How much RAM? Other Qs...

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Panamaniac
How much ram can Vegas really use? I have 6.0 still, and planning on getting a desktop. Someone said that most programs don't use more than 2GB.

I'm looking at:
_GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Revision 3.3 motherboard $130
_Intel E6400 duo $200 (to overclock up to 5.4GHz with proper cooling)
_two 1G DDR-2 chips $160 (or more?)
_internal 500GB 7200.10 hard drive (later add more)
_external 500GB USB 2.0 hard drive (7200, 16MB)
_ATI Radeon X1600 $180 (cheaper ones seemed like a waste of money)
_DVD burner $60
_keyboard and mouse
_I currently edit with monitor headphones

does this sound like a good main monitor: Sceptre 22" $300

the motherboard can take up to 8GB of RAM
I'd be set u to add monitors (up to 4!) hard drives, and switch the chip for a faster one later... maybe a quad... I know vegas doesn't need the X1600 video card, but once I spend $100 why not get something fancy that might come in handy when I use other software...


so am I on the right track?
 
- Overclocking isn't guaranteed and may not really save you time. And I don't think a 5.4Ghz overclock is anywhere near reasonable.

2- Windows XP is limited to 3GB of RAM. 64-bit Windows raises the limit, although you have to deal with other issues. See the Sony Vegas forum, there's discussions on this (I haven't read them fully, but it does show people running into problems.)
2GB will definitely work.

3- More hard drive space may not be a bad idea; you can add more later.
(I *always* run out of hard drive space.)

4- Video card:
Check the recommended specs for all your programs. If they don't need a mid-level video card, then you may be wasting your money. Spend it on something else instead (see 3).

5- DVD burners seem like $40-45 now if you buy them yourself.

6- If you edit audio on headphones, watch out!!! You will hear things that your audience can't. Your mix may be too subtle when played back on a viewer's TV. You may want a pair of speakers to do a final check on your mix. Some people like to play their mix on speakers and stand outside their room to see if they can pick everything up.

Ideally you could get a reasonably good set of studio monitors (i.e. with flat frequency response, not like consumer equipment). But of course there is the budget thing...

7- The last time I checked, Dell has good deals on LCDs. But you have to check hot deals sites and wait for a deal to pop up.
 
1 - 5.3 has been done but it is actually closer to 5.4... he used liquid cooling and I am budgeting for it too...

2 - so should I get 2 1GB and two 512MB chips?

3 - yes, indeed... so I start with 7200.10 so I can keep adding fast space, planning ahead on this one for sure

4 - I understand Magic Bullet and others use the video card... might want to run other NLE's to test them out in the future (first gotta get better at Vegas! :) )

5 - yes, but I keep bumping into comments of people getting cheap drives that fail often... so I thought of looking for a good fast drive and later get a second of the same... recommendations?

6 - I do, i have the laptop Altec Lansing speakers, also I have a pair of cheap HP "portable" speakers and a Logitech cheapo 5.1 system... I often just unplug my headphones once levels match to get the master as hot as possible without peaking... I have the Sony MDR-7506 and the other day I picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro 64... the Sennheisers are so much more confortable so I use those, but I will listen to serious projects on both. I'll get my first pair of monitors for my first money project.

7 - so no go on the Septre? is has nice numbers, and an HDMI imput? I check Fatwallet.com currently.... so Dell it is? only Dell?
 
Samsung makes *great* monitors. I have a 19" that I bought for about 350 bucks. It's got an analog input as well as the DMI input.

300 just seems cheap for that sized monitor and you usually get what you pay for, but it might be ok...
 
Monitors for editing is not as critical as viewing it on a quality HD monitor or LCD. that is at least 37inchs. I personally like Samsungs and Viewsonic...but for really seeing an output I use a westinghouse LVM37w3 1080p monitor via Quadro fx 560 card to really see what I have in front of me. As for ram...no more that 2 gigs is needed since Vegas is not a ram hog...but you should definitely invest on dual core systems since it is more cpu intensive.
 
ok, but that's basically my budget there... so how about the best monitor for under 500 preferably under 300 so I can get a second...
 
Try to get a monitor that does at least close to 1440x1080i...if your shooting HDV or above. If your at SD then any monitor will do. The key is to have your monitors set close to what the resolution you are working with. 1440x1080 is not as common as 1920x1080 but make sure you have a videocard that can output it at those settings otherwise getting quality monitors are a mute point because the videocard is the bottleneck. Personally I like Nvidia cards over ATI because the of the opengl capablilities.
 
ok... so I'll go with an Nvidia, I guess open GL is used by a bunch o' software out there... I was going with ATI cause they are a good value in the gaming community.

I look at rez first, then move on to the contrast ration, then I look at the brightness and then I cross my fingers and look at the imputs. I was hoping that things had changed and I'd find monitors with 1080 vertical but as you point out there aren't any... I looked at the ones with 1200 but the is a big price jump... so I am thinking I should either get a nice "1050" $200 Dell and only concern myself with contrast and 15-pin & DVI imputs and keep an eye out for my $300 "A" monitor... or won't $300 cut it for the rez?
 
You might consider just getting one big one vs two smaller monitors...unless you need the real estate. But you can get by with any monitor that does at least 1400x1050. Then later on get yourself a nice HDTV that has 1080p capabilities. And if you don't need sound then just get a good basic LCD monitor without the tuner and that will reduce the cost substantially. My westinghouse has speakers which I dont use but no tuner, since I use it via my Quadro fx breakout box with component cords and it recognizes it on my video card as another external monitor. My other two monitors that I use for editing is on a nvidia 6200 LE card that works fine. But to run 3 monitors you will need 2 videocards in your system (unless it is a matrox setup then you only need one). Just make sure you don't mix Nvidia and ATI or you will have driver conflicts.
 
I was looking at the Viewsonic 32'... but it is super lo rez, like 768 or something like that I did however just pick up a possible "B" monitor for about $207: 19' Viewsonic VA1930wm, it is only 1440x900 300cd/m2 and 700:1 5ms

I picked it up with no regret because I was talking to this kid who just came back from Argentina (where I was born) and he warmed up to me talking about the food and all the wine he drank... so he gave me some "employee only info" and flat out told me that if I came back with it broken in half (literally) but with all the cords and within 14 days I would get 100% of my money back! how could i not give one of their LCDs a try after finding that out? he also told me that these are usually on sale and this Sunday they will most likely go back down likely (and hopefully) to $150!!!

I must say that after working on my 17' laptop for the past few months, that for $150 this is a bright sucker and it is big, lost of land for my vegas tools to pasture... however I am noticing these horizontal bands flowing up and down every once in a while... maybe I am magnetic? or maybe I shouldn't drag my feet on the carpet? (it would also be nice not to get an electrostatic lightning strike to my lips from my girlfriend's kisses) however... maybe it just sucks? also the color doesn't remain equal so well towards the edges... it might related to it's viewing angle though it is supposed to be 160 degrees both ways...

EDIT: >> the lines anf the color fade dissapeared after I took it out of the dumbest settings anyone would ship a monitor under... it looks great now!!!! <<

my 17' HP laptop (with the upgraded super-duper LCD from a year ago) is much better, nowhere as bright and only 17' only! lol... that's cause this 19' is big! 22' will be sick!!! and one of those 32' suckers would be ridiculously sweet but because of their lower resolution it would also be dumb, but they be cool... lol... After I a set up I will have to start saving up for a Samsung DLP with 1080p... they have all kinds of plugs and look great, best bang for your buck if you ask me... not a high quality LCD but very bright and will last forever...


So.... I figured I'd get a cheap 19" no matter the numbers and then shop for the "A" monitor with the rest of the money once I figure out and lock down the parts for the rest of the system... I will hope to find something with 1200 vertical pixel count and otherwise settle for one with only 1050... however I will not settle for anything under 1000:1 contrast (or higher) and at least 300 cd/m2, but that might be a tad brighter anyway with the other numbers being that high... I will look at Dell first and go for a 22' maybe just 20'...
 
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wow! that nvidia 6200 LE is cheap now! I found it for $60!

should I get that one and later get a second video card if I need it? just like you? or should I get a slightly better video card since you probably ought that one a whie back... I found some really nice faster ones for not much more...

GeForce 7600GT
for $120 ($99 after rebate)
two DVIs, 560MHz, 256MB

from $60 to $100 (after rebate) sounds right...
 
Personally I always use two monitors. You get way more resolution and desktop space for a more affordable setup than with one monitor. Just try to find one (affordable) monitor that will let you do 2560 x 1024. Two 19" monitors can be had for $150 each (thus about $300 for both) easily now and give 1280 x 1024 each. Nvidia makes plenty of dual monitor cards. I wouldn't get anything less than a 128mb though and 256 is preferred. I've had very good luck with all the geforce dual head Nvidia chipset cards I've gotten from MSI, eVga or whoever. You can't really do realtime monitoring out of vegas on a separate monitor without a firewire to analog converter or something similar so just try to give yourself plenty of room to see all that's going on and live with the small right corner vegas display of what's going on for now. Hopefully, in the future someone will make a video card that can not only support two monitors for desktop work but also a third for watching your editing results.
 
so I guess what you guys are saying is that unless you get something like this Dell here you are not going to see the full 1080 so you either get something like this Dell here for $220 or a bigger dell like this one for $300 since those two will have 1680 x 1050 wich is far less than you need but the best bang for your buck pixel wise and good enough for 720...
right?

unless the Viewsonic goes to $150 even I will return it and order two Dell monitors... those lines are still there... flowing only upwards and more noticable on darker colors......
 
2 - so should I get 2 1GB and two 512MB chips?
Click to expand...
IMO, no. You'll get slightly faster performance (few-several percent) by using pairs of identical memory. Pairs of different memory will lower memory bandwidth, which hurts perfermance a few-several percent.

2- You might be seeing the rolling lines because of ground loops. Try plugging your monitor and your computer into the same outlet.
 
they are plugged into the same outlet right now...

so should i cancel that order? $96.99
It looks like I can cancell it on the site itself probably untill Monday

EDIT >> Just cancelled, I forgot about that... heard it before... and IT friend just confirmed
 
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So I guess Vegas really is everything it is cracked up to be... a very smart program, or as I look at it: not a dumb one...

there is no need to load up much into the memory, it tries to work on the hard drive as much as possible... so I will be seeing a big improovement when editing on the internam and writing to the external... I will try to pick up a second internal 7200.10 500GB next...
 
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