I will put in a somewhat dissonant note on this subject.

I do think it is fine that Boris tech support didn't try to sell you stuff you don't need but (IMO) this is not so much a hallmark of good tech support as much as it is a sign of the times...i.e., they didn't take advantage of you so they are elevated to the status of "tremendous".

I've been using Boris Red 3.0GL for a few years now, and recently wanted to upgrade from a Dell 8200 desktop with 1gig RAM and a 2 gigaHz Pentium 4 chip to something that would be closer to the cutting edge for video NLE and, especially for use of Red as a standalone (because its integration with Vegas is so clunky it seems not worthwhile to me). Don't get me wrong, I love Boris Red!, but with 1 gig RAM the crucial previews of work-in-progress just do not happen for anything but the simplest level of projects (and previews crash the system regularly if a filter is applied).

So, I did a fair amount of research and e-mailed some configuration plans to Boris with my request for detailed help--for example., "What level of RAM should I pursue to best optimize for full use of Red?"

Their tech guy and I exchanged several e-mails but I finally concluded that they had no idea what the optimum hardware specs might be for their flagship product. They told me about the minimum syst reqs (which I already knew from reading the Red manual) but no clue as to how to get the best performance.

As it turns out, my solution was to maximize RAM (4 gig, 3 of which are recognized with XP Pro SP2) and to purchase an AMD Athlon dual core chip and install 10K HDs--all of this worked very well...the machine is fast and the preview-to-RAM feature in Red lets me preview highly complex projects that are loaded with effects.

No complaints with the outcome, but Boris tech support did not help me get to that outcome.

Best regards,

Lee

I have had good experience with BorisFX support as well.

I own Boris Red 3. I do a lot of hardware and beta testing. As such I have to reformat and rebuild my system at least a few times per year. Since Boris products use system ID dependent serial numbers, this means I have to get a new serial number for Boris every time I reformat and reinstall Windows. This extra robust copy protection could be a real pain, but Boris is always quick to respond with the new serial number and does not make me do a song and dance to justify my system rebuild.

I have kind of a high-end system so I can't help with minimum system requirements, but Boris Red really likes top of the line openGL video cards for real time rendering. Really helps the performance of your workflow with Red.

As it turns out, my solution was to maximize RAM (4 gig, 3 of which are recognized with XP Pro SP2) ...

If you install the 64 bit version of XP, the operating system will see and use all of your RAM. I don't have 4GB of RAM, but I do have XP x64 and it runs Vegas like a charm. So far the "out of memory" errors that plagued me from time to time in 32 bit XP have all disappeared.

The "out of memory" errors stemmed from the fact that 32 bit OSs limit applications to 2GB of address space (real + virtual), regardless of how much RAM and disk space is actually present. And worse yet, the 32 bit OS takes up a chunk of the application's address space for itself. In 64 bit OSs, the operating system no longer encroaches on the application's address space like this. And (in case we ever get to see them!) a real 64 bit app gets tons more address space in the first place.

Only caveat (and you'll see this in other postings) is that you must have 64 bit drivers for any hardware you intend to use with a 64 bit OS. And applications with their own device drivers (like Acid) won't work either.

Jayster,

My Vegas is 5.0d--since I don't do hi def work I didn't feel compelled to upgrade my Vegas to the 6 version.

Do you (or anyone else) know if XP x64 will support Vegas 5? It would be very cool to use that 4th gig of RAM.

If XP x64 won't work out with Vegas 5 maybe that will key a decision to upgrade to a higher version of Vegas. What do you all think?


PeterRabby,

Like I said, I didn't actually need advice from Boris about "minimum requirements"--all of which can be found in their printed matter. The fact is, you can't really utilize Red very well without lots more RAM than given by Boris's minimum system reqs. I wasted a lot of time with those guys before I realized they didn't actually have any suggestions for hardware that is optimized for Red (that is, better than just minimally sufficient to create and preview the very simplest projects). And, yes, I know about previewing work at much reduced resolution, etc, but that really is unpleasant and inefficient in my view.

I also didn't have any trouble transfering my single-user Red license to the new computer but, c'mon now, really...I fully expected the transfer to be straightforward, having purchased the software license for very good $$$.

Best regards,

Lee

I ran Vegas 5 on my Windows Server 2003 x64 setup for awhile before upgrading to Vegas 6. (And I still have Vegas 5 installed and used for testing once or twice). So you should have no problem with x64 XP and Vegas 5.