A Quick Question for the Technically Minded

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:14 pm

Hi Guys

After some of the general stability problems I've had with my current PC, I'm having a custom one built. I've spoke to the local store and said I needed a system to cope specifically with video editing, which means a lot of rendering, requiring a quality videocard, fast CPU and lots of RAM. The highlights of the hardware they suggest are as follows:

CPU: INTEL CORE 2 QUAD PROCESSOR Q6600 2.4GHZ 1066MHZ
Mother board: ASUS P5B DLX WIFIA
RAM: MEMORY DDRII 4GB 800MHZ PC6200
Hard Disc1: S-ATA 80GB HDD 7200RPM (OS & programme files)
Hard Disc2: S-ATA STANDARD HDD 300GB (Video & image editing files, WP, etc)
Video card: GEFORCE 8800GTS / 320MB DDR3 PCI-E 10
USB Ports: USB 2.0 PCI 5-PORT HOST CARD 10
OS: WINDOWS XP HOME UK 1-PACK 10 & MS OFFICE 2003

I know, there'll always be certain pet loves/ hates and personal preferences when it comes to equipment but generally, for those of you that have significantly more expertise, does this look like a reasonable build??? Would it give speed and performance or is there room for improvement in these suggestions - is there something else that I have overlooked that is critical for a decent video editing system???

Any feedback would be very welcome.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:00 am

Hi Gra,

Yes it does, the only other hardware I would want, would be Firewire. This could be added via a PC card. If possible and available maybe instead of 7200rpm drives, 10Krpm drives. This appears to be a very impressive setup. A friend of mine, whom does HD video editing, had a special system built. His uses four(4) Intel Xenon Dual Core processors. Thats the only better setup I've seen...

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:43 am

Ron, Firewire 1394a is already supported in the ASUS mainboard he listed. I think there is no need for an additional PCI card for that....

See http://www.asus.com.tw/products4.aspx?l ... odelmenu=1

H.T.

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:18 am

What worries me is the mention of MS Office. Firstly, I would strongly recommend you make your XP dual-boot. On one, made minimalist, you should have only your video apps and, above all, no Internet/security apps. On the other, everything else. That way, there is no risk of any interference causing your video apps to crash.

And why not Office 2007? Strangely enough, I like it!

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:44 am

Perhaps it's because the price of Office 2003 is been dropped down in retail stores?

H.T.

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:07 pm

Hi Guys

Thanks for all your comments - I'm very grateful and I'm glad I seem to be on the right track.

H.T., I think you are right and the Firewire is part of the ASUS set-up (but I'll confirm that Ron, Thanks).

Devil, apols for being a bit slow, but when you say dual boot, are you talking the same as Steve J's 'separate hardware profile' I've seen mentioned a few times before? Also I think Office 2003 is suggested for the same reason as XP Home - it's a bit cheaper (although I may ask for XP Pro as it's the same as what I've got now and I'll need to network the two).

Thank you again.

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:28 pm

No, it's not the same: it is a more radical separation. You partition the small drive into 2 or more partitions. You install XP twice, once on each of your partitions. This allows you to have different WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, BOOT.INI and Startup files optimised for video on the second partition. With Steve's method, there isn't a total separation, because each user profile can allow an overlap of applications with the same registry, whereas dual boot has a separate registry. This can be really optimised for the video work without the crud from other things that can upset the applecart. It's as if you have two separate computers.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:05 pm

The Video Editing profile is not a dual boot method, though it does bear some similarities. If you have two or more physical hard drives then I use another dual boot method which has advantages over the traditional method.

Step 1.
Remove the power lead from all but one of the hard drives.
Step 2. Install your operating system.
Step 3. Restore the power lead to the one of the other hard drives and remove the power lead from the one you just used.
repeat steps 2 and 3 until each hard drive has an operating system installed.

Each operating system is completely independent of the others.
The traditional method relies upon one of the hard drives holding a 'boot menu.'

You select which operating system to use by entering the system BIOS.
Whichever operating system has been chosen takes the drive letter "C"

Using the traditional method your hard drives keep the same drive letter assignment so you end up with directories like
C:\Windows
D:\Windows
and so on.

Using the traditional method if the drive containing the boot menu 'packs up' you can't boot one of the other operating systems. using my approach - because they are independent you can still boot your machine from another operating system.

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:59 pm

Thanks for the additional info and apols for lack of knowledge in the following dual booting question.

If I have MSP software on the smaller disc partioned to boot separatly (say it's called new drive C) and my video captures AVIs are captured another drive (lets call it drive "E"), will I be able to edit the files on E when I boot up to drive new drive "C" and start editing (i.e. will the separetly booted C drive see E)???

This is the first time I've really come across dual booting and I'd need to get the engineer to set it up when building the new system (so I'd better get it clear in my head).

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:23 pm

Using XP you can alter the drive letters to whatever you wish (Providing they are available) excpet the boot drive (normally drive C) and so you just need to make sure that the drive with your files is given letter E no matter which operating system you use as the boot drive.

Here is one (of many) guides using google, describing how to change your drive letters
http://www.dougknox.com/tips/xp_drive_letters.htm

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:42 pm

Hi
Sorry if my qustion was not clear. If I have two boot-up possibilities and I boot up on one configuration, can I still access my files on the other boot-up configuration?

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:51 pm

Yes, no problem.

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:47 am

Sorry if my qustion was not clear. If I have two boot-up possibilities and I boot up on one configuration, can I still access my files on the other boot-up configuration?

The best way to implement this is to have all your documents/files on a third partition or seperate disk, and you can map your 'my documents' locations to this drive in both your windows installs. That way you can be in either windows installation and the 'my documents' link takes you to the same place. Right click on the 'my documents' folder, go to properties, and change target location, easy!

It's also handy to have all your files on a seperate disk, for when you want to reformat and reinstall your OS, something which I do a couple of times a year, helps keep things ticking along speedily!

Helge · Post by **Helge** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:37 pm

1) With such a dual boot configuration you can access files from each other configuration. But if you dont work as administrator, you will experiance that your user "gra" is not the same on both configurations. This is because NT based OS (like W2K, XP,...) dont look at the user name, but at a generated "security idenrtifier" (SID). Strictly speaking this is also true for the administrator, but administrator accounts are handled specially so you wont notice it here. (They belong to a well known administrator group.) So eighter you have to give full access to everybody, work as administrator or do tricky patches of the registry. Some years ago I did this with success, so my users became the same on every configuration. The method I used was to replace the SAM registry hive. Its however not easy and I would not recomment it for everybody.

2) If you have configurations on lets say C: and D: and you really loose your boot partion C: you can still access your configuration on D: provided you have an alternate boot medium with the necessary files. So I one time started a system on drive E: booting from a floppy! For this you need a floppy formated with NT (since this will write a different bootstrap to the floppy), add the files NTLOADER and NTDETECT.COM, eventually your scsi driver and boot.ini, remove command.com and voila! If your computer does not have a floppy drive, this could work also with CD or memory stick.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:38 pm

That depends upon the version of XP you have.
If you have the pro version you can manually set permissions to individual users or place users into groups and give the group permissions.

Doesn't need registry hacks, just a bit of thought about who is given permission to do what. I have created various groups on my multi-boot set up so that my grandchildren can use the computer. They log on as members of the 'kids' group and have very limited access to parts of my computer and no internet.

Then there is the 'Accounts' group where my wife and myself have sole access because it allows access to my bank Account Stuff.

When you boot from one of the other drives you just have to set up the access permissions from that operating system.