Hardware recommendations VS X6 ?

[ronstew]

I shot some video, but haven't tried to edit yet because I am afraid of render time on my five-year-old Core2 system, and my VS 11 does not recognise the .mts (AVHCD?) files that my Panasonic FZ200 creates. I liked Ulead VS 4, which came free with a Firewire card that I bought in 2000. I moved up to VS 11 when I bought my first HD camcorder. I know how to use the software, so I would like to stay with the Corel product.

I think I'll buy a new computer. Looking through this forum and the rest of the web, it seems that Corel tells users nothing about what hardware works best with its software, or how best to improve performance. Also, I am getting the impression that a super-duper video card will only offer minimal improvement in rendering time. It looks to me like the fastest CPU and RAM is the best bet. Any point to investing is fast RAID arrays? How about solid state drives? VS X6 is 32-bit software, so I guess more than 4 GB RAM won't help? Any particular preferred video card?

My current hardware:

Code: Select all

   Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130505-1534)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
       System Model: P5Q-E    (That's an ASUS motherboard)
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/02/08 15:19:57 Ver: 08.00.14
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8400  @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3328MB RAM
          Page File: 2499MB used, 4152MB available
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
          Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5450
          Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x68F9)
           DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
     Display Memory: 2425 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 1017 MB
      Shared Memory: 1407 MB
        Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C 

All comments will be gratefully read.

[Terfyn]

Go to the Corel site and, under Pro X6, look at the Tech Specs which give a minimum system requirement to compare with your computer.

[Jan]

If you buy a new computer, you'll get most probably Windows 8 installed. You should be aware that, even with service pack 1, VideoStudio X5 or X6 are not fully compatible with Windows 8. Among others, most of the ProDAD plugins do not work and generate error messages and you may as well experience more crashes and freezes than you are prepared to accept. So, if you like Corel VideoStudio which is indeed a very good software, stick to Win 7 x32 or x64 for the time being.

[pepegota]

Get an Ivy Bridge computer. With my Sandy Bridge, it flies and 16 gig of Ram is a plus too. Minimum requirements generally give minimum performance.