Dual Xeon

[poor Leno]

Hi,

I know maybe this isn?t the best place for these questions but I don?t know where else to go because I can?t find the HONEST (neutral opinion/experience) answers that satisfy me. I usually read good replies here, so?
And btw. this is not a question about wich system to buy or which is better. These are the results after months of "research" and I just want your opinion before I make the step.
I've tried the same topic in the tech forum, but someone suggested to put it here in General.

Please don?t reply unless you?re absolutely sure please.

Ok, I?m a pro-sumer video editor and I work with AVID Xpress Pro, Discreet Combustion, After-effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Premiere Pro. And I 3D-game a lot too.
I am about to buy the upcoming system for at home use, but the deal is not entirely made, so please if you have suggestions?

I hope someone has experience with THESE PROGRAMS I use, on a similar system:


Iwill DN800 SLI (I can?t find anyone, or a REAL review, who actually has this board!)

2x Xeon 3.0 GHz (Or go for 2x 3,2 ? Does it make any noticeable difference?)

1GB Kingston Value, Reg. ECC PC3200, DDR-2 (I can?t afford more. Sh*t these reg. ecc?s are expensive! Later on, new will be added. Dou you think the board will support only PC3200 DDR2 or also higher PCXXXX? It only states about 3200, but will a bios-flash help?)

XFX 6600GT Pci-e (This is the best one I hear, because of the 1200 MHz memory. Later on this year or next, another one will come in SLI)

Western Digital 74GB 10000 Rpm. (For Winblows, games and programs? Will this be enough?)

Maxtor Diamond Max 10, 300 GB, 16mb cache, 7200 Rpm (For footage and projects. Later on there will come another one for RAID 0)

NEC 3520A DVD burner (4x DL) or Pioneer 109 Burner (6x DL)?

Asus DVD player E616

Cooler Master Stacker

Cooler Master Cross flow fan for Stacker. (Is it possible? Because this wont fit if you have an E-ATX. But the DN800 SLI isn?t an E-ATX, it?s only slightly bigger.

Chieftec ATX 460W power supply, WITH EPS-12 (damn Xeons!) (Will 460W be enough for ALL of this? If so, will it also be enough after my upgrades? The Stacker has a lot of standard fans too, plus the cross flow of course. How do you calculate how much you need?)

Please can someone help, because I'm confused, and scared to spend these amounts of money on crap.

 

[ribbon13]

First suggestion. Opterons. Adobe apps run better on AMD chips. So does Maya/Discreet. So do games.
If your open to it, I can give you more suggestions. Xeons kick AMD butt for SQL, but not for devs.

Secondly. XFX is the best, because of dual-dvi. CRT's a best for 3D rendering, but LCD's are much better for all the text and toolbars the devs need. I run a CRT for my render screen/games/movies and LCDs for the extra desktop space.

Raptors are fine and fast if you can't afford SCSI

If you do serious work, I would take Seagate 7200.8 over Maxtor for reliability and warranty. 16Mb cache serves no benefit in reality.

NEC 3520a is goodness
no opinion on the asus or cooler master cases

I would buy a better PSU if your putting out that much cash. Why cheap out the most critical part of your system?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-478&depa=0

 

[gsellis]

I really would start over at Avid's forums Link to root forum page. Folks there are running it. Avid Xpress Pro lists some very specific components and has a list of qualified systems. One big note is that your graphics card is not listed. Avid lists nVidia Quadro cards and you may have issues there. Add a M-Audio or Audigy 2/4 to the system. The mobo audio chipset could cause A/V sync issues as it may be underpowered.

Otherwise, it does look pretty good from where I come from. I use Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6, Sound Forge 7, MediaChance DVD-Lab, and Hash Animation:Master. Similar, but different (Liquid and A:M like DirectX performance - your suite likes OpenGL performance).

Ribbon listed the best power supply on the market. I have had success with a Vantec 520 that I have, but the other is the best one (and it show$$).

Also, there are plenty of folks running your board at 2CPU dot Com. You can join and ask tech questions there. Just be forewarned, there are some overclocking fanatics there