I want to make one more plea and ask everyone to quit asking people for their "system specs." I have not seen one instance in ten years of posting where asking this question actually helped the OP, and I have instead seen many instances where it puts the person on the defensive and makes them feel intimidated. As practiced on this forum, it often assumes the form of hazing. I say that because in almost every instance where system specs are requested, the person doing it offers absolutely nothing of use that will actually help the person solve his or her problem, and often fails to ever come back to the thread and offer advice.

It would be so much more useful to instead ask specifically for whatever missing information is required.

Let me be very specific as to why we should all stop doing this. I will do this by first looking at the actual content of what is contained in these sacred "system specs" and show how trivial and useless they are, and then will list items that are much more important to most discussions, but which are not included in these specs.

First, here is Sony's laughable list of "system specs:"

Windows Version:
RAM:
Processor:
Video Card:
Sound Card:
Video Capture:
CD Burner:
DVD Burner:
Camera:

Really??

Windows Version:
There is nothing requested about service packs installed. Also, there is nothing about other programs installed which might interfere with whatever Windows version is installed. Examples include "codec packs," QuickTime, and the almost infinite number of programs which install obnoxious background processes, most notably anti-virus software.

RAM:
I have no quarrel with this spec.

Processor:As with all the other specs, it is up to the user to know all of the things that must be included on this line. Many just enter "Intel" or "AMD." Some include a clock speed. However, without knowing the full information about processor model, number of cores, and motherboard, this item provides little useful information.

Video Card:Once again, "NVidia" or "ATI" is all that some people include. Even when they include the model, we still don't know the most important thing which is, of course, the [I]driver[/I] version being used. About 98% of the issues relating to video cards, especially those involving GPU, require information about the driver version, and this is not required by the "system specs."

Sound Card:This is about 100% irrelevant, and for many video-only users, it is simply something on their motherboard, and they don't even know what it is.

Video Capture:This is even more irrelevant and hasn't mattered since most camcorders went to memory cards.

CD Burner:What is this thing?

DVD Burner:The model can be important, but the connection type (IDE, or SATA), and information on whether it is internal or external, is far more important.

Camera:This is important, but there is something that is infinitely more important, and is at the heart of almost every single post, but is not part of system specs ...

... which is a nice segue to a list of items that are far, far more important than anything on the silly system specs list

I almost never care about the specific camera a person is using. What [I]does[/I] matter -- and matters in almost every post -- is what shooting mode they are using: AVCHD or HDV? 1920x1080 or 1280x720? 24 fps progressive or 29.97 fps interlaced (etc.)? Memory card or tape? Manual or automatic settings? I could go on.

Is the video on external hard drives, network drives, or internal drives? If network drives are used, what connection speed?

Speaking of hard drive, do you realize that this useless set of "system specs" [I]does not ask about your hard drive ???[/I] Next to the processor, isn't this just about the most critical computer spec for a video editing system? And, to be useful, the spec must include not just size, connection type (e.g., SATA), but also rotation speed, on-board cache, and technology (e.g., SSD).

If external drives are used, are they USB2 or USB3? Note that there is nothing in "system specs" about USB.

Are they reading video directly from memory cards?

Here's an unbelievably important, absolutely vital piece of information and you won't find it ANYWHERE in the pathetic "system specs:" [I]What version of Vegas are you using???[/I] Is there anything more important to know than this?

Wow, what an omission.

What monitor are they using and how is it connected? Every time there is a post which involves interlaced footage not displaying properly, this becomes important.

What Internet connection speed do they have? We've had a huge number of posts about playback issues from Internet sites, and some of these are simply a function of connection speed.


I've run out of steam, and this post is too long, but my point in making this post was to provide a detailed defense of why I think that asking for system specs is a pointless exercise that delays giving the OP useful advice and providing a resolution to the problem at hand.

So, instead of asking for system specs, I propose that everyone instead ask a specific question about whatever information is needed to provide a more complete response. Some of the possible questions are in my lists above. Alternatively, just try to help the person by putting the response in the conditional form, such as, "if you have a multi-core computer you can ... " or "if your drives are connected via USB 2 instead of USB 3, you probably can't get full speed playback from those large files."

Oh yes, for those who won't post without seeing my system specs, here they are. Bow down and worship them:

Windows Version: 7 64-bit
RAM: 6 GB
Processor: 3.2 GHz Intel i7, Asus P6T Delux MB
Video Card: nVidia 9800GT
Sound Card: Creative Titanium xFx
Video Capture: OHCI IEEE1394
CD Burner:
DVD Burner: LiteOn iHAP 422
Camera: Sony FX-1 (HDV), Sony TRV-11 (DV)