Matrox RT.X2 System

18 replies [Last post]
Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000

Hi!
I am about to build a new computer to edit HDV 1080i on as my present SD system does not have enough grunt.
I note that most of the NL system builders base their systems on a Opteron 270 dual core CPU x2. My question is whether to go ahead with a proven but ageing configeration or wait a little while until the new Xeon dual (Woodcrest) systems become available. I know that one can wait forever for a new technology to come to market, and there is always something better round the corner. But with the Dual core Xeon now here and four cores scheduled for final quarter of the year, I am uncertain what line to take. If anyone has a working system using Xeon dual core x 2, I would be very interested to know how you rate your system, and also what components you are using.
Thanks Mike

Claire
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Joined: Apr 28 2001

Michael,

Sorry I don't know much about the new forthcoming processers, but a couple of weeks back I completed a build of a new computer for use with Edius 4 that uses one of the recent Core 2 Duo processors, the 2.67GH in fact, couldn't afford twice the price for the top of the range one.

This thing is that compared to my old 3.06GZ maching this goes through stuff like a hot knife through butter, render times are slashed using all manner of things, working with After Effects stuff where I was waiting for the computer to "catch up" with me are now "fluid", I could go on... what I mean is why wait? You can wait for ever wanting what is "just around the corner".

Of course when the 4 core processers appear I suppose I will be envous .

Claire

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Hi Clare
Thanks for the reply, I had considered the Core2Duo and while it would give resonable results-especially with SD its not quite able to cope with HDV Only one stream plus titles.
I want to use the RT.X2 with Adobe Premier Pro in HDV and 2 twin core CPUs are the recommended. Its really do I go for the Opteron which is the current standard, or wait a litte while for the Xeon dual cores to be tested. Or even a little longer for the Quad core which is due out at the end of this year. As I can only afford to upgrade about every 18months it is essential that I choose wisely.
Mike

harlequin
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Joined: Aug 16 2000

might i suggest you talk to dvc.uk.com , they build some of the most stable editing pc's i've seen.

they may know what the minimum requirement in the real world is ......

Gary MacKenzie

sepulce@hotmail.com ( an account only used for forum messages )

Thinkserver TS140 , 750ti Graphics card  & LG 27" uws led backlight , Edius 8

Humax Foxsat HD Pvr / Humax Fox T2 dvbt

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Hi Gary
I have talked with Richard, who was kind enough to tell me what his Opteron system consisted of. While it is a good system and will no doubt do what I want, with a host of new CPUs launched or about to be launched I want to have the best as it will have to last for a year or two. I just wondered if anyone had a system up and running using any of the new CPUs.
I run Adobe Prem 2 as I have always used Premier and am used to it. I know you use Edius, and I have tried it but find that with the Matrox Adobe appears to be better for me and that like the old Storm uses the power of the CPU. I gave up on Canopus once they failed to support Adobe and instead pushed their own Edius.
Regards Mike

JAC
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Joined: Aug 28 2001

I have also been keeping a regular eye on the Matrox web site and the system recommendations for the RT.X2

Right now I see they've tested some new systems with high end Core 2 Duo processors, yet still the fastest recommended systems remain the dual Opterons.

As a former Digisuite owner I am excited about the RT.X2 so personally I would go with the dual Opteron as I wouldn't want the PC limiting what the Matrox hardware can do. There are three Opteron systems tested and all three have the top Number 1 ranking.

harlequin
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Joined: Aug 16 2000
Michael Renn wrote:
Hi Gary
I have talked with Richard, who was kind enough to tell me what his Opteron system consisted of. While it is a good system and will no doubt do what I want, with a host of new CPUs launched or about to be launched I want to have the best as it will have to last for a year or two. I just wondered if anyone had a system up and running using any of the new CPUs.
I run Adobe Prem 2 as I have always used Premier and am used to it. I know you use Edius, and I have tried it but find that with the Matrox Adobe appears to be better for me and that like the old Storm uses the power of the CPU. I gave up on Canopus once they failed to support Adobe and instead pushed their own Edius.
Regards Mike

I wasn't pushing Edius , I just know that dvc will only sell stable systems, and was suggesting that they would know what the new matrox card 'worked' with.
I much prefer a stable system to a top seed system that doesn't actually do what it is supposed to do , and having been a rt2000 owner , i know how picky some matrox kit can be.

I am sure premiere will do what you want , but , please make sure the hardware you add the matrox card to does work with it ......

I edit using a p4d 2.8ghz and my twin zeon with storm2 ......... they are both more than capable of handling sd ..... hdv is a totally different kettle of fish.

Gary MacKenzie

sepulce@hotmail.com ( an account only used for forum messages )

Thinkserver TS140 , 750ti Graphics card  & LG 27" uws led backlight , Edius 8

Humax Foxsat HD Pvr / Humax Fox T2 dvbt

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Hi Gary
I wasn`t knocking the Canopus system, it is a matter of personal preference.
I used the Canopus Storm with Adobe Premier for several years, and at the time felt it was the best available. Then Canopus desided that they were unable/could not support Premier any longer so I tried Edius, but after so long with Premier found that I didnt like the Edius way of working- although there were some rave reviews. At the time there were also a lot of complaints from Adobe users, who complained about the lack of support for their software. As a result I swopped to the Matrox TRX.100 and found it did virtually everything I needed, and the support side was also excellent.
However the time is comming when I will need to work in HD as well, and have desided to go with the Matrox RT.X2 (which I upgraded with Richard at DVC) and keep with the Adobe Production Suite. My dilemma is that I will need to build a new system, and as I am not in too much of a hurry, wondered if anyone had a system working with the new Xeon twin cores which appear to be faster than the Opteron. (Also in November the Xeon quad core should become available-and new Opterons are also scheduled for beggining of the New Year.
Mike

Imagine Video
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Joined: Aug 5 2006

I would say wait until you can deliver the HD to your client as at the moment you cant, can you? So why bother.

I will be waiting until the early adopters of this have found all the problems! and the newer faster far more capable machines that are on their way have dropped in price, well the components to build one have anyway.

I do not see much point in shooting HD editing in HD then delivering to your client in SD

However if you can re-release the same content to the client later but in HD then maybe there is a little milage in the process, but till there is a reliable delivery route no one will care or benefit from the HD side IMHO

I know there are picture quality advantages in HD to SD to be had, but...........not worth the expense at the moment for me anyway.............

Ofcourse I speak as a small indipendant video maker...........mainly domestic work

Richard Payne
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Joined: Sep 15 2000
Michael Renn wrote:
wondered if anyone had a system working with the new Xeon twin cores which appear to be faster than the Opteron. (Also in November the Xeon quad core should become available-and new Opterons are also scheduled for beggining of the New Year.
Mike

Yes - tried and quite stunned by new Xeon prformance. Suggest Tyan S2696W as the MB to try with the RT.X2

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Thanks Richard,
I`m glad to hear that DVC are working on new processors. While you demonstrated the Opterons for me when I purchased the RT.X2 from you, I was always sure that they could be bettered.
The Tyan along with the Supermicro motherboards were the main choice for me, and I think that you have swayed me in favour of the Tyan (which I have used before).I would be interested to learn which video card you are using to obtain your performance. I know that matrox recommend the ATi X1900XT, (which I believe is now discontinued) so I guess that its replacement the X1950 series would soon be their recomendation. Perhaps you are using a different card, and getting good results and if its not too cheeky perhaps I could ask which one. I know that there are some questions to be answered with some Nvidea cards which work with some motherboards and not others.
Unfortunately although Matrox produce excellent gear and their help is also good, they have let themselves down somewhat with their slow validation of the newer equipment. I hope that when DVC get their system ready for sale, it can be validated by Matrox as a dealer accepted system.
Mike

Richard Payne
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Joined: Sep 15 2000

Hi Michael
We are currently using the X1950XT. Don't use the Supermicro woodcrest board it wouldn't even boot with an RT.X2 board in it, but was excelent with an Axio.

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Richard,
Thank you very much for the information, I guessed that you were probably using the Ati X1950XT as I knew the X1900XT had been dicontinued (There are some still available)
Your information has been of great help in finalizing my new setup, and I can now go ahead and get the additional pieces of equipment to complete what would seem to be the ideal editing system.
I know that quad core are now here, and Scan are advertizing them. However even though my system will have to last 2/3 years it would appear to offer everything I need, and I dont think quad core would money-wise offer a great deal extra. Your Opteron system was good, and I am sure I would have been happy with it, I just thought that the slight delay for the Intel 5100 series would be worth the wait.
Thanks again for your more than helpful information.
Mike

Mad_mardy
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Joined: Oct 19 2000

I've just built an RTX2 system using these specs

Asus m2npv-vm
AMD Athlon X2 4600
ATI X1800XT 512 DDR3
2GB DDR 2
with a nice big beast of a case from ebuyer which supports fullsize cards, plenty of room for fans and at present the CPU is running around 36 C and the RTX2 at around 33C
and to top it all this case only cost £25 (Clearence offer)

Passed matrox validation.
Seems to run very nice and managed at least 7 layers of video all with transparency
in realtime, i couldn't be bothered to try more layers so i don't know where it would give out. It plays quite a few native prempro features in realtime too.

there are/were one or two issues with it which i'm working through but they are mainly niggly isuues more than serious ones
and i have yet to try HDV out (Just using SD at the moment)

System 1: AMD X6 2.8, M4A79 Deluxe, 4GB DDR2, ATI HD4870 1GB DDR 3, 2TB total drive space, Matrox RTX 2, Premiere Pro CS4

System 2: AMD X2 5600, M2NPV-VM, 2GB DDR2, Geforce 8600GT 256 DDR 3, 450GB Total drive space, RTX100 with Premiere Pro 2

Camera's: JVC HD200, JVC HD101, 2X Sony HC62

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Mad mardy
Thanks for your imput, I hope you get the little quirks sorted out soon.
I was shown a dual Opteron system when I visited DVC to buy my RT.X2 and was very impressed, however the dual Opteron system was formulated by Matrox when the card was introduced and I felt that it could be even better. My new system will have to last at least 2 years, and I wanted a system as up to date as possible. I had heard that the performance of the Xeon 5100 series was excellent and desided to base my system on those CPUs. Unfortunately Matrox are taking a great deal of time to validate new components, although they have recently validated two work stations (HP and Dell). It was therefore great to hear from Richard that DVC have been working on systems based on the Xeons and appear to have had some sucess. I thank Richard for his imput, and have now more or less desided that the system will be Xeon based. The motherboard and video card query has been helped by Richards imput, and the CPUs were never in doubt. I now need to know if the PSU which came with my Antec Titan case will be large enough, as I suspect I will need to go to 700 watts. My intended system will probably be...
Tyan Tempest i5000 (S2696W) motherboard
2 x Xeon 5140
RT.X2
ATi 1950XT (512meg) with the Catalyst6.5 driver
2/4 Gig Ram
4 SATA 300 Hard drives
2 x CD/DVD writers
1 Floppy
All in an Antec Titan case
Regards Mike

Mad_mardy
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Joined: Oct 19 2000

The way i looked at it was that i would go for what i could afford otherwise faster CPU's would have been on the cards.
As far as power supply goes mine is running fine on a 500Watt PSU

System 1: AMD X6 2.8, M4A79 Deluxe, 4GB DDR2, ATI HD4870 1GB DDR 3, 2TB total drive space, Matrox RTX 2, Premiere Pro CS4

System 2: AMD X2 5600, M2NPV-VM, 2GB DDR2, Geforce 8600GT 256 DDR 3, 450GB Total drive space, RTX100 with Premiere Pro 2

Camera's: JVC HD200, JVC HD101, 2X Sony HC62

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000

Mad_mardy ,
I`m glad to hear evrything is running well, and seven layers is impresive (I take it that is in SD). As I said I was impressed with the Opteron system, and I am sure it would have done most of what I needed. I recently purchased an HD camcorder and need something on which to edit the footage - when HD recorders become cheaper, and the better of the two systems evolves. In the meantime I would be interested to hear what you are running on the 500 watt PCU, as perhaps the 500 watt unit which came with my Antec Titan case will be enough, in which case it would save me some money to spend on extra memory etc.
Mike

Mad_mardy
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Joined: Oct 19 2000

Well on a 500w PSU this is what i'm running

Obviously the motherboard and processor
ATI1800XT
RTX2
1 X 80gb HD
2 X 200GB HD
DVD Writer
3 X 90mm Fans
2X 80mm Fans
HDD Pull out Caddy with one fan attached

Tempreture wise
CPU idle's around 36C
RTX2 around 33-35C

Oh and i sorted out 2 of my 3 minor issues (The two most annoying thankfully)

System 1: AMD X6 2.8, M4A79 Deluxe, 4GB DDR2, ATI HD4870 1GB DDR 3, 2TB total drive space, Matrox RTX 2, Premiere Pro CS4

System 2: AMD X2 5600, M2NPV-VM, 2GB DDR2, Geforce 8600GT 256 DDR 3, 450GB Total drive space, RTX100 with Premiere Pro 2

Camera's: JVC HD200, JVC HD101, 2X Sony HC62

Michael Renn
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Joined: Aug 30 2000
Matrox RT.X2 System

Mad_mardy
Thanks for the info.
It looks like I may well be able to run on the supplied Amtec 550watt CPU after-all. It takes Matrox forever to come up with validated components, but with Richards and your help I am begging to see a little daylight at the end of the tunnel.
Mike