Quote: So do we need fast raid striped sets anymore? Is this just for capturing but not needed for production and development?

A single 6 Gbps SATA hard drive works great with Powerdirector. You do want a larger drive about 1 TB and up.

Some users have good success with SSD drives if they are the larger drives.
Some users have problems with SSD drives, depends on the whole computer system.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Which part is hard on the computer? Where will I see the slowdown!? I have 3Gb/s controller. 4GB RAM. Athlon II x4 645. Win7 64.
Radeon HD5670 512MB.

7200rpm WD RAID array for speed.

Need to redo my drives though. Server needs to grow. Canon HFM301 (+wide angle lens)
Canon SD790IS
Nikon D3100
Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Quote: Which part is hard on the computer? Where will I see the slowdown!? I have 3Gb/s controller. 4GB RAM. Athlon II x4 645. Win7 64.
Radeon HD5670 512MB.

7200rpm WD RAID array for speed.

Need to redo my drives though. Server needs to grow.

High Definition Video is hard on a computer, not so much playback as the Editing in Powerdirector. CPU speed and GPU speed are big factors.

It is really Powerdirector that needs the computer power.

4 GB of Ram on a 64 Bit OS is not near enough Ram. The computer will constantly be using the swap file (Hard drive and Slow).

3Gb/s hard drive controller is OK, but half the transfer speed of a 6 Gb/s controller and hard drive.

Compare a 1/4 inch water pipe and a 1/2 inch water pipe. How much water flow do you get with the 1/2 inch water pipe. How much water flow with a 1/4 inch pipe?

Compare a 1/2 inch garden water hose to a 5/8 inch garden water hose, you get a lot more water out of a 5/8 inch water hose.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

It just occurred to me that with video files over 10GB, at 3Gb/s it would take over 24s to read.

HD already made me get bigger drives. I think my CPU is good but I'll bite the bullet at get a new mb. DDR3 is so much cheaper than DDR 2 that its better to get a new mb+ram...

Thanks for the tips. Canon HFM301 (+wide angle lens)
Canon SD790IS
Nikon D3100
Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Quote: It just occurred to me that with video files over 10GB, at 3Gb/s it would take over 24s to read.

HD already made me get bigger drives. I think my CPU is good but I'll bite the bullet at get a new mb. DDR3 is so much cheaper than DDR 2 that its better to get a new mb+ram...

Thanks for the tips.

If money is not a problem, go for a Intel i7 or a AMD 6 or 8 core MB and CPU.

Chart of High end CPUs
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Be sure the MB supports 6 Gb/s SATA hard drives.
Even so, the hard drive is the biggest bottle neck to transfer speed.
RAM is much faster.

For that reason load the MB with as much RAM as it will support or at least 6 GB for Intel or 8 GB for AMD.
Intel does well at about 12 GB and AMD does well at about 16 GB of RAM.

That of course on a 64 Bit OS.

Edit: correct a word.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Depending on whats going on it will take longer than that to read files. You have a lot of housekeeping in the background sharing head time and hard drive sector access...... not to mention any other programs you are running....

We have seen people spend a lot of money trying to improve speed and get disappointed in here.

If you are expecting to have "instant" access and start times.... you will be disappointed. But quick/fast access and start times are achievable. All my drives are 7200 SATA 1 and 2 TB in size. They seem to do the job fine.

But when it comes to making video and rendering it.... no such thing as instant.... you will have to just get used to it.

Apparently a lot of you guys missed the fun when you could do noting else when you burned audio CD, or the first 6 versions of PD.

Things were slower then. I have a new computer with the i7 and all that nice stuff. It is no better than rendering or any other speed than my 7 year old 4 core Q6600 intel desktop. But I do have a better video card in the desktop. The new one is just "OK".... not fantastic or anything like that. Running PD11 on a off the shelf computer or even a home built from scratch is what it is... slow. Resource heavy. If you can afford what Pixar uses.... you will find their super computers take time too...... __________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link

Well I'm used to pd9. Haven't rendered with 11 yet. And I'm patient about my renders. Canon HFM301 (+wide angle lens)
Canon SD790IS
Nikon D3100
Samsung Galaxy Nexus

I noticed the fastest WD drive has a transfer rate around 1.6Gb/s. They can transfer at 6Gb/s from the cache but the biggest cache is only 64MB. For the jumbo DV files anything over 1.6 shouldn't matter I don't think.

Thatsd the velociraptor too. The other was like 1.1 GB/s. Canon HFM301 (+wide angle lens)
Canon SD790IS
Nikon D3100
Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Quote: I noticed the fastest WD drive has a transfer rate around 1.6Gb/s. They can transfer at 6Gb/s from the cache but the biggest cache is only 64MB. For the jumbo DV files anything over 1.6 shouldn't matter I don't think.

Thatsd the velociraptor too. The other was like 1.1 GB/s.

64 MB is a good cache size, the hard drive transfers via that 64 MB buffer. Actual transfer rate is closer to 150 MB per second.

The numbers say 750 MB per sec, but that is not actually possible. You have the physical reading of the data from the platter, transfer to the buffer, transmit to the disk controller and then to the computers Memory space.

What you should look for is the Windows Experience Index. Range is 1.0 to 7.9.
My computer has a 7.4 rating for everything except the Hard Drive, it gets a 5.9 rating. The hard drive is my bottle neck.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

My computer index is upper 7's except the hard drive which is 5.6. Therefore my rating is 5.6.....

I read a good article a year or so ago in Computing magazine and they told what they thought of the "Windows Experience Index" and how ridiculous, worthless and misleading it was. They recommended using proven benchmark standards to see what was actually going on. Besides you can hack your index number to whatever you want it to be...

People seem to get overly obsessed on getting the perfect this and that. Myself and another can buy the same brand/model computer off Best Buy's shelf and not have the same experience with the same components. Computers have Gremlins. Some leave the factory with more than others....

By the way Carl... now that I do not live that far away from you... I will come knocking on your door before too long..... It will give you time to move..... __________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link

ROFL! I'm like, how'd he know my name? He's in Michigan!? Oh! Canon HFM301 (+wide angle lens)
Canon SD790IS
Nikon D3100
Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Faster hard drives will definitely improve PD11 performance, in my opinion. I have twin 600 GB WD Velociraptors in RAID0 array as my Drive C:\ and have a Hard Disk Windows Experience score of 6.2, my bottleneck. All other indicators are 7.8 or 7.9.

I considered purchasing an SSD when I configured and ordered my current computer (see signature) about 18 months ago, but the SSDs were pricey, smaller capacity, and the hardware gurus here indicated that the SSDs of the time might not play nicely with PD11, which writes temp files to the OS drive when rendering.

Certainly if you wanted peak Hard Disk performance, I would not get less than a 250 GB SSD as my primary drive, and then have a second standard hard drive on which all possible programs and data would be installed, to leave as much of the OS SSD drive free as possible for PD11 temp files. Some recommend having 50 GB free for HD editing; some claim 100 GB free will lead to peak PD11 HD performance. I don't claim to know.

Today, I might make a different choice as SSDs have grown larger, more reliable, and less expensive.

Just my two cents. Have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil Windows 10 Pro x64
Dell XPS 8930
Intel CoreT i7 (4.6 GHz)
32 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
1 TB PCIe -x4 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
PD14 Ultimate x64, 4207
CD4 Ultra and AD6 Ultra
Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor

Quote: By the way Carl... now that I do not live that far away from you... I will come knocking on your door before too long..... It will give you time to move.....

Come knocking, I can make Coffee.

The computer index is so often the same on every body's computer. It is always the hard drive that is the slowest component.

I have a buddy, whose Index is 7.9 for every thing except the hard drive. He built a super fast computer. The odd thing, he has problems with Powerdirector 11 Ultra. I think it is because he also has a SSD drive.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

My main drive is nothing special. Programs start fast enough. But I have RAID for my render and temp space for PD. Yes the HD has the lowest rating in windows. Canon HFM301 (+wide angle lens)
Canon SD790IS
Nikon D3100
Samsung Galaxy Nexus