Computer Specifications

zazentao wrote on 11/5/2006, 11:42 PM

Hi there...I am sure this question has been answered but I cannot find the thread!

I am thinking of buying a new computer to edit HDV for a movie I am working on (www.whatistough.com) and I was wondering if any of you can let me know what specification to get in terms of processor speed, RAM and Graphics Card.

Unfortunately money is very much an issue, but it would be great to be able to edit the footage i have in real time in HDV format.

I am new to all of this so I thank you for your patience! :)
Jamie

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/6/2006, 6:47 PM

Realtime? Ummm, Vegas can do that already on just about any hardware you have. Vegas edits in realtime on a 200MHz Celeron. True, the display will be a bit choppy, but it will still be realtime.

Do you mean you want a computer that always plays back at full frame rate all the time? With HD? Expect to spend 5 figures at least. You'll probably be looking at a cluster of processors and lots of RAID.

I'm guessing what you really want is some happy medium inbetween that gives at least reasonable response to your edit commands, but doesn't break the bank completely. Concentrate on the processor. Get the fastest and most you can afford. Dual-core dual processors will probably give you the most bang for the buck that you can spend. Everything else is much less important. The drives are a distant second. Don't skimp on them, but 7200RPM ATA100 is probably plenty fast, and that's most likely what you already have. As long as you have 256MB of RAM you're fine, though more can help a tiny little bit.

The video card does almost nothing for you at all. Your only real consideration is whether it supports the resolution you need for HD. Any extra processing the card does is meaningless to Vegas. A dual head card that supports 1920x1200 on each monitor would be superb, but it's not necessary. You can still edit HD on a SVGA display, you just won't be able to preview it at full resolution.

zazentao wrote on 11/8/2006, 1:38 AM

Thank you so much for you feedback! :)

You exposed my lack of knowledge in the subject area! hahaha I think I need to go back to basics and better understand exatly what it is I am trying to do, so I can do more effective research. Having said that, I think you saw through my 'amateur' status and gave me advice I didn't even ask properly for! :) Thank you so much.

The film I am working on is at:
www.whatistough.com

All the best,
Jamie

Andy C wrote on 11/9/2006, 5:55 AM

Spot on, chienworks. Too many people get wooed by extras and non-essential add-ons. The CPU is the most important part to get right. Memory and hard drives are relatively cheap and easy to upgrade at a later stage.
Also, I know you didn't mention them, but this advice is especially true for laptops.
Hope you find the right one.
A.

Chienworks wrote on 11/9/2006, 1:52 PM

I just ordered parts for an upgrade. I've been using an 866MHz P3 for a long time now (my 2.6GHz celeron motherboard exploded shortly after i got it). It's been fine, but rendering takes a while. I ordered a 3.06GHz P4 with hyperthreading, motherboard, memory, heat sink, fan, and power supply. I'll keep everything else from the current system. Total bill: $294 from newegg.com. My rendering times hopefully should drop from 5 hours down to 45 minutes.

Even with the 866 P3, i could still have half a dozen projects rendering in the background and be editing another one without too much delay. So, this upgrade helps rendering time enormously, but it won't make much difference to the actual editing process. It will be nice to see closer to full frame rate playback in the preview window while editing though.

IanG wrote on 11/9/2006, 3:42 PM

I've just upgraded from a 3.06 Northwood to a 3.06 Prescott, and the difference was startling! Changing the motherboard and forgetting that the system wouldn't boot with the old drivers wasn't much fun though!

Ian G.

Andy C wrote on 11/10/2006, 1:35 AM

I upgraded to a Northwood recently and the hyperthreading made a big difference to my render times. Unfortunately, I've got a Dell and I can't change the motherboard to upgrade to a Prescott.
Boo.

IanG wrote on 11/10/2006, 1:44 AM

Sorry to rat hole this even more, but what's the problem with changing the motherboard in a Dell?

Ian G.

Andy C wrote on 11/10/2006, 7:10 AM

I was of the firm belief that because they made their own motherboards, they also made them a non-standard fit. This means you can't just pop in an Asus or Gigabyte board, for example. The mounting holes and card slots won't match the case.
This is based on past experience with the Dimension and Optiplex series. I could be wrong about more recent machines of course.

IanG wrote on 11/10/2006, 8:09 AM

Thanks for that! I've done some more reading and found that the power supplies are non-standard too! It seems the motherboards and powersupplies are essentialy industry standard, but modified for Dell so that they can only be upgraded with Dell's replacements. Caveat emptor!

Ian G.

CedarPark wrote on 1/5/2007, 1:43 AM

Well, some of the Dells use non-standard power supplies, but mine doesn't (Dimension 4400). The big problem with some of the Dell models and power supplies is that Dell doesn't use physical on/off switches on the power supply, and usually designs the cases so that it can't use a power supply with a switch on the back. There are also some designs with custom motherboard connectors, although adapters are available for those.

blp wrote on 1/5/2007, 7:54 AM

Out of interest, I have a low end spec which is doing me fine for the moment. The approx price on ebay or thru a mate of mine is as follows:

AMD XP 1600 CPU (£20)
500MB RAM (£60)
ATX 9500 DV card (£30)
Firewire Card (£11)
320MB HDD (£30)
Pionner DVD Writer (£30)

Im in the midst of upgrading the CPU, but even then that wont be more than £50

The purpose of this post is not to sell something or compare suppliers, but just to point out you do not need thousands of pounds!

Cheers

Brett

Malcolm D wrote on 1/7/2007, 2:53 AM

A caution with editing HDV on VMS. I found that if I tried to put more than about 75 clips in the Project Media VMS 6.0b Platinum would crash with a memory error on my P4 3.0GHz with 1 GB RAM. I don't know whether v7.0 has fixed that as I have switched to full Vegas 7.0 on a Core 2 Duo 6600 with 2GB of RAM and have 860 HDV clips and 300 photos in Project Media without a problem.
A work around would be to not scene split your captures so there are fewer files in Project Media.