spec suggestions for new premiere CS5 PC

[David Payne]

the second one I mentioned with the 12gb ram is going to be about £1060. The first spec one was a used PC which went for £560.

I’d like to game on this PC as well but I’m sure either will play the most modern of games well.

What does the matrox help with? Would I be able to use the mini HDMI out on the GTX 460 to output at full res on an LCD TV or is that where the matrox comes in?

I really appreciate your help Jeff, its certainly helping me decide.

[Jeff Pulera]

I haven’t tried the HDMI output from GPU with CS5, so I can’t say. I have tried the secondary DVI output to a 1920×1080 PC display for fullscreen HD preview and it worked pretty well, but not totally smooth, a little jerky with multiple layers.

What the MXO2 Mini provides is INPUTS and OUTPUTS for capture and playback of analog composite, S-video and component, and HDMI video with audio, plus RCA stereo. IN and OUT can be scaled up-down-cross (HD to SD, SD to HD, 720 to 1080, 1080 to 720, etc).

Also has some Matrox effects that are realtime for Color Correction and Keying (Luma and Chroma), and Matrox Wipes.

If you will always be working with DV, HDV or AVCHD then maybe your workflow doesn’t need capture. I’d go ahead and see what kind of output you get from the graphics card from CS5, and if you need something better, then add the MXO2 Mini later.

Jeff

[David Payne]

Will do jeff. I don’t really need capture at all.

In fact I edit in a relatively simple style. In terms of effects, the most I’ll ever have is black and White, colour correction, contrast, cross disolve (with rubber bands manually) and a title.

Occasional AE work but not often.

If you don’t think this system is overkill I’ll probably go ahead and order today

[David Payne]

one thing I still have to decide is GTX460 vs 470.

I notice the more expensive 470 is officially supported by the CUDA Engine and CS5 as a whole but the 460 needs the hack, is that correct?

If so do you think its worth paying the extra just incase adobe release a patch that somehow blocks the hack?

[David Payne]

guys could you clarify a hard drive question for this editing set up..

i’m planning on keepin gone of my 500gb for the OS and programs, and then buying 2 new 1TB 64mb cache western digital drives for video files (set up RAID0)

I just wanted to check that the system wont only run as slow as its slowest drive (my existing OS system drive is probably only 16mb cache) but dont really want to buy another 64mb cache just for operating system unless its really necessary?

Many thanks

[David Payne]

well my pc is up and running. I did set up RAID0 on 2 identical WD Black 64mb cache drives but it meant a 2 min start up.

I disabled the RAID0 and it starts up in 50 seconds.

Either way the PC performs like a dream with my GH1’s AVCHD footage. Strangely enough it performed excellently on a fresh install and I realised I hadn’t actually enabled hardware acceleration in CS5! Hope I haven’t gone overkill!