Dual Processor Support

JohnnyRoy said:
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Since Vegas does not take advantage of multiple cores for timeline playback, the fastest single core should yield the fastest timeline playback. Having said that, IMHO you'd have to be crazy to buy a single core processor today. I would get the fastest Core 2 Duo you can afford. That would give you a good balance of playback and rendering speed.
~jr
I can barely afford it.
It hurts like hell,
but thats what i'm havig built.

E6700 Core2Duo 2.67 Ghz, 4Mb L2, 1066 Fsb.
Intel 975x mb/chipset
WD 250GB SATA HDD (3 just like Spot said!)
2 Gig OCZ 800mhz RAM matched pair
XFX 7600GS 256Mb dual DVI
M-Audio 2496
XP Pro

Balance is good. We shall see.
 
Gco > Hey let us know how the system performs,,,Im planning a similar one and am very stuck when the dealer asks me ....what chipset or motherboard do you want with this ? Id hate to make a mistake there and wind up with a chain thats only as strong as its weakest link situation. Its always recommended for video edit pcs to go for 3 HDDs one for your OS and progs the other for your captured video and the 3rd for your render destinations. What is the RPM and sustained throughput of your HDDs by the way ?? XFX is an Nvidia card ?. Please let us know. That sounds like a kick*** config.
 
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Chipset is 975x and the motherboard is Intel. The builder claims this has a better memory controller than others.
I'm still not certain about rated memory speeds. Videoguys claim that its ideal to have a rated memory speed at 1/2 the front side bus. The builder claims its best to get the highest rated to let the system utilize what it can. I just dont know.
Regarding 3 drives, ditto. Douglas Spotted Eagle mentions that in his (and Johns) VASST Vegas training series. Makes perfect sense to me. The drives are just standard 7200 rpm. Throughput, dont know yet.
XFX is just a brand (like PNY) that uses Invidia chips. Nothing fancy, just dual DVI output is all i need.

Not meaning to hijack this thread into a new direction. Just that everything i've learned on these boards so far has pointed me in this direction. Hurts, but i'm going for it.
 
I essentially built the same:

E6600 (core 2 duo)
Asus P5b (eSATA, On board SATA RAID, IDE channel, up to 8GB RAM...)
2 GB Corsiar 800
1x 250GB SATA Seagate
1x 500GB SATA Seagate
1x 250GB IDE (leftover)
1x DVD-/+ R Plextor (leftover)
Nvidia 7600GT 256MB

Runs like a champ, rendering is ****ing amazing and AE is smooth sailing. You can OC the e6600 (or any core2 for that matter) pretty well even w/ the stock HS and fan. I'd suggest beefing it up tho. I OC'd it to 3.4GHZ from the get go! It ran a bit hot so I down sized a bit.
 
Hey Greeches > What do you mean i Oc'd it to 3.4ghz lol. Your plainning to use your machine for a barbeque while its rendering ? How did it perform as is (without oc'ing) ???
 
The amazing thing is that you can over clock these chips to such levels WITHOUT creating a BBQ! There's a whole lot of head room in there. With adequate cooling I've seen benchmarks with people getting these chips up to 4Ghz stable!
 
LOL yeah the OC potential on Intel right now is IMHO causing the huge demand for Intel. I think AMD is losing ground more because of that than "who has the fastest CPU at the top end." Only those with deep pockets are buying the top-of-the-line models - most of us are looking for perfomance as part of a "good deal."

It's good to have pointed out that 3.4GHz isn't a heat issue on Core 2 Duo, just whether your CPU is stable there. Most people are reporting they can just keep the stock fan cooler when modestly OCing these.

I have a Pentium-D that OC'd to 3.4 with no voltage increases or anything. I had it running at 3.8 but if I ran it full-bore for hours doing rendering I'd get some instability so I lowered it again.

Of course, with Pentium-D the heat *IS* an issue; to keep from burning my house down, I put a liquid cooler on it, and ran the cooling tubes through the wall of my den, to the radiator & coolant tank out in our garage. The -30C weather in Canada can sometimes be a free bonus ;oD I don't recommend that route, now that the Core 2 line keeps the heat in check better.

Another note that's interesting, is that the Core 2 Duo 4xxx line is in stores now- similar stock speeds as the 6300 but only 800MHz front-side bus, I'm told that will allow for these extreme overclocks with even less chance of instability. Greater clocks *should* in most cases more than make up for the slower FSB speed. All in theory of course, I haven't tried it yet.

Fun fun fun...
Dip
 
greeches said:
I essentially built the same:

E6600 (core 2 duo)
Asus P5b (eSATA, On board SATA RAID, IDE channel, up to 8GB RAM...)
2 GB Corsiar 800
1x 250GB SATA Seagate
1x 500GB SATA Seagate
1x 250GB IDE (leftover)
1x DVD-/+ R Plextor (leftover)
Nvidia 7600GT 256MB

Runs like a champ, rendering is poo pooing amazing and AE is smooth sailing. You can OC the e6600 (or any core2 for that matter) pretty well even w/ the stock HS and fan. I'd suggest beefing it up tho. I OC'd it to 3.4GHZ from the get go! It ran a bit hot so I down sized a bit.

Greeches!,
what power supply are you using, i.e. brand and power rating?
any issues with voltage stability?
 
How does one overclock their processor ? Can you tell me the steps involved please. Though i know what it is,, i havent the faintest idea how to go about doing it.
 
I got a thermaltake 430. I've never owned a thermaltake but after having read reviews and now experiencing it... I love it! Really solid feel, quality build.

I just up'd the FSB to OC the E6600, no need to adjust the voltages.....


Yea I want to get a non-stock hs and fan so I can get a solid 3GHZ. Rendering is so nice on this chip though, having upgraded from an XP 2700+ Barton Core...
 
Having overclocked my previous setup (amd xp) I would always suggest getting a good solid HS like the Thermalrights and a good solid fan but not too loud..(panaflos are good for that..low DB's vs rpm's.) And a mandatory item is to use Arctic Silver for the lubricant between then HS and core...but use very little. As for overclocking it is a tricky item and not to be taken lightly. One wrong setup and your CPU is done. If you don't have experience in it ...then I wouldn't suggest trying it or you will spend hours trying to figure out what went wrong and even having to replace cpu or motherboard if the bios chip is gone. In addition you will also need good ram and a psu to take on the added stress of overclocking.
 
Hi Smithy,, Ive decided to go with a new system having

INTEL Core 2 Duo 2.4 ghz
945 GCL motherboard
1 gb of transcend ram (single chip, 3 dimm slots free)
3 x 250 gb sata 2
Nvidia 7300GT 256mb Ram with 1 dvi out & one Dsub out (gotta run 3dsmax too)
19" viewsonic widescreen monitor.
Sony DVDRW 18x.
IEEE.

Will try the onboard 5.1 sound and decide if i need to put in an MAudio Card.
What do you think ?
Also they told me the firewire card has three inputs ??? What the heck ??? :)
 
Smithy > One more important question. The graphics card says it has svideo, component video out etc. Can this be used for External TV preview or is it not possible ?
 
Well, I don't know if this adds anything to the discussion, but I'm on a MacBook running Bootcamp with Win XP Pro and Vegas 7.0 Build 79 (not sure which letter that translates to), and I'm playing a video back and in the task manager performance tab I'm seeing both CPU's running with similar activity.

Phil
 
plainman007 said:
Smithy > One more important question. The graphics card says it has svideo, component video out etc. Can this be used for External TV preview or is it not possible ?

Yes but you are restricted to using only 2 monitors at a time...you cannot run 2 computer monitors and have the component out go to you HDTV at the same time. I am running 2 nvidia video cards for my rig. It doesn't have to be state of the art graphics card for the computer monitors but I am using the quadro for the output to my HDTV monitor and still have the option to add 1 more additional monitor if needed. Also go nvidia all the way and don't mix ATI and nvidia because I had a driver compatibility problem earlier. As for having 3 firewire imputs is great...I use all three of mine on my pyro 64 card. If you are serious in using an m-audio card then be prepared to also get some good powered speakers to take advantage of the soundcard. Visit a good audio/musicians store to get good info which one to get. The 2496 card is basic..but stable as well as the EMU 0404 card...all going around 100 bucks.
 
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Oh ?? so i can use only 2...?? what a letdown. I thought ill have 2 lcds hooked to the 2 outs (those itself are two diff types ,, one is analogue and one is a digital out which the store says they have an adapter plug pin that makes the analogue into a digital pin) and i thot ill have the svideo hooked to the broadcast monitor. What will i do now ?
 
Pretty much any app will spread itself on both of the cores. Its a matter of optimization so both cores are working hard for you all the time, not just spanning the processes.

You can have dual out and use the firewire out for monitor preview. That's what I do, got a busted Sony MiniDV and just use it as a passthrough to convert from firewire to RCA out to a RF modulator to my TVs. That leaves me w/ 2 Computer monitor outs, a firewire out (preview) and leaves an Svideo incase i need it!
 
But when we use svideo out...does it show the entire screen i mean the vegas workspace etc or only the video preview part ?
 
plainman007 said:
Smithy > One more important question. The graphics card says it has svideo, component video out etc. Can this be used for External TV preview or is it not possible ?

The best option for realtime monitoring in Vegas is to use firewire output from your computer to a DV to analog converter of some kind (even many camcorders can fulfill this function). Just run firewire cable to your camcorder or something like a Canopus ADVC 100 then the Svideo or composite out to your monitor. Then go into the settings of Vegas and make sure the realtime monitoring option is on (can't remember exactly where its at right now). Works pretty well but isn't perfect.

It is very unfortunate that the SVideo out of most video cards can't be used for a monitoring function directly from Video Editor Software like Vegas.

Richard
 
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