I'm working on building a computer that can handle Sony Vegas. I want it to handle HDV as well. These are the specs from the Sony website. Are any of these over or underestimates?

System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 SP4, XP Home, or XP Professional (Windows XP SP2 required for HDV and XDCAM)
800 MHz processor (2.8 GHz recommended for HDV)
200 MB hard-disk space for program installation
600 MB hard-disk space for optional Sony Sound Series Loops & Samples reference library installation
256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM recommended for HDV)
OHCI-compatible i.LINK® connector¹/IEEE-1394DV card (for DV and HDV capture and print-to-tape)
Windows-compatible sound card
DVD-ROM drive (for installation from a DVD only)
Supported CD-recordable drive (for CD burning only)
Microsoft DirectX® 9.0c or later²
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0²

that doesn't sound like nearly enough ram, I woud be recomending 2-4 gig and you are going to need a lot of hard drive space for hdv. the current edit of the short i am working on (my first venture into hdv) takes up 80 gig. admitedly they guy that did the capturing for me simply captured the entire tapes so we masively over captured but still. At the least a 160 gig application drive and a 320 gig data drive. Interestingly premier pro recomends raid drives for hdv, but even with dv it appears overly resource hungry. let me know how you go with Vegas I will be interested to find out.

I agree Skyman. The RAM requirments are ridiculus. I was planning on just a 160GB SATA RAID for data but I'll look into more now that you said it.

What's your opinion on this?

The software wants "2.8 GHz recommended for HDV" but the latest intel Dual Core 2 are not rated at 2.8 GHz BUT the older Pentium D CPUs have a 2.8 rating and above. Should I get the older CPUs? It's almost sounds silly.

I have version 5.0 I believe and I have one gig of ram, no problems. Then again more is always better :D

I have version 5.0 I believe and I have one gig of ram, no problems. Then again more is always better :D

Premier 1.5 was happy on a gig of ram, but 2.0 with hdv support is really resource hungry for some reason. I am guessing the same is true with Vegas but hope to be contradicted :) as for the newer chip, it has never been just about clock speed. Not to mention that newer motherboards have better graphics support and faster system bus speeds etc although a good gpu is recomended (over onboard gpu's) if you can afford it, especially if you want to run cpu intensive plugins like after effects or render multiple layers quickly.

Check out the Sony site on the Core 2 Duo. Sometimes they take a while to test out the new equipment before they certify it for the software. I haven't run any of the Core 2 Duo boards with the Avid's yet, but probably will next school year. You can always use moe RAM. All of the editing programs are processor and RAM hogs. Having plenty of RAM and a separate for programs and video/sound files really helps out your playback.

I've been using Vegas since version 3 and I can tell you that Vegas is the most friendly of all the NLE's I use. I still run version 6 on a AMD Athlon 1 Ghz machine with 1 gig of ram with no problems. I run version 7 on a Sony Vaio 2.4Ghz (single core) with 2 gig of Ram and it flys. You will need about 200 meg per minute of video capture. About 12 gig an hour of captured video.

I will tell you this. Vegas is the most versatile of all NLE's. IMHO. It's the fastest to cut with and has the most extensive set of audio tools at hand because it started out as an audio program. I use it every week to record a live band, I master with it, cut commercials, everything.

Vegas will run on almost anything. If you are doing HD, you will need a lot of horsepower, but with any application, the more the better.

I always figure, if you can afford the RAM, load it up, it couldn't hurt.

Sony Vegas sounds like a really hardware friendly application. I just read that the software doesn't utilize video card GPUs so I don't need anything too fancy in that department.

Here's a really helpful website regarding picking a video card for your NLE:

http://www.videoguys.com/DIY-GPU.html

I'm leaning towards the NVIDIA Quadro FX 560. I like the fact it has component out and you can use "the break out box in the QuadroFX560 to drive a television monitor while you are editing."

I'm just concerned that it's too under powered for games.

Core 2 processors are far more efficient per clock than the older processors. They're just using the old standard P4s as a reference point.

Seeing as a Pentium D 3.73GHz (two Pentium 4 Cedar Mill cores tied together into a MCM dual core at 3.73GHz clock) is in many benchmarks equalled by the slowest Core 2 Duo available (1.83GHz dual core), any core 2 processor would be great... The E6400 2.4Ghz version seems to be very popular these days and is a great value for the money.

What he said ...

Nothing like being out geeked by one of your students. None the less, check the Sony Hardware Compatability List.

The E6400 2.4Ghz version seems to be very popular these days and is a great value for the money.

Yeah, I'm targeting that CPU in my build. It's a great over clocking chip and about $100 less than the E6600 although the E6600 does have twice the L2. I think it's would be good enough for a photo/video workstation.

Thanks for all the tips. I'll keep you updated.