So I need a newer, more powerful machine. Help!

Kosh · Mar 16, 2010

Hi everyone,

So I am working on a project that I could not deliver on time because my available editing machine - HP Pavilion dv6768se Dual-Core AMD Turion64 Notebook running Windows Vista Home Edition with 3GB memory just could not do the business for me. In my desperation to deliver I suffered crash after crash after crash, as the entire machine would fail somewhere between 10 to 20% of completion during rendering (MPEG-2 codec). I am using Sony Vegas Pro 9 by the way (32-bit). So it is quite clear that I need me some more cowbell...

That said, I am not the guy who just made serious bank on AVATAR, in fact I am rather far from that dude. So I was thinking of walking into a BestBuy or something like that and picking up any flavor of many quad-core machines that are out there for guys like me (I can bleed the $600 -$ 800 to do so). However, if I do this I do not plan on beefing up anytime soon. So I may be married to this thing for a while. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Oh yeah, usually when one brings up editing machinery questions, macs get mentioned more often than not. As much as I would love one, I am just a dude trying to get by editing SD video (I use a Canon GL2) on a bargain-based, but powerful machine. Thanks again.

Kosh

wheatgrinder · Mar 17, 2010

Don't overlook used.

There is a lot of room between a dual core AMD and and a quad core Intel i7 (runs hyper threading giving you 8 cores!)

I just did this last week. Bought a used Intel Core2 Quad with a 1TB HD and 6GB ram. I swapped parts around from my dual core AMD and now have 8GB of RAm and 2TB of disk. I can upgrade this to a 3ghz quad core processor, so I have SOME room to grow. $600.

I installed XP64 and am doing "better" with my HD.. that said, I would like to have dumped $2K on a new i7 top o' the line, but at least im happier!

I did do a small SD project on this system last night (an AE comp for credits..) and wow, SD was a dream compared to HD.. The comp had about 8 layers of 720 video form the Video Copilot action essentials disk..

Also, if your trying to render an entire movie, maybe you can break it down to a few "smaller" movies and let your DVD authoring software build the time line. Just be sure to break the scnens on BLACK.. not on action.

Tinalera · Mar 17, 2010

wheatgrinder said:
Don't overlook used.

There is a lot of room between a dual core AMD and and a quad core Intel i7 (runs hyper threading giving you 8 cores!)

I just did this last week. Bought a used Intel Core2 Quad with a 1TB HD and 6GB ram. I swapped parts around from my dual core AMD and now have 8GB of RAm and 2TB of disk. I can upgrade this to a 3ghz quad core processor, so I have SOME room to grow. $600.

I installed XP64 and am doing "better" with my HD.. that said, I would like to have dumped $2K on a new i7 top o' the line, but at least im happier!

I did do a small SD project on this system last night (an AE comp for credits..) and wow, SD was a dream compared to HD.. The comp had about 8 layers of 720 video form the Video Copilot action essentials disk..

Also, if your trying to render an entire movie, maybe you can break it down to a few "smaller" movies and let your DVD authoring software build the time line. Just be sure to break the scnens on BLACK.. not on action.

Wheatgrinder, buddy, pal, friend.....I could use about 1TB of disk space.......you seem to have more than enough....

Seriously, he Wheatgrinder speaks good advice. Before stocking up on the latest stuff, take a look at used(just remember to get additional RAM to accompany that disk space

)

wheatgrinder · Mar 17, 2010

What are you talking about! Im almost OUT of space and I haven't even STARTED my first movie yet! HD is murder on computers..

Tinalera · Mar 18, 2010

wheatgrinder said:
What are you talking about! Im almost OUT of space and I haven't even STARTED my first movie yet! HD is murder on computers..

I haven't shot anything in HD yet, thanks for the heads up!

Yea, they never tell you that stuff when selling Cameras"Shoots in HD!" Awesome!-hey where'd my memory go?

Like I relearned the other day, I can have have 500 Megs of disk memory space on my computer(not RAM, another difference I learned lol) that's great-, but how much RAM do you have so your computer doesn't go as slow as molasses trying to process that info...whoops.... lol

Getting back on track so as not to derail the thead.....

Also, and I know this is probably common knowledge, but I learned things go a LOT quicker(I have Adobe Premiere) if when rendering, you choose "render only work area". I didn't check that off and I ended up rendering empty space that wasn't necessary.

Also, I would think buying something like a terrabyte( or lower) external drive would help with storage, that way you can move older stuff off that's taking up space(not terragig-I had a learning the other day lol), and I can get one of those for 150 dollars at Walmart-now I just need the 150 dollars....

Ernest Worthing · Mar 18, 2010

When you do buy a TB of external disk storage, make sure it is fast enough for your processing needs. Ppl often forget about the speed of the drives, they mostly just look at its capacity.

wheatgrinder · Mar 18, 2010

I don't think External is a good idea, for real time.. for BACKUP and OFFLINE storage makes perfect sense, but loading and running projects from a USB2 Iv heard it will be a pain.

I don't know, just telling you what I heard

Kosh · Mar 18, 2010

Thanks everyone. That's why I love this site, you ask a question you get an answer. Thanks again.

Say wheatgrinder, I've heard going with a SATA hard drive is much quicker than USB, what say you (and the rest of you). Reading and writing to the same internal hard drive, is that a good idea?

Thanks again everyone.

Tinalera · Mar 18, 2010

wheatgrinder said:
I don't think External is a good idea, for real time.. for BACKUP and OFFLINE storage makes perfect sense, but loading and running projects from a USB2 Iv heard it will be a pain.

I don't know, just telling you what I heard

Really? I didn't know that idea-have to look it up more. Maybe because it has to "travel" through the usb, as opposed to direct access from the hard-drive(I only suggest this because installing stuff can be a pain if you have too long a usb)

And thank you Ernest for saying what I mangled in my attempt.-about making sure the speed is enough for the amount of memory

Utopia · Mar 18, 2010

Quote from Bill Gates: "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory".

wheatgrinder · Mar 19, 2010

As far as I know.
SATA in a raid 0 setup is the FASTING thing going for disks. (practically speaking.. , fiber channels and SCSI RAID0 might be better, don't know for sure

ESATA (external SATA) is not catching on, though I think you can find some products.

USB2 is good for most things, but trying to stream MULTIPLE HD files from that fast, but skinny pipe, will be tough.. comping in AE or editing in anything else requires streaming multiple files from disk..

Tinalera · Mar 19, 2010

ROC said:
Quote from Bill Gates: "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory".

I still think of that quote to this day and I'm like :weird:

Ah, yes, I remember having a Commodore 64 way back when, and thinking "wow! What processing power!"

Already now, 2 Terrabytes of memory is "okay". Or not, according to Wheatgrinder