Lessee ...
- Pentium III processor, 866MHz
- Abit 133 (something or other) motherboard
- 512MB Corsair PC-133 SDRAM
- 20GB, 60GB, 160GB, 180GB WD hard drives, all ATA/100
- SONY 52x CD-RW
- HP 300i DVD+RW
- ATI Rage Fury VIVO 16MB AGP 2X
- Soundblaster Live PCI-128
- Lucent Technologies OHCI firewire card

- Windows XP Pro
- MSIE 6 (without Outlook/Outlook Express)
- Windows MediaPlayer 9
- Vegas 3 & 4, DVD Architect 1, SoundForge 6 & 7, ACID Pro 4, VideoFactory 2, Movie Studio 3, SIREN 2, Noise Reduction 2, Batch Converter 5, Vidcap 2, 3, & 4.

And probably about 150 other applications.

I could probably count the number of times that any of the SONY software has crashed on half the fingers of one hand ... even if i was a pig.

Okay, before anyone jumps on me about the "no replies" issue, I just noticed the nifty forum feature that lets me look at posts by user, and found that I hadn't posted the "what to buy" question at all in the Vegas Video forum, and had in fact received some replies in the DVD and audio forums. Sorry!

Nonetheless, I'd still like very much to receive detailed system configuration spec's from anyone with a perfectly stable Vegas 4 system, particularly from people using it for Audio AND video AND DVD authoring (but also definitely from people with stable audio-only or video-only or even DVD authoring-only systems).

And to help prevent anyone wasting time trying to explain what IRQs are, or why a RAID 0 array is faster, let me point out that I am a VERY experienced PC tech, having been building computers since the Altair 8800 kit days (mid-1970s). I have built countless systems, networks, written zillions of lines of code, and actually have running, over twenty computers at this very moment, dedicated to various different tasks. I don't need anyone to dream up a killer system for me, comprising a selection of the latest parts. I can do that myself. I want to hear from people who have stable systems, exactly what pieces they are using in those systems.

I will be very grateful, as I'm sure others will be, for any help in this regard.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply! That's great to hear. I would prefer to go with something more current (I'm hoping to use a HT CPU, 800 MHz fsb, etc.), but won't if I don't hear from anyone using such things, that his system is as stable as yours. If I get to the point of duplicating your setup, I'll ask you to elaborate on a few details.

Thanks for the reply. Please see my own follow-up to the post you're replying to here. Methinks me is already running LOTS of software on LOTS of systems. I don't run anything that isn't rock-steady. I'm not asking anyone to guaranty me anything though. I just want to know what combinations are working for people out there.

I use my mainly for video (Vegas+DVDA), but occasionally record VO tracks with vegas as well. Here are my specs:

ASUS a7n8x motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (no overclocking)
512 MB DDR 400 RAM--This might seem slim, but according to folks on the board, more RAM will only get you a better preview.
1-80GB WD Boot drive
2-120GB WD Video drives, connected via PCI IDE card
Nvidia GeForce 64 MB AGP 8x Video Card
M-Audio firewire 410
NEC ND-2500A DVD+/-RW
Lite-On 52x CD RW

OS
Windows XP Home w/SP1

Software
Vegas 4 & DVD-A
MS Office (student/educator version)
Photoshop 6.0
other various utilities

Vegas has never crashed for me, and I've never burned a coaster on DVD-Architect. I've used Vegas since 3.0, and it's worked great. I just built another machine identical to this one, and it also has no problems.

Koolance case (internal drives, CPU, video, northbridge are all water cooled)
SOYO SY-P4I875P motherboard
P4 2.8GHz w/Hyperthreading and 800MHz FSB
1 GB RAM; PC3200 spread across 4 sticks (to use dual channel)
Maxtor P750 video
Canopus ADVC1394 capture
M-Audo Delta 1010LT
4 Hitachi 120GB/8MB Cache drives in Raid 0 set
1 Hitachi 60GB drive (system disk)
RocketRaid SATA PCI Adapter (had trouble with the onboard SATA)
2 Hitachi 60GB disks in eSATA enclosures
Pioneer DVR-A06U DVD Writer

I've been pleased with the stability and performance. To be honest, I've not worried all that much about card placement as far as PCI slots go and I'm letting ACPI do whatever steering it wants to do - no problems at all. Quite a bit different than the Maxtrox RT2500 card I had on a MB with a VIA chip set - talk about unstable. Getting the unofficial VIA latency patch helped, but it got loads better after I pulled the RT2500 out entirely; it's been working as a fileserver without problems ever since.

System Information report written at: 03/02/04 13:26:33
System Name: SUPERMAN
[System Summary]

Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name SUPERMAN
System Manufacturer IWILL Corp.
System Model DP400
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2205 Mhz
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2205 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG Rev. 1.00.1302, 6/25/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)"
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 758.07 MB
Total Virtual Memory 3.40 GB
Available Virtual Memory 3.02 GB
Page File Space 2.40 GB
Page File F:\pagefile.sys

[Conflicts/Sharing]

Resource Device
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

IRQ 20 Universal Audio UAD-1 DSP card
IRQ 20 M-Audio Delta Audiophile

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English

Memory Address 0xD8000000-0xE7FFFFFF Intel(R) 82860 PCI Bridge - 2533
Memory Address 0xD8000000-0xE7FFFFFF Intel(r) 82806AA PCI Bridge
Memory Address 0xD8000000-0xE7FFFFFF Universal Audio UAD-1 DSP card

Memory Address 0xEC000000-0xEDFFFFFF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
Memory Address 0xEC000000-0xEDFFFFFF Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English

I/O Port 0x00005000-0x0000FFFF PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00005000-0x0000FFFF Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English

Memory Address 0xEE000000-0xF0FFFFFF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
Memory Address 0xEE000000-0xF0FFFFFF Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English

[IRQs]

Resource Device Status
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 22 Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English OK
IRQ 20 Universal Audio UAD-1 DSP card OK
IRQ 20 M-Audio Delta Audiophile OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) PRO/100 S Desktop Adapter OK
IRQ 17 WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller OK
IRQ 18 Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 19 Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442 OK
IRQ 10 Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443 OK
IRQ 23 Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444 OK
IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK

Thanks! That's one of the MBs I would definitely consider. Are you using the "plain" one or the "Deluxe?" I'm also looking at the newer Intel CPU-based MBs like the Asus P4P800, since I have to support other users using that, and staying on the same standard platform would make my life easier.

Thanks for the reply. I take it that this system is stable? What MB is it?

1...Intel 875DBZ BOARD WITH P-4 2.8 800 side buss, 2 gig ddr 400 ram.
2. XP Pro
3. "C" drive Maxtor 30 gig
4. "D" drive Maxtor 120 gig
5. "E" drive Maxtor 30 gig
6. "F" drive Seagate 17 gig SCSI
7. "G", "H", & "J" drives 36 gig SCSI Fujitsu
8. "I" drive 36 gig SCSI IBM
9. Audigy sound card
10 Pioneer AO-5 burner
11. 540 wat power supply
12. 6100 rpm processor fan
13. Sound Forge, Acid Pro, Cineform HD, Cinemacraft codec, Main Concept standalone codec, Virtual Dub, Bitrate Viewer, Dynapel Slow mo, Steady Hand, & Motion: AC-5.1, DVD-A, Pixalen Filters, Excalibur,
Tsunami, Quake, Acrobat Reader, Power DVD, Shuttle Pro, Epson Print DVD, ETC.
14. ADVC 100
15. Viewsonic 19" and 17" LCD monitors and 13" Sony TV.
16 Panasonic AG-DV1000 deck
17. My fingers are getting tired.

JJK

It's the deluxe. It's been rock solid since I've had it, but I don't overclock or anything.

Let me reply in general terms, Softy, because I think I know where you are coming from. I'm one of those guys who researches pretty thouroughly before making hardware/software decisions. My decisions are almost ALWAYS based on "what works in the real world". I simply have no patience for the bleeding edge, or any other approach that sacrifices stability and simplicity for cost, power, or whatever. I want to be able to load it up, install it, and use it. I don't want to hold it's hand, or have to become a forum junkie just to make a product do what it it says it can do on the outside of the box.

All of this is why I can say, without reservation, that Sonic Foundry/Sony products have been my AV apps of choice for years: I install them, and they work. Vegas in particular is just AMAZINGLY stable and fast at the things it does (rendering notwithstanding... I'm talking workflow:throw up some vid on the timeline, manually sync a different audio file to it, throw on some background music, create an audio bus on a whim, assign reverb to it, drag a new crossfade between clips-split a clip, then cross fade it-then cntrl drag to make it slo-motion: all can be done in realtime with the whole project looping and playing without so much as a long pause). I used to be a big Sound Forge guy, but the things I do day to day are just as easily achieved using Vegas, so now it is the center of all my audio tasks, too. ( I too, use Sonar for serious music composition, for it's killer midi implementation)

I've had Vegas since 2.0 installed on the following configs, with never a single fundamental reliability issue:

PII 200 mHz with 64 megs of ram , Win 98
PIII 800 mHz, 128 megs, Win 98
P4 1.4 mHz, 512 megs, Win XP
P4 2 gHz, 512 megs, Win XP
and now a dual Xeon

All these systems have probably had a grand total of 6 or 7 different flavors of SoundBlaster, 8 or 9 different cutting edge 3D graphics boards, several different kinds of analog video capture products, a handful of different Firewire and USB cards, a couple different high end audio cards from Echo, and several flavors of MIDI interface. I can honestly say that Vegas has been THE MOST STABLE ASPECT of this continuing saga of a multimedia nightmare. Not to mention the fact that Vegas could do things years ahead of the competition.

I have no particular allegence to Sony or SF or Vegas or anything else... I simply stick with what works (You'll notice that I'm a big time Intel user - I have always used Intel stuff because of some very bad experiences with AMD stuff in the 90's... I know the new alternatives are probably just as good or better thatn the latest Intel stuff, but again, I stick with what works).

All this is to say: I can almost guarantee you that no matter what kind of decent, contemporary and reliable PC you build around Vegas, IMHO, Vegas will be the last aspect you have trouble with. (quite an Ironic statement since the whole reason I'm rambling on this minute is because I had a problem installing Vegas on the workstation I'm building, so am paying attention to the forum this week... fact of the matter is, it was an XP issue, not a Vegas issue)

All right... I'm done!

GE

Here are the specs on the PC I just built over the Christmas holiday. It is rock solid for Vegas 4+DVD. If you don’t do 3D modeling with OpenGL applications you can get a much cheaper video card. (it's also great for gaming) ;-)

PC Case: Antec PlusView1000AMG
Power Supply: Antec True480BLUE
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8KNXP
CPU: Intel P4 3.0GMHz FSB 800Mhz
Memory: 1GB of Kingston HyperX PC3200 (2x 512MB)
Video Card: ATI 9800 Pro (ATI Radeon)
Hard Drive 1: Maxtor 160.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS 8MB cache (IDE)
Hard Drives 2: Western Digital 160GB @ 7200 RPMS 8MB cache (SATA) for video capture
DVD Burner: Pioneer DVR-106D
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum w/break out box
Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks 5.1
Case Fans: CoolerMaster Blue 80mm Neon LED Fan (x5)
Operating System: Windows XP Home

I bought all the parts at newegg.com.

~jr

Softy,

Vegas is a very stable application. If you build a modern system that is stable, Vegas will run on it. That is probably true for 99% of systems.

If you want to cheat, go to a system builder that sells turnkey Vegas systems and see what they put together.
pcnirvana.com is recommended by some heavy Vegas hitters.

Thanks for the reply. Am I correct in assuming because you posted this configuration, that it is rock-steady? It would be nice to have people actually state this, even though by posting in reply to my earlier request, it might seem obvious.

Vegas 4.x has been VERY stable on the following system. I might have problems with other (non-SF/Sony) software, but Vegas itself is easily the most stable major application on my machine (compared to say Sonar 2, Gigastudio, Poser, Scenealyzer, etc.) Generally I'd say WinXP has been a big improvement over earlier Windows.

Windows XP Home
512 MB Ram
Asus A7V333 mobo
several Maxtor hard drives
Soundblaster Live value (games, etc)
Echo Gina 20 bit (for audio recording)
nVidia Geoforce MMX 440
ADS Pyro firewire card

I would go so far as to say that, compared to Vegas, working with something like Sonar is like walking on stilts; I always feel wobbly, like I could take a painful tumble at any time. With Vegas, I feel like both my feet are planted firmly on the ground, and I can quit worrying and just make stuff.

Good luck on finding a stable system.

Greg

I too have been running an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe-based system that I built myself with parts from newegg.com. It's based on the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ chip and Win XP Pro.

I've got it overclocked to AMD Athlon XP 3200+ speeds, never crashed or hiccuped with Vegas or anythning else in about 4 months of use. (The overclocking results in about a 20% performance improvement for renders.)

I don't have my entire system spec handily written down (or memorized) for quick posting, but I will put in a plug for my heatsink: Thermalright SLK-800U. It's not inexpensive (about $40 without fan), but it does a fantastic job of dissipating CPU heat - MUCH, MUCH better than the original stock heat sink.

Also, a few general guidelines if you're building your own system:

-Don't skimp on the power supply
-Don't overclock unless you know what you're doing.
-Get a good heat sink - the sustained CPU utilitzation in video rendering generates lots of heat.

In general I don't really see how you can go wrong with Vegas re: stability. Its reputation for extreme stability is born out in my experience so far.

Mitch K

Well thanks for the reply, but even though I appreciate your remarks and am glad to hear a testimonial to the stability of Sonic Foundry/Sony products, What I am specifically looking for are combinations of hardware and OS, drivers, etc. which are proven reliable and stable with Vegas 4.

Thanks for another vote for that MB. It looks to be a serious contender. I guess next time I post something like this, I'll have to remember to add in the part about being a very experienced computer guy (my later reply to my own original post). I do know what not to skimp on. Thanks again for the info though.

What I/O do you use for audio? Did you (can one) disable the onboard sound stuff?

You can disable onboard audio through the BIOS. What are you audio needs? If you are doing serious audio recording or mixing, you want a pro audio sound card, not just a really good computer gaming card.

If your needs are more modest, you may want to M-Audio Revolution which is about $99.

Pro-audio cards that are widely recommneded are from Echo and M-Audio

If you want the most stable system you can get, here's what you should get:

CPU - Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.0GHz 800MHz FSB or higher speed
Motherboard - Intel i875P motherboard OEM No Sound (D875PZB)
RAM - 2 x Kingston DDR400 ECC 512MB CAS3 (KVR400X72C3A/512)
System Hard Drive - Western Digital Raptor 73GB (WD740GD)
Capture Hard Drive - Western DIgital Caviar 250GB 8MB cache (WD2500JD)
Burner - Pioneer DVR-A07
Sound Card - Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro (includes IEEE1394) with minimal driver install
Speakers - at your discretion, but I recommend using an external amp connected via optical cable to the soundcard and real 5.1 speakers.
Case - Chieftec Dragon mid or full size
Power Supply - Antec True Control 550 Power Supply
Extra case fans as necessary (Panaflo or equivalent)
One serial ATA and one parallel ATA cable
OS - Windows XP Pro with all service packs
DV Bridge (if you need analog capture) - Canopus ADVC-300

Again, this may not be the most ideal configuration for speed, but I will guarantee this box will run rock-solid stable and provide you with enough horsepower and input/output options to be able to do most tasks that you need.