An optimal system configuration to work with A1.

Mario Mlakar

Mario Mlakar

Member
First a hello to everyone here, thank you for helping me decide in which way to go, camerawise and I apologize if this theme is offtopic in this subforum. I browsed this forum and browsed but couldn`t find a more suitable place to ask my question. My A1 is arriving in a matter of days so now I`m also in the transitional period with my system configuration. On to the question.
I`m a Premiere Pro user. I`ve been editing DV for few years now on an Athlon XP 1900+, with a GeForce 4800Ti and 768 Ram. It was fairly comfortable to edit SD on such a config. Fairly meaning that if I would reach 35min of heavily edited material,with multi tracks, blurs, opacity changes, contrast and gamma adjustments the workflow would be getting very jittery. Adding in Magic Bullet adjustments would turn my computer to a slideshow machine.

I`ve been researching a lot concerning a good, or better said,a sufficient configuration for editing HDV and came across too much information with a lot extreme views.

I`m on a limited budget so those 5K configurations are out of question. Then I hear people saying they edit HDV flawlessly with an Athlon XP 3200+, but those same people consider editing smoothly 2 layers of video a privilege.

Now I would ask you if you could please separate facts from fantasy, and direct me in buying a solid machine that I`m not intending on changing anytime soon (nor as the A1 also). So a 5 year lasting configuration which will mostly be used for Premiere CS3, maybe some AFF for mostly promotional videos, music videos and shorts. I`t would be a delight to use Magic Bullet in real time:Drogar-Happy(DBG):, as well as the standard pallette of Premiere Effects.

What do you use?

Thanks and sorry for the long first post ;)
 
Hi Mario and welcome. Im sorry Im not the person to help you (mac user). But just wanted to return the hello and bump your thread, hopefully a fluent pc cat will come along soon.

Cheers.
 
Hey, I appreciate the effort, thanks!
Anyway I did some hard core review reading on various tech forums so now the roles change. If anyone needs advice in buying an HDV editing capable PC for 1500$, just ask me:D

Just kidding, here, this is the config. Any criticism is welcome.
[FONT=&quot]
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2x2.66Ghz)
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Thermaltake [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Blue Orb FX Al Cooler
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R quad core ready motherboard
2x1GB OCZ Gold XTC DDRII Ram, 800Mhz
Gainward Geforce 8600GT Golden Sample 256DDRIII, dual DVI, HDCP
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]NEC 18x DVD RW, Sata, Labelflash
2x Seagate 250GB Sata300 in RAID 0 for video files
1x Seagate 160GB, Sata300 for OS, partitioned

And I`m still in doubts over monitors :
Phillips 22" 220WS8FB, 5ms. 1000:1, 300cd
Samsung 22" [/FONT]226CW[FONT=&quot], 2ms, 3000:1, 300cd
Dell 22" E228WFP, 5ms

Vista Vs. XP SP2 ?
[/FONT]
 
First of all good call on the 2 hard drives with RAID 0.
I would go with XP Service Pack 2.
And if you can get at least 4GB of memory for Hi-Def.
And I recommend the Dell monitor. Read good reviews about Dell monitors.

Hope this helps,
Mike
 
I can answer on that. As milvid said go for 4gb ram.

The other thing is remember that your OS hdd will also carry your CS3 as well, plus a bunch of other things. Is 160 gb going to be enough? Also you dont have a system in place for backing up.
 
I heard Vista/XP only recognize 3gb of RAM.

Is this true? I hear of people having 6 and 7, but is this even necessary?

When editing, my RAM is never fully used up. (maybe peeks at around 80%)

I have 2gb right now.
 
Update:

I found this WD 250 GB [FONT=&quot]WD2500YS [/FONT]hard drive titled "RAID EDITION", which is manufactured for 24/7 server overloads, and heavy duty RAID writing/reading from a disk, as with editing, so it`s above average stable and resistant to failures.

As for backup, I will be having an IDE (non Sata) 320GB hard drive. But mainly I intend to archive all my video cassettes and backup projects and finished AVI`s on the 320GB disk.

Now, the only thing bugging my mind is the OS disk configuration.

Should I partition it, and put ONLY OS on a separate partition and the Program files on another? Should there be a third one, where I would install only CS3 and this is where the conforming would be going on? This is where ncje`s point becomes obvious. How big should the OS Hard Disk be? since I`m on a budget.

One more point. The price for RAM is the same if I take 2GB of high quality low latency RAM (Crucial Ballistix) and 3GB of Kingmax normal latency memory. What is better? The speed of the memory is the same (800Mhz).
 
bballplaya283 said:
When editing, my RAM is never fully used up. (maybe peeks at around 80%)
.
Click to expand...

This may be true, but do you know how much VIRTUAL memory is being used by the OS at the same time? It coulld be using another 2GB of virtual memory, which means it is swapping memory out t the hard disk and back again, which slows down the system.
 
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