[Dave Osbun]

The only major difference between the hardware I listed and your new system specs is the Intel i7 processor, yours being Sandy Bridge and the one I listed being Ivy Bridge and the motherboard chipset, with the Z77 chipset, which is designed to fully take advantage of the Ivy Bridge architecture.

If you do build a system, make sure you know about BIOS configuration, since you have to make a change to the Memory Profile in the BIOS to take advantage of the newer high-speed memory modules. By default it will usually run at 1333 speed (even if the memory & motherboard are advertised to run at 1600). You’ll want to choose XMP Profile 1, in the BIOS Memory Profile and this will make the memory modules I listed run at 1866.

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

What type of computer hardware are you using?

I help out a lot of people on the Tom’s Hardware message board, and most of those people that have video editing issues seem to all be using AMD processors. Unfortunately there really isn’t a worse cpu choice for video editing workstations than AMD.

Oops…..guess i’m jumping the gun here…….

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

It depends on what interface the hard drives are using (eSata, Firewire, USB 3.0, etc.). Most external drives are USB 2.0, so I would copy the project info (and video clips) to the RAID. If the external drive was eSATA, it’s probably best to still copy them to the RAID since performance will be better. I do own a Lacie external drive (eSATA, Firewire and USB) and have used it for video editing with Vegas Pro 8, but you’ll get better performance just using the SATA3 RAID drives.

I probably should have also added: you should have another SATA3 7200rpm hard drive, to keep other computer programs on, and the Vegas Pro project files. The RAID data should strictly be for video. I personally have a 1tb Seagate Barricuda 7200rpm SATA3 drive. They are cheap (under $90) and fast!

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k (3.5Ghz)
Memory: G-Skill Ares DDR3 1866 16gb (2 sticks of 8gb ea) F3-1866C10D-16GAB (times 2 for 32gb RAM)note: this is low profile memory if you plan on using a large aftermarket cpu cooler
Video Card: any nVidia Quadro 4000 card
System hard drive: Samsung 840 Pro 256gb SSD (MZ-7PD256BW)
RAID drives: Seagate Barracuda SATAIII (6gb/s) 7200rpm or equivalent
Power Supply: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W Gold

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

That Intel processor is the Sandy Bridge architecture. It certainly is a fast processor, but for video encoding/editing tests have shown that it’s actually slower than the i5 Ivy Bridge processors. You have the 2nd generation i7 processor, where the 3rd generation i7 processors are the Ivy Bridge. More expensive but the most powerful out there except for the latest Xeon units.

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

If the video is choppy on playback, that is hardware related. The choppy video is telling you that the computer is having problems playing the clip, due to the size and video information. If it plays fine when rendered to a smaller video, that’s all the evidence you need. Your hardware is just not powerful enough to play the video smoothly. Many years ago companies used to make PCI cards to assist in playing back MPG clips, because processors/computers in general weren’t powerful enough to play back these clips smoothly. That’s why the audio appears out of sync, too.

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

Look at his preview window- it has two of the demo ‘graphic’. My trial copy only had one. Looks to me like it’s a resource issue, since the window is not fully visible. Seeing two of those graphic ‘stamps’ in the preview window is very strange, though.

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

I might be wrong, but I don’t believe that lowering the quality of the preview window will affect render times. My editing is quite simple, and my project settings match my video data which also matches my render outputs (1920 x 1080).

Dave

[Dave Osbun]

Render times can vary, based on what your render settings are. The higher the bit rate, the longer the render will take. My Ivy Bridge i5 processor, and 16gb of RAM, with high render settings (but not max settings) renders at a 1:1 ratio. So if I have an 8 minute clip on the timeline, my renders for YouTube take 8 minutes.

[Dave Osbun]

What are your render settings? With that much detail in the video game scene, you’d probably get better results with the render bit rate cranked up to the highest, and i’d also choose two-pass as well. It will increase your render time, but the quality should improve.

Dave