What's Abit's IA7 latest PCB revision?
Hi guys,
it's been a lot of time since last time I visited SM, but I'm happy to see everything is the same, but bigger and better than when I started studying harder than I used to do
I'm now building a video editing rig as cheap as I could, my dad wants to start in the miniDV world and after some months of recording travels and trips, he wants now to make DVDs.
So I want a reliable computer, fast, but over all, I want it to not create me headaches.
After reading some reviews and using the search button here too
I found the Abit IA7 to be a cheap but excellent performer.
It will be coupled with a 3gig P4c with HT, but no Prescott due to some advices about high overheating.
What's the latest revision of this board? I'd like to get the latest one to avoid possible initial design failures, including some crackling sounds in the onboard audio I read about.
Thanks in advance.
it's been a lot of time since last time I visited SM, but I'm happy to see everything is the same, but bigger and better than when I started studying harder than I used to do
I'm now building a video editing rig as cheap as I could, my dad wants to start in the miniDV world and after some months of recording travels and trips, he wants now to make DVDs.
So I want a reliable computer, fast, but over all, I want it to not create me headaches.
After reading some reviews and using the search button here too
I found the Abit IA7 to be a cheap but excellent performer.It will be coupled with a 3gig P4c with HT, but no Prescott due to some advices about high overheating.
What's the latest revision of this board? I'd like to get the latest one to avoid possible initial design failures, including some crackling sounds in the onboard audio I read about.
Thanks in advance.
0
Comments
The ABIT AI7 I have no opinions on pro or con that immediately leap to mind. What I can offer is advice about video editing on a PC.
cheap and video editing don't mix.
Cheap for software and hardware will result in frustration due to waiting for timelines to preview and render unless you are working in very low resolution. (EG: web based)
1) A top of the line processor is not required.
2) Recommend at least 1 GB of RAM (2 x 512 will be great)
3) Recommend a EIDE hard drive to hold the OS and programs and a secondary disk or, even better, RAID 0 to hold the digitized files separate from the OS/Program drive.
The AI7 can do this with a DVD 8x burner on EIDE 1 and the hdd on EIDE 2. The video storage drive(s) can go on the SATA headers. Note that some people do have problems with RAID 0 on SATA. I have done video editing on a single SATA drive with hardware codec assist with no problem. I'll get to more about that later.
Video editing is 2D work so a powerful video card is not required. A 9800XT won't gain you very much compared to a MATROX P750, for example. Big powerful video cards are good for OPENGL Direct3D games and OPENGL 3D multimedia programs like 3D Studio Max.
Now back to that Hardware Codec assist subject. When working in higher resolutions such as NTSC (Normal TV) simple things like dissolves between shots have to be rendered before they can be seen. This is true of cheaper software editing programs. Sometimes both clips have to be fully rendered. EG: If your first shot is a minute long and you have a 2 second dissolve to the next 1 minute long clip...it isn't the 2 seconds that's rendered...it's the whole 2 minutes.
That means you have to wait for that to finish. 10-20 seconds or a few minutes. So each time you want to adjust the timing...the process starts all over again.
A 3rd party hardware device can speed up the process by providing real time transitions.
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=161
That will be a good read for you.
There will be a lot of people who say they don't have to do this. They are most likely working in programs like Windows Movie Maker. Sure...it does real time transitions and can build quite the complicated little timeline. But...it's at a smaller reslolution and smaller screen size. And you need other software to burn it to a DVD to watch on your TV and so on and so forth.
The matrox bundle has advanatages as it comes bundled with ADOBE PREMIERE which is a pretty advanced NLE (Non Linear Editing) program and the software to output to DVD that can be watched on normal TV.
Another good DVD program is Adobe Encore.
ULEAD has been said to produce a pretty good NLE software program but, again, it is software driven and not true hardware assist. If you don't want to fork out for the Matrox bundle then I'd look at that as a lesser option but more advanced than these "cheapy" or free software video editors.
Now the next important question is what is the output of the camera? Firewire? USB? Or Analog (those 3 RCA cables). The ABIT AI7 has firewire and USB but if you require analog...then you need the PCI based encoding card to get the video into the system. Audio runs through the sound card.
Again...the Matrox suggestion has that breakout cable for that purpose.
So you don't need to go too over the top for the platform. Take a balanced approach. The money you save can be put into a better software package or such a device as the Matrox package which will save you time and frustration in the long run.
Remember there is the learning curve with all NLE software programs but in time you'll be a pro.
Hope this helps.
I know video editing in the cheap way don't get good results usually. I didn't posted my full configuration on the pc I plan to buy, but here it goes:
Abit IA7 (still searching for latest PCB revision if anyone knows)
P4 800mhz 3Ghz HT
2*512 PC400 ram in dual channel
ATI Radeon 9550 128meg from Gecube
WD 180gig 8mb cache SATA
NEC 2510 8x dual DVD burner (double layer capable)
TFT 17" still don't know wich one
Video card is not choosen because of its acceleration abilities, only for a little gaming
I already have some experience in video editing. I know surely I have errors but I consider myself a pretty good cameraman compared with what usually people does with their new brand shiny 1000€ cameras...
My camera is a humble Sony DCR-PC2. Some years old now. Photo belongs to PC3 model. Mine is the same, but no memory stick.
What I plan to do is just plug firewire, edit and then burn DVDs. No analog needed.
I already have a PCI firewire card from my current computer, and the new mobo has built-in firewire too. I'll start trying the built-in one, just switching to the PCI card if having problems.
The program I have used since I started dealing with video until now has always been Pinnacle Studio. It's NLE too. I have never tried WMM.
I like the program because is pretty simple, but powerful at the same time. You have lots of transitions and effects, plus many titles fully configurable and two lines of sound too. Studio has lots of plugins availiable to enlarge its abilities.
Some aspects of Pinnacle Studio are teletubbie-like, but I have found its powerful tools. They are a little hidden, but they are in there.
I capture with Studio itself in DV quality. First Step Tag on the program. Size is my only problem but I plan on getting a really big disk.
Second Step: Editing. While editing Studio works in preview mode in a small window. No need to wait for effects to render, I can see the result inmediately.
Third Step: output. When I finish editing, there's a "render" button. Now lots of CPU power is needed. Here is where hardware solutions are faster, but I can wait. Then, I can choose VCD, SVCD, DV output, MPEG2 or even burn a DVD from Studio itself. It supports menus too. Depending on the option choosen, another compression process is needed.
I don't need much more. I know Premiere is best, but as Studio gives me what I need, I don't feel the need to switch.
I usually keep an eye on the light, to not tape very dark scenes, try not to move the camera fast and use zoom as little as possible. I used to do it before reading your article and there are some other things I'll try to avoid doing now I have read your article. But overall, my original video is pretty good quality. I don't need very powerful options, as I said, some titles and there it goes. Sure Premiere has color controls and video mixing in the same frame (I mean mixing, no fading) but I'm not using them. I plan to do serious video, like weddings and so on I have already recorded.
Until now, as I have no DVD burner, I got the final edit on DV and then using VirtualDub compressed it to xvid to show my friends the final result on my home dvd player (xvid capable), mainly because is far better than SVCD.
If my budget can afford it, I'll try to get separate drives for program and video, but as I said, despite I know there are better solutions such RAID0 and hardware processing, I think I don't need them by the moment.
I'll try to make some sample of one of my videos to show you my hobby
Any comment is welcome MM
cheers!
I think you are right on target. You've "got it" as far as the balance between CPU and video card. Most people think that a powerful video card will help...and it doesn't.
May I suggest that you look at the price of TWO CRT 19" monitors vs. the cost of 1 TFT. I know that TFT is slick and slim but you'll love the desktop real estate when it comes to working in NLE.
8x DVD burners are relatively inexpensive. For me in Canada they are about $100 Canadian dollars.
You don't need extreme RAM either unless you are into overclocking. So don't pay for the Hyper Super Duper XXX stuff. Don't go to generic either. Crucial is a good name as well as the mid-grade Kingston or Corsair.
Let's look at that huge 180 GB SATA drive and do some budget number crunching.
A 200 GB SATA Maxtor drive here is $168.
A 120 GB SATA Maxtor drive is $103
A 40 GB EIDE Maxtor drive is $66
See where I'm going with this? I so highly recommend keeping the media on a separate drive. It's better for speed and ...just in case you fubar the OS drive...you don't lose your media.
You can add another 120 GB drive later on for a RAID 0 setup or if you feel a single drive works great...then add any size you wish.
I'm a firm believer in cleaning out the proverbial hard drive bucket. A bigger bucket just takes a bit longer to fill up...but it will fill up. I always make a practice of archiving the projects to DVD and cleaning off my system. There are always certain things I keep on the system that I use on a consistent basis but footage that I used in a project that is now done...I archive the media folders to a DVD (S) so I can pull the footage off the system...gaining space back.
If I need to restore the project...
Well...you get the point.
But I'm anal for organization. My editor works off just over 700 GB of SCSI drives. You know what...no matter how much drive space you have...you still fill it up and if you don't do some housekeeping every so often...oodles of drive space matter squat.
I'd also recommend formatting that drive, if you get a separate media drive, NTFS to support larger than 2GB single files. Or...at least format the partition that is the MEDIA partiition NTFS.
Pinnacle is a good name too. Sounds like you are right on target for a good balance on a budget.
thanks for all the reccommendations. But, please don't under-consider me, I'd never consider format using FAT32 nowadays!
About the monitor, well, here I have to listen to my parents' voice. Where I place the computer there's already another one, and it's now a very big table. I always prefer CRTs vs the new fashion TFT, mainly because I think that, even with latest lower prices, you can get a much better monitor on CRT than on TFT with the same money. Reasons: Contrast, Luminosity, no black dead pixels, plenty of resolutions to work with, and response time. A 17" TFT of 350€ has 16ms and you have to go much more expensive to get something like 12ms. But my parent's opinion matters, so let's see what happens in the end.
I'll try getting a not-too-much deep 19" CRT for about those 350€.
About the second monitor, for the same reason as above, is surely impossible. I'll try plugging my current KDS Trinitron 17" with a DVI-Analog conversor if possible for hard video editing sessions. I have never tried to, but be sure I'll ask you how to configure it to get best performance, or how the pros like to get it, when the moment arrives.
About the mem, I have still not decided wich one to pick. I do not plan to overclok by the moment. I prefer just some fast timings and that's enough. I have to read some more reviews and look the forums searching for info about the difference between the 865 and 875 chipsets. There's a PAT option in the 865 that allows a performance close to 875's, by lowering RAM timings. I'd like to know wich are those timings and then think what kind of memory could support them.
I'll have to wait anyway till sept the 1st because two reasons: I have an exam
After the examen I'll try to upload a video to show you my work.
Cya!
The board I got is rev 1.0, it's working perfectly and came flashed with latest bios so I don't think they are going to release a newer PCB revision.
That's all.