Thoughts on this computer setup

erikd wrote on 7/8/2009, 7:37 AM

Hi all,

I am not the most techie person so I want to let others look at this system. It is not for me but for an associate who will be working with me. The editing situation for most of the time will be working with a XDCAM mxf proxy library and then forwarding the VEG file to me for conforming and finishing.

I feel certain this system will be fine for that but am curious how anyone thinks it would do editing 35mb XDCAM HD on the timeline. How does this unit compare with the i7 systems I've seen talked about around here? It is 64bit capable but I want to wait at least another 18months before switching to 64bit for the OS.

Any thoughts are really appreciated.

GIGABYTE POSEIDON NO PSU CASE
POWER SUPPLY THERMAL TAKE 500W
ASUS MOTHERBOARD P5Q
INTEL C2D E7400 2.8GHZ BOX
KINGSTON 4GB 800MHZ
SEAGATE HDD SATAII 1TB 7200RPM 32MB
LG DVD/RW SATA X22
NVIDIA GFORCE 9400GT 1024MB PCI-X DVI-HDMI
LOGITECH CORDLESS 1500
WIN XP HOME EDITION SP3 ENG
LCD 22W LG W2261V 2MS 20000:1 HDMI FHD BLACK

Comments

Former user wrote on 7/8/2009, 7:44 AM

Erik,

It's good for the most part. I would up the CPU right off the bat...you can certainly get more bang for the buck than the e7400...also - I think a bit of overkill in the graphics card....really don't need a GB of RAM there (I don;t think) - Vegas won;t be using that RAM for sure.....

I have three P5Q boards and they are all excellent.

Cheers!

VP

erikd wrote on 7/8/2009, 8:22 AM

VP, appreciate very much your thoughts. Would it be possible to recommend a cpu?

Erik

xberk wrote on 7/8/2009, 9:43 AM

If budget is a problem, E7400 is a very good value. Checkout the G31 Motherboards (MSI, Gigabyte, Asus etc.). Wouldn't these be good enough? I agree the video card is overkill but have no specific recommendations there.

warriorking wrote on 7/8/2009, 10:37 AM

Bump yourself up to a Quadcore if you can swing it, a Q6600 or better yet a Q9550 would be a good choice....you can fudge with the video card, but keep your priority at the processor and nothing less than 4Gig of RAM....

musicvid10 wrote on 7/8/2009, 10:56 AM

I just checked some internet prices on processors, and:

Q9550 boxed = $169
i7 920 boxed = $199

For the difference, I'd probably go i7. You need an x58 motherboard, however.

Former user wrote on 7/8/2009, 11:53 AM

Would it be possible to recommend a cpu?

I am using the Q9550...and it smokes. I can't see a very overpriced i7 being 500 dollars "better" than this right now....

And yes - the i7 takes you to a new motherboard - and a decent x58's are really up there on the price scale...it never ends :)

srode wrote on 7/8/2009, 4:45 PM

I'ts a nice expandable set up and a good case but I would go with a Q6600 or Q6700 processor, a Corsair 620HX power supply and a 64 bit OS if I were building it. If you want to overclock get a 120ultra thermalright heat sink - it will fit in the case fine - that's what I have on mine with the same case.

Is it a prebuilt, used or are you building from scratch?

ushere wrote on 7/8/2009, 5:35 PM

use / wait for win 7 64bit (runs all my 32 bit apps happily)

better power supply

if you can, i7 920 and mb - i know, more money, but i have to say it's been well worth it - so far, NO rendering problems (as opposed to those i've read re quad core).

video card is massive overkill

just ONE hd!? where you going to capture / store to? externals?

leslie

erikd wrote on 7/8/2009, 11:15 PM

This board is a life-saver. Big thanks to everyone who commented as it is a huge help for the technically challenged. It seems to me that a pretty clear consensus was had with these results.

Try to upgrade the processor, either the Q6600 or the Q9550
Buy less video card

Leslie, just wanted to let you know that the list doesn't show it but there actually will be at least 2 (1TB) drives. Funny how a TB is now starting to sound kinda small :)

Xberk, are you saying that you think the motherboard is overkill? Sorry didn't know what a G31 was.

Really appreciate all the feedback. For years I was on the Discreet Edit forum and I thought there would never be another forum like that one but I have to say this group really reminds me of the old Edit forum. *Editors and Vegas users are birds of a feather I think.

Erik

ritsmer wrote on 7/9/2009, 1:18 AM

As also ushere writes one HDD will definitely spoil your fun.
HDD are so cheap these days - and as Windows does not fancy writing to and reading from the same HDD at the same time it is a must that you split Windows+programs, media and render-to-location over more (at least logical) disks.
Search this forum for this topic.

Also: do really care for some reasonable backup outside your machine - and backup at least once a day.
Here we backup via the house gigabit network - and so ensure that if the machine + environment burns then we have 2 full backups in 2 other locations.

The 22" LCD seems pretty small also - I do not know the LG - but you might also use some money for the size and quality of your screen.
Here we use Eizo 24" and 27" which are GREAT in quality and colours.
Recently we tried a big HP - but we only had it on for a short time before it was returned. The colours we so twisted - even connected via 2 x DVI - and they were changing significantly minute-to-minute.

srode wrote on 7/9/2009, 3:10 AM

Depending on your budget - Dell makes a great monitor that's bright and has good color - I've been using a 27 inch model which runs about $900.

If you are going to use files off this computer for editting I agree you will want a Back up drive at least - if not a RAID set up. You can put up to 5 drives in that case with no modification and the ICH10R on the board will do the RAID - suggest RAID 5 for size and redundancy and RAID10 for speed.

If you are just pulling files from a server and only creating .veg files on the computer - you may not see as much need for BUs - personally I always use some type of RAID to prevent information loss if a drive fails (not RAID0).

I would recomend Western Digital Caviar Blacks as drives - about $100 for a single 1TB drive - it works well in RAID with good speed.

busterkeaton wrote on 7/9/2009, 9:14 AM

Perhaps some sales were still on, but today I'm seeing the
Q9550 at $220 and the i7 at $280.

Also would an i7 mean a more expensive motherboard and possibly RAM?

xberk wrote on 7/9/2009, 9:23 AM

Xberk, are you saying that you think the motherboard is overkill? Sorry didn't know what a G31 was.

Google "G31 motherboards" -- I think they will run the E7400 and are good value boards.

I was just thinking price. E7400 is a good chip. There are many motherboards that would offer better value than the Asus you listed that would work with the E7400. I don't work with XDCAM files so I really can't say how well the E7400 will do. Maybe others can say. That's really the whole point. Will the E7400 be enough?

I'm doing a build next week on an E7400 with a MSI G31-M3L motherboard. It's a Micro board meaning small in size so it can go in a smaller case. I've built maybe 20 systems in the last 10 years, so not that many. Never used a micro board before. Just seemed like a sweet deal at Fry's for $150 for the chip and the board. It has onboard video and audio which we will use. But this rig is not meant for Vegas. If budget is more important than time, it would be interesting to try it without a video card and see how it does with Vegas. (A video card can always be added.) .. If time not a problem, I'd buy it where you can return it (like Fry's) -- build the E7400 -- if not good, return and upgrade. If budget not a problem -- I like the i7 920. That's my next build for Vegas.