New User advice for buying a computer (PC-MAC) Laptop, Shuttle, or Tower

[Kyle]

Weigh out the pros and cons and do as much research as possible. Take some of this advice into consideration. Are you looking into MAC or PC? Each has their own advantages and disadvantages from what I gather. No system is superior in my opinion. Figure out if you want a Laptop, Tower, or Shuttle. Also if you are buying your system for software mixing look into the specs for that software.

For example say you wanted to use your system with Resolume then you would need a system with:


Text extracted from www.resolume.com

Minimum system requirements
- dual monitor
- 1024x768 screen resolution
- 1 Ghz processor
- 256 Mb RAM
- Windows XP

Harddrive
The harddrive is important because it needs to serve the videofiles fast enough. A 7200 RPM harddrive will do just fine but a raid0 system with 2 hardrives can improve speeds further especially if you use large files and multiple layers. Note that laptop harddrives are always slow and reduce the performance of resolume.

Videocard
Most recent videocards with dual monitor run resolume just fine. ATI radeon based cards are great because with the alternative Omega drivers you get a lot of extra options like overscan (to remove the black borders on the tv-out) and PAL or NTSC output resolution.

Processor
Choosing the right processor for resolume is easy. The more Mhz the better . Resolume does not benefit from a dual processor setup nor does it benefit from 64bit processors. It is recommended to turn Hyperthreading off if you r processor supports it because it does not allow any application to take the full 100% of the CPU.

What is the best laptop for resolume?
Laptops have gotten faster lately because of the introduction of mobile versions of Geforce and Radeon graphics chips. The most important thing that is holding a laptop down in performance is it's slow harddrive. So do not expect the performance of a beefy desktop.

Use an external firewire hardrive to overcome the slow and small hardrives in most laptops. Most new laptops have dual monitor build in with a tv-out. Usually ATI Radeon graphics chips are prefered because with the alternative Omega drivers you get a lot of extra options like overscan (to remove the black borders on the tv-out) and PAL or NTSC output resolution.

If possible avoid pentium mobile processors because they run at lower clock speeds to save battery.


This is just one scenario it all depends on what your needs are. EXTENSIVE RESEARCH will pay off in the long run. Don?t just go and buy the first computer you see. I really can?t get in depth with MAC based questions since I have never used a MAC but the same principle applies.

[xiayu]

"but a raid0 system with 2 hardrives can improve speeds"

Keep in mind that almost all consumer level raid cards, or motherboards with onboard raid, use what is know as software based raid. This will slow down your system and the transfer rate improvement will be around 10%. 3ware makes the only consumer level hardware based raid cards so if you are going that route i would suggest them.

"Use an external firewire hardrive to overcome the slow and small hardrives in most laptops"

Unfortunately it's true that laptop harddrives are usually not only small, averaging 40gb, but also slow, most being either 4200rpm or 5400rpm. Well this leaves you with no real alternative than an external drive, but beware that using the usb/firewire bus to access an external harddrive will also bog down your computer. If your using a midi controller and a mouse on the usb bus, this gets worse. And finally if you're using usb/firewire for live input from a camera or dv deck... I don't really see a solution to this problem. The advantages of a laptop are obvious but the drawbacks of trying to use a laptop may not be. If you plan on mixing hi resolution footage then I would warn you that laptops are not the right tool for the job. If you are going to be doing vector based visuals or using low resolution footage, like 320x240, then a laptop is perfect.

[videobrian]

?

[Meierhans]

Pentium M in general is the fastest CPU available (if overclocked the right way) and pretty fast for the money. You can download RMclock to control CPU speed. In my opinion its best suited for VJing.

Never heard of hardware RAID in lappies, software raid is indeed bs. Should be faster to devide clips, so f.e. backgrounds come from system drive, all other clips from external one. Depeding on chipset it can make a big difference here if you choose Firewire and not USB to connect the HD. With an cheap extra firewire for PCMCIA you still have space for cam.

Newer desktop intel chipsets offer real hardware RAID onboard (2x2 Drives).
3ware need 64 bit PCI > expensive server board. In general normal PCI is to slow for RAID. Maybe we will see some Pci express cards in the next months.

Can?t tell about Hyperthreading issue in Resolume, Vjo does not suffer from it.

And yeah: "EXTENSIVE RESEARCH will pay off in the long run."


Just my 2 cent.



edit: PCI Express cards.

300-400 ?

http://www.starline.de/en/produkte/a...s/arc_1210.php

http://www.komplett.nl/k/ki.asp?sku=314640&cks=NWP

[Rovastar]

I would like to point a few things on this topic.

Obviously the above spec requirements apply specifically for Resolume.

Other VJ software?s will vary with what they recommend.

Most obviously are those that use 3D technologies and require graphics cards that are powerful.

I also question if all newcomers to VJing need to buy a new computer.

It is a big investment and often your home desktop machine for example might well be good enough. Or with minor upgrades it could be, maybe a new CPU or more memory might make it more than adequate for the

It is much better IMHO to use a desktop for the first few gigs to save you money.

Sure it is more to lug around but it is equipment that you, most likely, own already and that if you have not

If you do buy new hardware *always* run it in with the software of your choice beforehand for a significant amount of time. You do not want it going wrong in the middle of gig ? this will be your own fault if you do not test things beforehand.

[xiayu]

Originally posted by Meierhans
3ware need 64 bit PCI > expensive server board. In general normal PCI is to slow for RAID.

Wrong. 3ware's cards are backwards compatible.

[therandelman]

Originally posted by xiayu

Keep in mind that almost all consumer level raid cards, or motherboards with onboard raid, use what is know as software based raid. This will slow down your system and the transfer rate improvement will be around 10%. 3ware makes the only consumer level hardware based raid cards so if you are going that route i would suggest them.

really? never heard of that before!!
why is that so? could you elaborate this? (any links?)
and are there any motherboards, which can handle RAIDs fine?
are all the RAID people here using that 3ware controller?

interrested.
trm.

[sleepytom]

there is almost no point in raid systems unless you are planning on playing back more than 4 PAL res clips at the same time - as this is not possible in most VJ software there is little point in spending the cash on expensive and unreliable raid systems.

also a point about laptop hard drives - laptop drives are smaller diameter than desktop drives - thus they can achive the same access and transfer speeds at a lower RPM. it is not allways the case that an external drive will be faster than a internal drive. use a bench marking util to determin the fastest place to keep you video files and make sure that you keep that drive defragged and less than 75% full.

[unjulation]

make sure that you keep that drive defragged and less than 75% full.

ahh that'll be why i have noticed a slow down recently with me clips thanks for the reminder

[Kyle]

Great tips guys...keep em coming!