Best hardware for CS4?

From what I read some users seem to have big problems with
running CS4.
My guess is that its mostly related to their system setup,
hardware and software.
I run CS4 fine on XP/Intel/ATI Radeon, except for the
text/properties panel thing.
But now I am going to buy a new system, so why not then get
something that CS4 really, really likes.
I need CS4 working fine, and I am going to change whichever
parts it takes until it works. (Good thing that hardware is cheap
nowadays.)
From what I understand, XP 32-bit seems to be the most stable
system, and that suits me fine. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Any
versions better than other? SP2 good, or SP3? Languages?
And Intel seems to be the most stable processor, right?
Anything particular here that I should look out for? Should I get
dual core or quadrupel core? Any special motherboards recommended?
Memory? Tuning issues?
And lastly the GPU. Today I've got ATI Radeon and the
properties panel bug might be related to that. Is it correct that
Nvidia seems to work better? Any particular models?
Wouldn't it be a good idea if everyone that has CS4 working
**FINE**, would post their hardware/software setup in this thread?
I am sure I wouldn't be the only one appreciating that...
I mean, Flash is a great tool, and I love the new features in
CS4, like the new motion tweening for instance - so I am more than
happy to build a good system around CS4 to make it run
properly.

andrew_werber wrote:
For upgrading my desktop, I want to keep my NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT cards as I have a 3 monitor setup that I like. I also want to keep the motherboard. I currently have an Intel E2180 processor @ 2.00 GHz, that's a socket 775 processor. I have 4 Gb of RAM. And I have XP Pro installed. I cannot get 64 bit Vista because I need to use a 32 bit VPN program to connect to work.
Thanks for any advice,
Andy
That video card is not on the list of tested cards (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405711.html) but that doesn't mean it won't work. You do however need Open GL 2.0 and Shader model 3.0 to use CS4.
You should get another 4GB of matching RAM and upgrade to Vista 64 to use it. I have dozens of 32-bit applications rumnning on Vista Business and even a couple of 16-bit apps that run faultlessly.
The same applies if you move to Windows 7. And there is no shortage of drivers these days.
You should have at least two fast hard drives, preferably three.

Similar Messages

What is the best hardware for Home Sharing?

What is the best client machine for Home Sharing on my stereo? aka What do I want for Christmas.
Well the CD player is starting to breakdown; that makes two this century. Might be time to replace that whole 5 disk CD player thing and get something to use as a player for music in the living room stereo. Maybe a second unit in the office as well.
How to decide what to buy? Am I selecting the right media server option? I am pretty sure I have a server option but how should I set this all up.
Ethernet. The stereo in the living room doesn't have ethernet cable run to it so the Time Capsule could stream over airport Home Sharing from my iMac 2.4GHz or MacMini server to say my lightly used iPad 32gig. This must slow the network down so I could run ethernet cable if I had to, but the iPad doesn't take ethernet. Performance of the network is important.
Power on feature. Ideally the hardware should emulate the existing service. I go to the stereo, turn the power on and it starts playing, usually ramdom songs (shuffle) of a preselected playlist (5 cds).
Remote control. We don't really use this, although changing playlists with my iPhone makes sense. I could hide all the gear in an out of the way closet. Remote control would be a nice feature, and remote control from all devices in the network and over one or two devices. Can I power up/down the stereo, adjust the volume down or pause remotely? This is my most used functionality.
Server or Client. I could put something with the stereo and load the music on it. Share from it instead of share to it. My music library is currently at 20 gig, so a 32 gig device would work. A old PowerBook as well with any respectable hard drive. Or do I use the TimeCapsule or my low use MacMini server as a media server? What do I do if I want a second player in the Office?
Sound quality. Yeah, it has to be there, audiophile wise.
Audio Sources.
Play a single CD. This is where is gets a little complicated for gear. I do like the option of listening to a cd prior to burning it to iTunes. This starts to require a CD player connected to a iOS device, which is not yet availanble, so drives the gear selection into an older PowerBook. or maybe just add a single disk CD player to a iOS device and let the amplifier select the source.
FM. It would be nice if the device would get FM so I could toss the tuner as well.
Display. My existing CD player permits display of the disk and track, which kinda *****. I would like to know the artist, song and album, so remote control comes back into play here.
Cost. A replacement 5 disk CD player costs about $30 at the local thrift store. New around $200 - $300. I'm getting refurbished iPod 8gb touchs gen4 for $100. I see ebay has iPad 16 gig for around $200. Set the budget around $250. Maybe more christmas is coming : )/
Brand. Been thinking Apple as iTunes sharing is easy, but would consider another brand if the price and quality supported the idea.
Shortlist. Old PowerBook, an iOS device as client players or a stand alone player with out sharing to it but from it. Haven't looked close to see if they meet the functionality of an old CD player.
Workflow. How can we add CD music to the server from any client on the network? How do I change playlists? From the remote control? Can I operate the player from the stereo?
On Hand Gear. My network is running a pair of iMac 24's, iPad gen2, iPhone 3GS 32Gb, iPod gen4 8 Gb, Time Capsule (500Gb), MacMini Server (w/2 500 Gb drives in a RAID 1 config) with SLS. I have several PowerBooks: 17" G4, 14" G3; I could sell or use, USB external CD rw.
Any recommendations would be appreciated, I have some time before the CD player tanks and Christmas list sent to Santa.
Ken
LegacyMac
Canada

What does itunes do on a G4?
Will itunes work under 10.4 with iTune 9 on a G3?
So back to the G4 1.67 GHz running 10.5.8 with iTunes 10. Adding Home Sharing to this computer required deauthorising one of the other 5 authorised computers. Also I noticed I must be logged into a user in order for Home Sharing to see the other library... Or atleast that user has to have iTunes running. I logged into my test user account and opened iTunes account as user Tech, found the library on the TC (why doesn't iTunes remember this ?, maybe it has to bee conected to the TC) , shabam the library shows up on the PowerBook G4. Started playing the Tragically Hip , logged out and expected the library to stop sharing but no, I was still able to play from the logged out accout, as long as iTunes was running. Sure enough as soon as I logged back in to that user account and quit iTunes running fron the TC library, the sharing stop. No warning of a connected user though!
So what about Home Sharing on a Pismo? I fired up the old guy PowerBook bronze keyboard G3 400 MHz, 512 mb ram, running 10.4.11 and iTunes what? iTunes 4, oh yeah, from the iLife 05 install. I need to update to iTunes 9 but before that I should try to see if it can play from the TC. Well no it can't . I can see the TC and load the library but no songs show up in iTunes 4. Must be incompatible file format. I can't see any shared libraries either.
So I download iTunes 9.2.1 from Apple. Thanks for supporting older machines. hmmm. installer says iTunes 9.2.1 requires a G4, yet it lets me install into the G3... let's wait for the install to complete and see what is up wit dat... well it installed... but will it run? no, iTunes installs, but it won't run on a G3, it wants a G4 or better.
So the story goes that for Home Sharing we stop at G4, G3 not invited to the party. Good thing the Pismo just sold on eBay.
The discussion on Home Entertainment Network over at https://discussions.apple.com/message/15843219#15843219 brings up another thing to test.
Can I stream the same music to multiple locations? Can I play the same music in the office and the living room? How does Apple handle this?
My other thought here is, since the TC has a back up of my music why can't I just play that version. Why do I need to back up my music? Guess I could not back up the Music folder in TC but store the music in the TC.

Best Hardware for WebLogic 10.3 Installation?

Hi All,
I would like to know about the best Server on which WebLogic 10.3 can be installed. My client requires an application, which can process 100 million transactions per day. Since I am new to WebLogic and I don't have much idea about the hardware part, your suggestions would help me. Thanks a ton in advance..
Regards,
Anoop.

Depending on your requirements, you can choose any of the h/w from supported configurations. There are many factors that could
influence your decision. Like for an example only IBM JDK is supported on IBM h/w with weblogic server. No of CPU's , RAM and storage
are another factors.
Useful links :-
Link : [http://download-llnw.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13196_01/platform/suppconfigs/configs/supported_configs.html#1074729]
Link : [http://download-llnw.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13222_01/wls/docs100/perform/appc_capplan.html]
Link : [http://download-llnw.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13179_01/common/docs100/install/prepare.html]
Link : [http://download-llnw.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13222_01/wls/docs81/capplan/capgen.html]

Best hardware for capturing component, composite and S-video?

What piece of hardware do you use or would you recommend to capture video for Premiere from a component, composite or S-video source (including audio)?

The Blackmagic Intensity Pro or Shuttle or the Matrox MXO2 Mini depending on what codec you want to capture and what your delivery will normally be for the material.
Eric
ADK

Best hardware for oracle

I have oracle database that contain more than 70,000,000 recoreds
my oracle is 9i .
my os is microsoft windows server 2003 .
which kind of hardware i need for having good performance ?

I can advice using partitioning to improve delete operations if it is possible.
From my experience, SQL tuning is better then increasing CPU, memory, even better then RAC... if it is possibel too :)
Finally, for hardware advice, you should monitor sys.v_$system_event in order to determine what is the wait event most painfull.
If it is an event related to I/O, then i will suggest improving I/O performance, by spreading IO to many more disk. How much working HD Head you got, that much performance is you have. Also you should configure your storage LUN and partitions in order to balance I/O on all disks.
If it is an event related to memory, then better to add much memory as possible and try to play with memory parameters. However, determining what consumes memory is impotant. Let say if you have many more sessions consumes little memories, then maybe using pooled connection will solve your problem.
Good luck

Best hardware/OS for Photoshop CS5

Hi there,
i want to build a new PC, optimized for Photoshop CS5, with Windows OS.
Can anybody tell me the optimal hardware configuration to make Photoshop as fast as possible?
The program is primarly used for poster design.
how much ram makes sense?
is there a noticeable speed increase using 8GB instead auf 4GB?
is there a noticeable speed increase using quad-core/six-core CPU instead of dual-core?
is there a noticeable speed increase using GTX460 Graphic Card instead of a GTS450?
what is the best hardware for photoshop CS5?
what OS can you suggest me? is win7 64bit the best windows os?
Thank you for your support!

Windows 7 64 bit professional.
8 gigs of RAM because it is dirt cheap and Photoshop loves RAM. Most motherboards allow more RAM if you wish to update.
Don't know about Nvidia cards. I use a ATI 5870. Video card drivers play a important part. But the Nvidia card suonds about Right.
4 core is fine. 6 cores I don't own yet but maybe next year.
I use AMD processor 4 core on my main rig. AMD uses motherboards that can be used over and over for most processor updates and just require a bios update. The Newer AMD processors due out soon may need a new AMD3+ board but that is not official so the AMD2 boards may work saving money.
Intel's are nice but everytime Intel comes out with a new processor line the board is always different.
I run a i720 on my laptop and PS runs great.
Buy a good power supply that will have extra power incase you upgrade later. Don't buy cheap power supplies.
At least a 7,200 RPM hard drive. Get 2 internal ones. One for your OS and programs and one for PS scratch disk and storage.
Quality DVD burner.
Motherboard is up to what you want with the processor type. AMD or Intel. Read up on the internet and also the websites you buy from for customer reviews.
Look at SSD's with TRIM support for a boot drive too. These have reallycome down in price. Use a hard drive for a scratch disk. Get a velocity raptor that spins at 10,000 RPM. 600 gigs are offered now at a cheap price.
I am sure others will chime in.

Pls help putting together the BEST SOLUTION for PP and AE CS4

Hi guys
I was tasked to put together the best machine (machines) for video editing / rendering .. money is not an issue.
My client is a TV broadcasting network and they do lots of videos everyday .. They want to render their work as FAST as possible because sometimes they have tight deadlines and rendering and re rendering (if there are mistakes) has cost them .. so now they're serious about getting the best technology to achieve best rendering time possible, but in a bit of practical sense of course.. i mean there's no sense spending 1000USD or more for a piece of technology that offers under 10 second faster rendering only ..
What they do and want
- edit/put together/ sequence lots of videos constantly, under premiere cs3 (will upgrade to cs4 on the new machine)
- use affter effects for some effects and 3D stuffs.. but not that much.. but increasingly as time goes by and their video editors get more affter effects training..
- needs really really fast rendering!! Right now it takes them typically 1-2 hours to render stuffs, and what to cut this time by half or more..
Existing Setups on work stations:
Intel QuadCore (Q6600, i7, Q9550, Xeon x3220, and the likes)
4GB RAM DDR2 1066mhz
Highend motherboards
GeForce 9500GT , 9800GT, and GTX 260 216sp
GSKILL Falcon 64GB SSD Drive as primary
1TB Western Digital BLACK edition drives for storage
Software:
Windows XP 32 bit
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 (80% of all their work done here)
AE CS3
etc..
Running NOD32 Antivirus
I am an somewhat of an expert in Hardware and stuff, i build custom PC's machines most of my life but i have limiited knowledge on optimizing hardware for VIDEO EDITING stuffs.. so i turn to you all.
I do understand that w/ video editing CPU is the most important, followed by RAM, and ofcourse by HDD for disc caches and stuff.. and where videocard may come to an advantage as well. and normally i'd suggest the fastest components available . i7 , extreme processors, skulltrail dual quad setups perhaps? RAID 0 SSD Drive? etc.. but I do not know w/c gives the most advantage, and w/c is a waste of money..
I also read about quadro cards offering really big performance improvements using CUDA tech etc..
again im not the expert at this type of requirment.. so i need your advises..
with unlimitted PRACTICAL budget given to me to come up w/ a solution I initially thought a rendering farm would be the solution, but upon reading around it seems there's no rendering farm solution for PP CS4.. just the adobe after effects part.. so i had to go back to the drawing board and suggest really powerful work stations instead..and perhaps have them migrate to 64bit OS for that "extra" performance.. i myself am on win7 64bit and it's looking mighty good.
1) is this the right move?
2) is it still worth it to put together rendering farm for AE renders only? or might as well concentrate funds on the machines/workstations?
Also along the PRACTICALITY LINE, would it be practical to maintain all the existing machines, and instead build a manned RENDERING MACHINE w/ PP and AE (basically desktop or Server if they are faster at rendering w/ the best specs for the purpose etc) where they can just throw the workload to some guy there for rendering? Atleast the editors can continue using the workstations while the rendering machine guy is at work? and even perhaps setup a gigabit lan network where the RENDERING MACHINES can dynamically pull the work load via the network , not needing to transfer the files to the rendering machine first ? etc
as you can see im not only looking for the best machine, but the best STRATEGY for my client.
Good suggestions would be much appreciated.
regards to all

in a nut shell no. if you do not have to "Share" then Avid is pointless Adobe is a far better answer.
Avid solutions still need a computer. The Mojo.Nitris are a joke and Avid no longer provides computers even the Symphany comes with your choice of Apple Mac Pro or HP 800. (Dual Xeon)
there are better "hardware" answers that what Avid sells for Adobe. Decklink, Aja to name a few.
if you have to share then you have no choice. this is the one area Abode does not lead.
renders have to do primarily with 2 things CPU power (Xeon will render faster than single i7)
and Drives. the faster your drive set up the faster the render. Memory does play a part and so does the video card depending on what codec and to what
it also depends on WHAT you are rendering and from what for the HDDs.
without knowing your work flow format and codec its impossible to suggest something.
in terms of rendering
Core i7
Dual Xeon (faster unless still doing DV/HDV thru firewire)
Sonnet raid array
Scott
ADK

Best practice for migration to new hardware

Hi,
We are commissioning new hardware for our Web Server. Our current webserver is version 6.1SP4, and for the new server we've decided to stay with 6.1 but install SP7.
Is there a best practice for migrating content from one physical server to another?
What configuration files should I watch out for?
Hopefully the jump from SP4 to SP7 won't cause too many problems.
Thanks,
John

unfortunately, there is no quick solution for migrating from 1 server to other. you will need to carefully reconstruct
- acl rules
- server hostname configurations
- any certificates that have been created on the old machine

What is the best practice for uninstalling only some CS4 programs (Win 7 PC)

I recently upgraded from CS4 to CS5.5 and wanted to free up some hard drive space on my Windows 7 PC. I wanted to uninstall only a few programs though from CS4, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Bridge. What is the best way to do this keeping in mind licensing, deactivating and properly removing components? I have the original installation disk for CS4 if needed. Thanks for any help!

Best practice: Uninstall everything (including your CS5.5), run the Creative Suite Cleaner Tool, then reinstall the components you need from both editions. CS4 may have a repair/ change configuration mode, but I'd strongly advise against using it, as it will do more damage than good, so use the long way round. It's also the only way to not bust up file associations with an uninstall of CS4...
Mylenium

Best strategy for migrating GL 6 DW CS4?

First I gotta say that -- as decade-long user of several Adobe products -- Adobe has really screwed over long-time users of Adobe Golive. After a week of messing around with something that should be a slam dunk (considering the substatial amount of $ I've paid to Adobe over the years for multiple copies of GoLive 5, 6 and CS2), I can tell you Adobe's GL > DW migration utility ONLY works for sites created FROM SCRATCH in GL CS2 (they must have the web-content, web-data folder structure). This means that Adobe's migration utility only works for maybe 10% - 15% of the GoLive sites out there, and about 10% - 15% of Adobe's loyal GoLive customers, and it particularly screws over Adobe's longtime GoLive customers. Sweet! ( (Just like Adobe screwed over users of PhotoStyler -- which was a better image editor than PhotoShop, BTW.) Obviously, I would walk away from Adobe and make sure I never ever paid them another cent, but the Republican-Democrat "free market economy" has made sure I don't have that option.
So I've gotta make Dreamweaver work, which means I've gotta migrate several large sites (the biggest has 5,000 static pages and is about 2 gigs in size) from GoLive 6 (or GoLive CS2 with the older folder structure) to Dreamweaver CS4.
Which brings me to my question -- what's the best strategy for doing ths? Adobe's migration utility is a bad joke, so here's the alternative, real world plan I've come up with. I'd apreciate any suggestions or comments...
1) create copies of all my GL components in the content folders for my GL site (not in the GoLIve components folder)
2) replace the content of all GoLive compnents (in the GoLive components folder) with unque character strings, so that instead of a header with images and text, my old header would look something like xxxyyyzzz9
3) create a new folder called astoni in the root of my hard drive. Copy all my GoLIve web site content (HTML, images, SWF, etc.) into astoni in exactly the structure it was in with GL
4) create a new Dreamweaver site by defining astoni as the local location for my site, astoni\images as the location for images, etc.
5) use Dreamweaver and open the newly defined astoni site. Then open each of the GoLive components I copied into a content level folder in astoni, and drag each into the Dreamweaver Assets/Library pane, in order to create library items just like my old GoLive components
6) use Dreamweaver to Search & Replace out the unique text strings like xxxyyyzzz9 with the content of my new DW library items
7) refresh site view to make all the links hook up...
Thanks for your help. Hope this discussion helps others too...

Instead of ragging on people who are familiar with DW and Site Development, you should be gracious and accept the practical advice you've been given. A "best strategy" would be to read some tutorials and learn how to work with HTML, CSS and server-side technologies. Without some basic code skills, you're going to find DW an uphill, if not impossible battle.
Frankly, I don't have free time to hand-hold someone through the excruciating process of migrating a 5,000 page static site from GoLive to DW. And I doubt anyone else in this forum has either. We're not Adobe employees. We don't get paid to participate here. We are all product users JUST LIKE YOU.
I'm sorry you're frustrated. I'm also sorry for your clients. But the problem you have now isn't Adobe's fault. It's yours for not keeping up with server-side technologies or handing-off these huge static sites to more capable web developers. I'm not saying you need to buy anyone's books, but they are good resources for people willing to learn new things.
That said, maybe you should stick with GoLive. The software doesn't have an expiration date on it and will continue working long into the future. If you're happy using GL, keep using it to maintain your legacy sites. At the same time learn X/HTML, CSS & PHP or ASP. Use DW CS4 for the creation of new projects.
FREE Tutorial Links:
HTML & CSS Tutorials - http://w3schools.com/
From Tables to CSS Web Design Part 1 -
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/table_to_css_pt1.html
From Tables to CSS Web Design Part 2 -
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/table_to_css_pt2.html
Taking a Fireworks (or Photoshop) comp to a CSS based layout in DW
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/web_standards_layouts_pt1.html
Creating your first website in DW CS4 -
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/first_cs4_website_pt1.html
Guidance on when to use DW Templates, Library Items and SSIs -
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/ssi_lbi_template.html
Best of luck,
Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
Web | Graphics | Print | Media Specialists
www.alt-web.com/
www.twitter.com/altweb
www.alt-web.blogspot.com

Best Hardware Configuration for oracle RAC

Hi,
iam planning to implement oracle 10g and 11g rac.Can anyone of you provide me the best hardware configuration which suits the need.
I can spend a reasonale amount.
This is for homesetup,implementation and practice all major activities that's all.
So please provide me a nice coniguration.
Iam planning to install vmware server and create multiple instances in the same server
Please provide me a nice configuration which suits for implementing installing vmware server
Thanks,
Aram
Edited by: aram on Sep 23, 2011 8:08 AM

aram wrote:
Hi,
iam planning to implement oracle 10g and 11g rac.Can anyone of you provide me the best hardware configuration which suits the need.
I can spend a reasonale amount.
This is for homesetup,implementation and practice all major activities that's all.
So please provide me a nice coniguration.
Iam planning to install vmware server and create multiple instances in the same server
Please provide me a nice configuration which suits for implementing installing vmware server
Thanks,
Aram
HI,
For your home testing you might need a latest technology to get a smooth and fast installation. i7 processor might be the ideal with memory at least 8GB. if you're planning to have more than 3 VMs running at the same time than you need 12-16GB memory at least.
From my experience installing on vm and allocated memory 2.5GB each VM the installation could take 15-30minutes
Cheers

Question: best Hardware set-up for final cut univ. and mac pro

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has used final cut universal with their mac pro and can recommend a hardware set-up (Processors, memory... ) they found best adapted for it.
my mac pro:
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
thank you
MAC PRO Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Final Cut Studio/video editing requires all four parts of a system…
1) Processor performance
2) GPU performance
3) RAM
4) Hard drive performance
… to be working in tandem. If any one of these areas a caught short then the system as a whole is disproportionately affected. It's one of the downsides to video is that everything needs to be working as well as it can.
So, what I would recommend for you is the following setup as your goal is something like…
Mac Pro 2.66GHz
6GB RAM (4 x 1GB + 4 x 512MB - I'm presumng you already have the 4 x 512MB)
ATi X1900 XT graphics card (or better - depneds on what's available at the time)
2 x Western Digital Raptor 150GB RAID 0 for boot and scratch
2 x Maxtor MaXLine Pro 500GB RAID 0 for data
Any further eSATA storage requirements for cloning, backup and data
Not cheap but should scream.

Best Computer For Premiere Pro CS4

I have used Premiere Pro CS4 on a few different types of computers so far; some work better than others. The one I currently have works pretty good, but when my projects become complex, my system begins running very slow, and the program unexpectedly shuts down very often, so I have to keep saving my project after ever little action. I am currently using a Dell Precision T3500.
I am now looking for a new computer that will run smoothly even with highly complex Premiere Pro Projects, but at the same time I do not want to spend more money than I need to.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Any insight I can get on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-Rick

Rick,
Which CPU is your T3500 equipped with? How much RAM is installed? How many hard drives? Which graphics card (GPU)?
If you're going to continue using CS4 (which does not take full advantage of systems such as yours), and you have one of the lower-end configurations, a new build is definitely in order: Dell charges you an astronomical price just to upgrade anything at all from the (underpowered) base configuration. For CS4, go relatively heavy on the CPU but not so much on the RAM or GPU.
However, your system could warrant an upgrade to CS5.5 if that system has already been upgraded at the factory with faster CPUs and GPUs or if that system has already been equipped with a hexa-core Xeon W36xx series CPU and you're willing to upgrade the graphics card and/or RAM yourself.

Need help choosing optimal hardware for a laptop that will run AE CS5

BACKGROUND INFO (Questions listed below)
I need some help figuring out the best hardware configuration for a new laptop. I’m a student at a design school and I will be using the laptop to mainly run After Effects and to a lesser extent Photoshop and Illustrator. I don’t need to worry about 3D rendering software or Premier Pro. I am primarily interested in getting the best performance during editing. I am not looking for the best performance for final output. I would prefer to sacrifice final output times for better editing/interface performance.
I will be working with standard definition content and perhaps HD up to 720p on occasion. I do not need to operate in resolutions higher than 720p. My projects are generally animation and use many sources and many layers.
I’ve been reading up on optimal hardware configurations for CS5 but my understanding is still a little foggy and I would like to use this thread to figure out how to build the best machine for my budget. The budget is about $1400 to $1600 CANADIAN after tax.
I DON’T need help finding the laptop. I will search for it on my own. I just need to understand the best hardware to purchase within my budget.
I realize that it is probably impossible to buy the laptop I want with the hardware configuration I need “off the shelf”. Instead I will be looking for a good base model (~$900-$1100) and I will purchase the necessary hardware upgrades separately. I will not be purchasing a Mac.
Right now I’m thinking of a machine built something like this:
- 15”-16” screen (17” models are too big/heavy)
- Mid to high end i5 processor OR entry level i7 quad core
- 8GB RAM (I would go to 12GB, but it’s hard to find a 15”-16” laptop with 3 memory slots)
- SSD to replace HDD (However, if possible, I would like a laptop with dual HDD support or swap the optical drive for another HDD. If I had access to 2 drives, I would have and HDD/SSD combo).
- Medium/high end NVIDIA GPU to take advantage of OpenGL while editing.
QUESTIONS
1) Does the “Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously” option enhance general editing performance (applying filters, scrubbing through the timeline, reverting history states)? Or does it ONLY help speed up RAM previews and final output? Does it reduce the length of RAM previews?
1b) Is this option even necessary to enable on 64bit systems? (As far as I understand it was used to solve a problem where 32bit systems/software would only recognize 4GB of RAM per instance of AE).
1c) If I turn this option on to help with RAM previews, would I be hindering general editing performance in any way? Or does this option have basically zero drawbacks?
2) How come “Actual CPUs that will be used” will read 0 even if the sum total of RAM assigned to the CPUs plus the RAM reserved for other applications is less than the total available system RAM (on a 64bit system)? For example, I currently have 4GB RAM and 2 installed CPUs. I have 1.5GB reserved for other programs and when I set 0.75GB per CPU both CPUs are used. However when I set 1GB per CPU then 0 CPUs are used, even though the total RAM adds up to only 3.5GB.
CPU
3.) Considering the fact that I am more concerned with smooth performance while editing rather than final output speeds, would it be better to get a dual core i5 clocked around 2.5 or a quad core i7 clocked around 1.8?
4.) What is the difference between an i3 and an i5 processor even if they are clocked at the same speed? How does an i5 460M compare on the grand scheme of things?
RAM
6.) Should the quantity of RAM that I get (8GB vs 12GB) be based on the number of cores in my CPU? If so, how should I be calculating optimal RAM based on # of cores. Should I also be counting threads, or just actual physical cores?
STORAGE/SWAP
7.) Should I replace the HDD with an SSD? I'm looking for snappy interface performance while editing. I would think that if the RAM fills up it would be best to have the SSD for scratch/cache.
8.) What performance benchmarks are most important when considering an SSD for After Effects? (4k writes? IOs per second? Max read/write?)
9.) I can afford the OCZ Vertex2 120GB SSD. Would this be a good choice if an SSD is recommended?
10.) Would it be better to have 8GB of RAM and an SSD, or 12GB of RAM and an HDD? Explain why.
GPU
10.) After Effects utilizes OpenGL to enhance editing performance. I will not really be using Premier Pro, so catering to the CUDA Mercury Engine is not a concern. Do high end gaming cards provide significant gains in OpenGL performance? Or do OpenGL performance gains taper off around the mid-range GPUs? (i.e. can you justify buying a high end GTX 260M graphics card for enhanced editing performance versus an "entry level" dedicated card like the 310M?)
11.) What hardware specs are most important when considering a GPU for editing performance in AE? (Memory size? # of Pixel shaders? Core speed? Shader speed?)
Thanks so much for any answers you can offer to these questions.

Please make sure that you've read through this page and what it points to.
> 1) Does the “Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously” option
enhance general editing performance (applying filters, scrubbing through
the timeline, reverting history states)? Or does it ONLY help speed up
RAM previews and final output? Does it reduce the length of RAM
previews?
It only increases rendering speed for RAM previews and rendering for final output. In After Effects CS5, it doesn't decrease the length of RAM previews. (In CS4, it does.)
1b) Is this option even necessary to enable on 64bit
systems? (As far as I understand it was used to solve a problem where
32bit systems/software would only recognize 4GB of RAM per instance of
AE).
You misunderstood. Yes, it's still relevant on 64-bit computers. Moreso, in a way. (I'd rather not spend my entire Sunday writing out detailed answers to satisfy idle curiosity, so I'm not going to give all the technical detail to that answer.)
> 1c) If I turn this option on to help with RAM previews,
would I be hindering general editing performance in any way? Or does
this option have basically zero drawbacks?
It takes a small but nonzero time for the background processes to start up when they need to be used and shut down when they're done. And as they sit waiting, they take up a little bit of memory. So, it's not exactly correct to say that there are no downsides to leaving it on. But it's close. I leave it on.
> 2) How come “Actual CPUs that will be used” will read 0 even
if the sum total of RAM assigned to the CPUs plus the RAM reserved for
other applications is less than the total available system RAM (on a
64bit system)? For example, I currently have 4GB RAM and 2 installed
CPUs. I have 1.5GB reserved for other programs and when I set 0.75GB per
CPU both CPUs are used. However when I set 1GB per CPU then 0 CPUs are
used, even though the total RAM adds up to only 3.5GB.
4GB - 1.5GB for other software leaves 2.5 GB for After Effects.
If you have 1GB assigned per background CPU, then the foreground takes 1.2x that = 1.2GB. That leaves 1.3GB for background processes, which is enough for one background process. There's no point in starting only one background process to do rendering, so it doesn't bother. (Note: When background processes are rendering, the foreground process isn't rendering.)
> 3.) Considering the fact that I am more concerned with
smooth performance while editing rather than final output speeds, would
it be better to get a dual core i5 clocked around 2.5 or a quad core i7
clocked around 1.8?
Get the quad-core. That gives you a greater total number of cycles. And After Effects works very well with mutliple processors, even beyond Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing. An entirely unrelated sort of multiprocessing (multithreading) spreads work out to multiple processors.
> 6.) Should the quantity of RAM that I get (8GB vs 12GB) be based on the number of cores in my CPU? If
so, how should I be calculating optimal RAM based on # of cores. Should
I also be counting threads, or just actual physical cores?
The optimum amount is the amount that you can cram into the computer. I'm not kidding. Spend your budget on RAM until you have 4GB installed per processor (and I'm counting the virtual processors due to hyperthreading). If you have a quad-core, that's 8 CPUs with hyperthreading, so the optimum amount of RAM installed is 32GB. You can work with less, but you did ask about optimum. For HD work (i.e., 1920 pixels across), you're OK with more like 3GB installed per CPU. That's what I have at home: 24GB in a quad-core. You're going to assign 2/3 or so of the RAM to After Effects, so 3GB installed per CPU is 2GB per core for HD work in After Effects.
> 10.) Would it be better to have 8GB of RAM and an SSD, or 12GB of RAM and an HDD? Explain why.
12GB of RAM. Because After Effects likes RAM. (If you're thinking of deliberatly using virtual memory to swap memory to the hard disk, don't. That's a performance killer.)
> 10.) After Effects utilizes OpenGL to enhance editing performance.
Not really. If you're on a limited budget, don't even think about the GPU until you've already got the most RAM, the fastest CPUs, the largest number of CPUs, two fast hard disks, and a couple of good monitors. Then, and only then, should you even consider getting soemthing beyond a non-stock graphics card. Yes, OpenGL can be used to accelerate some things, but that's only for the low-fidelity preview renderer. (Pardon the bluntness, but I want to make sure that you heed this.)

What is the best hardware and network setup?

Hi
I'm looking for the best setup for my hardware to go with CC
I mainly edit from RED files. I transcode the files to ProRes HQ or Proxy (depending on volume), then edit in Premiere and After Effects.
I have the new Mac Pro and 2 Pegasus RaIDS - 18TB and 6TB. However as I was losing so much time waiting for Transcodes to complete and for AE files to render, I bought a 2nd Mac Pro so I can use 1 for editing and 1 for Transcode / Render.
Now to me, this seemed simple and having watched this - Adam Pertofsky, editorand partner, Rock Paper Scissors Pro video editing apps and tools | Adobe Creative Cloud - and having worked in numerous edit suites over the years, it should be straightforward, right? However I have now spent 5 days in discussion with Apple going from Enterprise to Servers to CPU divisions and they don't seem to understand what I want.
Can someone tell me what is the best way to set this up in a simple, effective way, so I can get back to editing?
Many thanks
Ian

" I'm currently using CS4 but would like to upgrade"
IF THE UPGRATE IS TO CS5 64 BITS. Better to work with quad core with H.T. like i7 920,930,950. If you like somthing faster we talk about i7 970,980x, 990.
RAM: If you will work with heavy files, start with 12G RAM 3x4. So you have the possibility to upgrate after to 24 if you need it.
"graphics card"
Nvidia card: GTX460, GTX470. NO NEED TO GO TO SERIES GTX5..
"hard drive" many choises. Depent of what performance you want, This can incrise the price a loot.
"monitors" I will say samsung 23, the are sheep and if you like you can have 2 monitor on each PC.
How many PC'S YOU NEED??
B.R.
Cristobal

Best hardware for CS4?

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