Something to check out

Hi Jason,

I carefully read your hardware/software system. Some suggestions:

1. OS... you have CS4 on WIN XP system. That would do it. Even if it's the 64-bit WIN XP... You have to install CS4 in Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate. Don't waste your time with other versions of WIN software... they can work, but you will suffer if you use those other versions.

2. 4GB of RAM for CS4 is too restrictive. The rule of thumb is 2Gigs of RAM for every processor the OS detects. Too little RAM will make you suffer... it will cause Premier to crash in well-understood programming subroutines too.

Also, is the RAM the right type? All most everybody gets this part right, but then again, you have to check. Some motherboards, believe it or not, have clear restrictions on what type, amount and slot position RAM is to be installed. Not all motherboards are designed to have RAM in all the RAM slots available.

3. CS4 seems to like a minimum of two physical processors installed in two physical slots. So if your motherboard has slots for two processors, you'll be happy if you have processors on all those slots. If you have multicore processors in those slots, you will do even better.

4. You may have a great RAID-0 that gives you great bandwidth, but did you check the speed of your C-drive. CS4 resides on the C-Drive, and so it's important to check how many MB/s is this drive giving you. You want a C-drive that gives you at least 50 MB/s. If the C-drive is slower than 50MB/s, you will suffer.

5. Finally, are the chassis, motherboard, power supply, fans, and other peripherals optimized? Some chassis are just not cool (meaning the internal air flow is restricted causing internal heat to build up... that's bad news.) Is the motherboard designed for video editing? Some are and work wonderfully. Is the power supply able to handle correctly the amperage requirements of the electronics? In other words, can it supply the number of Watts required? Some power supplies have three or four rails (circuits) and if you connect all the high wattage stuff to only one circuit, you'll be sad, quite often I might add. Are the fans helping keep things cool? Sometimes you wonder. Are all the softwares running with the proper software updates? If you installed QuickTime, then Premiere, THEN updated QuickTime... bad news. Once Premier is installed, you don't update QuickTime. If QuickTime is set to update automatically, you'll be sad and WILL suffer when it updates.

Regards,
Paul


-----------------------------------------------
Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile