Good Hardware for Edius 4.X

[PXAbstraction]

Hey all. I am doing some research for a client of mine and I'm hoping people can help me out. In 2006, I built a system for my client to use the Edius NX package on. At the time, 3.6 was the latest release of the software. The system had an Asus P5WD2 Premium, Intel Pentium D950 and a Gigabyte 6600GT video card. Everything was on the hardware compatibility list. He also has two hard disks in RAID 0 exclusively for his captured data. After 4.0 came out, we upgraded him and suddenly, his system would no longer capture more than 10 minutes of HD without without throwing an error. Support informed us that even though all his hardware was still on the compatibility list, it would not work properly with 4.0. They provided no explanation but gave us recommendations on what we could buy to fix the problem. What they recommended was essentially a high-end server and my client and I both thought that was ludicrous so he stuck with 3.6.

In light of 4.X ending soon and 5.X being upon us, he wants to investigate this again. Obviously, hardware has advanced significantly in these last two years. I'm wondering, is it now possible to put together a system with desktop hardware (as opposed to server hardware) that can capture and edit HD video? I'm thinking of putting him together a Core 2 Quad system with a high-end mainboard and 3GB RAM (all he can run until Vista 64 bit support is available.) Is this going to be possible with hardware like this or is server-grade stuff still required? My client does a fair amount of editing but he is a prosumer and does not run a production business.

Also, if desktop-level hardware can do the job, is there any type or brand of hardware that people recommend for optimal performance with Edius? Thank you all in advance for your help!

[Jerry]

Hey all. I am doing some research for a client of mine and I'm hoping people can help me out. In 2006, I built a system for my client to use the Edius NX package on. At the time, 3.6 was the latest release of the software. The system had an Asus P5WD2 Premium, Intel Pentium D950 and a Gigabyte 6600GT video card. Everything was on the hardware compatibility list. He also has two hard disks in RAID 0 exclusively for his captured data. After 4.0 came out, we upgraded him and suddenly, his system would no longer capture more than 10 minutes of HD without without throwing an error. Support informed us that even though all his hardware was still on the compatibility list, it would not work properly with 4.0. They provided no explanation but gave us recommendations on what we could buy to fix the problem. What they recommended was essentially a high-end server and my client and I both thought that was ludicrous so he stuck with 3.6.

In light of 4.X ending soon and 5.X being upon us, he wants to investigate this again. Obviously, hardware has advanced significantly in these last two years. I'm wondering, is it now possible to put together a system with desktop hardware (as opposed to server hardware) that can capture and edit HD video? I'm thinking of putting him together a Core 2 Quad system with a high-end mainboard and 3GB RAM (all he can run until Vista 64 bit support is available.) Is this going to be possible with hardware like this or is server-grade stuff still required? My client does a fair amount of editing but he is a prosumer and does not run a production business.

Also, if desktop-level hardware can do the job, is there any type or brand of hardware that people recommend for optimal performance with Edius? Thank you all in advance for your help!

I would start by reading some of the signatures of posts. Many of us have our
pc stats at the bottom of each post.

To answer your question....YES! you can use a quad core chip on a good
gaming or workstation board and have wonderful results. However, in order to get the ultimate result, a server board with dual quads will give you the best
result. Then there is Edius on a Mac by way of bootcamp. Many on the forum are having great results with these.
Choosing a board is a personal choice. I prefer Asus and Supermicro.

Keep reading the forum!

[swsw1550]

Server Boards

Just got to remember that server boards are not designed for speed, they where designed with relibility in mind, also a lot if not all server boards do not have many great features on them. As Jerry says Asus are good and also Gigabyte boards.

[pjsssss]

5.xx will support Vista 64

[PXAbstraction]

I would start by reading some of the signatures of posts. Many of us have our
pc stats at the bottom of each post.

To answer your question....YES! you can use a quad core chip on a good
gaming or workstation board and have wonderful results. However, in order to get the ultimate result, a server board with dual quads will give you the best
result. Then there is Edius on a Mac by way of bootcamp. Many on the forum are having great results with these.
Choosing a board is a personal choice. I prefer Asus and Supermicro.

Keep reading the forum!

Thanks for your help. As my customer is not doing this professionally, he's not really concerned with having the kind of speed that server grade hardware provides. He does this mostly as a hobby and the biggest projects he does are video compilations of local theater company productions and the like. My main concern was just finding him something with reasonable performance that is actually capable of capturing HD video without errors. That said, it's great news that he can use a standard quad core chip. I've had some bad luck with Asus boards lately (including the one he has) so I tend to stay away from them, though I have heard many of their newer high-end boards are good. I'm also looking at eVGA (simple but solid designs) and I'm a big MSI fan myself, though those boards have become very scarce in my city for some reason. Thank you very much for your help guys. I will look around at various people's configurations and come up with something for him.

[Blast1]

You keep mentioning "HD Video", what flavor of HD video? there is a major difference between HDV and higher grades of HD, a quad core 2 Duo and fast drives or a simple raid array will do a decent job with canopus HQ without needing high end equip.

[PXAbstraction]

He is capturing 1080i video from his Sony camera (can't remember the model of it) via tape.

[Mr Bill]

5.xx will support Vista 64

So what will that mean in terms of speed/power etc....?

What real advantage will it bring going 64bit?

[swsw1550]

Speed & Power

Hi,
64bit systems are just more (secure,stable, harder to hack ect) than 32bit systems. software that is 64bit threaded on a 64bit system is faster than running 32bit software on a 64bit machine, I am sorry about explaining this in lay man terms but it can get very involved, At the moment there is companies around who make software and Programs that run on 64bit systems but not many true 64bit programs out yet,

Cheers
Steve

P.S It will be interesting to see if the new EDius will be dual threaded.
Also does any one know if we have got to pay another fortune for version 5.xx ....Or will they offer us a upgrade?

[Mr Bill]

.
Thanks Steve, I needed that in lay man terms anyway....

does any one know if we have got to pay another fortune for version 5.xx
....Or will they offer us a upgrade?

Going by past history, you will pay a smaller upgrade price for the next version.
I don't see that changing.


I've also heard a rumor that Procoder 4 might be integrated into Edius now...
...interesting, IF true.