Can a video server run premiere, etc

[Deathwish]

This is the scenerio. I currently have three desktop pcs in my bedroom. Things are starting to get a little crowded. If I set up a video server, is its sole puropse to serve video files or can I use it to encode / decode video files using premiere, etc.?

[ozymango]

In my experience, Premiere takes a lot of horsepower to run period, so I don't do anything else on my box (P4 3ghz, 1gb RAM) when I'm editing because I like the speed of a "clean machine," so to speak. But if you're talking about running other programs while converting to mpeg (exporting your video) ...

If your video serving PC is not actually serving videos constantly, I could see using it as an encoding box while it's otherwise not being hit. But a lot would depend on what kind of video you're serving (bitrate), what kind of stuff you're encoding ...

I really don't see any advantages to this, though -- both video serving and editing/encoding are gonna put a consistent, constant load on your CPU and drives, so you'd be working this machine pretty hard. What are your other two computers doing? Maybe one of them would be a better candidate.

[Bjs]

Things are starting to get a little crowded

I know the feeling , but its the whole dang house here .

ozymango dose have the points set out , but theres a difference between just plain old serving of "ready to go" vs "project set" file types . If the later , it would be better not to interfere with the serving pc , once its started .

One small glitch on the server end , and you start from the begining ... best to leave it alone till task completed .

[Deathwish]

If your video serving PC is not actually serving videos constantly, I could see using it as an encoding box while it's otherwise not being hit....

I really don't see any advantages to this, though.

Most people dont see the point bc the (physical) room that the extra pcs take up dont seem to bother most people. I live in a tiny apt. Instead of just adding desktop pcs, I thought it might be more space efficient to have one desktop pc with 3 or 4 servers mounted on 1 rack in another back room. It may be too expensive of a space solution though. Too bad destop pcs dont come in a rack mountable form factor.

[rallynavvie]

well you can always "rack" them by laying them on their sides on shelves in the cabinet. Or you can hunt eBay for some cheap used 4U cases that should fit pretty much any ATX desktop equipment in it. Of course if you're using proprietary hardware from OEMs like HP and Dell then you may be out of luck.