dv video workstation

[alesspunk]

Hi i m doing a video workstation for a studio.

But i need your expert advices. I apreciatted a lot

Amd Athlon 64 3200
Asus A8n Sli Deluxe
1 GB RAM ddr 400 Kingston
PS anlix golden edition 550w
M-audio revolution 7.1
SATA Western Digital 80 GB
LG Multifas DVD-RW
Lite-o CD-RW
Zalman nothbridge chipset cooler for asus
PCIe XFX 6600 GT 128 MB
PCI 3 ports firewire

Thanks a lot

Greetings

[edDV]

Second HDD, largest you can afford
Fastest CPU you can afford
Less Graphics card, you only need 2D

[wwjd]

I agree with edDV. Dedicate the second HD to video capture/encoding ect... Get one that is at least 7200rpm. Hot swap might be a good things as well.

Not much software out there yet that takes advantage of 64bit so get all you cpu you can afford.

[mike909]

aless,
I built my latest pc for Video editing, and if you check my specs, it's quite close to what you have posted (same ram/mobo/vid card/processor). I did a lot of research on HD's and mobo's...and you shouldn't be disapointed in the a8n sli dlx. My biggest question before building was the HD set up. I ended up Raid-0 with 2 7200rpm Seagates w/ ncq. I never did figure out if it was better to have the os and data both on same volume raid-0, or to have a single drive for os and a seperate raid-0 array of 2 drives for data only. Basically, I can't figure out if OS and software take advantage at all of a raid-0. XP boot's quicker from the raid-0, but I don't know if things like PremierPro run any better as a result. The more expensive option is to buy two drives for raid-0 data and one WD Raptor 10,00rpm drive for OS. My setup works great w/ premier except for some issues I have (that don't have to do w/ hardware) where Ppro goes to 1.5Gigs PF Usage(ram/page file) upon project load.

[edDV]

There is no need for RAID 0 unless you are also running a SDI I/O realtime card running multiple uncompressed SDI 270Mb/s streams (e.g. external server or DigiBeta type machines). It is not required for typical DV and analog I/O.

Single stream uncompressed or low compressed (e.g. huffyuv) is gray area, but my machine can handle single streams fine with a single 7200RPM ATA133 drive. Don't go below ATA100.

If you do implement a RAID, it belongs on the capture side not the OS. All of your video app tmp/scratch buffers belong on the capture drive. Keep the OS on its own separate drive. Let it do its thing independent of the video applications.

[mike909]

So, keep the OS on it's own seperate drive, and how about the software apps?

Let it do its thing independent of the video applications.

[edDV]

So, keep the OS on it's own seperate drive, and how about the software apps?

Let it do its thing independent of the video applications.

The apps belong on the OS drive but the buffers/tmpfiles/scratchbuffers belong on the capture drive. Otherwise you will have long copies between disks.

[mike909]

sounds good. When I have an extra 100$ i'm gonna rebuild the system w/ a WD raptor drive for os, and keep the raid-0 array for data/scratch disks only. wonder if I'l notice any better performance out of Ppro 1.5. Probably not, cause my problem seems software related, but worth a shot.
aless...hope this helps with your purchase decistion.

[edDV]

sounds good. When I have an extra 100$ i'm gonna rebuild the system w/ a WD raptor drive for os, and keep the raid-0 array for data/scratch disks only. wonder if I'l notice any better performance out of Ppro 1.5. Probably not, cause my problem seems software related, but worth a shot.
aless...hope this helps with your purchase decistion.

I don't see why a cheap 60GB ATA 100 5400 or 7200 RPM won't satisfy the XP OS and application loading.

These operations (other than defrag) operate in slow motion. True you might save a second or two on startup and application load but you have to endure the noise of a 10K RPM drive and the cost.

Premiere Pro 1.5 just needs to load into memory. Put buffers on capture drive.

PS: If you buy a multi-SDI realtime card, follow the instructions of the card manufacturer.

For normal video editing applications using single realtime streams, a 7200 drive is more than enough. Laptops work ok using much slower drives, but single disk systems suffer from OS contention which can cause dropped frames during captures.