System requirements for CS6

Question

Have a look at the new system requirements page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/tech-specs.html
In the past, a legitimate criticism of the system requirements on the box (and on that page) was that they were just the bare minimum for running the software. I encouraged the folks writing the system requirements to add some parts to go beyond that minimum and at least suggest what an "optimum" system would be. Of course, one can only fit so much text on the box, and we don't want to scare people into thinking that they need a juggernaut of a machine to just do simple things... but I think that we made some progress here.
Thoughts?

Answer 1

>samanthahhi,
NEVER, EVER partition a hard drive for video editing!
My 3 hard drives to edit AVCHD are configured as...
1 - 320Gig Boot for Win7 64bit Pro and ALL program installs (2)
2 - 320Gig data for Win7 paging swap file and video project files
When I create a project on #2 drive, the various work files follow,
so my boot drive is not used for the media cache folders and files
3 - 1Terabyte data for all video files... input & output files (1)
(1) for faster input/output with 4 drives
- use drive 3 for all source files
- use drive 4 for all output files
(2) only 60Gig used, for Win7 & CS5 MC & MS Office & other smaller programs
Search Microsoft to find out how to redirect your Windows paging swap file
http://search.microsoft.com/search.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US
I do not use RAID... AVCHD is CPU intensive, not drive intensive like uncompressed, so I have no problems editing without RAID (but, this is for "simple" home videos)
http://www.video2brain.com/en/videos-5353.htm
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/784220?tstart=0
Trying to use only ONE Hard Drive for Video Editing
You are a music conductor, with a baton that you use to point to various parts of the orchestra... this is like Windows pointing to various parts of the hard drive to do Windows housekeeping or to load program segments for various functions
Now, at the same time and with the same hand... while still using the baton to conduct the orchestra... pick up a bow and play a fiddle... this would be doing something with your video file at the same time as all the other work
You as a person cannot do both at the same time with the same hand
A computer is a LITTLE better, in that it can switch from one kind of task to another very quickly... but not quickly enough for EASY video editing
You need AT LEAST two hard drives (separate drives, never a partition http://forums.adobe.com/thread/650708 for more) with Windows (or Mac OS) and software on your boot drive, and video files on a 2nd drive so the boot drive is not slowed down by trying to do everything
Partition = Crash http://forums.adobe.com/thread/957286
I find that the three drives I use work very well for me, for editing AVCHD video... some people use a 4th drive, so video INPUT files are on drive three and all OUTPUT files are on drive four... I only bought a mid-tower case instead of a full tower case (my bad... but had to fit in the space available on my office desk!) so I use the three drives that will fit
Depending on your exact hardware (motherboard brand & model AND USB2 enclosure brand & model AND external hard drive brand & model) AND the type of video file, you may... or may NOT... be able to use an external USB2 hard drive for SD (Standard Definition) video editing
Steve Grisetti in the Premiere Elements forum http://forums.adobe.com/thread/856208 and Jim Simon in the Premiere Pro forum http://forums.adobe.com/thread/856433 use USB externals for editing
A USB3 hard drive connected to a motherboard with USB3 is supposed to be fast enough for video editing (I don't have such, so don't know) but eSata DOES have a fast enough data transfer for video editing... I have not used the eSata Dock below... for reference only, YMMV and all the usual disclaimers
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-BlacX-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/B001A4HAFS/ref=cm_cmu_pg_ t