I was thinking that same exact thing. For the amount of talk it gets on here it should have it's own forum!

Vegas 4.0 Turnkey System-looking for opinions
 

After reading the posts here for the past year it is now time to buy. All the talk about Vegas Video has convinced me that the vegas 4.0 is the way to go. I've done some brief searches for turnkey systems but the range in systems seems pretty wide- as a user what would you suggest for minimum system requirements? What should I expect to pay?

Why would you shop based on minimum system requirements? If you built a system that met Vegas's minimum requirements you might be dissapointed with the results.
The things to look for are obviously processor speed, dual if possible (helps render times greatly), plus hd performance. Optimaly you'd want a RAID 0 setup, maybe a couple of 160 gig serial ATA hds. Then again I'm only running an Athlon XP 2200+, 512 DDR, 80 gig dedicated video drive...and don't have any problems with dropped frames on capture, or black frames on transitions etc.

I don't think you can even buy a machine that's below Vegas' minimum requirements today. Any computer today - straight off the shelf - should pretty well work. Having said that, I would buy as fast as I could afford. Also allow for plenty of memory (512 Meg or 1Gig of RAM) and plenty of hard drive (at least a separate 100Gig drive). I wouldn't worry about RAID as IDE is plenty fast. The only other real requirement is a firewire port.

Actually we're on the verge of culling all the Vegas threads and moving them to their own dedicated Vegas forum here on DV Info. So it hasn't gone unnoticed... Vegas is a hot topic around here and as soon as I come home from NYC this weekend, we hope to have this done. Thanks for your patience,

Ed and Glen,
Thanks for the reply. Glenn- I probably didn't phrase it right but I was seeking opinions on what YOUR minimum system requirements would be for Vegas 4.0. I want to make sure that I buy enough RAM and HD and that I have all the necessary hardware to get the job done effectively. In checking turnkey system sellers I have received all sorts of opinions. This is a great site to get some much valued, unbiased information from people who are in the know. Thanks and keep the opinions coming to this editing rookie!

Thanks Chris!

Wow thanks- that would be great. Have Trox moderate it! ;)

Well I run Vegas both on my desktop PC and laptop. It runs fine on both even despite the fact my laptop is a little aged (Pentium 1.6, 512mgs DDR, 40gig hd). The main difference I see are rendering times- a 1.6 is a bit different than 2.2 (well 1.8 I should say...with the performance of a 2.2- as AMD would say).

Ed's right though- any pre-built computer would easily be powerfull enough to run Vegas. I don't see anything slower than 2ghz nowadays. I have, however, found you can buy older/cheaper parts if you build the computer yourself. Check pricewatch.com for all the latest prices. You'd be amazed how much last-years top CPUs cost now...I paid close to $300 for my Athlon XP 2200+, it's now roughly $70-80. UGH!...it hurts to look.

If I had the money- my dream editing system would be a Nforce M.board, w/ dual Athlon 3200+, 320gig SATA raid-0, 1gig of paired DDR, Two 21" Flatscreen monitors (w/v.card that supports dual monitors), and last but not least Vegas+DVD. ;)

Ditto to what Glen said.

Nick

A dedicated Vegas forum...I agree that might be useful but...

Why not a dedicated Premiere forum?

All the best,

Ed

Well if they make a dedicated Vegas forum I suppose this would practically become a Premiere forum, if not dedicated.

True true- the only two I mainly see posts on are Vegas and Premiere. With Vegas on it's own forum this one can become "Premiere, etc". ;)

Granted I like the SoFo forums and all but it can't touch the layout of this "PHB" forum format! Love it! Thanks again guys.

Converting Pal footage to 24p in Vegas
 

What steps would I go to make sure I get the best quality footage? There are many different choices in different properties and im not sure which I should be changing and which I shouldn't

Thanks

Now if we could get Spot and friends to leave those awful dmnforums and take up residence here....Oh well.