OT: How would you custom build a Win7 PC for Vegas

will-3 wrote on 10/23/2009, 2:54 PM

I'm thinking about building my own Win7 PC for use with Vegas Pro and other Video applications... here is what I was thinking about... how would you do it?

1 - Intel Desktop Board DX58SO or eqv
2 - Intel I7-920 2.66G 8MB 4.8 GT/SEC
3 - 6-8 GB Ram (DDR2 or DDR3 ?)
4 - GeForce 9600GT 512MB Video Card
5 - 1TB 7200 RPM System Disk/Data Disk
6 - 1TB 7200 RPM Data Disk/Rendering Disk
7 - DVD or Blue Ray Burner
8 - All-in-one Card Reader
9 - 10 - Mid Tower
10 - 650 Watt Power Supply
11 - Good cooling fan
12 - Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate

Thanks for any comments.

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 10/23/2009, 5:31 PM

I'd look for a board that had 2 eSATA ports. I'd also want it to have mostly PCIe slots, with an eye towards having a graphics card and a Xena card (even if I wasn't really planning on a Xena I think I'd want to be able to install a PCIe x4 card if I ever needed to).

As far as I know, the 920 has a triple-channel memory controller and requires DDR3 so I'd be looking at either 3x2GB DIMMS or 6x2GB DIMMS. Going with the first combination leave open the possibility of upgrading from 6GB to 18 GB, I suppose.

Make sure that motherboard has 6 DIMM slots!

For graphics cards...maybe I'd be looking at an ATI card that supports DX11. Unless you really know what you want in a graphics card I'd probably just go for something cheap. Eventually the graphics card will become more important to Vegas but by then the card you buy today will be out of date. Don't buy more than you need.

Storage is kind of up in the air. Drives with faster RPM offer better performance but less storage. A 1 TB system disk seems big but better too big than too small. All that space might tempt you to use it for video projects. eSATA enclosures could give you RAID outside the system if you wanted.

Don't spend too much on features you might use in the future. By the time that day rolls around you might be ready to upgrade the system anyway.

Rob Mack

Byron K wrote on 10/23/2009, 7:01 PM

Here's a good thread on the Adobe forum.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1967837#1967837

xberk wrote on 10/23/2009, 8:50 PM

Will - I'm working on a new build right now that's mainly for Vegas 9.0b and future versions. So far it looks like this:

i5-750 with Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R motherboard. (Combo $199.95)
or i7-860 with Asus P7P55D (Combo $399.95) -- Leaning toward the i5.
8 gigs of Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1333 ram (4x2gb) ($140)
EVGA - GeForce 9500GT 1GB DDR2 ($69.95)
74Gb Raptor WD740ADFD (recertified) $49.95 (for dedicated boot drive)
Antec Sonata Case with 500 watt power supply ($114)
Win7 64 bit Home Premium (OEM upgrade) $50.00

I'll probably just toss in a Lite-On DVD Burner rather than a Blu-Ray.
I'm currently using a Raptor 150 for my boot drive and love it. It's FAST! My Q6600 usually boots in about 45-50 seconds. I don't know why but everything seems smoother to me with the Raptor main drive!.. So at the $49.95 price I'm going to give the old 74gb 10000 rpm Raptor a shot. There's only nine months of warranty so I bought TWO of them! I'll limit the C: drive to Windows and Programs and do an image backup from time to time. I have plenty of 1TB drives for storage and project work. Just have to decide which chip and motherboard.

will-3 wrote on 10/24/2009, 6:16 AM

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I will post some follow-up questions later this weekend.

Meanwhile, any other comments would be great.

Thanks again.