Help - Matching Matrox Card to new computer system

[BEA]

Can anyone offer any suggestions based on their own experience in getting a Matrox card to work with an AMD processor in a recently built computer?

I have just bought a Matrox RT.X100 bundle which gave me version 2 of Adobe Premiere and Photoshop plus the previous editions of After Effects and Encore

I now need to work out a specification for a new computer that can utilise this Matrox card with Adobe Premiere 2 preferably utilising an AMD processor but this seems fraught with possible problems as Matrox support mainly Intel products. There is also the problem of compatible (non-Matrox) graphics and sound cards.

I intend using two 19" Samsung LCD monitors with a rotate software facility plus a TV for monitoring when using the computer as a Edit Suite, so this also has to feature in the specification.

My idea is to build this new computer in a server type case as this will enable me to include a good number of hard disks so my different personal interests can be kept totally separate. The case I have in mind is the Coolermaster Stacker 810 with a low noise PSU as this case can accept motherboards up to ATX-E size which gives more scope. So what make and model of motherboard should I buy that will provide PCI-E x16 slots, PCI-E x1 slots, PCI slots as well as onboard Gigabit LAN, USB2.0 and IEEE1394 ? A scsi output may also be useful as I currently have a special scsi card for use with my Nikon Coolscan LS30 film scanner which takes up a PCI slot.

The configuration I would hope to achieve is to have an EIDE hard disk of about 80Gb set up with a dual-boot O.S. plus two 250Gb 7200rpm SATA hard disks for Programs Only (1 for NLE programs only; 1 for all other programs)

A further six 250Gb 7200rpm SATA hard disks (not in RAID configuration) would be used as follows:-

• 1 for video & sound Capture/Storage
• 1 for Video - work in progress
• 1 for Video - rendered output
• 1 for Photoshop Data Capture/Storage
• 1 for Photoshop - work in progress
• 1 for Website work and development

Also to be included would be:-

• Teac FD-CR7 Floppy drive and card reader
• 2 off Pioneer CD/DVD dual layer Burners DVR-110D

One suggestion that has been made to me is to use a Tyan S2895 motherboard but I am unsure whether this is really the best way to go, bearing in mind the cost of the motherboard and associated processors. Has anyone used that board with a Matrox RT.X100?

Any help, comments, observations or suggestions from members on any of these issues would be most welcome.

Brian

[Mikele]

I have changed my computer one month ago. It's my first Intel Processor since 1998 (Celeron 300A forced to 450, still alive). Since then, a lot of AMD processors, but ADOBE is very-very intel fan. Then, I don't want experiments.

This is my combo:
Asus P5LD2 Deluxe
Pentium D920 (runs at 2800x2 but I'm overclocked it to 3250x2 with bios and it runs OK).
Mem:tree Kingston DDR2 667 500megas. Yes, I need one more for dual channel. Next month.
Three Maxtor Serial ATA 2 300 Gigas. No RAID (I don't like it; bad luck with a Promise RAID card seven years ago).
G-FORCE 6200 PCI express 256 megas ram.

I have tested Premiere Pro 2 with HDV material and... It WORKS!!! (at last!!!).

I'm still testing, but overclocked Premiere PRO can MIX 2 channels of HDV at real time. HDV was captured with media studio 8 preview and works fine.

Scrubbing OK.

Ah, I'm MPEG-2 speaking, without any conversion to another HDV format. NATIVE, guys, NATIVE EDITING from de HDV cam.

Well, this is my info for all of you.

[Marshmallowman]

have a look here to see if you can find a board to tickles your fancy

http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/

There are amd,nvidia and server works chipsets to choose from with various PCI-X, PCI-ex scsi ..etc options to choose from, and they are very solid in terms of quality/stabilty