I ordered an assembled PC to be built for me. I gave them the specificiation according to whats mentionned in Adobe website. But I was told that one cant have raid controlled 2 hard drives as well as Windows Vista - only server will work with raid controlled hard drives - windows vista and graphics wont work. Is that true ? But Adobe has suggested Vista Ultimate and raid controlled hard drives be installed in the PC. So it must be possible

Finally, I was given the below mentionned configuration, but the cost is a bit on the higher side. Where can I cut costs ? Is this particular motherboard needed . Can you suggest any changes , or is this fine (though a bit on the higher side costwise)


Hi-End Graphic & Video Desktop PC

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.83 Ghz Processor Q 9650
Asus P 5 Q Pro Motherboard
8 GB DDR II Ram
( 2 GB x 4 Nos.) 2 Tera Byte Hard
Disk DVD Writer +-
ATX Cabinet With 400 Watt SMPS Keyboard & Optical Mouse
Operating System : Vista Ultimate SP-1 (64 Bit)


Graphic Card


Add-On Charges for Graphic Card as per your requirement.


Capture Card

Pending

(And do I need both Graphic Card and a Capture Card ? )
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

No.

According to the ASUS site, that motherboard supports RAID 0,1,5,10. Available for download (and prosumably on the CD) there are Windows Vista 64bit drivers for RAID.

You have misinterpreted something you were told OR you have missed out some information OR someone has told you incorrectly.

What RAID level does Adobe recommend, and do they give reasons why?
Similarly do they say why they recommend Vista Ultimate?
Far more significant than RAIDing up the drives for performance (if that's the reason) would be to buy a small hard drive fro the system and programs and make sure all you footage is on a separate drive.

What is the source of your material going to be? If it's MiniDV your capturting is done via firewire, and that board has two built in (one on the back panel and a "header" on the board so you can have on on the front if your case supports it)

If you're using AVCHD you'll copy files direct from the SD card or (as with Hard drive cameras) copy files direct using USB.

A graphics card is entirely different, it's what your monitor plugs into (and for some programs will do some of the effects processing). I'd certainly advise one with two oututs as one day you'll want a second moinitor on the system. As for which is best for Premiere, I'll leave that for the Premiere boys to help you with.

__________________
Tim

to be honest raid isn't really needed for standard definition or high definition (hdv) video for that matter. well not in premiere anyway.

any graphics card will do for premiere. at the moment i'm using a Palit nvidia geforce gt9400 (i think).

not top of the range i can tell you but it's perfect for editing.

Adobe states the minimum requirements for their latest Premiere which is :
(cut and pasted from Adobe site)

2GHz or faster processor for DV; 3.4GHz for HDV; dual 2.8GHz for HD*
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista)
2GB of RAM
10GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)
1,280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0–compatible graphics card
Dedicated 7200 RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing; striped disk array storage (RAID 0) for HD; SCSI disk subsystem preferred
For SD/HD workflows, an Adobe-certified card for capture and export to tape
OHCI-compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device
DVD-ROM drive (DVD+-R burner required for DVD creation)
Blu-ray burner required for Blu-ray disc creation
Microsoft Windows Driver Model– or ASIO-compatible sound card
QuickTime 7.4.5 software required to use QuickTime features
Broadband Internet connection required for online services†


So keeping the above in mind, does my assembled PC seems ok ? or is it overdone or underdone ?

I am not too clear about "striped disk array storage (RAID 0) for HD; SCSI disk subsystem preferred ". But Adobe does state clearly that RAID 0 is required.

And is Asus P 5 Q Pro Motherboard (suggested by the IT guy) an appropriate one with the system suggested by Adobe ?

I am going to be using HV30 (PAL) - so that would be DV tape.

Grateful for your advice. Thanks

RAID 0 (striped disks) puts all data across several disks in a way that gives improved speed at any given instant. If one disk fails. all of the data on the hard drives will be lost since there is no parity or mirroring.

__________________
Wil

Canon HV30 Filter and lens Comparison http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK07VxBnqCM
You tube channel (Vegas Tutorials)
http://www.youtube.com/ChapmanPhotography

It's ambuguous whether the striped hard disk is a requirement or preferred for HDV. What is clear (though not expressed very clearly) is that you need a SEPARATE hard drive for system and for your footage.

My system (running Vehas rather than Premiere) has one drive for system and a pair of drives in RAID 0 for video. Probably overkill and I probably won't bother next time.

SCSI is a form of interface between (in this instance) the hard disk system and the processor. It's capable of greated sustained throughput than the more normal (in home machines) SATA interface. It's also considerably more expensive. There's some debate as to whether SCSI really gives a benefit over SATA even in server systems these days.

Another thing to bear in mind is that HDV as shot by your Canon HV30 is far less taxing on a system than AVCHD (the other common consumer form of Hi Def)

As for capture cards, I've always associated these with capturing analogue footage (where conversion is needed). I've dabbled with Premiere Elements ahnd had no problems at all capturing standard def over fierewire. I see absolutely no reason why you would need a capture card in the digital environment, but Adobe are still specifying it and I hope that a Premire person here will clarify (I'm always up for increasing my knowledge)

__________________
Tim

Thanks Tim

And would you (or anyon else who has knowledge about this) suggest that I got for RAID 0 system or just have two seperate drives ?

And do I need any Quadro graphic crards or anything else cheaper could do ?


And I have ben suggest 8GB DDR II RAM by the IT guy who is going to build by PC. Do I need 8GB - will 4GB suffice. Is there a major performance difference between the two ?

And is DDRII ok for HD editing , or is DDR III preferred for it ? Or the difference isnt much ?

I would certainly recommend having system & programs on one drive and footage on another in preference to ONLY two drives in a RAID0 array.

One for the Adobe guys. I think I read somewhere that there is some specific stuff where Premiere can take advantage of the GPU in certain Quadro cards, but I should shut up as I'm speculating.

Sony Vegas doesn't use the GPU at all so all that's useful for that is a decent amount of RAM in the graphics card.

More RAM is always good. I presume that you'll be running a 64bit version of Premiere otherwise you won't see more than 3.x GB - even though the OS is 64 bit.

I wouldn't have thought the difference in RAM speed is going to be significant in the overall performance.

__________________
Tim

i belive that you can improve rendering speeds with a quadro? i dunno, never used one, there really is non need in my opinion.

by hd it doesn't mean HDV or AVCHD