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 :)

The PC of power

Christoffer Glans

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
4,993
Reaction score
36
Points
48
Age
42
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
I need to buy a laptop PC for Avid Media Compser 3.0 editing and a "flowing" RED workflow.

What should I look for? What specs is absolutely needed to get the power for a fluid Red workflow as well as general editing with Composer 3.0?

This is supposed to be my "on location" - "remote location" editing computer while I have a workstation at my office.

Answers I need is...

Processor power (and how many cores) = ?
How much RAM and what type = ?
Graphic card = ?
Connections (I assume a CF cardreader would be gold?) = ?

Then of course as much disk space as possible...

Please answer as soon as you can, I'm in need of this in next month.
 
I haven't played with them yet, but the latest HP series have eSATA on board. Are Fast, and are dual core. Something to look at.

As much RAM as you can get.

Michael
 
But to include the things you need, diskspace, processor, 8gb RAM, good graphic card brings the price up to $6000, which is alot more then for the HP I linked in the last post...

Still, if you should answer the specs needed, without finding a computer on the market, what is needed?

Processor power = ?
How much RAM = ?
Graphic card = ?
Connections = ?
 
But to include the things you need, diskspace, processor, 8gb RAM, good graphic card brings the price up to $6000, which is alot more then for the HP I linked in the last post...

Still, if you should answer the specs needed, without finding a computer on the market, what is needed?

Processor power = ?
How much RAM = ?
Graphic card = ?
Connections = ?

this is from the AVID site http://www.avid.com/resources/qualified/MediaComposer-NewsCutter-Qualified-PC-Workstations.pdf

these will be the way to if you want system tested and approved workstations.

as i said before - spnd as much a you can......it is worth it in the end and you clients will be happier for it
 
The thing is that Media Composer 3.0 is dedicating alot of power to the graphics processor and I don't know how it will work with redcine.
I need to be able to have a fluid workflow throughout the process: shoot - encode (redcine) - edit - finish.

At the moment I just need to know the power of the system. Most systems use 4gb of RAM. While I would like 8gb, does this really matter? And then you need Vista for it because Xp can't run on more then 4gb. How does that conflict with the workflow? Is quadcore and 4gb the way to go? If used with an external drive, is fw400 enough...? these questions must be answered before I'm looking around.

Processor power = ?
How much RAM = ?
Graphic card = ?
Connections = ?
 
mmmm.....you said that dirty word VISTA....

i don't know if REDCINE is running on VISTA yet or if AVID have approved VISTA. do you need a laptop or do you "want" a laptop?

REDINE is very dependent on the graphics card you have. the bigger the better as they need some grunt behind them to output the files. but there are some ground breaking releases coming out for AFTER EFFECTS in the next few weeks that enable you to us it to open native red files and work with them and export them into any format you want.

as for drives - i am using SATA drives on the AVID myself and they have been fine. we have a NAS drive on our network on eithernet for the render farm and it too is great.

anyone from AVID or RED want to jump in here aboout VISTA?
 
The thing is that you cannot use 8gb with Xp... so how can you work with 8gb RAM if it isn't possible?
I really don't care about Vista and I don't want it. I'm just interested in the specs of hardware. But for 8gb to work I will need Vista. So, does 4gb of RAM work good enough?

I need a laptop
 
The endprice of that sager notebook with all the specs needed ends up at a $3549 pricetag... expensive
 
the $ is something i can't help you with except to say that all the systems that i have ever build / help build they are around the 3/4k (AUS) +....

you can spend less but you will have to compromise things like speed at rendering and real time effects in AVID. Or you can fork out $$$ now and get a system that will do what you want.

personally i go for the best i can afford - there is no motivator like debt!!
 
In a dreamworld I would buy the world ;)

I have other investments as well so for me I need to keep it as cheap as possible. I just need a laptop that will not make me climb the walls because it's

I found this, which is expensive but it got a quadcore, which might come in handy? (But is it necessary?) I think you can understand the specs even though it's in Swedish...

http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=318234

Is that enough for a solid fluid workflow without major bumps?
 
$3615

Expensive, but I might manage it.
 
just make sure you can get full warranties and support - i take it you are not in sweden......you want to ba able to yell at someone when it goes tits up!

also be sure to add on freight / import tax,ect...it might bump up your costs.
 
Ah... perhaps the quad processor and RAID storage that's near a TB is probably why.
 
But the computer I linked to is a quad core at 2,5ghz.
I think the storage is more likely, but that will probably be solved by external raids.
 
Back
Top