Suggestions on hardware upgrade

[elodis]

Hello all-

I'm considering doing an upgrade on my current system. i'm running winxp w/ and amd64 3200, 1gb ram, and an older matrox dual head video card.

Render times are doing ok - i figure a processor upgrade would improve that - but I'm more interested in improving the preview quality while editing.

Currently I have to adjust the preview window back and forth - small when I want to see correct movement smoothness and timing, and large when I want to look at the effects of adding 'effects' to my video tracks. Large shows the detail in the video, but its pretty laggy as far as playback goes, even adding something as simple as color correction.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

-Matt

[J.R. Hudson]

Get a newer computer

[smithy]

What do you mean by laggy? If is going to look jittery if you put in a lot of effects until you render the timeline. Try viewing it using dynamic ram preview to see if it slow there.

[JohnnyRoy]

Processor speed is the most important ingredient for Vegas. It depends on raw CPU power for everything. More memory is probably the second thing that improves performance but not nearly as much as processor speed. Finally if your hard drive light is constantly lit, then it might be the bottleneck.

As for processors, get an AMD Dual Core (Athlon64 X2). They have come way down in price since the new Intels have come out. I have the Athlon64 X2 4600+ and my DV playback is quite smooth.

~jr

[elodis]

What do you mean by laggy? If is going to look jittery if you put in a lot of effects until you render the timeline. Try viewing it using dynamic ram preview to see if it slow there.

Yeah... jittery - I understand If i'm throwing a lot of effect on - but I'd think simple color correction could get by without to much demand. Ram preview works fine - just take a bit of time.

Thanks for the feedback! I figured a new proc would help the best. Is there any reason to upgrade the video card? Or does that only improve 3D type work?

Thanks again!

[JohnnyRoy]

That’s correct; if you do other 3D type work or other plug-ins that can use a GPU then it pays to get a good video card. But there is no reason to upgrade it for Vegas. Vegas won’t use it. :(

~jr

[spunkme99]

I've got the exact same set up with Vegas and an all in wonder 9800. And I also wanted to build a new system for under $700 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16819103562)

but my brother told me to wait until Spring for chip prices to go down saying it wouldn't be much of a jump from what I have now unless I spent in the thousands. And to maybe restore/reset (?) my computer and install only the programs that I need. - that seem like a good idea?

[smithy]

I used to clear out my computer once a year..but lately I have one computer dedicated for production purposes and the other is on the internet. So the demand is less.

[epicedium]

I've seen DRAMATIC improvements going from:

AMD XP Barton 3000+
1GB RAM

to:
AMD64 X2 4200+ Dual Core
2GB RAM, dual channel
Good motherboard (Nforce4 SLI)

I do have a good graphics card (Nvideo Quadro 1400), but that's irrelevant for vegas. Also, the 2GB ram is more for maya work than Vegas ... 1GB would do you fine. I'd go with 1GB if you just edit and colour correct, or 2GB if you do serious compositing/combustion/afterfx/3d work.

Providing that your hard drives aren't a bottleneck, you'll see fantastic performance from an AMD X2 Dual Core... It was a bigger leap than we expected.

Ultimately, if you can wait, then wait ... When is your next major project? We had several video commissions in planning so we made the jump after ~6months of stalling. IF you can stall, then you'll always get more for your money in say 6 months time. It's your call :)

Kris