anotheruser
Member
I got sick of being faster than my computer so I bought a new one.
My Computer Specs:
Brand / Model: HP z600 Workstation
System Type: 64-bit
Processors: (2) Intel Xeon & E5645 (both at 2.4GHz)
RAM: 24GB
However, it doesn't seem like it's moving too much faster than my
older, far inferior one. I suspect my Vegas 10 isn't configured
properly to take advantage of my system. Could this be the case? I'm
not sure how to get the most of this set up when doing video work with
Vegas.
birdcat
Moderator
May be a silly question but are you using a 64 bit OS and the 64bit version of Vegas?
anotheruser
Member
Not a silly question at all!
Yes, I have the 64-bit version to match my OS. In fact, Sony makes versions for both 32 & 64-bit systems and they asked me which one so I could download the proper version.
birdcat
Moderator
With twin Xeon's and 24GB you should scream. Have you run an adware/spyware/malware/virus scan recently?
I am getting very slow but just beyond not acceptable results on a 2.8 Pentium 4 w/3GB RAM on XP Pro SP 3 (32 bit).
Possibly your system needs to be configured properly as well (hyper threading, memory allocation, hardware acceleration, etc...).
PJ McConnell
Member
It's called the harddrive bottleneck. Traditional harddrives can only spin so fast and bring up so much data at once with their read and write times. Not only that but you also may be getting a bottleneck from the SATA 3.0gbps connection to your harddrives (compared to a 6gbps). The easiest way to do this would be to set up a raid (which I know nothing about) or to buy an SSD. Solid State Drives are much, much faster than traditional harddrives because they have no moving parts and can bring up multiple HD streams with no problem. Look into SSDs. They also make your computer start up tremendously faster and programs will open at least 2-3x faster.
birdcat
Moderator
The problem with SSD's is their size. I have 3.5TB on my system and am looking to add another 2TB soon. Video (especially HD) and newer software takes up inordinate amounts of space, plus I back up everything to external HD at this point (I have a SATA 3G dock).
pseudosafari
Member
I have 3TB of SATA HD's, not SSD's, and I have no problems at all. My overall specs are nowhere near as fast as "anotheruser's" above, either. (quad core, 8GB RAM). i'd bet that there's some other issue.
anotheruser
Member
Thanks to all who responded. I think the RAID issue is where the problem has the best solution. Considering what I've got hardware-wise, birdcat is right - I should be sailing on this thing!
composite1
Moderator
Another,
Two questions;
Are you working off of 1 harddrive?
If not, how many?
I say that because by no means should you be using your main drive as both OS/Program primary and as storage for working video at the same time. With what you have in your basic system, a stacked RAID of 2 or more drives should have you flying big time. If you're working all of that with just one harddrive there's going to be an inevitable bottleneck.
Also, I'm not sure Vegas 10 is setup for dual-processors. (I just checked the spec's and it says 'multi-core or multi-processor' so it may be true.) Either way, my first pick would be that you're running off one harddrive. If not, let us know your additional drive setup.
Jaimie
Member
You might look for a setting related to memory configuration. Windows/CS5 offers some and maybe Vegas does too. I found that on my CS5 Windows machine that changing memory from "performance" to "memory" actually improved performance. Be sure your hard drives' settings have DMA on and try turning hyperthreading on or off to see if that helps. Finally, check out your video card. Im not sure of the minimum necessary, but I find that video memory around 1GB is good, more may be better.
I have an old Dell dual Xeon 32 bit machine and the biggest speed increase came when I changed from the Dell-supplied video card to a much faster one with more memory.
onehorn
Member
Except when using SONY Vegas Pro 10 I am not sure that it is reliant on the graphics card for rendering. Earlier versions fo Vegas for sure don't use the graphics card for rendering, so I am not sure that a more capable video card is the answer.
A dual (or more) RAID maybe. I do not use RAID arrays due to the difficulties in rebuilding a failed array, as most people use a stripped array for video because it gives you the extra speed. Only a mirrored array gives you redundancy though. To get a stripped and mirrored array that gives you speed plus redundancy requires 4 identical hard drives, and for most folks that is not cost effective when needing multiple Drives too, though some just use RAID on the system OS drive.
You would be surprised at the speed increase you can get just by moving the Windows paging file (swap file) to another drive.
I have found that using multiple hard drives set up this way offers very good speed even without RAID.
C:\ system OS and software programs.
D:\swap file (paging file for some versions of windows)
E:\Capture and short term storage (sometimes called originating drive)
F:\ Rendering drive
For long term storage I use a hard drive dock and a hard drive for each client.
Composite1 is correct when he says you just can't really do video editing with a single hard drive. As a Vegas user I can also tell you that Vegas doesn't like the swap file (paging file) to be on a drive it is reading or writing to. That means a minimum of 3 hard drives to start seeing the better speed Vegas is capable of, and 4 or 5 is even better. However with hard drive costs coming down this is not a huge obstacle.
The set-up above works well for me and I do NOT have the new 6gb SATA-3, though I would sure use them if I could, and my next system will have them. Right now I am using SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3R HE103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s 3.5" hard drives, with Windows XP Pro and SONY Vegas 9...
David Forrester
Member
I have Vegas 10 on an intel i7 machine, 16 Gb RAM. I use both the 1.5 Tb internal HD and a 1 and 3 TB external drives. No problem whatsoever. And my system screams. And it is all HDef. In fact I can watch playback in full HD most of the time unless I have some really intensive graphics, but still it is fast!
However, I do have Vegas 10 program on drive C and ALL data on separate drives. Sony and other experts are adamant on this. Not doing so, they say will slow the system down. In fact some even suggest to put the program on a separate drive and the data on a different drive. Have you done that? I don't think you have a hard drive bottleneck, bit I might be wrong. Best advice. Take it to a computer professional who really knows their stuff and let them figure it out. Money well spent.
EarlC
Moderator
Why, when I check on david-forrester, does it tell me "user not found" and gives me no pertinent information about you?
anotheruser
Member
Getting back to the topic at hand...
Thanks to all for contributing. Composite1 had it perfectly. The issue turned out to be RAID designation. My set-up is now a boot drive
with two other drives (at 2TB each) that are for files. By pulling the
program off of one drive, and the working files off of a RAID set up,
I'm sailing along rather fast now.
Cheers
composite1
Moderator
Another,
Glad to be of assistance. Happy Editing!
Jaimie
Member
Onehorn has really great advice. I do as he does, put a each component on a separate drive, makes a big difference. I have been trying for a long time to understand the memory settings. I currently use Premiere and After Effects CS5 on a Windows 7 (64) machine with 6 cores and it beats me what is the best setup.
If anyone really knows if there is one "best" (whatever that means) setting for these specific applications, I would appreciate them revealing it. Thanks, Jaimie
David Forrester
Member
Earl - don't know why you could not find it, but it is now updated.
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