geforce 9600 512 Mb card help with video performance? The card works fine with Photoshop.

Well, the i7 is worth it. This is the biggest thing since Pentium, even bigger, IMO.

You're card is fine, don't waste your money unless you use MB, then check their site before you buy or ask on here which cards are best.

Yes, as Jeff pointed out, your card is fine as long as it's a PCI-E card... :-)

Jon

Thanks again. I forgot that the card in that case is AGP. I just put in an order for new card.