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seeking wisdom re: upgrade or new…
hi – i could use some wise input regarding a decision i need to make. i am looking to either upgrade my present system or get something new. the reason i am posting this here is that the main programs i use are premiere and after effects (both cs5), and i thought maybe someone had some helpful insights on what makes a good editing system.
i currently have a dell precision t7400 workstation with dual quad core (xeon) cpu’s and an nvidia geforce gtx 285 (with 1 gb of video ram) and 16 gb of ram.
i have discovered over time that although the card is technically usable for my system (enough video ram and it is cuda) that it is rather slow for a lot of my projects. i also am thinking about adding more system ram. the actual workstation has been pretty flawless as far as problems.
i was thinking of maybe doubling my ram and getting a quadro 4000 card (2 gb of video ram) from dell or maybe just getting a new system (my current system is about four years old, but it is still pretty fast, and i can extend the warranty another few years if i wanted). any suggestions? (especially if i decide to upgrade to cs6).
and if this is not really an answerable question, i totally understand. just trying to make the best decision i can. thanks for you time.
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3 Replies
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Since it’s a Dell, check to see how much RAM that motherboard can support, but keep in mind with an older system, the type of RAM it needs (DDR2?) will be harder to find and could be expensive.
I’m not seeing a whole lot of bang-for-my buck with our Quadro 4000 and Adobe software. I would save your money and invest in one of the higher-end GTX cards.
Invest in moving your OS and applications to a Solid State Drive.
Check the Premiere Pro Benchmark Results Database for recommendations: https://www.ppbm5.com/
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thanks so much for the info. yes, ddr2. my system can handle a lot of ram — 128gb. 8gb of ram (2 x 4gb) costs about $319 from crucial. i will look at the gtx cards. the quadro 4000 was attractive to me because it is twice the video ram i now have and i found it for $700 (from dell).
and i will check out the solid state drives and benchmark results. thanks!
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I’d first look at the bottlenecks in the current system.
When you say it’s “slow” – is it the stuttering playback? Slow encoding? Rendering? When it’s slow, can you take a look at your CPU and memory usage, and see what, if anything, is running at the limit?
What are the models of your Xeon CPUs?
That said, the current Dell offering, T7600, is a very nice system, even though I personally prefer the HP alternative – Z820 – two more PCIe slots, takes more drives internally, on “recommended” or “approved” lists by Avid, GVG, Adobe, etc.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA
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