New Work PC: What else do I need for editing?

[m2k]

I've done a few small vid. ed. projects for work, and now more people want to use video in their presentations, so we had $ left in the budget for a new video editing workstation. I was hoping for something decent for around $3K, but what my MIS dept suggested/quoted nearly blew me away when I saw how much $ the build was:

Dell Precision 690
Processor 1: Dual Core Xeon 5080 3.73GHz, 2x2 MB L2 Cache
Processor 2: Dual Core Xeon 5080 3.73GHz, 2x2 MB L2 Cache
Memory: 4GB, DDR2 ECC SDRAM Memory 667MHz, 4x1GB
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 2405fpw
Video Card: SLI config w/2x512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX4500 cards in graphics riser
Hard Drives (4): 80GB SATA 3.0Gb/x, 7200 RPM, 8MB DataBurst Cache

Since I already use the Adobe Video Suite, they insist I got an Adobe Certified capture card (after all the problems we had capturing with a Pinnacle in the past), regardless of $$$$. We were going to go with the Matrox RT.X100, but it looks like the RT.X2 is being bundled with Premiere Pro 2.

About the only thing they didn't include in this workstation that I could think of would be a second monitor. I think if they just bumped the processors down to the next lowest speed (around 3.5GHz), I'd never even notice, and that would make up for another 24" monitor right there.

Any other suggestions? Does this look like a good setup? I've been doing everything up to this point on a Precision 370, 2.8GHZ, 1GB RAM, 2 HD system so I can't wait to see how much faster everything will be.

Thanks.

[drfsupercenter]

If you want programs, I use Ulead Video Studio and it's only $100 but you can get it for $80. Now when I say only I mean compared to Premiere... but for me it's still too much That's why I had to ask my parents to buy it for me as a christmas gift

[m2k]

Software isn't an issue. I have the updated Adobe suite already.

[anonymez]

Does this look like a good setup?

it sure does, just don't skimp on cooling. enjoy

[Chewy]

you didn't specify the OS, forget 32 bit windows with 4 gigs of ram

those are the old net burst crappy cores with no L1

the 65watt ones are the new coreduo architecture

[m2k]

you didn't specify the OS, forget 32 bit windows with 4 gigs of ram

those are the old net burst crappy cores with no L1

the 65watt ones are the new coreduo architecture

XP Pro SP2. No mention of 64, so I assume 32-bit. Why? When I go to the Dell site to customize a Precision 690, it just looks like they selected all the top options. Please let me know what to avoid because I'll be stuck with this setup for a while I imagine. thanks.

PS - side note, in the forum I only see the first sentence in your quote, but when I selected "quote" it showed the whole thing. ?????

**OK, I just see that you edited it. Disregard ps.

[Chewy]

you and your purchasing department needs to do a little research first,
1. windows 32 bit supports 4 gigs of memory(that's total ram plus swap file)

Workstation performance typically scales with available system memory. 32-bit operating systems limit applications to a theoretical 4GB1 of RAM, of which less than 4GB1 is available in real-world deployments.

Dell Precision 390, 490 and 690 workstations are fully 64-bit compatible. With a true 64-bit operating system comes the full power of the 64-bit address space, enabling the system to utilize far more than 4GB RAM, with limits that are determined by the system’s chipset. To ready your system for future 64-bit applications, consider Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 today.

Windows XP Professional x64 is designed to enable you to deploy both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows applications on a single host, maximize your performance, and at the same time preserve your legacy software investment.

If you are unsure whether your full suite of applications and peripherals is compatible with a 64-bit operating system environment, please contact all vendors prior to purchasing a Dell system with a 64-bit operating system

2. the cpus selected are the old power hogs, lame L1, totally obsolete

the top of the line uses the 5160, but you'll never need 12GHz unless you are doing toy story 3 or MIB 3.

5130 or 5140 has 8Ghz-10Ghz with adequate L1 and low power use/heat

to see the difference in performance use this chart

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

use something like premier pro 2 to correlate core performance vs clock speed

[Chewy]

btw that cpu chart is for only 1 dual core, with 2 cpu's you'll either need to multitask a lot or have a lot of threads going.

[m2k]

Thanks for the advice on the Xeon Woodcrest series. After doing the research and checking out the test results, it seems like there's no comparison between the 5000/5100.

The updated system is as follows (Precision 690):
1st processor - dual core Intel Xeon 5160, 3.00 GHz, 4MB L2
2nd processor - dual core Intel Xeon 5160, 3.00 GHz, 4MB L2
graphics card - 512MB nVidia Quadro FX 4500
memory - 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS)
hard drives - (80GB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 rpm) x 4
monitors - (dell 24" 2407FP) x 2
O/S - 32-bit Windows XP (for whatever reason, won't go 64-bit)

Now the only issue holding this up is compatibility w/ a Matrox RT.X2 capture card. Still waiting for them to test with the 5160's, and Matrox lists the the Quadro FX 4500 video card, despite being the highest-end option from Dell for the 690, as having only an "average" rating and that it won't be able to display many of the effects in real time.

The best ATI option (the top cards are ATI X1800XT, X1900XT) is the FireGL V7200, but even that isn't listed as a validated card. Any advice on the card??

[Chewy]

I checked up on the 4 gig issue, seems sp2 helped a lot, but would think that machine would be a definite upgrade candidate for vista if they ever get the bugs out.

Anonymez or UncasMS might have some reccomendations for a video card?