Not cheap, but it's a screamer: Faster Computer

Kidding aside. While there are some who complain about long render times in Vegas, I'd offer that it's just the cost of doing business, so to speak. A faster computer can help, but may likely only get you marginally faster renders.

My computer is relatively slow by today's standards (2.4 GHz) but I almost never wait for long render times. The reason is that I adjust my workflow so I'm editing a project in segments; the segments generally being 3 to 8 minutes in length. When I have a segment to my liking, it gets rendered in the background while I edit the next segment in a second instance of Vegas; and so on, and so forth, until all editing is done. At which time all the processor-intensive rendering is also done.

Rendering the completed program after editing in this fashion essentially becomes a straight AVI to AVI conversion. Rendering to MPEG2 is then somewhat streamlined as well.

This approach can also be used for editing segments with transitions or fx that need to be previewed in real time by using Selective Prerender and multiple instances of Vegas – stay productive and almost never wait.

JL

I have dell dimension 8200 1.8G and 2.5g computers and while I am a little unhappy about render time with the 1.8, I think the 2.5 is fine.

Your best option is to build you own system. But, remember, you then become the sys operator, and then all problems are yours alone.

What a trade off.

> But, remember, you then become the sys operator, and then all problems are yours alone.

Oh, like Dell is any help? Trust me, I was my own sys operator when I owned a Dell 8100. The minute I upgraded it to WinXP the Dell support person refused to answer any questions until I restored the PC to the original WinMe! And their web site gave me the instructions on how to upgrade so its not like it wasn’t a recommended upgrade either. They had an XP BIOS for the 8100 and all the drivers on their site.

There is no trade off IMHO. If you build it yourself you get higher quality components and a cheaper price and you’re not lulled into a false sense of security that when you call Dell you actually reach someone who gives a cr*p.

~jr

I highly recommend getting a dual processor box. It really helps cut down render time.

I got a dual-Xeon box from http://www.xicomputer.com/ and have had great luck with it over the past year. They have some dual Athlon machines that are very reasonably priced. Not exactly cheap, but reasonable for what you get.

>>...If you build it yourself you get higher quality components and a cheaper
>>price and you’re not lulled into a false sense of security...

Absolutely.

The last straw(s) for me was when I was *finally* told by HP tech support (It was like pulling teeth) that a P3 chip that DID fit in my HP (Intel) P2 motherboard, even though it was the same socket, would NOT work, because of the "special" HP motherboard tweakings. Standard parts would have worked.

I thought, "OK. I'll just scavenge parts, and make my own; hopefully using my own/used HP parts. I would get a standard motherboard and all should be OK."

Well, the DVD drive that came with my HP computer was "tatooed" to only work with an HP motherboard. At that time, DVD drives were pretty expensive.

That was absolutely that last starw.

I have ben able to build exactly the computer I want, with standard, upgradable parts, at a fraction of the cost.

I had a "technical issue" (my fault completely) and accidentally smoked a motherboard once. You know what? I was actually able to go to the store, get *JUST* a motherboard and pick up right where I left off.

When HP, Dell, Gateway boast of "ready for tomorrow's technology," I would dismiss that completely. Especially if you have an Intel Socket-Of-The-Month CPU.

Just take your time, get a book, read, ask questions, and it will pay off huge. Quite honestly, the books that come with motherboards are pretty comprehensive, in my opinion. If you read it, and do what it says, it's hard to go wrong. You will also have a much better documented system that what you'll get with any store-bought PC.

The bigest fear I had back then was the proverbial "What-about-tech-support?" issue. Funny thing: I have never needed it for my own home-built, and that was a few years ago.

It's true that one's mom or grandmother would not want to do it, but if you can, and probably just about everyone this forum probably could, should definitely build their own system.

You'll never look back.

Thanks for the info. It looks like I'm off to build a computer. I was told that I should have a dedicated edit system and that I should keep all my other programs on a seperate computer like internet and office software. This way nothing is running in the background slowing the system down. Is this true?

"This way nothing is running in the background slowing the system down. Is this true?"

I would think it would have to be. Any time the processor is doing something, in the background or not, isn't that taking up processing power?

I have chosen to keep my general/online computer separate from my NLE. That way, I know for certain that the former will not affect the latter. However, not everyone can afford two computers. It just so happened that I built the NLE over the course of several months. Once completed, Vegas and companion programs were moved to the new system.

Like was said, I built my own system and haven't looked back. And I've not had any problems either.

J--

If this is your business, and you can’t afford “down-time”, then this is sound advice. I have lots of other things running on my editing machine and everything works fine and there is nothing in the background that I don’t want there (i.e., I use msconfig to stop other programs from loading at startup that I don’t want started). But this is not a business for me and if something were to conflict on my machine I don’t have any deadlines to worry about. You have to judge for yourself if you can afford having a new piece of software conflict with your video editing suite.

It’s important to note that other video software may conflict with each other. I heard of the MainConcept encoder in Premiere Pro conflicting with the MainConcept encoder in other software so having a separate machine for editing is no guarantee of stability if you load more than one NLE on it. Keeping a business computer clean of any non-business related software is a good business decision in any field.

~jr

I run other things on mine. The problem with having other activities on the machine is that if you start having problems with Vegas, the problem can be much more difficult to isolate.

I'd start out by making sure that you have a stable/usable system for editing first though - especially if that's the reason for bulding the system.

didn't say they were perfect. It's just that you have someone (even if crappy service) to call upon.

...and it was not my intent to discredit your experience (sorry if it was interpreted that way). Dell is just a hot button with me because they lead me to believe I could upgrade to WinXP and then they refused to help me after I did. I agree with you that for some set of customers it is better to have someone to turn to for help.

~jr

Thanks for the advice. My plan is to have one machine for office use and scanning and one dedicated for editing and I'll network the two together to transfer files. I'm looking at a HP a350n with Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 2.8GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology
• Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
• 512MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM
• 160GB 7200 rpm hard drive
• DVD+RW/CD-RW, CD-ROM
• NVIDIA® GeForce4™ MX 440 AGP 8X graphics
• 7-in-1 digital media card reader

I hope this works.

Does that computer have a front side bus that supports PC3200 RAM? If it does, it's worth getting the faster memory.

I think the HP a350n only supports PC2700. It looks like the a450y which is a later model supports PC3200.

2700 MB/sec (PC2700) Will that make a difference?

No discredit taken. I completely understand your point as I have been on the phone for over 2 hours and still didn't get something resolved. I think Dell is the lessor of the big computer seller evils.

But, that being said. Building your own system IS better if you know computers well. You always know what you are getting.

Steve.

If I were movinpix, I wouldn't bother buying an HP. I don't like their support, and the quality of their products is questionable IMO.

I'd get a local shop to build a custom box.

Local shops, IMO, are better than ANY big company, if you do your research. Don't let the high school kids next door build it, but look into a good shop, and let them do it. Most offer warranties, and I doubt you'll be disappointed if that's the route you take.

If you can build your own computer, waiting around for a hot Dell deal can be cheaper. Dell has some great deals sometimes, so you can get a barebones computer from them and add your own parts (firewire card, DVD burner, RAM, etc.)

Unfortunately I don't know if a Dell will work... but it should be cheaper than buying all new parts off newegg.com and building your own.

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=257016&Replies=11&Page=3
There's another thread with some information on the best bang for your buck Vegas system.

Dual Xeons won't really help Vegas because it isn't multithreaded very well. But it *may* help certain other programs (DVD encoders?) or if you run 2 instances of Vegas at once. The best bang for your buck IMO is a Canterwood Pentium system... 2.4ghz-3.2ghz.

There's also the other thread on this where you can follow someone else's build, but IMO Vegas is a really stable program and should work on any setup. I'm not sure which configurations *don't* work with Vegas.

> so you can get a barebones computer from them [Dell] and add your own parts

Unfortunately the bare bones system from Dell still has a proprietary motherboard and power supply. So as you add more parts and the system starts to randomly reboot because the power supply was not rated for all those additional parts. Then you’ll find that you can’t just buy a bigger power supply. Dell has proprietary wiring which will force you to also buy a new motherboard. (Been there, done that, have a Dell door stop to prove it) Buying a Dell is a dead-end proposition. They don’t want you to continually upgrade, they want you to buy a whole new computer.

> Unfortunately I don't know if a Dell will work... but it should be cheaper than buying all new parts off newegg.com and building your own.

No its not. I checked and I built a system that is way better than anything Dell was offering for a few hundred dollars less. Better parts and less money. If you must buy a pre-built system, at least buy from someone who uses industry standard parts. Not Dell or HP, etc.

~jr

>>...Any time the processor is doing something, in the background or
>>not, isn't that taking up processing power?

Yes.

movingpix, PC3200 ram when matched to the right FSB bus is faster because more data is able to get to the memory quicker. So unless you are saving a bunch of money going with PC2700 system (and remember is the whole system that counts not just one part), go with the 3200.

For example if the two systems were the same price and the only difference was one came with 256mb of PC3200 RAM and the other with 1 gig of PC2700 ram, I would go with the 1 gig, because that will help the system run smoother and renders would only be a little bit longer.