hardware

scotman

scotman

Well-known member
Hey all, I am becoming an avid user of the adobe production studio as well as plugs etc. My company wants to buy a new CPU that will work fast, render fast, and have minimal sluggish problems, and get ready for HD footage.

Here is my thought, reading many articles on the site I see that many and most people dont use just computers for there rendering, editing, etc.

People are always talking about canopus, maxtor, and have all these other video component hardwares that seem to be the direction I may want to go in to get what we are looking for. Obvisouly price is a factor and this may be 1 year from now.

Can I go to dell and pick up a good computer that will allow me to do the job I am looking for, or are all these other compntents needed.

What do these other components do and is it a whole other learning curve. If we spend the money I want to spend it right. Than ks
 
Well, it is much cheaper if you build your own. This is much easier than you think, and the knowledge will benefit you greatly in the future (being able to repair your own computers, etc).

I use Production Studio extensively, and my newest system (which was about $1500 at the time of building...roughly 6 months ago) has been more than adequate. I own a HVX-200 HD Camera, so I've been working at HD resolutions for some time now.

First off, I just recently discovered a great plugin that came with my copy of production studio. It is called "Nucleo". This plugin utilizes "dual-core" technology in your processor to speed up and add many time-saving features to After Effects 7. I actually upgraded to the Pro version of Nucleo about a month or so ago. The reason why I bring this up, is because it is clear to me now more than ever (since seeing the benefits of Nucleo) that multi-core processors are a must if you are building a new system. As more and more software packages take full advantage of these multi-core processors, the performance gains will be very noticeable.

I have an Athlon X2 4200, 4GB Ram, nVidia Quadro 3400 card, 72GB WD Raptor for my system drive, and a RAID setup with dual SATA II drives for storage. All of this is put together by my Asus A8N-E motherboard. I am able to preview/edit 720p video at full-res using the Cineform Codec in real-time. I did notice however that having 4GB of Ram in a Windows machine doesn't help you out as much as you would like (I posted a thread a few days ago about this...its in this After Effects forum).

Also, I was using dual 17" monitors for a year or two, and have upgraded to a single Dell 30in monitor. It is amazing ho wmuch more productive and quicker you can be when using a monitor that benefits from so much resolution. Honestly, I think the 24" models are the lowest you can go if you are editing HD content. A 20" monitor can't view a 1080p clip at full-resolution, so who wants that? I'm notsaying this is written in stone as a necessity, but I think it would be foolish not to strongly considering upgrading your monitor situation if you haven't done so already.

And to kindof answer you question about buying a computer from Dell, etc... You can always do that, but it will be much more expensive. Apple, in the past, has been notoriously expensive value-wise (at least in my opinion). I always used to think why get an Apple, when I can build the same spec computer for less than half of the price? Well, now the scary thing is about a month ago I price compared Apple to Alienware and Dell. Apply pound for pound smoked Alienware in value (not a big surprise there), and also edged out a comparable Dell workstation (that was surprising to me). I don't know if Apple has just really been pushing the value-end of things lately, or Dell is starting to charge more for there workstations, but I do know the best way to get an awesome value for a Windows machine is to build it yourself. If you absolutely have no idea how to do this, and don't want to learn, then you can buy any one of a million home-made computers on eBay (you might have warranty issues though). Building your own computer is so cheap that people can do it, sell it on eBay for way less than Dell or whoever sells their similar models, and they can still make a profit.

Wow, this was a long response.
 
thanks for the input. OK.. This seems like they way to go, I do want to learn. Where are the cheapest place to buy systems.

If you had a 2000 budget (I dont but hopefully) what mother board would you buy.

Do you need things like maxtor, cineform. Does that hardware give you what you are looking for or can I get the same system within the cpu itself without other external hardware devices
 
Definitely have to plug...newegg.com

I just built this:

Intel Core 2 Duo (get this right, more than a Duo, 'Core 2')

Asus motherboards are the most stable, find the processor you can afford, write down what slot type it is...find the asus motherboard for that intel processor. Like legos, they have to match.

Video cards: nvidia is better these days, a strong video card should have openGL 2.0, quadro cards are better but waaay more expensive, just get a strong video-game card and you're fine.

Hard Drives: Definitely SATA 3.0GB/s, searching on newegg you'll find them all over, figure out how many your motherboard can plug into, buy more than one at least. You'll install your windows on one, and actually use the other.

I'd suggest this stuff off hand:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
Asus Motherboard
Video Card
Hard Drives

Sound card, keyboard, mouse, dvd-rom, dvd-rw, monitor(s), etc.

Since this is your first build, you'll also need:
ATX computer case
>500W power supply (some cases come with power supplies)
Case fan
Floppy Drive (I don't, but whatever)


I personally have each hard drive within a heatsink and fan, and I have a super efficient heatsink/fan on my processor (you get a normal one with the processor) and I have four fans on my case. The thing sounds like a jet engine taking off, but I can stress out the machine without problems.

Good luck, have fun. They really do just go together like legos...once you know which piece is which.
 
I have built several computers. The first few I searched and bought the parts for the cheapest I could find at various stores. That turned out to be a nightmare. You always end up waiting for one thing, while everything else has arrived. One thing always remained the same... Whatever I bought from Newegg almost always was the first thing to come in. Now I exclusively shop at newegg.com (well, almost exclusively). If they aren't the cheapest, they'll be close to the cheapest. They are very fast with shipping as well, and I've never had one problem with them.

nVidia Quadro cards for some reason are ridiculously cheap on eBay. Lots of companies want powerful workstations, but don't need the powerful graphics card in them, so they sell them on eBay. I bought a nVidia Quadro 3400 card (I think thats what I have) for $400 on eBay. At the time of purchase that card was selling for $1100 on newegg, and retailing for like $1600.

Honestly, I have found if you are building a "single processor" system, you shouldn't have to spend more than $1500. $2000 is plenty. A few things to consider. I never buy the very top of the line stuff. Because tommorow it will be half the price. Top of the line stuff sells for a really bad value (perfromance to dollar). For example, I usually buy about the 3rd fastest processor (of whatever type of processor I'm getting). You can clearly see where the price gap hits. There will almost always be one processor, video card, etc that will obviously be the best value. Thats the one you need to get.

I've been working with HD for a while, and I haven't felt like I need a specialized hardware accelerator like the ones from Matrox, etc. Maybe I don't know what I am missing, but I seem to be running everything pleanty fast with a standard computer setup.
 
This is what I have been searching so far. Asus Mother Board with Core 2 Extreme edition. Is that necessary

4 gig ram

I am not sure which video card is best.

Intel core duo 2 processor

i dont know about fans, i do know hard drives and burners. what are some other components I would have to look into. Thanks so much for making this process easier.

Should I wait for the quad duo 2 to come out. or is AMD something worth looking into.
 
I personally prefer AMD, but either the Athlon X2 or the Intel Core 2 Duos will do just fine.

This is exactly what you need...
Motherboard
Processor (retail version, not OEM version, which means it comes with cpu fan and heatsink)
Video Card
Ram
Hard Drive
Optical Drive (DVD, etc)
Case (and a power supply if it doesn't come with one)

And thats it.

Basically you find a motherboard that supports the features you want, and then go from there. You buy a processor type that your motherboard supports. You buy the speed of ram that your motherboard supports. You make sure that you buy a video card that yur motherboard supports (for example, PCI-Express).

So basically your motherboard is the blueprint for your system.

This is how I bought my system, for example...

I bought an Asus Motherboard. The motherboard had a 939 socket. So I bought a socket 939 Athlon X2. The motherboard supports PC3200 ram (there are 4 memory modules that allow 1GB a piece). So I bought 4 1GB PC3200 ram sticks. Actually, I only bought 2, but recently upgraded to 4. My motherboard supports SATA I & SATA II. So I bought a SATA hard drives. My motherboard has a PCI-Express slot. So I bought a PCI-Express graphics card. My motherboard size was ATX, so I bought a case that could fit that motherboard size, and that had all of the power requirements I needed for my system...400 watts will be enough, but you can go higher if you like).

This is all pretty simple. The whole key is the motherboard. Start from there.
 
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