Giga/Sequencer/Audio/DIGITAL VIDEO: 1 Roof?

[GMan]

Hi there,

I am in the process of developing a plan for a gigasystem. I have noticed that quite a few users here are running gigastudio/gigasamples/OS and sequencer on one very powerful P4 system with lots of RAM and fast hard drives, usually under XP.

Here\'s my question: Are any of you who are doing this ALSO running digital video and/or audio on your system? It seems to me that running digital video (even compressed) on top of all this other stuff would really bog things down even on a real monster system.

If anyone out there is actually doing ALL of this on one system, I\'d really like to know how it works for you and also what your configuration is (i.e. type of hard drives, which ones do what, etc.). Also, the OS? The soundcard/MIDI interface?

Thanks in advance,

Gerhard

[Buckman]

Uhm, even when NOT doing all this, video editing crushs the mightiest system. Real-time capturing of video eats up a lot of HD space, about 11GB per hour for the popular DV format. Add conversion into mpeg-2 or mpeg-4 format, and your talking hours of time for a 2-hour clip into your favorite format. My AMD 1.2Ghz system 40+ hours to convert a 1 hour DV quality video into mpeg-4. I think I am doing something wrong, but others have posted that it could take a long time too, if you have things like fades, wipes, etc.

Always go for the most you can afford, that is what I say. But, if I were you, I would build a system from components over buying one. You can get top-notch components and build a system for slightly more than an off-the-shelf, but get a lot more bang for the buck.