Advice on PC

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andy_islay

New member
Hi

I'm a teacher at a secondary school and am in the process of directing a long term film project at the school. I've recently purchased an HMC151 and so far am very happy about it. However, after reading numerous threads on the forum about some editing problems that some folk have experienced, I would really appreciate some concrete advice. I apologise in advance that this is covering some already discussed ground, but I don't want to make any mistakes when ordering the workstation for the project.

Below is a quote that I've received for a workstation. I do have some doubts about it, but would like to hear what others, with more experience in handling the HMC151 and its demands on a pc, say about it.

Thanks in advance

HP xw4600 Workstation, HP xw4600 80+ Energy Efficient Chassis,
Microsoft Vista32B Downgrade to XP32B OS, Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00
6MB/1333 CPU, HP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 ECC RAM, NVIDIA Quadro
FX3700 512MB PCIe Graphics, HP 500GB SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 7200 1st
HDD, BTO/HP 500GB SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 7200 2nd HDD, LSI 3041E 4-port
SAS/SATA RAID Card, HP PS/2 Standard Keyboard, HP USB Laser Scroll
Mouse, HP No Floppy Disk Option, HP 16X DVD+-RW SuperMulti SATA
1st Drive, HP 16-In-1 Media Card Reader
HP FireWire IEEE 1394a 3-Port PCI Card, BTO/SoundBlasterXFiXtremeGamerAudioCard,
Broadcom 5751 Netxtreme Gigabit PCIe NIC,
BTO/HP RAID 0(StripedArray)Configuration, BTO/HP ProtectTools​
Software, HP xw4600 Workstation Localization Kit,
 
Outside of the 4 GB of RAM which no 32 bit system can use [but it won't cause problems beyond less money in your pocket] - this seems like a very good system.

If I were going with a new PC I would go for a 64 bit system which can actually use more RAM.
 
I agree with HiDef... go 64. And to be honest, I don't see the need to downgrade to XP. I can count on one hand the number of issues I've had with Vista 64 in the last 1 1/4 years I've been using it, and most of those were related to a power hit I took. If the machine is actually built for Vista, you shouldn't really have an issue (I built my own around it).

Also, spring for a quadcore if possible. I have a Q6600 2.4 quad on my desktop, and a T8300 2.4 duo in my laptop, and there really is a difference. The Q9650 (?) 3.0 is now down to about $350 by itself on Newegg. If that is an option for this workstation, I would go for it. If you're planning on editing AVCHD natively, it will make a difference.
 
Mike Harvey said:
I agree with HiDef... go 64. And to be honest, I don't see the need to downgrade to XP. I can count on one hand the number of issues I've had with Vista 64 in the last 1 1/4 years I've been using it, and most of those were related to a power hit I took. If the machine is actually built for Vista, you shouldn't really have an issue (I built my own around it).

Also, spring for a quadcore if possible. I have a Q6600 2.4 quad on my desktop, and a T8300 2.4 duo in my laptop, and there really is a difference. The Q9650 (?) 3.0 is now down to about $350 by itself on Newegg. If that is an option for this workstation, I would go for it. If you're planning on editing AVCHD natively, it will make a difference.
Click to expand...

i thought you said somewhere that you were having issues with avchd. i could be crazy. seems like green hornet and you were discussing it and he mentioned having XP and his computer handling the footage.

Either way, i'm all for xp
 
I am having issues with AVCHD... but it's an Adobe CS4 problem, not a Vista problem. I can play AVCHD in a media player fine with the CoreAVC decoder... it's when I bring it into CS4 that I start to have issues.
 
So is there any NLE that CAN handle AVCHD without transcoding? I currently use FCP but I'd much rather just buy the proper software when I build my new desktop.
 
Thanks for the feedback, especially for highlighting why it is best to go for 64bit.The reason why we are sticking with XP is beause all of our pupils have UMPCs with XP running on it, and therefore the kids are used to working with it.

I presume that I'm correct in thinking that the above system will be fine for editing AVCHD natively using Vegas 8 in conjunction with Cineform Neo? Had thought about using Edius 5, but in order for that to operate smoothly would the above system need to be improved?

Thanks again, it's much appreciated.
 
andy_islay said:
Thanks for the feedback, especially for highlighting why it is best to go for 64bit.The reason why we are sticking with XP is beause all of our pupils have UMPCs with XP running on it, and therefore the kids are used to working with it.

I presume that I'm correct in thinking that the above system will be fine for editing AVCHD natively using Vegas 8 in conjunction with Cineform Neo? Had thought about using Edius 5, but in order for that to operate smoothly would the above system need to be improved?

Thanks again, it's much appreciated.
Click to expand...
The system specified would be fine with Edius. I use a core2duo 2.4 with 2 gig ram for editing AVCHD. For speed I use AVCHD2HQ.
 
Here are the specs on my main editing laptop which is not a pure editor because I also do web and graphic design on it:

Sony VAIO FW laptop
Window Vista Ultimate 32 bit [for the record and to concur with Mike Harvey – No crashes outside something I caused which happened twice... Very stable]
Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz
3 gigabytes of RAM
320 gig hard drive at 5400 rpm
ATI Mobility HD 3400 with 256MB of dedicated graphic memory


Vegas Pro 8.0c
Sony FX-1 and Panasonic HMC150.
I shoot 1080p and 720p at either 24 or 30 fps with the 150 and 1080i 60 with the FX-1.


I edit both native AVCHD video coming from my 150 and I also have NEO Scene which I use to transcode video from my FX-1 and my 150.


I have found that playback in the Vegas preview window with native AVCHD from my 150 is not smooth however all editing functions and rendering options in Vegas work with the mts files for me.
Many members here have said that adjusting the preview window in Vegas to “Draft” should smooth out the playback issue. I have not tried that yet.


Vegas works very well with NEO Scene for me although the NEO Scene avi seems to have less contrast than the native AVCHD files. This is not a problem for me because I will either render out as is or add one or two “clicks” of contrast in Vegas.


I'm getting long winded here but if my laptop can handle native AVCHD and NEO Scene files with the specs I listed above, I doubt you'll have any trouble with the PC you are looking at.


I would go with quad cores too if I had the chance again as Mike Harvey spoke about...
 
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