WANTED: your specs for an AMD system with dual CPU, RAID, dual head monitors

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

I'm purchasing a new system for video capture and editing, intensive Photoshop, and possibly 3D Studio Max (which would require OpenGL support, I believe).

Hm, do I even need dual processors for stable vid cap and editing?

Please help with your recommendations! No figure skating judges will be involved, I promise.

 

[Daovonnaex]

Dual processors would allow for superior quality. Many MPEG encoding programs are SSE2 optimized, so you might be better served with a dual Xeon system, especially due to the added bandwidth from RDRAM.

 

[Utterman]

Ok, here is my suggestion. I have just built a system almost just like thise one:

Mobo: Asus A7M266-D
Processor: 2x Athlon MP's 1800+
Video: ATI 8500DV (pretty good for video capter and Open gl, but if you want to go professional, then a fire gl4 card would be better)
RAM: 1 Gig of Crucial DDR w/ ECC
Case: Antec SX1030 w/ PSU upgraded to an enermax 431 watt PSU or higher
Cooling: 2x SK-6 w/sunon fans and 2 more 80mm fans
RAID: Promise FastTrak TX2000 (RAID 1+0 with ATA 133 support)

Hopes this helps!

 

[Daovonnaex]

Oh well, I suppose I'd recommend the following.

Mainboard: Tyan Thunder K7
CPUs: 2x Athlon MP 2000+
HSF: 2x Swiftech MCX-462
Graphics Card: 3DLabs Wildcat III
Video Capture Card: Matrox RT2500
Memory: 4gb Crucial ECC PC2100
Case: Supermicro SC760P4
HDDs: 2x Seagate Cheetah X15-36LP in RAID 0
PSU: I can't recall the name, but it's a special PSU designed for the Thunder K7

 

[Superwormy]

for 3D Studio MAX, dual processors are a HUGE benefit. However, 3D Studio DOES NOT REQUIRE OpenGL, although it will benefit from it on some cards. The general census from most MAX users seems to be that OpenGL in MAX is buggy and unstable on most cards, and USUALLY on fast CPUs, the regular Software Z Buffer default drivers for MAX are as fast if not faster than the OpenGL modes, that may of course change in the future.

anyway, I woudl say Dual Athlon XPs on a Tyan MPX or MP board, 512mb RAM, and at least two HDs, one for the OS, one dedicated to video editing, and make sure they are fast ones, 7200 rpm IDE MINIMUM, SCSI if you can afford it.