im looking for suggestions

[cornerstone-llc]

Id be interested to know what serious users of Creator 2010 use for hardware. What I really want to do is capture most anything a client might bring to me ( VHS tapes/Camcorders/Super8/LPs ) etc etc and be able to put it onto DVD or CD for them. Id like to offer this as a sideline service to a company I own.

 

I have been dabling with this and find it rather cumbersome at best - but of course I am using an older Dell Dimension with 512 MEG of RAM and a 40GIG hard d rive and an average video card.

 

Looking for suggecstion on hardware purchasing.

 

Thanks

 

Cornerstone

[cdanteek]

It is a little more upscale (higher price) but their computers are rated pretty highly.

 

I don't think 1 Gig on the video card is necessary especially at a premium price..

 

Look at my signature, I run three operating systems on the same box separate hard drives. XP Home x32 Sp3, Vista Home Premium x32 Sp1, and Windows 7 x64 Pro.

 

I run several versions of Roxio present and legacy software with no problems and it's a home built pc.

I haven't suffered from what the store bought big box builder pc's seem to always have problems with, and it's far from today's high end machines!

 

I try to build sweet spot value ($) hardware proven pc's.

 

cd

[cornerstone-llc]

I don't think 1 Gig on the video card is necessary especially at a premium price..

 

Look at my signature, I run three operating systems on the same box separate hard drives. XP Home x32 Sp3, Vista Home Premium x32 Sp1, and Windows 7 x64 Pro.

 

I run several versions of Roxio present and legacy software with no problems and it's a home built pc.

I haven't suffered from what the store bought big box builder pc's seem to always have problems with, and it's far from today's high end machines!

 

I try to build sweet spot value ($) hardware proven pc's.

 

cd

 

Im curious why 3 OS's. Also curious how you get three hard drives booting in the same box ( I think I understood you correctly ). I suspect the older OS is to maintain compatibilty with older legacy software.

 

Cornerstone

[Big_Dave]

The multiple operating systems are so we can test out different software with the different operating systems.

 

You can use Microsoft's boot manager to set up the multiple boots (multiple partitions).

 

OR

 

If your bios supports booting from differnet hard drives then you can build another OS on a different hard drive.

 

OR

 

You can do a combination of the above. (each hard drive could have multiple bootable partitions)

 

 

BEWARE! There are some tricks needed when doing the above.

[cdanteek]

Im curious why 3 OS's. Also curious how you get three hard drives booting in the same box ( I think I understood you correctly ). I suspect the older OS is to maintain compatibilty with older legacy software.

 

Cornerstone

 

 

I still use XP as the work horse OS, Vista was a ill advised mistake, and W-7 (Vista SE) is much improved and the future OS...

 

Like Dave said "we can test out different software with the different operating systems"...

 

Asus mother boards make it real easy, just push F8 on boot and choose the hard drive with the OS you want...

 

 

cd

[Jim_Hardin]

Others will chime in with other tips but a few to consider…

 

RAM the more the merrier RAM eases your editing delays but makes no difference to capture or render.

 

The more cores the better! Greatly reduces the time spent Rendering video.

 

I am not up to speed on VideoCards, but I prefer an External Analog to Digital converter. This will handle any and all Analog input. Roxio makes a pretty nice one that has pretty much replaced my $200 DataVideo conveter…

 

It is out of production but still has the advantage that it connected to the PC by Firewire and also accepts Firewire input…

 

Of course you must have Firewire input available for many of the camcorders.

 

Good card reader, since many camcorders use cards for files.

 

[sknis]

You've asked this question before and received suggestions. Are you looking for ANOTHER computer or still trying to decide on one?

[cornerstone-llc]

You've asked this question before and received suggestions. Are you looking for ANOTHER computer or still trying to decide on one?

 

Wow - - you have a great memory. Yes - Ive asked this before but have not made a decision. I guess I was looking for some freash ideas since before I asked while I owned just the VHS2DVD program and now I am using creator 2010 - also since Windows 7 is out .......................

 

 

Thanks group

 

 

Cornerstone

[gi7omy]

Don't even THINK of using either with 512 MB - to work correctly you will need a minimum of 2 GB of RAM

[sknis]

Wow - - you have a great memory. Yes - Ive asked this before but have not made a decision. I guess I was looking for some freash ideas since before I asked while I owned just the VHS2DVD program and now I am using creator 2010 - also since Windows 7 is out .......................

 

Thanks group

 

Cornerstone

 

Buy the best gaming type computer you can afford. Make sure it has a 1G video card. Some people have recently had problems with the better NVidia card probably because of drivers. I like ATI. No need to go overboard on memory - I have 6 G but the program uses about 1/3 during rendering but does use 98+% of my CPU time. Get one with a good audio card; not chip. Both Dell (XPS series and Alienware) and HP make reasonable gaming machines. Look at my signature to see what I have. It is a little more upscale (higher price) but their computers are rated pretty highly. You can customize on their web site. They do sell locally at big box stores. Don't go cheap; you regret it in the future if you plan on doing a lot of video editing.

 

Let us know when you do take the plunge. If you ask again, computers will have changed again ! Remember it is obsolete when you bring it home !