Testament to how good this place really is...

...First, a quick line to say howdy and it's been a while.

There used to be an introductions thread in here somewhere didn't there?

Call me old fashioned, but forum etiquette and all that.

Haven't been on here in almost 3 years and came back to find that my account had either expired or gotten deleted - either way, I'm back now... as a newb.... and rightly so I suppose, I've been out of the loop for quite some time.

So a quick note on why I've "been away"

I found this place about.... 7 years ago maybe... could be longer - I was in college doing electronics at the time, in any case, I was building a lot of gaming systems around then and was frequently on here, both gleaning info and contributing. At the time I was well up on most things computer related.

One of the last systems I built was about 5 years ago (...at best guess)- a video editing suite made with the cream of the available hardware at the time.

SPEC: (a quick trip down memory lane for most)
-P4 3GHZ (don't ask names, can't remember - but it's like a sodding heater element, have an Aircon unit piped to the case to keep it below 50C when rendering)
-ASUS mobo, can't remember the model but it's an 865PE chipset
-Matrox Parhelia 512MB triplehead GC
-A whole 2GB DDR3200
-Silly numbers of SATA HD's for a Raid 0 config
-2x 17" TFT (12ms) which cost a pretty penny at the time.

That whole system has run initially Pinnicals studio8, then studio9 and eventually the Adobe Pro Video Suite 1.5 faultlessly over the last 5 (or so) years on XP-pro (no updates).

I've been able to leave that machine unattended for 3-4 hours at a time on a render and KNOW that when I came back, everything would be done.

I can honestly say I've never had a moments hassle (beyond initial setup) with it and that's all thanks to the guys on here who were able to advise me as to the best parts to work the best together and ensure that there were no bottlenecks in the system.

- and there weren't - this machine can render 60 seconds of full DV to mpeg2 in less than 70 seconds. I've been using it to capture, edit and render 2.5 - 3 hour projects it's entire life, its done nothing else. A full render and burn for a 3 hour project takes 3.5hours.

But alas, she's never gonna be able to cope with my impending swith to HD video so she needs updating.

And frankly, that's why I've been away - because of the lads on here, I was able to produce such a stunningly fast and reliable machine, that I've never needed to do anything to it...

...so I stopped building...
...and I stopped modding....
...and I lost touch so I stopped contributing...

...so, in the typical time honoured fashion of not hearing from someone until they need something - I make my humble return, and hopefully, in a few months, with your help, I'll have my finger back on the pulse and I'll be ready to do it all over again.

Grateful to you all,
Seán

Hehehe... oh get over to HW and make some new friends then

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey