Recommended Systems?

B

Bob Hill

DVXuser Sponsor
I can easily find the minimum system requirements for Edius Broadcast but I haven't seen a recommended configuration. I am trying to put together a system tailored to Broadcast and editing almost exclusively DVCPRO files. Here is what I am thinking of right now:

2.67GHz Conroe (Intel)
4GB PC6400 DDR2
1 160GB SATA HD (OS and program)
2 250GB SATA HD (Work)
NVidia Quadro 1500 256mb video card

Any thoughts, concerns, suggestions?

Bob
 
yes. the processor should do. Im only using 2.4 for HD work in they are ok even with 2 gig 533 DDR2.
Just be sure to stripe your 2 250gb sata to speed up their performance.
 
teddybear said:
yes. the processor should do. Im only using 2.4 for HD work in they are ok even with 2 gig 533 DDR2.
Just be sure to stripe your 2 250gb sata to speed up their performance.
Click to expand...

Hey teddybear, what does in mean when you stripe a drive? Sorry to be so naive.
 
Striping is to RAID your drives. You can do a raid 0, which would treat them like one big 500gig drive. You can do a RAID 1 which would treat them like one 250 gig drive for redundancy, and so on, and so forth. There are lots of different raid setups you can do.

Jason
 
What does the setup involve, as far as setting up a pair of eSATA drives into an enclosure and configuring them for raid 0?

I've set jumpers up on drives before, but that's about it :)

Edit -- Also, do you know if it's feasible to use bus powered drives for this to eliminate having to plug in to an outlet? I haven't seen anything in a bus powered drive that is 7200 rpm. I am just trying to get setup to use a laptop with DVrack (video monitoring, waveform, vectorscope, clip playback ..etc) as a self powered unit for capturing out in the field for those outdoor wilderness shots. Also wondering if a bus powered drive would eat up the laptop battery too quickly.
 
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You talking bus-powered FireWire or USB drives? Laptop drives can be powered by either. Desktop drives are a different story.

It'll definitely eat the battery. You could get a bunch of APC Universal Notebook Battery units, or rig something with a battery pack and inverter, or a whole bunch of other options. They're all a bit piecemeal though.

I prefer avoiding AC/DC conversions when possible.

Brandon
 
I am thinking bus powered USB 2.0 drives as opposed to eSATA drive raid for mobility. I am not even sure if a USB 2.0 7200 external drive will work with DVCPRO HD streaming capture but tech guy at Serious Magic (DVrack) assured me that it would.
 
DVCPRO HD is 100 Mbps, which is 12.5 MB/sec. Most drives, unless they're fragmented, shoudl be able to sustain that easily.
 
bhiga said:
DVCPRO HD is 100 Mbps, which is 12.5 MB/sec. Most drives, unless they're fragmented, shoudl be able to sustain that easily.
Click to expand...

Bhiga is, as always, quite correct.

I have been using the following for several months without ANY complaints:

Dell Precision 490, Xeon 3.2 (x2), 4 gigs ram, 256megs video card
250 sata primary drive, 2 additional (dedicated) 160 gig internal SATA drives, Medea RT3 (1.25 terrabyte) on scsi card and, on occasion, 2 G-Tech 500 USB externals (flipped back and forth between the workstation and laptop).

Backup all raw & project files to LTO-2 tape (also a scsi external device)

P2 Genie has been a godsend--just makes life easier.

Premiere Pro2/Raylight, Avid Xpress Pro, Edius Broadcast**

(my preference to date has been Broadcast for editing).
 
Jason (Ramjet 1979),

Can you comment please ...

What does the setup involve, as far as setting up a pair of eSATA drives into an enclosure and configuring them for raid 0?

Thanks
 
RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) controller and two drives. Setup of RAID can vary based on chip maker for RAID controller.
 
Hey. My setup:

I bought 2 SATA II 320gig drives. I put them in a 2-bay Thecus 2050 eSATA enclosure. The enclosure has an option for Raid 0 or RAID 1. I am currently using RAID 0. The enclosure does not require any software (if I remember correctly). It's real simple with the enclosure. It's just a switch on the back. Flip it to the Raid that you want. Then you power up the drive as per the instructions, and it will work its magic and format the drives, etc. as necessary.

I bought an eSATA expresscard for my laptops expresscard slot. The expresscard has two eSATA ports. I ran my Thecus into one of the available slots on my expresscard. The expresscard requires some installation of software, and allows for various setups. I chose a contiguous RAID 0 for the expresscard as well.

In the future, I may buy another thecus and 2 320 gig HDD setup, RAID 0 it, and run it into the other available slot on my expresscard. I can then RAID my expresscard as a 0 for example. That would give me 1.2 TB or so of storage. Or I could RAID 1 my expresscard, and have 640 gigs. Or I could RAID 1 both enclosures and my expresscard and have a very redundant 320gigs.

There are a lot of options. Unfortunately, I am not qualified to describe them, as I don't know about most of the different RAID arrays you can do.

That is my current setup, however (I hope I explained it clearly).
It was very hassle free to setup. That was the first time I ever worked with a RAID anything. No problems, and it works beautifully.

FYI expresscards are cabaple of 2.5 Gbps throughput. Not quite the 3Gbps of SATA II, but about 3x faster than fw800.

Hope that is what you were looking for. Take care,
Jason
 
dregenthal said:
Dell Precision 490, Xeon 3.2 (x2), 4 gigs ram,
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, can you explain better about ram?
My technician have just told me a PC Intel cannot exploit 4 gigs ram and he has told me to put 2 gigs ram only.
Is it true? Thanks
 
Dreg has 2 dual core processors. That is a workstation. I believe the cap is 4 gigs ram. That is a limitation of the current version of windows though (I think). Nothing else. Vista is supposed to let you support a lot more than that.

Jason
 
Hi, I think will purchase the new Quad-Core PC, can you tell me what Canopus card I have to buy? Have I to buy Edius NX and the RT extension or the new Edius NX Express?
What Raid do you advice, please?
thanks
 
Can I ask a question please?
I premise I don't like Final Cut but Mac Pro is cheper than a PC for HDTV edinting. A PC costs more (RAID, dedicated card, a very fast processor and CPU, etc, etc).
Do I make a mistake?
tahnks
 
I dont think that a MAC woould be cheaper(well things are even harder here in europe..), so try to compare what you get for your money..!(Power of the computer, size of the HDD-as you will need a raid for your mac s well when you deal with HD..and so on..!)

If possible, i wouldnt judge on the costs only, but also see what is suitable for your workflow-so if you dont like FCP, get Edius or something else..!

I am running a new machine with canopus SP-card and Edius broadcast..to my taste its the best native workflow i can get for P2..but thats just my opinion..!

Good luck!
 
I second that - the mac will not be cheaper, if similairly equipped:

Remember that RAID is exactly the same for both macs and PCs. You don't *need* it on either one, it just helps if you can afford it. The reason lots of PC owners use it is because it comes included for free on a good selection of PC motherboards.

Finally, - for John - RAID won't help if you're going to hook up over USB or Firewire, since those will choke the speed down to that of a regular single drive or much lower. To see the speed benefit from RAID you'll need to use eSATA which your laptop may not have. An eSATA laptop expansion card can be bought for $35-50, only downside is it sticks out the side of the laptop somewhat.

As for RAM sizes, when I edited HDV and full HD on Edius, I had "only" 2GB and had plenty to spare. I suspect it would be rare to need more.

Brandon, maybe you can clear something up for me about the hardware cards... I was under the assumption they accelerated the filters/effects so you could almost guarantee real-time previews, but I've read several people say all they do is provide the capture & output. What's the deal - if I have managed to load up on enough filters that Edius can no longer preview in real time, will the board solve that, or did I get mixed up in thinking that? (I believe it's the NX with HD expansion I'm thinking of here)

Happy shooting all,
Dip
 
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