How to get the best from a PC? Some guides...

Report · May 21, 2009

I have recently made available three different 'guides' (from my perspective of course) and I thought it might be worthwhile to have it all in one place:

1. A PC buying guide for NLE.

2. Storage rules for an editing rig. Some basics.

3. Guide for installing and tuning a Vista 64 PC.

I hope you can profit from these postings.

Report · May 21, 2009

Good place to group these very informative and useful articles. I'd done similar with the first two in the PE "Tips & Tricks" sub-forum, and then linked to that article in PrPro fora. I know that some folk probably were put-out even going to the PE forum, but both early links were in one place. Besides, they'll all get over it! [Grin]

I notice that these articles are getting a ton of "reads." Hope that your work pays off for many and that they digest what you've written.

Thank you for taking the time,

Hunt

Report · May 21, 2009

Out of curiosity and for my own education, were there any tips that were useful to you as an experienced user and that benefitted you? What were things that you missed? Are there things you might go about differently? Do you have suggestions for inclusion or a possible future further guide? Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

Report · May 21, 2009

Harm,

Have not gone to 64-bit yet, so I only linked to that post. Have not read it, but will, prior to the next build

As for the hardware, some of the comments are on more current CPU's, etc., than I have. From my reading, I do not disagree with any of it.

For the I/O layout, the only thing that I saw (and think I commented on when that first was posted) was the FW-800/external. My comment was based on my personal experiences with my hardware and SD material only. I do not debate that eSATA is better, but I have a lot invested in FW-800 externals, so have not made that jump. Also, my workstation's slots are full, so no eSATA for that box. I do recall that Jim Simon tried FW-800 and had nothing but problems. Guess that I have been lucky. To date, they have worked well for shuffling some Projects between the laptop and the workstation. As an aside, if I can work by the pool for much of a Project vs being in a dark interior room - guess which I will choose. So long as I can struggle by with the 17" monitor, I'll go for the outside. Need the big screens, or more power, and I just cart the external upstairs. Still, I do not disagree with your comments.

Though I have a pretty good I/O system, when I do a new build I will definitely have your article in hand. Things have changed, since my last new machine and there is no reason to not incorporate the latest/best into it. I also have a printout of your "middle-of-the-road" workstation, and will likely model off of that too. Yes, things will change between now and then, but you provided a good template for me to work from.

In total, I really liked all three articles (see comment on the OS one above). You distilled many discussions into concise form. Now, you also furnish a single link to all. Beats doing a Search on the fora, trying to remember which thread Harm, Jeff, Jim, Bill, Eddie, et al replied to with hardware suggestions. You put it all together for all users.

Thanks,

Hunt

Report · Jun 05, 2009

Thx Harm!

I have followed some of your advice and have now decided to buy:

i7 920 (instead of 975)

Nvidia GTX 260 (instead of FX1700 or GTX 295)

Besides to Seagate 1,5 TB HDs 7200 rpm

This ended up saving me about 1000$ for a system I think is just a few % slower than my prior wish-setup (i975, FX1800 etc). After reading a lot of posts and reviews and tests and talking to my PC provider I found out that there is no need to buy the latest stuff to get high performance. I can get along with less and the money saved can be used to upgrade later on when prices gets lower for fx. 975 or what may come - etc.

Thx again. You have been most helpfull!

Report · Jul 06, 2009

The IT group where I work is building several network servers (costs less than buying ready made) starting with the Antec Nine Hundred tower case

I had a chance to look at these while they are in the work room getting set up

I don't have a link handy, but Google will get you to the Antec site for full specifications... I just have some general comments

Cases seem to be well made and very solid

The large fans, spinning at lower RPM than smaller fans to move plenty of air, mean these things are QUIET in operation

There is one fan in the back, one HUGE fan in the top, and two fans in the front

Those two front fans are both good, in that they blow air across the internal hard drive bays... and bad, for the way I like to work, in that they are right in front of the internal hard drive bays, and that means I can't use my usual drive swap hardware which puts mounting hardware in the drive bay and then allows me to swap hard drives by sliding a drive drawer in and out

I'm going to have to think about the drive mounting setup in the Antec before I buy... which won't be until sometime next year anyway, after Win7 64bit is out and stable, and CS5 is issued for Win7 64bit compatibility (I hope... I have NO knowledge of Adobe's plans)

Report · Mar 14, 2011

Just want to thank you for this wonderful postings. I will be building soon my next Desktop NLE. Although some of the guides are a little bit outdated for the current specs but still very helpful. I can see that very few people in this forum suggesting an SSD.

Report · Sep 20, 2021

Just giving a shout out to this post. I remember how much of a help this was back in the day.

Crazy how far we've come from the vista 64 days. Although some of our clients [link removed by moderator] are still on them. belive it or not!

Thanks again for sharing your wisdom!