Any Vegas problems with this new system?

CVM wrote on 10/16/2005, 5:48 PM

I am purchasing this Dell computer and will install Vegas 5.0 and Architect 2.0 on it. Does anyone know if this system will have difficulties with Vegas? Thanks.

- Dell XPS 400 Pentium® D Processor 830 with Dual Core Technology (3GHz, 800FSB)
- Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition
- Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
- 19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1905FP Digital Flat Panel
- 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory
- 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
- Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
- Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
- Dell A425 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
- IEEE 1394 Adapter

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/16/2005, 6:24 PM

I only see one hard drive listed. Get another drive, doesn't have to be big, even 40GB would be plenty, and use it for your system C: drive. Make that 250GB drive D: for just data files.

Jeff Waters wrote on 10/16/2005, 6:35 PM

I'm using a similar Pentium D from Sony... works great!
JW

RalphM wrote on 10/16/2005, 6:39 PM

Search on XP Media Center - I believe some posters have indicated problems...

GlennChan wrote on 10/16/2005, 10:04 PM

It should be fine except for the Media Center thing which RalphM mentioned. I don't run that so I can't tell you if it'd be a problem.

More hard drive space and dual monitors would be a nice touch, but you don't need that.
The second hard drive you wouldn't really need as long as your system is clean (no viruses or spyware). Use free programs like AVG/Avast antivirus and Microsoft Antispyware or simply don't connect to the internet.

2- A similar/better system may be a few hundred dollars cheaper because Dell is overpriced on the XPS line and intentionally (very) overpriced on their upgrades. It's just a broad generalization and I could be wrong there.

3- If you read resellerratings.com Dell can be kind of sketchy when it comes to support because folks aren't expecting to deal with India-based tech support (Dell's bigger customers get North American support, so your mileage may vary).

cervama wrote on 10/17/2005, 9:32 AM

I just bought a pc for my wife with windows xp media center. No problems as of yet.

MAC

CVM wrote on 10/17/2005, 9:58 AM

Thanks everyone. I appreciate yoru feedback. After further review, I decided to switch to XP Home, rather than the MC version. Who needs that crap? It's pandering to general users... kinda like Windows Me (what a nightmare that was for my video editing).

Regarding the 2nd HDD, Dell didn't offer it with my system (surprising). So, I got the 250 Gig drive (as much as I can afford). I currently run with one 120 HDD (system and video files), and haven't had any problems. I know it's not the preferred config, but not a lot I can do about it

fldave wrote on 10/17/2005, 10:00 AM

Since you have the dual core CPU, you should go with XP Pro. XP Home does not "see" anything but one processor, so you would be crippling your Vegas work a bit. Well worth the extra $$.

GlennChan wrote on 10/17/2005, 6:15 PM

I think XP Home should see both cores for a single CPU system, while it won't see both processors in a dual CPU setup.

fldave wrote on 10/17/2005, 6:22 PM

Wow. I thought that XP Home was limited to one "processor". The hyperthreaded HT technology "faked" a true multiprocessor system on XP Pro.

I'll check further...

Edited:
Per MS website:
Scalable processor support – up to two-way multi-processor support: Home NO, Pro YES

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx

I've always heard that XP Home won't support more than one, and a "core" is to be treated as a separate processor.

Anyone on this board using XP Home with noticable multi-processor/multi-core support?

backlit wrote on 10/18/2005, 8:47 AM

I have a dual core Pentium on an XP home system and it shows up as two processors under the General Tab of System properties. In fact, I thought it was an incorrect status for a while...

David

fldave wrote on 10/18/2005, 8:56 AM

That's great. I guess MS means that XP Pro is required to utilize two separate CPUs, not just cores.

When you access Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and select the Performance tab, do you have two CPU Usage History graphs?

backlit wrote on 10/18/2005, 9:05 AM

Although I don't have the system in front of me, I do recall ocasionally checking CPU utilization and I didn't see two graphs.