Messages posted by Tapas

Quote: Hi Tapas

I cannot access it either - this is probably due to the thread being 'locked'.

Hi Neil,

Thanks for checking this. Good to know that it was not something unique to my account.

I am very impressed with the equipment you have listed on your signature line. What is the benefit of running multiple versions of Power Director on mutiple computers?

Looks like you have a professional Video Editing studio!

I had another question on accessing the Forum Threads.

When I try to access this page:

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/8445.page

I get back an error message stating that,

"Oooops. You don't have sufficient privileges to access this message."

This thread contains some very valuable information posted by members showcasing the specs of their PCs that are found to be compatible with PowerDirector.

This is a goldmine of information for newbies like me who are trying to custom build a PC to run PowerDirector 9 Ultra.

Is there anything I can do to access this information?

Quote: I am using the exact same Asus motherboard that you are using and I find the onboard audio is fine for what I do. Unless you are venturing into professional audio editing or more advanced sound with a professional speaker system, I find the audio onboard the motherboard does a good job.

Cheers

Thanks for letting me know that the on-board audio on the ASUS M4A89GTD Motherboard will suffice. Based on your vote of confidence, I will skip the sound card for now.

At the moment I am using a pair of M-Audio AV40 powered Desktop Speakers. I do not use the on-board sound on my current PC. I have disabled it.

Instead, I use a Roland Sonic Cell Audio/MIDI sound module that connects to the PC via a USB 2.0 port.

This way it bypasses all the Electromagnetic Interference in the innards of the PC.
The downside is, that it clutters up the desk.

Quote: This forum is not to be used to advertise other company's products. By providing url's with the product item which you're going to use, you are creating a problem for this thread - edit your content and remove the links asap please.

Thanks

Dafydd

Hi Dafydd,

I agree with you. We should not be using this forum as a platform to advertise or endorse third party products.

I have removed all the direct links.

Sorry for the trouble. I am just a newbie to the forum.

Tapas

I had another quick question.

Can PowerDirector 9 Ultra benefit from having a dedicated Sound Card in the PC as opposed to using the RealTek HD audio drivers?

If so, what Sound Card would you recommend that would be compatible with PowerDirector 9?

What do you think of adding the ASUS Xonar Essence STX PCI Express Sound Card?

Stereophile Review:

http://www.stereophile.com/computeraudio/asus_xonar_essence_ststx_soundcards/index.html

Guru 3D Review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-xonar-essence-stx-review/

This may be another option:

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 MIDI Digital Recording Interface. It comes with MIDI IN/OUT ports.

Quote:

Quote: Excellent suggestion!

The ASUS motherboard has 2 PCI-E x16 slots. I could add a second HD6850 video card in Crossfire mode.

Maybe, yes the MB has 2XPCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, but support ATI CrossFireX Technology (@ dual 8x speed). Maybe have a look at http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/14356.page#68333 about the discussion on dual cards. It also has a link to some data showing virtually no render difference with dual cards in PD. In my opinion, put the extra $175 into a better initial card if you want to spend the money.

Jeff

Jeff,

Thanks a million for your expert tip! You are correct. The motherboard can only support 16x speed when there is a single card in the BLUE PCIe 2.0 x16 slot. On the second GRAY PCIe 2.0 slot you are supposed to place in the VGA Switch Card.

However, if one uses Dual PCIe cards, the speed drops to x8 on both!

This is good information to have.

Thanks for that link on the discussion on dual video cards. This convinced me to stay with 1 Video Card and save $179.

Quote: I am using the same Asus motherboard and it works flawlessly. I am using 8 gb memory and a similar video graphics card.
I don't see any advantage to using 2 graphics cards i.e crossfire unless you are a heavy gamer. Asus MB comes with a card to install in the other PCIe slot when running one video card.

Thanks for the vote of confirmation!
I am very happy to hear that the ASUS motherboard with 8GB of RAM using a Single Video Card will do the job.

Quote: Just one question,

Are the audio and video components recommended for this motherboard? I am saying, is there a vendor who already builds this system for public sale?

WE HAVE NOTICED THAT MANY FOLKS WHO PUT RACEHORSE VIDEO CARDS INTO SOME MOTHERBOARDS AND HAVE EXPERIENCED PROBLEMS.

The fact that you intend to have 16gb should make it unlikely that disk will be a bottleneck. I would also put the best DV WRITER on the shopping list.

The HD6850 card should be compatible with the motherboard.
No, there is no vendor who is offering this configuration. I am assembling everything from scratch, to build a PC optimized to run PowerDirector9 Ultra.

Out of that 16GB of RAM, I would like to allocate 8GB to a RAMDisk and move over my Swap File and Temporary files.

Here is an excellent analysis and report on how to benefit from a RAM disk:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778.html

Conclusion and Recommendation: (From the above article)

Based on our measurements and impressions (and taking falling prices into account), we thoroughly recommend a minimum RAM size of 8 GB. Using 12 or 16 GB only makes sense if you're planning on using 4 GB of more of this higher amount as a RAM disk, helping accelerate the reading and writing of temporary files. This applies equally to file compression, video encoding, and heavy image editing.

Do you have any specific DVD writer that you would recommend?
I was planning to use the Sony Blu-ray burner as my sole DVD/Blu-ray burner.
Would it be beneficial to add in a second dedicated DVD writer, perhaps to save wear and tear on the expensive Blu-ray drive?

Excellent suggestion!

The ASUS motherboard has 2 PCI-E x16 slots. I could add a second HD6850 video card in Crossfire mode.

Adding a second 64GB SSD card is also an option I am looking at.
Having 2 SSD cards configured in RAID-0 mode will considerably speed up read/write speeds to the OS drive.

The biggest bottleneck in today’s PC’s is typically the spinning hard drive. Having the OS on a SSD helps, but still remains the weakest link in the system.

I need your expert tips!

I am building a custom PC to run PowerDirector 9 Ultra.

Here are the components I have tentatively decided on:

OS = Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

CPU = AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz

CPU Cooler = Noctua NH-U9B SE2 92mm SSO CPU Cooler

Motherboard = ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 890GX

RAM = 16GB – 2 pairs of CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3

Video Card = SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5

SSD = Crucial 2.5" 64GB Solid State HD RealSSD C300 SATA III

HDD #1 = SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache

HDD #2 = SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache

Blu-ray Burner = SONY Internal SATA Blu-ray Burner BD-5300S-0B-OEM

Power Supply = CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

Case = Antec Sonata Proto Quiet Mid Tower Case

Do you feel the specs are adequate, or would you like to suggest some modifications to the components?

Do you see anything glaring that I may be missing?

Best regards,

Tapas