new comptuter needed?

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/7/2014, 7:22 PM

Hey Everyone,

I'm a newbie and first time poster. I'm very glad to be joining you!

Here's my situation. I've very recently gotten into multi-track recording (16 track .wav files) and multi-camera filming (5-10 Flip cams, 720p, .mp4) of my band's live performances. I set up all the gear at the shows, press the record buttons on the audio interface and cameras, then take it all home, download audio tracks and video to my computer (Dell XPS 8500, core I7, 8 GB ram) and do the mixing and editing.

I use Sony Vegas Pro 13 using the multi-camera editing feature and then change takes, do pans and zooms, add effects, etc.

It started all great but as my edits got more complex and I added supplemental video tracks, I started getting more and more crashes. My last edit crashes on and off at different places during the preview. During the rendering, it crashes at the same point every time (a masking effect).

I went to another computer (HP laptop, core I7, 16 GB ram) which doesn't crash (yet!) but during preview messes up some effects in the middle of the clip and during rendering, messes up some of the effects at the beginning of the clip.

For GPU's, both machines are using the low end side of the high end.

I believe I need a much better machine for not only were I am right now but for far more complex things I may eventually be doing.

As a mostly long time Dell customer, I'm looking at the Precision T7610. The configurations can go anywhere from a couple of thousand to twenty grand so I don't know what to do. How high end the CPU's? How high end the GPU's? Do I get dual of either? Ram is cheap. Is 64 plenty enough? Should I get 10,000 rpm hard drives. Will Vegas Pro 13 be able to take full advantage of the Quadro cards offered with the Precision? etc. etc. etc.

I have money to spend but not to waste. Not interested in doing my own build.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks so much!

Btw, here are a few examples in case it affects your thoughts about this. Frankly, the crashing and problems getting the effects to render properly has been driving me nuts. These eventually rendered ok but I have more complex things that won't. Thanks again for any help.

Comments

Duncan H wrote on 8/7/2014, 7:44 PM

Hi Jeff, Welcome.

You will find this forum very friendly and there are many who are knowledgeable and experienced in Vegas & associated activites, including audio, FX, computer requirements etc. I've just gone through the new computer purchase (without any expertise on my part), so I recognise the myriad of choices that you are facing. I'd suggest that you start by searching this forum (see "search" in top RH of screen), as this topic arises all the time and there is a vast amount of info . Even over the past 3 months this topic has been discussed in detail and obviously the info is relevant to your situation. good luck and I hope you find this forum as informative as I have over the past 5 years. Duncan

xberk wrote on 8/7/2014, 9:44 PM

I build my own. Here's the spec on the last build I did a year ago. I'm fairly sure this six core machine would meet your current and future need. My bulid cost on this was about $2000, if I remember right. I can't say I've never crashed Vegas on this system, but it's fairly rare. In my opinion, the two most important items are the CPU and VIdeo card, in that order.

Intel i7-3930K
Asus P9X79 LE motherboard
32Gigs Corsair Vengeance Ram CMZ16GX3M4A2133C11B
Corsair H100i Liquid cooler
GPU: Gigabyte GTX560ti GV-N560UD-1G
Corsair CX750 power supply ..
Samsung 840 SSD 250GB for main drive. MZ-7TD250BW
Windows 8 oem version
Corsair Case Carbide 400R
Asus OEM Blu-Ray Writer

RalphM wrote on 8/7/2014, 9:46 PM

Jeff,
Just watched your three videos. I didn't see any effects that should really tax your machine. i7's low or high end should have no problem. Have you tried turning off GPU rendering?

OldSmoke wrote on 8/7/2014, 10:13 PM

I am with xberk and I must admit, I absolutely DO NOT believe in buying a system off the shelf. You just don't know what components you get and you will pay a very high price for the right configuration if you can get it at all.

Now about your situation. First you must establish what kind of footage (bitrate, codec and so on) you want to edit and what your delivery format will be. If you go into 4K, like I did, you will very soon want something in the area of a dual CPU setup, 2x 8-core Xeon. Graphic card wise, if you have the budget, I would rather go for a FirePro series then a NVidia Quadro. Memory wise, 32GB is a good starting point. Minimum 3 Drives,: System, Projects/Storage, Render (you shouldn't render to the same drive your footage is on). I use a RAID-1(HDD) for Archive, a RAID-0 (SSD) for Projects and I render to the Archive drive. I also have a small SSD for Vegas to dump the temp files, 64GB is enough. Always on my shopping list is a good Power Supply and an Uninterruptable Powersupply for all the "dirty" power that comes from the wall socket. Don't forget you need monitors and in your case a good audio input device.

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/8/2014, 12:49 PM

Ralph,

Please check out this video. At the 36 second mark, the effects are a mess. They are fine in the preview. Thanks for your help.

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/8/2014, 12:58 PM

Oldsmoke, thanks for your reply. I'm a real newbie. I know nothing. I'm using .mp4 footage from multiple flip cams and doing multi-camera edits. I would prefer to keep everything in .mp4, both editing and rendering, if possible, mostly because there is so much work involved in doing each audio mix and video edit. I don't intend to become a professional video editor. This is a hobby for me to record bands and mix and edit. However, I do have the resources to get the proper gear so that my work is more easily accomplished.

Down the road, if I choose to get more deeply involved in video at the pro level, then I would rethink what I am doing. But for now, I would like the ability to work within the 720p .mp4 paradigm that the Flip cams provide and be able to accomplish complex edits without the crashes and effects messes that I am getting now. Thanks for all your input.

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/8/2014, 1:00 PM

xberk, thanks for your suggestions. I don't feel qualified to do a computer build. I'm willing to overpay to get the system I need but not do something insane.

btw, I'm using an A&H Ice-16 audio interface for the live 16-track recording. Then I mix it in Tracktion 4.

OldSmoke wrote on 8/8/2014, 1:02 PM

How do you establish what system you need? Need now and in the future? Maybe form there we can help.

DavidMcKnight wrote on 8/8/2014, 1:11 PM

I don't want to muddy the waters, but you might also try transcoding the footage from your flip cams to something a little friendlier.

The codec you camera records with, while technically usable in Vegas, can be very taxing to both Vegas and your PC. You might get better performance by first transcoding each file to a format such as Sony MXF (should be no visible loss of quality) and then editing with those files. The tradeoff is, this would be an extra step in your workflow and will take a chunk of time. There are tools available to automate that however.

This forum is the single best resource you will find on Vegas btw. Welcome!

riredale wrote on 8/8/2014, 1:58 PM

Hi, Jeff, and welcome.

I also build my own stuff and have been a Vegas user since version3 back in 2002. I've upgraded to various versions since but stopped at v9, since it did everything I needed and was solid as a rock. Newer users don't have that luxury and later versions have been flaky from time to time. Nonetheless, my understanding is that the latest version is pretty good. Which is why I'm questioning why you are experiencing "crashes" at all. A slower computer should run just as reliably as a fast one, just more slowly, i.e. slower Preview Window frame rate and slower renders.

Crashing to me implies two primary things--on a long render, it implies heat issues and dust buildup; during regular use, it implies flaky ram. I've come across bad ram lots of times.

Anyway, good luck with building/buying a bigger, badder box. I'm sure the others on this forum will be far more help to you regarding v13 and the latest processors and other components.

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/8/2014, 2:07 PM

Thanks Ralph! I turned of GPU acceleration and the effects are fine now. The Windows task manager tells me I am using 100% of the CPU a lot of the time so I do need to upgrade.

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/8/2014, 2:12 PM

Hey Riredale,

On my desktop I get a crash every couple of days because my graphic card driver is not recoverable!?! Vegas crashes constantly but there is probably a connection. On my 16 GB laptop, it's not crashing, The effects were messed up but now seems ok after removing GPU acceleration from preferences.

Jeff Lampert wrote on 8/8/2014, 2:13 PM

Thanks everyone for helping me through all this.