A new Avid coimputer

C

Carlos_E._Martinez

Well-known member
Right now I am facing a great dilemma: what computer to assemble for my Avid editing needs.

It should be DV and HDV ready, and it should be something I can assemble, not ready made.

First thing is what motherboard to go for, that is Pentium based.

As I live in Brazil, my options for serious mobos are not that many, and only Intel seems to bring their best stuff. Usually at exorbitable prices. A D955XBK, which is around $200 at Newegg, should cost $400 here. But those may be my only choice, as they provide a 3-year warranty.

What other mobos would you suggest as very reliable?

Dual CPU boards are out of the question, I think, as they would be outrageously expensive.

Some requirements I think I should have: two IDE headers, two SATA connectors, two (if possible) PCI-Express connectors and at least three regular PCI connectors.
 
One thing I saw now: Intel mobos do seem to have "boxed-in" Sata on-connectors. They will certainly hold the plug much better than regular ones.

Not I wonder if those PATA to SATA interface little boxes are up to the job.

The problem with most Intel mobos is they only have one IDE interface.
 
What ever you do: if you can, wait for the new Intel Chips which will be probalbly announced in July or at least in Sept. . It seems, that Intel had made their home work and these chips will rock.

Also, it is better to go with an Avid certified System - the self made stuff sucks with Xpress Pro and you will not get any support from Avid. I know what I am talking about, because I am on a self made Intel system too and I wish I had a solid build machine from HP oder Dell - Xpress don´t work very stable (I think the problem is my videocard, but I don´t want to buy an AGP Quadro FX because PCIe is the better choice for the future).

Emu
 
emu said:
What ever you do: if you can, wait for the new Intel Chips which will be probalbly announced in July or at least in Sept. . It seems, that Intel had made their home work and these chips will rock.

Also, it is better to go with an Avid certified System - the self made stuff sucks with Xpress Pro and you will not get any support from Avid. I know what I am talking about, because I am on a self made Intel system too and I wish I had a solid build machine from HP oder Dell - Xpress don´t work very stable (I think the problem is my videocard, but I don´t want to buy an AGP Quadro FX because PCIe is the better choice for the future).
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments Emu.

Going for an Avid certified system, besides it being Pentium based, it's out of the question for me. HP or Dell sell very few of their good stuff in my country.

The best I can do is use a Pentium CPU and hope things go fine. My concern is with HDV, because my old AMD did quite well with DV Express. I edited two documentaries with it, using a socket-A 3200 AMD CPU, with 1GB memory and Gforce 6200 video board (using only one monitor).

Never got stuck, never slowed down, rendered almost everything in real time.

Perhaps your unstability problems were really video board related. What board were you using? If it's ATI then that might be it, as I think Avid prefers Nvidia types.

But I do wish to go Quadro PCIe, so the new mobo has to have PCIe capability.

I heard that some Intel mobos are difficult to setup. Was that so with yours?

As I said I am interested in being HDV-ready, as I might be buying an HDV camera next year. If you follow the Videoguys' advice, to go HDV you must get a dual-CPU board. But I am not sure that is the case.

More than the new Intel chips, which I think might be interesting after some time (and someone else) testing it, what I would like to see is how Avid works out with dual-core CPUs, which seems to be a mystery.

I wonder what other people are using on this Forum with their Avid DV Xpress.
 
Last edited:
I have a self made system running Avid Xpress Pro 4.5.1 and it runs super super great.

Specs:

P4, 3.2 GHZ processor
2 gigs ram
ATI Radeon X600 series graphics card, 128MB
320 gigs of hard drive space, set up on a Raid 1 or 0, SATA
Windows XP
 
action junkie said:
I have a self made system running Avid Xpress Pro 4.5.1 and it runs super super great.

Specs:

P4, 3.2 GHZ processor
2 gigs ram
ATI Radeon X600 series graphics card, 128MB
320 gigs of hard drive space, set up on a Raid 1 or 0, SATA
Windows XP
Click to expand...


Can you specify which motherboard you are using and worked for you?

You seem to have been lucky with the ATI.
 
My current Avid Xpress Pro 4 editor runs the following:

Intel P4 2.4 ghz
1gb RAM
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500
1 TB hard disk space, all PATA, no RAID
XP Pro SP2
SOYO P4I Fire Dragon Motherboard
 
This is a system that will certainly satisfy your needs


A comp from newegg:


ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI 159$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540

AMD Opteron 175 Dual Core 1000MHz HT Socket 939 505$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103584

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - 138$ (with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145575


Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 300GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb 2x 110$ (Just to get you started)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148131

OCZ OCZ600ADJSLI 700 Watts Power Supply - Retail 169$ (with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817711001

GIGABYTE Geforce 7600GT 256mb GV-NX76T256DB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125013 190$


add 100-200$ for a box 60-80 for a DVD-R drive and at least 400$ for one decent LCD Display


That is give or take: 1900$ for EVERYTHING and you have a really nice setup there, you can use the 165 AMD to lower the price or use a single core or X2 model, these processors are all single socket 939 compatible.

Cheers.
 
jazzx said:
This is a system that will certainly satisfy your needs


A comp from newegg:


ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI 159$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540

AMD Opteron 175 Dual Core 1000MHz HT Socket 939 505$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103584

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - 138$ (with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145575


Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 300GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb 2x 110$ (Just to get you started)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148131

OCZ OCZ600ADJSLI 700 Watts Power Supply - Retail 169$ (with rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817711001

GIGABYTE Geforce 7600GT 256mb GV-NX76T256DB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125013 190$


add 100-200$ for a box 60-80 for a DVD-R drive and at least 400$ for one decent LCD Display


That is give or take: 1900$ for EVERYTHING and you have a really nice setup there, you can use the 165 AMD to lower the price or use a single core or X2 model, these processors are all single socket 939 compatible.
Click to expand...

I wish I could get access to all that for those prices. To buy them here or to bring them to my country would probably triple those prices.

But now that I am convinced that AMD64 systems seem to work with Avid (as stated on another mail of mine), there are areas I can improve. And I would like to have opinions on what should be dealt first.

1) CPU

The one I have now is a Sempron 3000+. Even if it's 64 technology, I think upgrading to an Athlon64 3000+ might bring improvements. Will Avid take advantage of them?

2) Memory

Going from my present 1Ghz to 2Ghz is something I can implement right away. Memory is not that expensive, even here. Same question: will Avid use well that extra 1Ghz?

3) Power supply

Better power supplies might be a problem to upgrade. They are quite expensive here.

4) LCD screen

That is a point I might frown at. To start with you can only get Samsung and LG LCDs here. Dell or HP are not available. As I am in the market for a 19" monitor, I did a comparison of the Samsung 997MB (CRT) and the 950B (LCD), and resolution is not too good on the latter. Price is higher on the LCD: 2x the CRT. So I am not too sure what to go for.

5) HD

Going for a SATA and Seagate HD is certainly on my plans. Right now I am using a small box, which you plug on the back of any PATA IDE device and converts it onto a SATA. But I am not too sure if you lose something in doing that.
 
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