PC or Workstation Specs for HMC40?

D

Dendron

Member
I'm shopping for an HD video editing and rendering workstation. I was unsure where to post this topic. I need advice on specs that are appropriate for my needs. I will tell you what I use.

I only use my HMC40 (hence, only AVCHD), which came with the Edius Neo 2 software, but I also have Vegas Pro 9.0. I'm not sure which one I should go with. I've also done a few short projects in Final Cut Pro on Macs and I could get a Mac, but my preference goes with Vegas and Windows. I've heard about Hackintosh, but I don't know enough about this. I will say this, though, I was able to install a dual-boot on a Vista PC and install XP Pro as another OS with no trouble. I also opened up the same PC and upgraded the RAM chips from 2 GB to 4 GB with no trouble. Mind you, I followed text guides/instructions. With this experience, do you think I could easily achieve "Hackintosh" or easily build my own workstation with instructions?

Moving on, I'll be mainly filming in PH 1080/24p and sometimes PH 720/60p (for slow motion). The nature of my work is narrative filmmaking, so mainly basic editing and color correction, but I expect to be working occasionally with green screen compositing. I also want to be able to work in an application like Maya or Blender for incorporating CGI into footage, but I don't expect to be crafting full-blown CGI scenes.

I am interested in a future-proof computer and I wouldn't mind having to upgrade parts later (such as RAM, graphics card, etc.) as long as I still get reasonable performance out of the supposed workstation at the start of the purchase. I would like to keep the cost from exceeding $1K if possible.

OS preference?: Windows
Camera?: Just a Panasonic HMC40; no other cameras
Format?: Just AVCHD (expect to work with HD only)
FPS?: Mostly PH 1080/24p and sometimes PH 720/60p (for slow motion in post)
Editing Software?: Sony Vegas Pro 9.0/Edius Neo 2 that came with the HMC40. I could be convinced to work in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.
Nature of Work?: Narrative Filmmaker (shorts and feature-lengths)
Besides basic editing and color correction?: Green screen compositing, CGI work in Maya or Blender for export to captured footage, and weather effects such as fog or rain.
Output: Digital File, DVD, HD-CAM (ready to master onto it), and perhaps BD. AfterEffects is my main 2D compositing application.

Is Intel best for AVCHD editing in either Vegas Pro and Edius (I could work in Premiere Pro CS3)? Is quad-core the minimum I should adhere to? Processor speeds no less than 3.0 Ghz? No less than 8GB RAM? What about a graphics card (Nvidia)? What about a RAID set-up? Additional external HDD's for scratch and media storage? What websites should I shop around?

What are your thoughts? If you need more information to base your advice on, please let me know. I'd also greatly appreciate any advice that goes with using an HMC40 and Vegas Pro/Edius/Adobe Premiere Pro. Thank you.
 
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Dendron,

I would love to know some opinions regarding your questions, also. I've had my HMC40 for a few weeks now, and feel pretty comfortable with it. Now comes the editing and Blu-ray burning. I'm going to first try my 'old' computer (computer years are like dog years, I think) Dell Dual Core 2.1 GHz, 3 GB ram. Maybe there is no hope. Regarding software, a quick look at the Post Production topics on this board shows a snapshot of viewers as of 'right now':
Avid: 15
Edius: 5
FCP: 73
Premiere: 40
Vegas: 28

So the Edius does not look too popular. Or, maybe, so free of bugs and intuitive that no one needs to come to the boards for help!? I'm going to start with it because I too, received Neo Booster 2.5 with my camera. If anyone has any thoughts otherwise, please speak up, because the manual is over 600 pages and I'm ready to start. I do recall reading some positive comments about it here.
 
SteveD, my current PC has these specs:

-AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
-4.0GB RAM (that I upgraded from 2GB a few years ago)
-nVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
-Vista Home Premium 32-bit (and XP Pro 32-bit after achieving dual-boot)

When I first got it in early 2007, I had trouble (especially compatibility) with using Vista until I did some cleaning out and installing updates. I still had some issues with Vista and this was the reason for the dual-boot decision. Finally, Vista has not been annoying since a few years ago, but it's still not good enough for straightforward editing in Vegas. Even though the XP Pro was better at handling Vegas, it still isn't good enough either.

I'm shopping for a new computer that I intend to use only for NLE's, compositing applications, and related programs while I do anything else (Internet, entertainment, regular activities, etc.) on this current PC, so I don't clutter up the new computer with unrelated stuff.

How's your computer set-up for your needs, Craigsnedeker?

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I hope that someone who is quite knowledgeable with video editing workstation specs will find this topic and give advice soon; this would be greatly appreciated not only by me, but otehr users in a similar situation. If not, I may have to create a new topic in the Hardware forum or maybe the Vegas forum. I'll wait a couple more days or so.

I would really like to know some opinions on this question:
Which is better to go with: 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Six-Core or 3.2GHz AMD Phenom II 955 Quad-Core?
To rephrase it as a generic question, is Six-Core with a slightly slower processor speed better to have than Quad-Core with a slightly faster processor speed in many cases? It seems to me that a slightly slower Six-Core would outperform the other, but in what kind of tasks exactly? I frequently like to preview quickly while editing; I don't necessarily need to preview at best quality with full resolution during editing, but would like to periodically.

Now the problem with the above paragraph is am I better off with using Intel than AMD/other in my case (see first post for list)? It seems I would benefit more from an Intel i5 or i7 (quad-core or six-core).

I find that many computers I'm looking at have 1GB for a graphics card. Should I settle for no less than 1GB before considering brands? Okay, now for brands, is nVidia best in my case or will ATI/AMD/other do fine?

As for HDD's, I usually see 1TB SATA HDD's. Am I doing myself a huge disservice if I go with 5400rpm than 7200rpm?

Should I aim for getting a computer with 32GB RAM max capacity that I can upgrade to in the future? It seems to me that 32GB is excessive at this point and that 16GB is a good number for max capacity.

Please let me know if I'm not being clear enough and I'll happily rephrase. Thank you.
 
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