Not sure if this is the right place...

[Frequent Traveler]

for a question about configuring a new PC based graphics/video editing computer that will handle some heavy multi-tasking and NOT be maxed out... OK, so here goes!

My *proposed* particulars;

Power Supply: 680 watt SLI/CrossFire ready
Processor: Intel Core i7-940 2.93 GHz 8M L3 cache LGA 1366
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX SAS
Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA
Memory: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCI-E 16X 512MB
HD1: 1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM
HD2: 1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM
Optical Drive1: 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
Optical Drive2: 16X DVD ROM
OS: Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1 version

Does this proposal raise any compatibility flags or performance deficit areas?

TIA!!!!

frank

 

[TGaston]

sounds like a good build, you wont need any overclocking, but six gigs of ram sounds like a bit of overkill, what all are you planning on multing with?

 

[Frequent Traveler]

While i'm crunching video and/or large-ish photo files, i also need to be able to run financial software plus upload/download info from the web.

Vista really drains the RAM so thats why i'm looking at a minimum of 6gb and thinking of adding 6gb more for a total of 12gb.

I'm concerned about the 64-bit OS and what additional resources it may require to operate quickly and efficiently.

 

[SrBiscuit]

personally, i would avoid the ATI card and go GeForce...my last experience with ATI was not a pleasant one, and in discussions with peers as to which direction to go with my video card 100% of them said to move on from ATI to GeForce.

i like your idea of 6gb of ram....ram is cheap and can really boost performance.

looks like you'll have a good amount of HD space...with such heavy lifting the HDs will likely do, maybe consider a RAID...just in case...they can be done for fairly cheaply these days...or are you planning on mirroring the 2 TBs you'll have?

 

[Frequent Traveler]

Yea, mirroring, yup thats what i'll do?!?

I don't know the first thing about configuring 2 HDD's - at all. I've read a little here and there about RAID set-ups as excellent storage/back-up systems, but don't know how to accomplish it all. I've been advised that 2 HDD's are a minimum and a 3rd may well be better for OS and programs - i dunno...

Also, i'll look into the GeForce video cards - which NVIDIA is a better solution than the ATI Radeon card i've selected? Again, advice given to me mentioned that Adobe may work better with NVIDIA - but i work with GIMP! In the case i'll use, i can have up to 3 video cards so there should be space available.

Thanks a ton!

frank