Upgrading PC? Intel Core 2 duo?

Grazie wrote on 11/19/2007, 2:13 AM
As I gently ease my way forward to things HD, I'm getting quotes for the upgrading of my MONSTA! PC to do the necessary. My builder is very happy to do the necessary, which will include all the necessary installs and Mobo and chip and fast RAM installs. Is there anything else I should be considering?

And yes, I AM keeping everything INTEL.

Do I really REALLY need a Xeon? They are awfully expensive?

TIA

Grazie

Comments

farss wrote on 11/19/2007, 3:43 AM
"Do I really REALLY need a Xeon? They are awfully expensive?"

They are expensive and so are the good mobos etc to run them on. They do give you a bucketload of bandwidth if you're running serious RAIDed drives. Two or four Xeons on a Supermicro mobo would give you an awesome machine and will cost as much if not more than your EX1!

Do you need it, I doubt it but what do you want to do, that is the question. If you run multiple tracks with lots of composites happening keep in mind that HD (the 1920x1080 stuff) is 4 times more data than SD. That's what's going down the Vegas pipelines even though HDV takes up the same amount of file space as SD when it's decoded, as it must be for Vegas to do its thing, that's when it gets gets bigger.

On the other hand if you're just doing cuts like I mostly do then you will not feel the pain anywhere near so much.

Bob.
Tim Stannard wrote on 11/19/2007, 3:44 AM
Do I really REALLY need a Xeon?
If you really want multiple processors AND you want to stick with Intel, then the answer is YES.

One thing to consider is noise which goes hand in hand with cooling which goes hand in hand with power consumption. (Generalization)

Core 2 products run cooler.

Personally I'd go for a fanless Mobo, fanless graphics card, basically fanless anything you can. Get a good quality PSU and good quality case fans (and CPU cooler - though my stock Intel supplied with my Core 2 Duo is comfortable). As you're probably aware, with fans bigger + fewer revs is generally the way to go.
Also, I've found fans which switch on and off depending on load are more annoying than those which are constantly on (ie you compensate for constant sound but not intermittent)

Furthermore, fewer fans = fewer things to seize up.
4eyes wrote on 11/19/2007, 6:49 AM
My computers sit in another room, the only sounds in my office is passing gas.