Optimal Computer Setup

bsmall

bsmall

Active member
Is "what is the most optimal computer setup" too vague a question?

For a fairly new, but creative and ambitious videographer who needs to upgrade the ol' computer system, I'm needing to hear some thoughts on a great setup regarding CPU, processor speed, monitors (size matters, right?), brands (MAC vs. PC), etc.

Don't lynch me for being too vague. I just wanna make the right move.

Anyone have some images of their setup that they can post/show off?
 
Well, first it depends on which platform you want to use (Mac or PC). This is often dictated by which software you'll use (Apple Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Avid etc).

After you sort that out, will you be editing standard-definition or high definition. Will you only be editing, or will you also be doing color-correction, motion graphics and rendering to DVD?

It'll be easier to advise you, once you've decided on those particulars. Nonetheless, the Apple G5 (Mac) and HP xw8200 (PC) seem to be well recommended. But they may be overkill for your needs, and you may be able to get by with an iMac and iMovie. What's your budget?
 
Just to give you some ideas, I'll list my setup - I use the full Adobe Production Suite.

AMD X2 4800+ Dual-Core Processor
Asus A8N32-Deluxe Motherboard
2048MB Corsair Extra Low Latency RAM
XFX Geforce 7800GTX Graphics Card
500GB Striped Hitachi Raid-Array
Dell 24-Inch Widescreen LCD Screen

The performance is amazing, and more than enough for any sort of video-editing you wanna throw at it! I also use Windows XP Pro 64-Bit Edition, which is around 30% faster than normal Win XP when running on a 64-Bit AMD processor like mine. :)
 
Smokin'!

Did you have it built or did you buy a factory deal (Dell, etc.)?

Can I borrow it?!
 
I custom-build all my computers mate; its the only way to get top performance!

Of course you can borrow it... You'd just have to kill me first! :p
 
*sniff* *sniff*, I smell money burning. :)

That setup is quite impressive.

Must make quite a noise with all the cooling (fans) you need to run it?
 
Not at all; I'll tell ya what case and fans I'm using - they're pretty quiet. Of course the computer won't be completely silent, but its quieter than my dad's old Pentium 4-based machine upstairs!

I'm using an Antec P180 case; which has seperate compartments for the hard drives, the power supply and the motherboard; meaning all air movement and noise generation is seperated into three areas for maximum efficiency. All the hard drives are mounted on rubber brackets to eliminate vibration, and the case panels are coated with a plastic/rubber compound that absorbs noise - its a great case!

I use an Enermax Noisetaker 620W power supply - plenty of juice, and it has a rather quiet 120mm fan!

For general cooling, I have three Antec 120mm silent fans and one Nexus 120mm Ultra Silent fan installed in the case.

I've mounted a custom Artic Cooling NV Silencer cooling solution to my graphics card; it performs better and is much quieter than the default fan. My CPU is cooled by a Thermaltake Big Typhoon; probably the biggest and most effective air cooler currently on the market. It also uses a quiet 120mm fan; liquid silver was used to coat the CPU and heatsink in order to guarantee maximum heat transfer. The motherboard uses a passive heatpipe cooling solution to keep the north and south bridge cool; so that generates no extra noise at all.

So yeah, that's the basic run down - as I said, you could never get this much performance with so little noise from a pre-built system; gotta do it yourself! :)
 
When it comes to computer cooling - I suggest Zalman for all heatsink needs (CNPS9500) and Danger Den for most water cooling needs.
 
I can agree with you on the Danger Den for watercooling - nothing beats them!

For air-cooling, however, Zalman has been a bit offtrack as of late; they're still very good but CPU coolers such as the Thermaltake Big Typhoon outperform Zalman's top models; and are quieter as well!
 
Compaq Presario X6000
2048MB ram
3.6 GHz p4 con HT Technolgy
ATI Radeon X600 (128MB ram)
17" compaq XVGA display with CrystalClear
60Gig system root drive
300gig external hdd
120gig extarnal hdd
 
I got a full tower case to help with cooling and so I'd have plenty of room for drives (I got 2 35GB raptors in RAID1 for the system, 2 200GB in RAID0 and another 120GB for documents, backups, etc. inside the case)

the UPS is much noisier than the PC itself

There are other considerations other than hardware, when working with windows for example, it's important to have the pagefile.sys (virtual memory) won't be on the system drive, you get much better performance when you separate the two
 
on the mac side of things...

on the mac side of things...

pwr mac g5 dual 2.5ghz
nivida 6800 UT graphics card (256 mb video memory)
1.5 gb ram
150 gb system drive
275 gb backup drive
500 gb video drive (firewire 800)
two 23" apple cinema displays
sony dsr 11 deck
event tr5 audio monitors
contour shuttle pro
logic fcp keys (for keyboard)
final cut pro 4.5
adobe after effects, photoshop, illustrator
 
Optimal computer setup

Optimal computer setup

bsmall said:
Is "what is the most optimal computer setup" too vague a question?
I'm needing to hear some thoughts on a great setup regarding CPU, processor speed, monitors (size matters, right?), brands (MAC vs. PC), etc.

When it comes to set up an optimal & serious video editing system, there´s only one answer: Apple hardware+software. I would go with Power Mac G5 Dual or Quad system or alternatively Powerbook (for mobile editing). Then add Final Cut Studio and voila. Everything works great together. No longer fuzz with drivers or system hangs & crashes.

I´m a Former PC editor and nowadays (since 14 months) I understand why we macusers/-editors are happier.

My system setup:
Power Mac Dual 2,3GHz, Apple HD Cinema Display 23"
4,5 Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce Ultra 6800 w 256Mb memory,
1 system HD 250 Gb, 1 videoHD 250 Gb, built-in Pioneer DVD-burner.
Click to expand...
 
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