• Adobe After Effects

  Can you help build a good CS4 PC?

  Posted by Clint Milner on February 12, 2009 at 5:31 pm

  Hi All,

  I can’t really figure out which forum to put this in, but I figured that AE/Premiere needs the most computer power, I’d ask in here.

  I’m looking to build/buy a really good PC for CS4 stuff.

  I’ve come to the conclusion that my XP machine w/ 3GB of RAM isn’t cutting it anymore and it’s time to upgrade everything.

  What I need it to do:

  Run the entire CS4 Master Suite
  -I encode DVD and HD video for use in DVD and Blu-Ray projects
  -I’d like to capture straight from my Panasonic HDC-HS9 video camera
  -I’d like to employ the OpenGL features of Photoshop/AfterEffects/Premiere and others to take the strain off my CPU.

  Basically I’d like to build the PC from the ground up, but I’d take suggestions from pre-built machines.

  Help with Motherboard, RAM, Hard drive configuration, CPU, Graphics & Capture cards and OS would be awesome.
  I have an idea on what I need, but I’d like to hear what “real” professionals say.

  Kindest Regards,
  Clint

  Clint Milner replied 17 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Nicholas Toth

  February 12, 2009 at 6:07 pm

  https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

  That might help a little when figuring out your processor.

  My only suggestions would be weigh factors between speed and money. Thats what it comes down to in the end. Add tons of RAM. Run windows 64. Use SLI/Crossfire. Stick to your budget. There is no ‘zen’ answer.

  And be comfortable playing IT if anything breaks.

  Nicholas Toth
  Freelance Animator
  nicholastoth.com
• 

  Ed Blackford

  February 12, 2009 at 10:22 pm

  I was also wondering about this because my inspiron isn’t quite getting the job done. Even on projects that aren’t big and maybe 10 seconds long my computer freezes and becomes useless.

  What should the minimum specs be for a computer to work well with CS3/CS4?
• 

  Clint Milner

  February 13, 2009 at 1:08 pm

  Hi Ed,

  Right now I’m running XP Pro SP3 w/ 3 GB of RAM.
  AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.81 GHz
  NVidia GeForce 8400 GS

  I would say that it runs CS4 fairly well. There’s a bit of lag in AE and Photoshop. When working on DVD projects in Premiere, it does a pretty good job, but I’ve just found out that it can’t handle HD footage what so ever.

  I’m looking to upgrade my video card to hopefully the Open GL NVidia cards that support CS4 and I think I also have to figure out how to set up a RAID system because I read that it’s almost impossible to edit HD footage without it. Ultimately, an upgrade a 64 bit OS is in the works too so I can just load up on RAM.

  Have you or anyone else found any good products?

  Thanks,
  Clint

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