Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

check my DIT workstation

What are you to do about heat? You need to use water cooling, an intel core2 Quad will get very hot in conditions where it is dry and hot. I am working on creating a custom case that fits inside a Pelican, Currently I use a Silverstone Media PC case, ASUS P5LD2-VM with a Core2Duo and 4 Gb of RAM, and a Nvidia 7900GS DDR3 256mb. It is very tight... I Have 30-100 CFM 80MM fans and a 120MM for Processor, All on fan speed controls. The heat is Ok for a 1/2 hour, when the fans are running at 30 CFM. Otherwise between takes I crank the fans up to 100 CFM. It does not get hot... It is only noisy... Currently I run Mac os X 10.5.1 on it and XP as a back up.

It sits 2 inches below the edge of the Pelican and the 22" Samsung 226BW is velcro to the lid. Keyboard and mouse pad lie on top of the case. USB 2.0 Compact flash on the front and I have two PCMCIA Adapters in PCI slots, and a FW 800 PCI(currently Im in Beirut, DIT for two HVX-200). I plan on a Black Magic HD/SDI PCIe.

It runs Mac os x very well, actually better than real macs. trying to find a way to bring a Mac pro on set is retarded. the PC you are building will run leopard just fine. I have Final Cut 6.0.2, and updated to 10.5.1. To give you an idea Ive cut two features onthis system from P2 footage uner Final Cut Pro. Ive been running it over a year. The only difference is I can buy parts for a fraction of the cost and use any video card I want (UNDER MAC OS X ALSO)
 
What are you doing to battle dust or humidity?
How much power does this system draw and what kind of power conditioner will you be using?

Seems like a great system for studio days but what about location shooting in the desert, forest, rain or jungle?

RAID 0 is not a good idea for any major production like a broadcast commercial or a feature. IF you making redundancies and have multiple CF cards then you'd have the additional time (seconds) for a RAID 1 or 5 configuration.

I'm battling the same issues.....
 
x86box, thanks for reminding me about fan speed controls. I might add those so I can sit closer to set and merely slow them down during takes. Hmm. Also, no overclocking. Right now, I have my laptop for on-set and use the "big iron" for near-set in the video village tent.

Dane, this setup is admittedly not meant for hostile, dusty environments, although the addition of filters at all openings might help a bit. I'd need to work on something more bulletproof than that. This is suiting this present project and may have use on future sets. In between, it will be very nice in my post-pro rack. :) My laptop also serves in more hostile environments.

No RAID 0 here. That would be incredibly bad news.

Here's a workflow diagram for the present feature project:

264_1201207649.jpg

Michael
 
Back
Top