Here is a list of do's and don'ts for computer systems to use with Liquid.  This list is "not" an official list from Pinnacle but stuff either I have tried and tested or stuff that has been used by other fellow Liquid users with success.  I hope it helps anybody in their quest for happy Liquid living.

Video cards:  Liquid 7.2 supports directx 9 based video cards.  No higher or lower card will work very well in Liquid.  This means any directx 10 or higher or a directx 7 or lower card will not work.  ATI X1### series cards work the best in Liquid.  This includes the X1650 and x1950.  Please view the Pinnacle support list of video cards for more specifics.  Other directx 9 based cards should work fine for the most part.  Some users seem to have a little bit of luck with some of the ATI directx 10 cards but these are a little buggy and more people have problems then the people that don't.

Liquid (7.2.1) now has a patch that should work with most if not all directx10 based video cards under Windows XP service pack 3.  This should now mean that pretty much any video card should work with Liquid that is directx9 or directx10 based.  Please note that this is not supported under Windows Vista.  Some users indicate that the pre patch Liquid works well under Vista and Directx10 cards but this is a use at your own risk situation since Vista is not supported at all.

2 core or 4 core or 8 core???:  Well 4 core doesn't really hurt except for the fact that it costs a little bit more.  Liquid is made up of a bunch of tiny programs so some aspects of Liquid can run a process on each cpu making good use of a 4 core system.  Some things will not really run any faster but there is an advantage to having 4 cores.  Multiple cores also are not just for speeding up programs.  Their main use many years ago was to allow multiple programs to run at the same time on servers.  With a 4 core system you could run Liquid and another big program just as Photoshop and you may not notice any slow down at all.  Really the only thing that really suffers in Liquid due to the way it works with multiple processors is the video encoding.  This is because usually you only encode one solid video at a time so Liquid cannot split it across the 4 cores.  The other main reason to think about getting 4 cores is that it is more future proof.  At some point most programs will make use of the 4 cores in a better way and at that point you will be glad you already have the speed at hand.  There are already a lot of great programs that are multi threaded and they don't even have to cost a lot.  Blender is a free 3D animation program that will make use of as many cores as you have on your system.  8 core of course is even better yet if you plan on getting a work station. If you have the cash you can never go wrong with having 8 cores.  This means you pay more now but in a few years when 8 core desktops are the norm your work station will still work performance wise right along with everything else except the for the latest work stations.  This means your initial investment in a work station goes much further.

If you are on a budget don't be afraid to drop the cpu down a notch.  Instead of getting a quad core 2.67 Ghz cpu get the 2.4 Ghz cpu instead.  You can save a chunk of change and at best you only run about 5% to 10% slower.  Some times you may not notice any speed difference at all.  Even if you do run slower it isn't anything that is really going to hurt you a lot.  A 10% speed difference means instead of 2 hours to encode something it will now take 2 hours and 12 minutes.  If that 12 minutes is really going to hurt your business then you should get the fastest cpu you can get but if you can live with that 12 minutes then you will be fine.

Intel or AMD???:  While AMD is far from junk and they make some very good products I would have to suggest for everybody to go with Intel at this point.  First of all Liquid was designed around Intel.  Second Intel chip sets tend to have a little bit more solid motherboards and the platforms as a whole are pretty solid.  Third you will find many many more Liquid users that use Intel then you will AMD users.  This means you will get better help with your system if you need help.  Finally Intel smokes AMD right now in almost every aspect so if you want the most bang for your buck Intel is the way to go.

Motherboards:  Do not buy cheap!  The motherboard is one of the most important parts of your system and it is also one of the most common causes of problems outside of a non supported video card.  Recently almost any decent Intel chip set motherboard is going to work pretty well with Liquid.  The only boards I have heard that may have problems are the ultra cheapo boards.  Remember you want a stable editing system not a cheap system.  If you try to save money on the motherboard you will end up paying more for hair implants.

Ram (memory): Get 2 GB or ram.  No less or no more.  Sure there is a hack to make Windows XP use 3 GB of ram but only do that if you are nuts.  It is too hard to tell when an odd ratio of ram could cause problems and it isn't really worth the risk.  Having an extra 1 GB of ram isn't really going to help Liquid a whole lot anyway.  If you want the most stable system then use 2 GB of ram.  If you want to mess around and run the risk of problems then try adding 4 GB and do the hack.  Buy good brand name ram.  You will be amazed on how many system problems I have seen due to bad ram.  Bad ram can cause the most interesting problems that are very hard to pinpoint or even notice they are there.  You will be so much better off to spend the money and buy good ram.  Make sure both 1 GB are the same so the will work in dual channel mode.  This will greatly help the performance.  If you can buy a ram kit with two matching 1 GB sticks.

Watch out for systems and motherboards to see if they use DDR2 or DDR3 memory.  DDR3 is very expensive and depending on the situation is only a snidge better.  It is better of course but the cost/performance ratio isn't very nice.  DDR3 may be a bit more future proof but you pay a very high premium for it right now.  DDR2 performance wise is still very good and typically other areas of your system are going to be a performance bottleneck long before DDR2 memory will be.

DVD burner:  Get a good one.  Sure there are a lot of cheap ones out there but have you ever heard of you get what you pay for?  A good DVD burner will only cost a little bit more but it will help so much in getting correct burns.  Use good blank media as well.  For something you want to turn out right you just use the best you can find.  This may mean ordering some through the mail.

Monitors:  The bigger the better of course!  Pretty much any monitor you can find will work fine with Liquid.  Smaller monitors tend to be a little uncomfortable due to the video taking up so much of the interface.  If you run at quarter size this really helps.  The best solution of course is to use as big of a monitor as you can afford.

 

Do not expect bleeding edge technology to work.  It may work but nobody knows 100% for sure until enough people try it out.  I understand the desire top buy the latest technology but if you do it will be hard to get support until other Liquid try the same systems.  It is usually best to find the balance between modern but tried and true for an editing system.

Look at other user's info to see what works for them.  This isn't 100% guarantee but it sure does help.  Trust the accuracy of the hardware based on how many posts that user has.  If they are a long time Liquid user and seem very happy with Liquid then chances are their system is pretty darn solid.

 

If any others have anything to share please do so.  If I remove your post please do not take it the wrong way.  If I do that means I either felt that maybe the system works for you but for some people it has caused problems or I am trying to build your info into the main post to make it easier for people to see.  Again I hope this helps some people.  Remember to keep Liquid alive and if you want send Avid a letter telling them so.

A couple of items for consideration. DX9 256 mb cards ATI AGP 9600, 9800 X700, X800 and X850 all seem to work fine. The 9200 and earlier do not! PCIXpress 256mb ATI 1050, 1300, 1600, X550 are all cards I have used without issue.I have not used a Nvidea card in any of the systems I have built so far, that is not to say Nvidea is bad its just I don't use them.

Intel chipset is a great and compatible for Liquid. But unfortunately chipsets like VIA, SIS should be avoided as the risk of incompatibility is high. It would be nice to see some profiles of users who are successful. My profile below shows what I am using it is not ultra high end for sue. I use this edit bay everyday between 6 - 10 hours depending on the day and have had no issues.

I use Diskeeper lite daily, AVG antivirus and spam checker with automatic updates on and have not had any issues. I have an image of my system hard drive made by Accronis for emergency and try to create a new image every 2 months. Its not a matter of if you will have an issue it a matter of WHEN, be prepared!

My system has several hard drives all internal the System drive contains OS and programs, I have a separate Render and 2 Video drives 1 for capture, the other for output. I use a removable caddy drive system which allows me to add and remove drives as needed. I have an P-ATA caddy and an S-ATA caddy.

The other thing that I believe to be of importance is the Powersupply, get the biggest you can afford machine requirements add up and an underpowered machine is hard to diagnose when issues pop up. So get good clean power and lots of it...........Edd

Smitvid,

I have been looking at building a new system for LE7, but the most confusing part for me is choosing the right Mother Board, especially getting the right Ram and the most bang for your buck.One board I have been considering is the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard and I would like to get a quad core weather it be a Q6600 or the Q9300. I have seen others that have this and seem to be really contient with it. I know that this board states that the standard memory is DD2 1066, But I have seen others running DD2 800 with this board what gives with this thinking, is it expence?.

When matching ram to your chip set what are some good rules of thumb to follow? And also, I have seen some statements that 4 gig of ram is really overkill for LE7.If you guys could expand on this a little and help me and my lack of knowlege make a better decision on this I would really appreciate it.I relize the expence plays as much a roll in these decisions as any and I don't really want start a product war but some basics on this subject would be great.

 

Mike

First, before getting RAM check to see if the motherboard vendor has a list of approved memory. If it does, then stick to that list. While other memory cards may work, there's no guarantee. Windows XP doesn't make good use of memory above 2Gb unless the application is specifically written for it, and even then over 3Gb isn't a worthwhile investment. Vista does make good use of 4Gb of memory, and while Liquid is not supported many users are running Liquid on Vista32 with no problems, and Vista64 with some limitations (no support of the Liquid Pro BOB).

Doug,

Thanks for the info. I did some looking around at their site and found some very usefull info.

smithe1:

A couple of items for consideration. DX9 256 mb cards ATI AGP 9600, 9800 X700, X800 and X850 all seem to work fine. The 9200 and earlier do not! 

 

The Radeon 9200 is actually a Direct-x 8.1 card. That is probably the reason why it is not working well. The 9250 is a DX9 variant of the 9200, but still not a realy high performing card.

Thanks that is why I pointed it out!

Thank you Smetvid. A really interesting and useful post.

Any news about when will be published the new patch to use Liquid with nVidia 8.800 video cards?
Will it be soon or not? ...in a few weeks, few months, after summer, or even later?

Thank you for any information about it.

As far as I'm informed, only Vista64 makes use of more than 2 GB ram.

The idea of this sticky thread is to point out hardware the works with Liquid. Lets not dilute it with chatter. If you have a specific question start your own thread! Lets try to keep this one for known working set ups. Please...........Edd

Thomas,

I just completed a new system following the precepts you outlined at the beginning of this thread.  I am very pleased with the results so far.  Thank you!!!!!!

Hi Per ( hej Per ) we are trying to have clean threads at the forum, the DX 10 patch have been discussed in hundreds of hundreds of posts in other threads, you might do a search for them.

And, we are users, so we can just agree in your complaints, however there are systems that works if you use workstations, laptops would be more difficult I believe, but, as said, do a search.

Maybe this would be a good idea to update this particular thread with a new list of functioning graphic cards/systems under liquid 7.21, including the new patch.

Finally the HD2600 cards from ATI seem to work fine. No probls. so far dedected.

Am not so sure about the geforce cards, since in another thread someone still has some flickering? Why not clearify that right here under one thread...

Gilbert-Martin:

Maybe this would be a good idea to update this particular thread with a new list of functioning graphic cards/systems under liquid 7.21, including the new patch.

Finally the HD2600 cards from ATI seem to work fine. No probls. so far dedected.

Am not so sure about the geforce cards, since in another thread someone still has some flickering? Why not clearify that right here under one thread...

 That's a GREAT NEWS!! Thank you!

Because thats not the purpose of this thread.  This thread in a basic outline of things to keep in mind when building a system for Liquid.  As I do not know exactly every video card that now works in Liquid I could not safely give any advice on the subject.  From what we can tell most video cards should now work great.  I may do an update to change some of the earlier info to reflect the new patch.  In fact I think I will clean up this entire thread for future viewers.

First post updated!

Ahoy there, everyone,

Please forgive the paranoid preoccupations of a relative novice, but I’m considering switching to a Pinnacle based editing suite, either Liquid Pro 7 or Studio Plus version 12, and I’m unsure if my PC is man enough for the task.

I will be editing mostly 720p HD video from my JVC gy-hd111e camera and my system specs are as follows;

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU
Gigabyte GA-G31MF-S2 Motherboard
1GB (1024MB) nVidia 9500GT PCI Express Graphics Card
4 x 1GB Corsair 667Mhz DDR2 Ram
SATA 2 7200rpm Hard Drive
Windows XP Home

My system appears to comply with Pinnacle’s recommended specs for both Studio Plus 12 and Liquid Pro 7.2, but before I fork out the dough, I’d sleep a lot easier with the benefit of your expert advice!

Also, what kind of performance should I expect (render times, playback, FX processing, etc.), considering the limitations of my hardware?

Cheers in advance.

Romanski – Noobie.

You only list one hard drive. You really need a seperate hard drive for media and render files. Otherwise that system should be fine for what you want to do and performance should be very acceptable especially with 720p material.

Thanks LewS,

Of course, I was just testing!  I have two hard drives of the same spec, and an external hard drive, too.

It's extremely reassuring to hear the words of a man-in-the-know, and you're advice has put my mind at rest.

Many thanks,

Toby:)

Hello I will rebuild my LE 7.2 PRO system and have some questions

I have two options for computer and please help me in right decision, I know XP is better and safer solution but...

For processors and graphic card I do not have a clue, so PLEASE help!

1.) 2x quad core xeon E5430, Nvida quadro FX3700, RAM 4GB, WIN XP Pro32, 4x WD5002abys

2.) 1x quad core xeon E5450, Nvida quadro FX3700 (or FX1700), RAM 4GB (or 8GB), WIN XP Pro32 (or Vista Ultimate64), 4x WD5002abys

You cannot use Vista 64, there are no drives for the Pro BOB. I suggest you stick with XP Pro.

Thank's Lew,

I know, that XP is still the system to stick on.

But what about quad core xeon processors does LE support and use the power of 4 or 8 xeon processors or is this only future investment in the next version of LE, or is better to go with i7 Extreme?

Because I wish to edit 2 or more streams of HD 1080 50i and 24P or maybe 50P as fast as possible.

Liquid really only supports 2 cores but if you go with more cores, XP or Vista will spread the load over those cores. It will make a small difference in Liquid's performance. You should easily be able to edit two streams of HD with the systems you are proposing. If you do a search of this forum, there have been some discussions on performance with different platforms. You can get Liquid to run under Vista 32 including the BOB. There are install procedures posted on this forum to do that but this is not officially supported.

Yes I've done that, and if I wish to run more then 4GB of RAM then I'm stuck with 64 platform and without BOB what is unacceptable.

Maybe with Win7 and some releases for LE will be better.

 Lew, thanks again for helping me out!