Best PC workstation for AE

[Steve Roberts]

Here’s my take on it:

Dual xenon or core2 duo?
– whichever’s faster. If they’re close, it doesn’t matter.

Ram 3 gigs, i heard xp can’t use the 4th so what’s the point?
– for having Photoshop or Illustrator open while you work. It’s a workflow thing. And OS overhead.

Sli?
– sorry, too old to know what that is. 😉

Dual nvidia quadro 5500?
– don’t spend a lot of money on a graphics card with AE. It’s not crucial, as it can be with games or 3D. Just make sure it’s approved by Adobe.

best set up for hard drives, ie one for os, one for rendering , one for striping?
– one for system, one for source, one for renders would be ideal. Striping would help, but it’s not as necessary as it is with NLEs since you don’t expect realtime playback.

what set up would i need to deal with hd?
– Fast processor, lots of RAM, same as usual. It’s not like an NLE, which requires a RAID for uncompressed HD. If you want to view on a TV, check out the Decklink or KONA cards.

What OS? i heard vista doesn’t work well with AE so should i stay with XP pro? should i go 64bit?
– Vista bad right now. Stay XP. 64? Search the COW — I don’t know, sorry.

Are there any external plugin boxes that would help? For example i know AVID has one, modo i think. or is this over kill?
– No. There’s nothing that will help AE, except for Nucleo for rendering speed.

What additional cards do i need?
– as mentioned, check out the Decklink or KONA cards for TV viewing. But you don’t neeed them.

i would like to have a tv plunged in to see final result so what adds do i need here
– As I mentioned … 🙂

If i want to do hd do i need an external hard drive stack?
– No, it’s not like an NLE which neeeeds drive speed, but it wouldn’t hurt when accessing your source frames during a render.

Regarding HD, a base system (or an iMac) is HD ready with regard to AE. You’ll just wait a little longer for your renders because the frame size is bigger, and you won’t be able to see it on TV without the extra I/O card. But that’s it. It’s not a matter of “ready or not” like an NLE system, it’s a matter of degrees of speed.

Anybody else?

[Jimmy Brunger]

Yeah, from research I’ve been doing and what some people on here have been saying, for a really fast uncompressed HD AE system you need: –

– as many fast processors as you can afford (Quad-core Xeon chips seem fastest)

– As much RAM as you can afford (4GB on XP32 or 16GB+ on XP64)

– Nucleo Pro (Nucleo really needs at least 2GB per core to do it’s job well, so 2 x xeon quads = get at least 16GB ram)

– Fast drives: 10k rpm raptor for OS/software maybe, a striped set for renders and perhaps another raptor for project files, PSDs, etc?

– A decent OpenGL supported GFX card – don’t go overkill, but I have heard that a faster card with more onbaord memory will help in AE. Is this true?

– A Blackmagic decklink or AJA card for broadcast monitoring.

– A decent HD b/cast monitor

– a couple of biggish LCDs for your GUI.

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
————————————-
Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0

[Emre Tufekci s.o.a.]

Hi everyone
I’m looking to set up a new PC workstation for AE and i really cant find a layout for the best system. Basiclly i need to answer questions like:

Dual xenon or core2 duo?
QuadX2+NucleoPro= best investment ever

Ram 3 gigs, i heard xp can’t use the 4th so what’s the point?
Winodw s will only see 3.5 Gigs max in 32bit mode.

What OS? i heard vista doesn’t work well with AE so should i stay with XP pro? should i go 64bit?

AE does not support 64 bit.

Are there any external plugin boxes that would help? For example i know AVID has one, modo i think. or is this over kill?

Avid has a EMP(external monitor preview) capability. If you have a adrenaline or a mojo you can use the hardware to view your AE work on a NTSC monitor.

If i want to do hd do i need an external hard drive stack?
I use 10000rpm on drives on the OS and 7200rpm raid 0 for video. The OS drive does help things pop-up a little faster. But dont expect miracles.

IMPORTANT:
Unless you are a super computer GURU and dont need tech support, go with a company that services this industry with a smaller structure. I use boxx because when I call them they know what I am talking about plus they remmeber you and the problems.If you get dell, alienware, HP…etc It’s the long hold with the company directory and press this, choose that and start over with somebody new. Everytime. I personally reccomend boxx computers.

Cheers,

Emre
http://www.productionpit.com
Boxx Tech PC, dual-dual AMD 2.0,4BG ram,Avidexpress HD w/Mojo,UVW-1800,DSR-25, Adobe production studio.

“Creative cow is udder madness.”

[Jimmy Brunger]

I’d go for Windows XP64 personally if you have the choice – AE will be able to use 4GB of RAM and Nucleo will see as much as you have installed and even though AE is 32bit, Nucleo can use all your RAM effectively. Plus when AE8.0 comes out next month it will almost certainly be 64bit (I hope!)

*Production Studio Premium / *Combustion 3
————————————-
Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation / 110GB boot/80GB media/600GB RAID-0