Need computer advice

rgcote

rgcote

Member
My HMC-150 is here and now I need a computer that will allow me to effectively edit AVC-HD footage. I am using Vegas.

Dell is currently having a promotion for the following system for $999:

PROCESSORS Intel® Core™i7-920 Processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
OS Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
MEMORY 6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capability
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
SPEAKERS Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer

I know that the sound card, video card, and speakers are not ideal. I can always upgrade them later. Right now, I want to make sure that the processor, RAM and hard disk speed will allow me to edit AVC-HD in Vegas without being really frustrated.

Any advice would be very welcome.
 
I'm pretty sure you can build that exact system for a lot less. I'm too tired now though. Tomorrow i'll give it a shot.
 
Intel Core i7- $288.99
Motherboard: $200ish
RAM- ~$90 for one type
HD- $60 for 640GB
Video card- $30
Standard DVD- $24

So that's about $693. Add in dual layer DVD, speakers and a case to get the actual price. I didn't see a dual layer DVD drive, though I wasn't looking too hard.
 
While building a PC is one of the smartest ways to go, especially to save some coin, I was happy that I just configured the Dell that I wanted because of the warranty.

I've two separate instances where my 22" monitor stopped working and later my hard drive. While one could say thats horrible, I had both replaced free of any charges, no questions asked and in a very timely manor.

I don't regret it at all. My XPS420 has served me well. I have since increased the RAM and the 2.4 quadcore to the 3.0 quad extreme. Graphics cards have very little to do with Vegas as it utilizes CPU power and memory more than anything.

Just my .02

I think going with a manufacturer or self building are both viable options.

Take care.
 
A lot of times buying it can be cheaper, and I'll that the above can be a good basis to work off of. In addition, some people don't want to build their own. I did it partly because it was cheaper than off the shelf, but mostly because I love working on stuff like that. I barely even compared with retail systems just for that reason. So it's a personal choice, certainly. But looking at the individual parts is also a good way to decide if something is a good deal or not.
 
Casalen said:
A lot of times buying it can be cheaper, and I'll that the above can be a good basis to work off of. In addition, some people don't want to build their own. I did it partly because it was cheaper than off the shelf, but mostly because I love working on stuff like that. I barely even compared with retail systems just for that reason. So it's a personal choice, certainly. But looking at the individual parts is also a good way to decide if something is a good deal or not.
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Very true.

Don't be afraid to shop around even with manufactured systems. Dell can throw out some killer deals at times, no doubt about it, but PC World keeps giving Micro Express all kinds of praise for their products ability to hold up well on PCW's bench tests. ME's machines don't LOOK the best or the most high tech, but they more than get the job done and for a great price. I would think of them being a "sleeper car". You know, like mom's old station wagon packing a blown big block under the hood. haha
 
rgcote said:
My HMC-150 is here and now I need a computer that will allow me to effectively edit AVC-HD footage. I am using Vegas.

Dell is currently having a promotion for the following system for $999:

PROCESSORS Intel® Core™i7-920 Processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
OS Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
MEMORY 6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capability
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
SPEAKERS Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer

I know that the sound card, video card, and speakers are not ideal. I can always upgrade them later. Right now, I want to make sure that the processor, RAM and hard disk speed will allow me to edit AVC-HD in Vegas without being really frustrated.

Any advice would be very welcome.
Click to expand...

With Vegas Pro I doubt you'll have much trouble with the system above.
I'd look into Vegas 8.1 which is their 64 bit Vegas if you have not done so already.
The i7's I'm told are pretty sweet and the CPU and memory are the main factors in dealing with AVCHD.

That price is not too bad either.
Yes you can build your own but when you add in power supplies and all those other "little" things you need to build a real computer, the money you might save may not equal the time and pain in building your own.

My 2 pennies...
 
Thanks for all the great advice.

I know I can build my own system and do so cheaper. But, for me, the extra money is worth the lack of headaches. If I build my own, then I'm responsible to get it working and support it myself. If I buy a ready made system, it should work out of the box and I get support.

I am using Vegas Pro 8.0 and was planning on installing 8.1 to take advantage of the 64 bit Vista.
 
Can i7 edit AVCHD files from the HMC in realtime?? If not, then just buy NeoScene.. fast transcoding and dependable realtime performance... You don't even need i7 for RT playback of Cineform files.
 
my i7 can edit HMC AVCHD in real time np porblem I even CCed stuff and it didnt stutter I was just using 8.0.
I was only going to switch over to 8.1 for this project if it had problems (no MBL in 8.1 hurts).
 
Ken: full fps? even with effects and two clips crossfading or other transitions?? Are you using Preview-Auto ?
 
rgcote said:
My HMC-150 is here and now I need a computer that will allow me to effectively edit AVC-HD footage. I am using Vegas.


Any advice would be very welcome.
Click to expand...

An i7 machine would be excellent with Vegas Pro.

I use Vegas Pro 8.0c on a Quad core Q6600 & Q9650 machines with excellent results. If the i7 machines were not so cheap, I would say to get a LGA775 based quad core machine they work so well.

The cheapest i7 deal you can get is certainly the right track. Pre-built is definately a good easy and quiet option. When you figure the rip-off retail prices of the OS, it's usually the same cost building or buying.
 
The bigger question that booggerg2 asked is basically....how picky are you?

I can edit raw .mts files with Bullet, transitions, etc. but the play back can be a little slow even with Preview/Auto. It all just depends on how smooth you want your editing to go. Me? I'm not that picky for most general projects that don't require a lot of attention. For the important stuff, I will use an intermediate.

You don't need NeoScene. Cineform is great for Vegas and as a stand alone. So if you want it, great. Get it. If you just want a free intermediate AVI within Vegas you can use the Sony 10bit YUV codec. I've used it and it works just fine. :thumbup:
 
Brad_C said:
The bigger question that booggerg2 asked is basically....how picky are you?

I can edit raw .mts files with Bullet, transitions, etc. but the play back can be a little slow even with Preview/Auto. It all just depends on how smooth you want your editing to go. Me? I'm not that picky for most general projects that don't require a lot of attention. For the important stuff, I will use an intermediate.

You don't need NeoScene. Cineform is great for Vegas and as a stand alone. So if you want it, great. Get it. If you just want a free intermediate AVI within Vegas you can use the Sony 10bit YUV codec. I've used it and it works just fine. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

So you render YUV proxies from Vegas' timeline? Isn't that a PITA? how do you keep clips separate and how do you deal with the dreaded Vegas rendering crashes? With NeoScene, I just select all the file and walk away for a while or overnight while it converts the clips.
 
booggerg2 said:
Ken: full fps? even with effects and two clips crossfading or other transitions?? Are you using Preview-Auto ?
Click to expand...

I just checked footage was preview was 24p auto best (though I sized the preview down to 1280X720 on my preview monitor): with just CC I get 24 frames, with CC + MBL I get 18-19 frames, CC + MBL + transition it drops to 15-16 frames.

One thing that I do that my help is I have a video OS partition that only has Vegas and 4 other video editing software progs on it. (no other junk to slow it down). This is all still in 32bit mode
 
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