Moving to HD - need advice

[ZviT]

I've worked with HD footage but mainly just as royalty footage. My workplace is now moving into full HD for all events. (weddings and stuff). I've done lots of research on editing with HD and we are getting new computers. I know that it's a strong system but I want your advice about how good you think editing HD and working with After Effects, 3dsMax, Vue 7 etc... will work on this system that was recommended to us:

HDStorm Plus - incl. EDIUS 5 (We work with Edius)
Main Board Intel Chipset, Intel Core i7-920 2.66 8M 1333
Total 12 USB-2 Ports for Device Com.
Professional Low Noise Case 2x 12c Fan.
HEC 500W True Power Supply.
2x Front USB, 1X Front Firewire Port.
2x 2024MB DDRIII 1066, Kingstone.
NVIDIA 9600GT Display Adoptor.
DVD Dual Layer x18
250GB SATA II System Drive.
2x 1000GB SATA II Storage Drive
Giga LAN 10/100/1000
Hi Definition Audio Codec

(p.s. we have 20T of external HDDs so storage is not an issue)

Thanks!

[guns1inger]

You won't get the best if you try to combine all those functions on each machine. I would consider dedicating one machine to the 3D side of things, and putting an Nvidia Quadro in it. These cards are optimised for working with applications like Max and throwing lots of polys around in a 3D modeling environment (which is not the same as a gaming environment, which the GT is optimised for). The down side is that they won't do much for your video work, and they generally down have hardware assist for HD video playback,

[ZviT]

Thanks for the reply. The guy that's putting together the computer says that the Nvidia Quadro is more a promotion product and it's not like they say it is. He says that what he's giving me is a strong graphics card and to get the Nvidia Quadro would be a wate of more money. Is this true?

[guns1inger]

There are differences between the standard consumer gaming cards and the Quadros. If you want to find out what the real 3D modelers feel about it I would suggest you go to some of the professional 3D forums (not the 'I am 14 years old and have just bought a $5000 software package - honest, it's legit' forums). Try Highend3d.com or similar.

You also have to look at what you are actually modeling. It you are just doing simple titles and similar work, you may not need it the power of a Quandro. If you are throwing around hundreds of thousands, or even millions of polys, it may well be a different story.