System

[Nicholas Toth]

I got an email from tiger direct with a half decent barbone kit.

https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3241082&sku=I69-2148%20A&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=WEM1412BY

( i have no opinion of Tiger Direct, I’m just pointing you towards a deal that was offered to me )

If you know your stuff, you can build a monster system. If not, get your tech friend that you always call at the wee hours of the morning to do it for you (we all have one…). Dump as much RAM as you can in it, and buy Nucleo Pro. Best for your money, but no support.

Building a workstation for under 1.5k is a tough call. Anything half decent usually will cost you between 4 – 8k. A high end station will set you back 15ish, but it will become outdated much less quickly.

Overall suggestions — get a nice video card that AE supports, and put a boatload of RAM in it, and Nucleo Pro.

Nicholas Toth
Freelance Animator
nicholastoth.com

[Ron Lindeboom]

I do have an opinion of Tiger Direct and haven’t done business with them ever since they shipped me a partial shipment and said all the pieces were in the box. They weren’t. I was REALLY cash strapped at the time and it cost me the account I was working on and I have been less than a fan of Tiger Direct ever since.

That’s my opinion,

Ron Lindeboom

[Slingshot]

I always buy from https://www.allstarshop.com best price adn service I have found.

Which processor is best for Avid and After Effects, the slower one witht he faster front end buss or the faster one with the slower bus

[Ryankelly]

I think the Intel Core Duo would be better. Besides the RAM size is the same and you have more GHz with the Duo.

[Steve Roberts]

Are there any benchmarks out there for those systems?

(ignore OpenGL/graphics card issues for the most part)

[Scott Roberts]

Intel Core 2 Duo is fast. Get at least 2gb of RAM. If you get 3GB you’ll need to set up your computer to make it work with After Effects properly. I suggest a Dell, high quality components, good warranty. I’m on Mac and PC, and have had Dell’s, a Sony VAIO, home built systems, and Dell’s work the best in my opinion. The VAIO was a piece of junk . . . hard drive failed within 30 days, VAIO shipped a new drive and the computer never worked properly for the next 9 months . . . I reinstalled the OS at least 3 times. So, I replaced it with a Core 2 Duo Dell, good stuff.

Dell also has Duo Core Xeon’s for $1200: https://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/precn_490?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04

Good luck.

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[Steve Roberts]

[Little Black Bird] “If you get 3GB you’ll need to set up your computer to make it work with After Effects properly.”

… only if you want AE to use all of the 3GB. And if you wanted AE to use all of the 3GB, you’d have to buy at least 4GB so your OS can have some RAM for itself.

So if you get 3GB of RAM, you don’t have to reconfig AE unless you want it to use 2GB plus whatever the OS doesn’t use. Which might be a little too tight, since I like a little bit of breathing room between AE and the OS, RAM-wise.

[Bill Clotz]

I would definitely go with the quad core, no question about it. If you aren’t afraid to mess around with it, the Q6600 is easily overclockable to about 3.2ghz. Using nucleo pro to take advantage of your cores, thats going to be twice as fast as the other processor! Even if you don’t overclock it, it would still be a better choice.