Post your PC SPECS!

[SuperSean23]

Murrlets post gave me the idea to start a thread displaying the Specs of everyones PC. It would be a good idea to see where everyone stands (seeing as editing HD takes a lot of pc power). By doing this we can compare our PCs and give people advice on what could make PC editing better, along as give beginners a guide to follow.

My Specs (as shown in Murrlets thread)

Intel Duel Core e6600
ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard
320gb 7200 hard drive
2gb ram
XFX GeForce 7600GT 256mb
20 inch lcd screen

cost after rebates...$900

Let me know what you guys think of my rig. So far i love it, although i'll definatly want to update my video card, add another hard drive, and i'd like a hd tv tuner (when costs come down i'd like a blu-ray burner as well of course).

[Goose]

Dell E520
E6600 2x2.4Ghz
250gb 7200 hard drive + 500GB 7200
2gb ram
XFX GeForce 7600GS 256mb fanless
Sony W900 24 inch widescreen scrt (normally at 1920x1200@75hz)

[neocastillo]

I use a Macbook for my PC needs. Just reboot and run XP you use After Effects which isn't UB yet.

[Critters]

I have a nice Dual core laptop, but the HDD is slow and small so I use my desktop for editing which is:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Gforce 6800
74gig SATA Raptor (10,000rpm)
300gig SATA (7,500rpm)
1 gig of RAM
24" LCD (1920x1200)

The only problem I have editing HDV is hitting the RAM limit, 2 to 4 gig is needed. Other than that it is very good at editing video ( I use Vegas ), the Raptor drive is not needed, but makes for a quicker page file.

[Yann]

e6600@3,4 Ghz Watercooled
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
2x320Gb SataII Samsung 16 Mb Cache @raid0
+160 GB Backup
+500GB Western Digital External
+320GB Western Digital External
+ 2x80GB@raid0 SataI Hitachi for Video Cut
2gb ram @900 Mhz 4-4-4-12
x1900xt
22" Dell Tft + 17" benQ tft

[crobs808]

computer1: (running xp+macos via bootcamp)
Apple iMac - Intel 2.33ghz core2duo, 24" HDres monitor, 500gb hard drive, 3gb ram, wi-fi, isight camera, 8x dvd burner, 512mb ati x1600 video, sigmatel HD audio, etc...

computer2: (running vista+macos tiger via bootcamp)
Apple Mac Pro, 8-core 3.0ghz XEON, 16gb ram, 500gb internal, nvidia quaddro video, 1.5TB external RAID array (3TB physical non-raid), of coruse built in wi-fi, etc. blah blah blah

use computer1 for presentation of final rendered projects for video clients, also use it with a Wacom Intuos tablet for illustrations, and for administrative stuff...quickbooks, payroll, etc...use computer2 for all the dirty work. capture/edit in premiere pro 2.0 and author with encore dvd 2.0...only boot into macos when i want to screw around, since that's mainly what it's made for right? (final cut has lagged behind for the last 5 years, i left it in version 4 to use premiere pro for more features effect, and easier integration into after effects. no point in relearning FCP, but at least the option is there if need be)

[BarnOwl]

Dell Dimension 9200:
Dualcore E6300 2 x 1.86Ghz @ 1066MHz
2048 Mb Dual Channel DDR2 533 MHz mem.
500Gb (2 x 250Mb) 7200rpm SATA Raid 0
Geforce 7900GS 256Mb
Dell 2407WFP 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD

[neocastillo]

Crobs its no wonder green screen it easier than a matte for you. Just curious if you have that kinda of gear why the HV20? Seems like you could afford a $17k HD camera no problem.

[Dodgy Nick]

My rig:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2x2.4ghz)
BFG 8800 GTS OC 320MB
Abit IN9 32X MAX 680i mobo
OCZ 2GB RAM
WD Raptor 150GB SATA 10KRPM 16MB Cache
WD 300GB SATA
SB Audigy 5.1 surround
32" H&B monitor

Software
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64Bit
Sony Vegas 7e
Loads of DigitalJuice JB's, SFX, ETK & MDE's

Camera Setup:
Canon HV20
Rode Videomic
Velbon 7000 tripod
Wide angle lens adapter
UV & ND Filters
Extra battery (BP-2L14)
1xclapperboard
+free lens cap courtesy of MAL!

Now all I need is a proud HV20 owner as a B-camera to shoot my script. Do you have any weekends free in August Worley???

:hv20-smilie58: "ACTION!"

[SuperSean23]

looks like the Intel Core 2 Duo e6600 is a popular processor.
SpoilerWarning I had Windows Vista Ultimate x64 too, but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO buggy, i had a rough time with almost all my apps and especially installing stuff. So i switched back to XP. Have you had any of those problems?

And the rigs are looking good people, keep em coming! Waitin on yours Mal

[Dodgy Nick]

looks like the Intel Core 2 Duo e6600 is a popular processor.
SpoilerWarning I had Windows Vista Ultimate x64 too, but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO buggy, i had a rough time with almost all my apps and especially installing stuff. So i switched back to XP. Have you had any of those problems?

And the rigs are looking good people, keep em coming! Waitin on yours Mal

I've contemplated switching back to XP loads of times, but have so far manage to sort out most of the problems I've encountered. Outstanding issues I still have:

A proper Nvidia driver (with custom resolutions)
Quicktime
Codecs that don't break (32 and 64 bit)
Vegas (v8 will be 64 bit compatible, out end of '07)

So yeah, Vista is nice but still a nightmare to get to work properly i.t.o. drivers. When push comes to shove and I really need to start editing my short film, I'll put XP back on, but until then, I'm holding out and checking tons of sites and forums every day for solutions. I know, it's stupid, but still, I can't help myself. I'm a sucker for bleeding edge...

[SuperSean23]

haha as am I, visually i liked it...however i think its to early to really even consider using it. I tried my hardest for a month and i finally woke up and switched back. The 32/64 bit issue was my biggest problem:( Dont worry i'll probably put it back on my pc once all the bugs are sorted out and programs start being usable.

[Dodgy Nick]

haha as am I, visually i liked it...however i think its to early to really even consider using it. I tried my hardest for a month and i finally woke up and switched back. The 32/64 bit issue was my biggest problem:( Dont worry i'll probably put it back on my pc once all the bugs are sorted out and programs start being usable.

Don't want to hijack this thread any more, so this will be the last I say on this, but I've been strongly contemplating getting Vista 32bit which should solve most of my problems. Since I have the OEM version of Vista Ultimate 64 bit, I can't use it on another machine, so I would have bought 2 copies of the same OS which I can only use on one machine. It just doesn't make sense to me, so I'd rather put XP back on until such time as software vendors have caught up with the whole 64bit deal, then switch back to Vista.

Oh and I forgot, loads of my games either don't install properly (because they're looking for DX9 files) or have silly glitches (because of the useless nvidia drivers), and my soundcard is not the card it used to be under XP. SO FRUSTRATING!!! :hv20-smilie36:

[Murrelet]

Wow, some nice rigs people own.

My poor old legacy box was bleeding edge;
Epox 8RDA+ mobo
Athlon Barton 2800 OC'd
2GB ram OC'd
120GB WD and a 300GB Maxtor, both PATA's
ATI 9800Pro 128
X-Fire sound card
22" LG 226WA
Altec sound system
XP SP2

About to abandon Pinnacle for Vegas 7 and Neo.

[BarnOwl]

Nobody running a dualboot config XP/Vista? I'm getting Vista next week and wanted to start with a dual boot to see what runs well and what not.......

[africanmarty]

UPDATE (new cpu & 2gig more ram):
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
ABIT KN9S mobo
4 gig ram
512 nvidia geforce 7300GT
500GB RAID 0 HD
XP SP2

using HVD-split, prem pro 2.0 & after effects 7.0

[Yann]

Nobody running a dualboot config XP/Vista? I'm getting Vista next week and wanted to start with a dual boot to see what runs well and what not.......

I have this Config above 3 monts and i must say vista is shit:hv20-smilie36:.
I will wait until Vista will work better...

[white_2kgt]

E6600 (Dual Core 2.4GHz)
MSI Board
nVidia 7600
2GB Ram
320x3 SATA Internal
250x3 External IDE
Windows XP
22" Wide Screen LCD (edit/storyboard screen) and 19" LCD (preview screen)

[joemit]

I'm running a MacBook Pro 15" 2.16 GHz
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

connected to an external 500Gb LaCie drive and using iMovieHD.

Joe

[GregHV20]

AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 2.6GHz to 3.0GHz
DFI NF4 LanParty Ultra-D
1GB RAM at 2-2-2-6 CAS
2x80 GB 10,000RPM
ATi Radeon X850 Video-In Platinum Edition

Since two years, wow.. heheh very nice rig for gaming and encoding.

[Lunchbox]

I bought a new computer with this spec,

CASE: CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Tower 420W Case W/ Side-panel Window
CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX6850 @ 3.00GHz 1333FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit
MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core FSB1333) Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT PCI-E x16 512MB Video Card
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
SOUND: Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card

Total: $2,335

I know the vendor so I got a pretty good deal on this. If you are interested in buying a new computer, PM me and I can hook you up.

[SenorKaffee]

Intel P4 2,4 Ghz
Asus Motherboard
About 600GB of hard drive on several drives
Nvidia 5800 GFX Card
Soundblaster Live Card
Cheap WACOM tablet
22" Widescreen LCD (1680x1050)
2x512MB RAM
Windows XP SP2

Well - it was a great PC a few years ago. ;)

BTW I used Windows 2000 SP4 until SP2 for Windows XP was available. Why switch when the system runs fine as it is.

[Ten Ounce]

Here's one of my setups.

Antec Fusion Media Case
1TB HDD via 2 x 500GB Drives
2GB RAM
Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz
Intel DG965OT Mobo
430Watt PSU
Nvidia 7300GS (this is being upgraded here shortly)
Windows MCE OS

I've got all this connected to a 50" Samsung Plasma TV in the living room.

[pascalbrown]

Taky; you didn't just get a good deal, you got a f***ing amazing deal.

CASE: Thermaltake Eureka Aluminium Server Case
CPU: Intel C2D E6600 running at 3.6GHz :hv20-smilie03:
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5b-E Plus
MEMORY: 2Gb Kingston PC8500 (running at PC10000) DDR2
VIDEO CARD: Asus 7950GT 512Mb
LCD Monitor: Currently 19" Samsung, Coming Soon 24" Samsung
HARD DRIVE: 2 x 500Gb Seagate, 1 x 250Gb Samsung
SOUND: Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Music
PSU: 650W Thermaltake Truepower

O/S: Vista Ultimate

[XFR]

Just ordered some upgrade parts, lots of overclocking potential :hv20-smilie84:
This'll be my system...



CASE: Antec Nine Hundred + Be Quiet Straight Power 500 Watt
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 + Tuniq Tower 120
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P
MEMORY: 4GB Team Xtreem DDR2 PC6400 CL4 (4x1GB)
GRAPHICS: EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 320 MB + 2 x 17" LG 795FT Plus
HDD: 2x 400GB, 1x 320GB, 1x 250GB (7200RPM)
SOUND: M-Audio Audiophile 2496 + Behringer Truth B2031 Monitors

[SalaTar]

(X2)
HP xw dual/quad Xeon 2.4
4G Mem
Quadro FX 4500
4 Sata 750s raid 0
Couple DVD burners
AJA LHe
Atto 4GB Fiber channel
Dual 30's

Galaxy HDx2 raid array (10 TB)


Dell M65

SuperMicro 1 u
Dual core Xeon 2.4
2 g mem
4 500g satas raid 0
Intensity pro
...

..

.

[007hamster]

Intel T7600 Core2Duo 2.33GHz
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2
ATI Radeon X1600 256MB PCIe
Hitachi 160GB Internal SATA
Lacie 500GB External FW800
17" 1680 x 1050 16:10 LCD
Windows Vista Ultimate + Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 HD
Mac OS X 10.4.10 + Final Cut Studio 2

[pascalbrown]

(X2)
HP xw dual/quad Xeon 2.4
4G Mem
Quadro FX 4500
4 Sata 750s raid 0
Couple DVD burners
AJA LHe
Atto 4GB Fiber channel
Dual 30's

Galaxy HDx2 raid array (10 TB)


Dell M65

SuperMicro 1 u
Dual core Xeon 2.4
2 g mem
4 500g satas raid 0
Intensity pro
...

..

.

You're not messing about then.... :hv20-smilie02:

[Luthyr]

OS: Vista Business > Ultimate (probably 32-bit), dual boot option of XP
CPU: Core 2 Quad 6600 (2.4ghz)
MB: MSI P6N Platinum
Video Card: GeForce 8600 GTS
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 (PC6400)
HDD: 2 x Samsung HD501LJ 500GB, 2x Maxtor 200GB external firewire
Monitor: Samsung 216BW 21.6"

[SalaTar]

You're not messing about then.... :hv20-smilie02:

nope :hv20-smilie09:

[soloscribbler]

I configured this workstation after a lot of study--what I have learned to do when figuring out what to put in a workstation (my previous boxes have been for digital audio w/Sonar--this is my first NLE) is to look on websites like Boxx and other boutique builders to see what they put in theirs. This doesn’t necessarily say what's best, but it does give pretty good assurance about what's compatible, a lesson I learned after building a DAW years ago with a VIA chipset that didn’t work well with an M-AUDIO Delta A/D device. Anyway:

Antec Titan550 case (great value, a CEB/EEB case & PSU for abt. $140)

Tyan s2696 dual Xeon board w/Intel ESB2 RAID controller, 1394, S/PDIF (now I might use an Asus DSGC-DW, very similar, but better features and way better documentation--anyone building an Intel-chipset 5000x system should download this manual no matter what mobo they choose)

2 Intel 5130 Xeon dual core (now I would get the quad core 5335, which have come down so much in price they cost what the 5130 did then--about $340--and they're the same 2.0GHz, 1333fsb)

All Seagate 7200.10 SATA II drives, 3 of them are 320GB in a RAID 0 array. You have to enable AHCI/RAID in the BIOS, and install the Intel drivers (BEFORE you install Windows XT) in order to get the RAID to work, and in order to be able to pull off the tiny jumpers on these drives that hold them to 1.5Gb/sec)

Blackmagic Intensity Pro of course, but at first this was just to get realtime monitoring of the Premiere Pro timeline on my LCD TV.

PNY Quadro FX560 'Professional Video Edition', which in my ignorance I believed would drive a two-monitor desktop PLUS a TV via the video breakout box--but no, this box, which has component, s-video, composite, will only work with one monitor, that's the rule with ALL nVidia GPU's and nView display manager--you can have two displays max. One monitor and one TV, or two monitors, no matter how much you spend. So that's why I had to get the Intensity in the first place. But the Quadro does seem to be a great card and a great value at under $300. I followed the advice I got from absolutely everywhere to get a professional graphics card (OpenGL 2.0) and NOT a gaming card, for a video editing (or an animation or graphics ala After Effects) workstation.

4 GB FB-DIMM SST I believe, 667MHz

I put a couple of Corsair memory coolers, 3 fans each, on the RAM because i read that this memory gets hot, and found that it did seem mighty warm to the touch.

What else? I added Antec 3-speed fans all over the place, which are set on low and the thing seems decently quiet to me, but then my hearing isnt very good :)

a DVD burner w/Lightscribe, and a DVD-ROM

and on Memorial Day, at the usual door buster sale, I happened to notice in the flyer in the local newspaper, that best buy had Acer 22 inch monitors (AL2223W) for $189.99 out the door, no rebates. So I zoomed up there, sure they'd be gone since it was already late afternoon, but they had stacks of them left and I got two.

This had such a wealth effect that I ordered a complete frivolity, a 'Peerless Deskmount kit', from Costco.com, for $140 about I think, which is a really cool rig that mounts your LCD's using the VESA holes, and so they're aligned tight side by side on a single pedestal, with room underneath for your audio mixer and other tabletop gear. If i figure out if we can post photos, I'll put one up of this whole setup if anyone expresses interest.

anyway, there's a very long post about the system I built expressly for video editing. I put Adobe Production Studio on it (which i got at academic pricing while i was taking video production classes at the local college in 2006). Since I'm a dedicated deal hunter & scrounger, I believe I put together a high value system for not a lot of money. It's not the ultimate of course, but I think it represents about the best ratio of cost and performance you could do in early 2007 on a budget serious NLE.

And I learned a lot, all modestly aside. I'm a programmer since COBOL days and have kept up pretty good, and have been 'rolling my own' computers for a long time. If anyone has questions about building a Xeon box, please ask, and if I don't know I'll say so. BTW, I now am starting to build these to order around the local area--a shop here that's been around for years building gaming rigs actually asked me to take on these orders because they didn’t feel comfortable building DCC and multimedia workstations.

Sorry for the long post, but this has been a very isolated effort, and I guess I welcomed the opportunity to write something about what has been a pretty intense effort.
solo

[Flyingsheep]

Athlon XP 2600+ 2.1GHz
1GB DDR PC2700
Leadtek Geforce 6800
MSI nForce 2 motherboard
Sondigo Inferno 7.1

Yeah... I'm doing HDV editing on this. It takes forever, but it works. I've had this computer since 2003 and have been trying to get the best out of it.

[soloscribbler]

Flyingsheep, yours beats what i was using from Feb 2006 till I built the Xeon in May: a P4 3.0GHz on an Asus P4P800, to which I added an nVidia FX5700 AGP card. All in an Antec aria case--that's that little cube case that turned out to cook everything you put in it. This system started out as a DAW, but when I took the video classes and got Adobe Production Studio academic, it's all I had. So it can be done--at the time my camera was a standard definition last-century Canon XL1, which I still love to shoot with, it's so easy to control. that's my only categorical gripe about the HV20--it's ergonomic if you happen to have hands the size of hamster paws.
Are you capturing from a HV20, using 1394/firewire? How's that working? I hear all over the place that the video people capture this way, HDV, is absolutely beautiful, and indeed some say it would take a careful side by side to reallys sort out such HDV from HDMI.
I just got my HV2o not a week ago, and haven't actually gone out and shot tape that I then captured into the computer. So far it's all been 'live' DTE (direct to edit) using HDMI, while I learn to use all the controls on the camera in a controlled setting. So tomorrow I'm going out to shoot in morning light, and see what I get. and when I get back, I'll try capturing the same clips twice, with firewire and HDMI in separate projects, so I can render both to AVI and compare them side by side. I'm very curious to see the result.
solo

[Stefan_hv20]

Since my laptop broke down, I need a new computer.
This time, I want to build my own, video editing specific, desktop PC.
After some search on various website's I come to this specific configuration:


CoolerMaster Mystique 632
Coolermaster P/S iGreen 600W SLI/EPS

ASUS Commando P965 mainboard
Intel E6850 3,0GHz DualCore
2x 1GB RAM (pair) PC6400 CL4.0

PCI-e GeForce 7900GS 256MB

4x Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10.000RPM S-ATA150 in RAID-0

NEC AD-7173S 18x Dual-Layer DVD Burner (S-ATA)


The complete system will be slightly below €1500 euro's.

If you have any comments, please let me know.
I have searched quite a bit on the internet and altough the Intel P35 chipset might perform a little bit better on paper, I've choosen for the P965 chipset instead, maybe for the support of DDR2 memory. (P35 supports mainly DDR3 memory, altough I have seen boards with both DDR2 AND DDR3 support)
I also choose the Commando edition from ASUS because of the gaming performance. Not that I'm such a great gamer, but more for overclocking performance.

I also have choosen for four WD Raptor's, because these disks are the fastest S-ATA drives at the moment, altough they aren't the cheapest one's.
I also have choosen to use 4 drives in a single RAID-0 configuration, because the transfer rates are almost doubled compared with a 2-disk RAID-0 configuration.
And my guess is, that around 300GB of disk space would be more than enought for me to work on a video project. Mainly because I save every finished project on a extern USB Harddisk.
I might add some extra harddisk space later, but since it would overgrow my present budget I made the choice to use rather small but super fast disks than I would use disk with large capacaties...

About the video card, I used a pretty fast 3D video card with min. 256MB of video memory. Maybe my choice of video card will different than the one I mentioned above, but my guess is that a card like this will do the job very well.

Since I will use the 32-bit version of WindowsXP (as almost everyone uses) I won't benefit an extra 2GB of RAM. I might add another 1GB of RAM, but I think 2GB will be more than enough for now.

[pascalbrown]

Stefan;

Firstly, I don't think there is much point in buying an E6850 when for the same money you can have a Q6600 (new G0 stepping). The Q6600 will very easily run at 3GHz and effectively you have twice the power for the same price.
Secondly, a P965 motherboard is a solid choice, but by the end of this month the new x38 motherboard will be out and these will be another step up in performance, so I would suggest waiting a couple of weeks unless you are in a real rush.

Thirdly, do you know how loud a 10k RPM Raptor is? They are not quiet! I would guess that 4 of them in a RAID array would be very very loud and probably quite annoying. I would suggest going with the Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB drive as it is much cheaper, quieter, and will perform as well as a raptor. Obviously you could put a couple of these into a raid array if you wanted and you would have massive storage and great performance.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/charts3/117-676-37.png

Hope that gives you some food for thought.

[Stefan_hv20]

Hi Pascal,

Thank you for your comments!

The reason I thought of using the E6850 instead of the Q6600 is that at Tom's Hardware Guide, in the CPU Chart the DualCore E6850 performes better than the QuadCore Q6600, with the use of Pinnacle Studio 11.
That is the main reason!

I'm not in that kind of a rush, altough I can't edit any movie right now. The fastest PC I have right now is one of the very first P4 from Dell. (1,7GHz with 256MB RAM)
I will take a look at the new chipset and compare with the one I had in mind the first place.

About the Raptor's:
I know a 10K rpm drive will make more noice than a 7200rpm drive.
But I also red some reviews on some Dutch tweakers website's, wich told me it also depends on the housing you use. With a well designed, solid housing the noice reduces big time! And since the tower is going to be fit under my desk, the nocie will be not that of an important question.

I came to my choices also using the website of tomshardware.com and some other Dutch websites, like Tweakers.net
I also found some helpfull info on RAID stuff on Tom's Hardware, and what a performance boost a third or fourth harddisk in a RAID-0 config would do. (Since most people 'only' use a two-disk RAID-0 configuration...)

So altough you make a great point about the harddisk's, I do think I'm going to be sticked with my first choice. Hope you don't mind??:hv20-smilie70::hv20-smilie84::hv20-smilie84:

I do want to make a second thought about the processor and the mainboard. But what would you say... Dual- or Quad core? Since the CPU Chart on Tom's Hardware tell's me the DualCore is still faster than the QuadCore...

[pascalbrown]

It depends if you are confident with a little bit of overclocking (which you should be!). I would not buy a core2duo now, since quad cores are so cheap and they will overclock so easily. An E6850 is 3GHz standard and will overclock to 4GHz without too much hassle. The Q6600 will run at 3.6GHz once overclocked and without doubt it will outperform an E6850 at 4GHz when it comes to video rendering. I am in no doubt about this!

The housing sounds like a good idea, as long as you have very good airflow otherwise they will be getting very hot. Anything that insulates sound will also insulate heat.

If you can wait for x38 then do so. New technology is almost always better than what came before (especially in this very fast moving industry!)

[Stefan_hv20]

Ok, thanks for the info.

I shall make my move to the Quad Core instead of the DualCore.
Overclocking is indeed not a big problem for me and I certainly will look at cooling problems. Especially when I try to overclock the mem/processor.

About the sound of the disks, the disk I have seen were mouted into special sound-proof gliders, mean they were mounted on some kind of very soft or rubber-like sliders. These sliders would isolate the harddisk from the chassis so that vibrating and/or sound would be minimalized.

I also will think about the X38 mainboard.
Still looking for more information and comparing with eachother.
I did found out that, unless you are a real fanatic gamer and are really into overclocking, you won't get very much performance boost between a P35 and a P965 chipset. And the P965 Chipset will support the cheaper DDR2 memory.

I'm wondering what the x38 chipset will support: ONLY DDR3 or both DDR2 & DDR3.

[Dodgy Nick]

Ok, thanks for the info.
About the sound of the disks, the disk I have seen were mouted into special sound-proof gliders, mean they were mounted on some kind of very soft or rubber-like sliders. These sliders would isolate the harddisk from the chassis so that vibrating and/or sound would be minimalized.


Stefan, I have the 150GB version of the 10000rpm Raptors, and trust me, they FLY! I've housed mine like you said, in a special chamber within a sound absorbing housing inside an Antec P180 case, supercool and superquiet.

Good luck with your build! :hv20-smilie77:

[DutchY]

My system

AMD 4800+
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400
Hitachi 160gb SATA II ( for OS ) (planning to replace with WD Raptor soon :hv20-smilie32:)
2 x WD 160gb SATAT II in RAID 0

It is running Sony Vegas 8 Platinum pretty smooth.

[soloscribbler]

after building the xeon system, i wonder why more people around here don't consider that option. I was going to build a core 2, LGA775 system of some sort, but then I did what I always have done when building digital audio workstations, which is to check the custom vendors who serve the professional community and see what goes into their boxes.
I have to report that since the Intel xeon dual core 5xxx architecture came out in 2006, the shift to that platform (and also some to the Opteron 1207 socket 64-bit dual core) has been all but total.
I'm going to be offering custom xeon builds in my area, particularly to the college students cause the school has a great video production facility and curriculum, on a very affordable model. With major expandibility in view, keep in mind that you only need one CPU to start with in these systems, and that right now on eWiz a quad core 2.0GHz, 1333fsb xeon 5335 is only $350 (in May they were $715). A basic case (Antec Titan with PS $150), the MB is pricey at $350 for the 5000x chipset which supports PCIe x16 I admit--
But for under $1500 you can build a starter xeon system with a system drive and a pair of data drives that will grow and grow for several years.
Granted, for those who want their systems to double as gaming toys, this isnt the route for them. Other than that, though, this system has been absolutely a dream, it's so fast, stable, runs the Adobe Prod Studio etc.
The intensity card is a perfect upgrade, and the entry level Quadro 560 video version works just great in this box and is under $300 with breakout box.
I go back to the observation I made when checking out what the pros were getting from their builders, which settled it for me. If trends continue, the 64 bit, dual socket approach is going to be where video post is at, and the cost, especially using the starter strategy I descibe, is really no more money than the higher end of the core 2 route, and with so much more room to grow.
I think you guys are going to build great systems, and I'm sure they'll do HD video just fine. But this 64 bit option has worked so well for me, and not expensive, I thought I really should get my oar in, so that others who havent made up their minds, and may not know they might be able to go where the production industry seems headed--that it's affordable--can exercise this option if they want to.
solo

[africanmarty]

UPDATE (new cpu & 2gig more ram):
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
ABIT KN9S mobo
4 gig ram
512 nvidia geforce 7300GT
500GB RAID 0 HD
XP SP2

using HVD-split, prem pro 2.0 & after effects 7.0

[Flyingsheep]

Are you capturing from a HV20, using 1394/firewire? How's that working? I hear all over the place that the video people capture this way, HDV, is absolutely beautiful, and indeed some say it would take a careful side by side to reallys sort out such HDV from HDMI.
I just got my HV2o not a week ago, and haven't actually gone out and shot tape that I then captured into the computer. So far it's all been 'live' DTE (direct to edit) using HDMI, while I learn to use all the controls on the camera in a controlled setting. So tomorrow I'm going out to shoot in morning light, and see what I get. and when I get back, I'll try capturing the same clips twice, with firewire and HDMI in separate projects, so I can render both to AVI and compare them side by side. I'm very curious to see the result.
solo

Solo, I ordered my HV20 earlier this week and it's supposed to come on friday. While waiting I have experimented with raw footage people have uploaded from their HV20 so that I could get used to HDV editing. Before that, I've been using basically the cheapest consumer mini-DV camcorder you could get. A Panasonic GS-39. To a lot of people that may seem a little sad, but to tell you the truth, I learned from this camera. You can do amazing things with video even with the cheapest consumer video camera.

If you uploaded a side-by-side comparison of HDMI capturing and firewire capturing, I would love that. I've been wondering if the difference is really worth it or not.

[JustRewind]

2.5GHz PowerMac G5 Quad
2 x 20" Cinema Displays
4GB Ram
256MB GeForce 6600
250GB Int HDD
close to 1TB Ext HDDs

After Effects, Final Cut Studio & Creative Suite 2 Standard

[Critters]

A Intel Core2Duo Extreme Quad Core QX6700 2.66GHz 8Mb Cache
and a couple of nVidia 8800Ultra 768MB PCI Express graphics cards in SLi
with 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 DIMM RAM (Corsair Twin2x -C4)
on a Asus Striker Extreme Motherboard
with 2 Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000rpm SATA RAID 0 Configured
all in a Lian-Li Memorial PC777B Black tower Aluminium Chassis

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v99/200/51/675925063/n675925063_152516_8270.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v99/200/51/675925063/n675925063_152515_7910.jpg

[Halsu]

Just ordered a new one to replace my current dual 3GHz Xeon / 4GB ram / XP Pro 32 bit machine:

HP XW8400
INTEL XEON E5345 2.33GHZ 1333/8M PASSIVE (two of these, 8 cores total)
GAINWARD 8800ULTRA 768/384 DD 1.1NS DDR3
HP 1GB (1X1GB) DDR2-667 ECC FBD RAM (eight of these, so it's 8GB total)
WD CAVIAR RE 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB (three of these, 1.5 TB Raid 0)
BELKIN FIREWIRE/USB 2.0 COMBO PCI
HP LP2465 24" TFT MONITOR
HP 2004 STANDARD KEYBOARD PS/2 FIN

The OS will be XP Pro 64.

...should keep me happy for a year or two.