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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

New computer advice?


Chris Wilson

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I am editing a few more on board car videos these days and my PC is proving to be wilting under the strain. Now you lot, with your raspberries, and tapachat things will laugh at its age and spec, but it's done me good service for several years. What sort of spec should I build to for good video editing performance. I have never played a video game on it, and never will, so I just need e-mail and video editing performance. I am told the graphics card isn't too important, but memory and processor power are king. Would these solid state drives be any use, or is processing done sower than the drive will receive data? I guess so... I don't want to go mad, price IS an issue, but I will happily build it myself. Some motorsport data logging viewers seem to have issues with 64 bit Windows 7, how limited would I be if I wanted to stick with XP Pro? Don't mention Linux, or a Mac please, they are none starters with what I do.

 

Currently an AMD 3600+ Sempron 2.01 Gig, with 2 gig of RAM. I guess that's pitiful to you guys? :(

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If you want to do video editing, I would say the graphics card *is* important. Good graphics cards come with lots of their own RAM, to take the strain from the generic system RAM.

 

If you want to stick with a standard version of XP (i.e. XP Pro or XP Home, both 32-bit versions), the system can only use a maximum of 3.5GB of RAM (realistically, that means 3GB). You could fit more, but the system wouldn't be able to use it. If you know your software will work with 64-bit windows, go with that and fit 4GB as a minimum. Otherwise, just look into fitting 3GB into your current PC, and maybe a decent graphics card. Oh, and re-install or tune windows because it slows down over time.

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I would wave goodbye to XP Chris, you would be limiting your options. If I was in your position where price is an issue I would pickup a quad core AMD phenom black and 8GB of memory. SSDs are nice if you can afford them but quite expensive, you could just get a decent hard disk or run them in raid 0 if you want more speed without breaking the bank. How many watts is your current power supply and what hard disks do you have? You might be able to save a few quid upgrading your current PC.

Any money you save you could invest in a decent sized monitor, perfect for editing.

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Windows 7 I thought had an XP emulation mode?

 

You probably want a reasonable amount of memory and CPU - something like Core i5 / Core i7 if your video editing software supports multithreading.

 

SSD will be a waste of time for you I think Chris, price premium to it and video editing is CPU/Memory constrained normally rather than disk thruput. I encode video with an 8-core machine and memory utilisation and disk utilisation is low even with that much CPU.

 

Don't bother with > 4Gb of memory unless you're running 64-bit applications they just won't use it.

 

Also have you thought of getting RAID protection? You must have a lot of data you don't want to lose by now. A raid array in the house which stores your data on would be advisable being a business. Disks are cheap now, RAID is important if you've got a lot you don't want to lose.

 

You wouldn't be at too many pains to be running XP Pro SP3 but eventually Microsoft won't patch it and there will be vulnerabilities that'll leave you prone online. If you're not taking the machine online, stay on it - otherwise really need to transition to Windows 7 - as do many of the companies you state have problems with compatibility as their customers have to transition - they must move with the OS otherwise they'll have no customer base eventually.

 

Feel free to drop me a PM if you want some advice - this sort of stuff is my bread and butter.

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If you want to do video editing, I would say the graphics card *is* important. Good graphics cards come with lots of their own RAM, to take the strain from the generic system RAM.

 

Sadly, that's not really accurate Steve. Unless Chris is using Hitfilm (application) the graphics card has very little to do with video editing. What's most important is your CPU and Memory. Max out on CPU and Memory (Intel i7 and 8Gb of the fastest RAM your motherboard will support) and skimp on the gfx card. A change of motherboard will be necessary as well to support the i7 (socket 1156 or 1366).

Upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit (ensure you buy a 64-bit motherboard) and you won't look back. XP would not give you the best out of your new peripherals. This is assuming the application you're using for editing supports hyperthreading.

 

I'd be happy to pull a shopping list together for you if you want Chris, just need an idea of what you want to spend. As long as your existing case is sufficient, and you have a decent monitor and peripherals, you'll be looking at roughly £500-£600.

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Thanks everyone. I would possibly consider a dedicated machine for editing but it would still have to run Windows, getting data from my ecu and slapping it on screen means the software options are very limited, or very expensive. Example, I can buy a Motec VCS (Video Capture System) that synchs in car video and Motec data, but the cameras are poor quality, the software and hardware is VERY costly and it ONLY works with Motec ecu's. On the other hand I have discovered an application called RaceRender, that accepts csv streams from my logger, and adds them in a way even *I* can use to a video from my cheap Go Pro HD camera! I haven't synced this up properly as I just wanted to see how the on screen graphics looked, I think I need to make them smaller, it's all editable though and I only registered the demo version this morning The file took an hour + to write though... http://www.gatesgarth.com/oulton2.wmv

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Chris XP pro is okay but make sure atleast service pack 2 or 3 is installed to cater for multiple core processors as mentioned it does have a limit of 4gb but if your software will not work with windows 7 or 64bit then xp it is .

 

Video editing is very demanding of a pc more so than playing a first person shooter game ,what software are you using to encode/render your video and do you know what your frames per second rate of render is at the moment inculding output size and codec used?.

 

Belive it or not some say solid state hard drives are not ideal for video editing against a 7600rpm disk drive the sequential write is actually slower but ssd gains in all other areas see graph. I would not let this put you off though I have used ssd drive at work since they first come out and its a big difference not only that drives installed 2 years ago are still performing like new used everyday as we all have probably experinced disk drives begin to get slower and slower to the point you can hear it working .

 

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/908/ssdvshddbenchmark.gif

 

I would look towards ;

 

Intel I5 Quad Core 3.1ghz processor http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=509543&CatId=2963 £150

Asus P8P67-M Pro Version 3 Socket LGA1155 http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=524710&CatId=3747 £112

Hypertec HP Equivalent 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 RAM X2 http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=405714&CatId=3265 x2 £38

Sapphire Radeon HD5750 1GB PCI-Express Graphics Card http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=508001&CatId=2697 £89

Akasa ES Power 550W Power Supply http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=503852&CatId=41 £47

Crucial 256GB RealSSD C300 2.5 SATA Solid State Hard Drive http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=433836&CatId=3635 £310

 

Total of £746 inculding the vat

 

Maybe a new case £60ish but I suspect your existing case is atx and will do the job.

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I will ask on some forums if the stuff I commonly use will work without any issues on Windows 7 and supports 64 bit OS. Several people have mentioned this i7 processor, even the camera vendor (I fancy an in car camera that times stamps the video to help synching with ecu data, the Motec gizmo that does this costs a bomb. Will check it all out and return, thanks for all the answers.

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