Hi, I see on the supported hardware page that you give specs for a system to support 3 HD sources. This is exactly what we want to do... (2 HD Cameras plus one input from another computer)I want to use 3 intensity pro cards. It says that this has been successfully done with gigabyte motherboards... can you please give me specifics (exactly which mother boards will work) Thanks

Note: we just bought a brand new Dell Studio XPS 9100 system... only to find out that Intensity Pro cards are not supported on Dell systems and so now I will have to try to return it. I want to make sure that, this time i get a system that will work, so any exact known working system configurations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!!

Thanks Martin for the info,

I'm not able to install the intensity pro cards on the XPS 9100... everytime I run the install it locks up the computer right when it gets to end of the installation, forcing me to power shut the system down via the power button. When I restart, the cards show up in device manager with exclamation marks saying the driver was not installed properly.
Another strange issue I'm having is this: I have two drives in a Raid 1 config and each time i tried installing the intensity pro drivers it caused one of my drives to go offline and i had to rebuild the raid. I called Blackmagic Tech support and when i told them it was a Dell system, they told me that they do not support Dell systems.(its right on thier website at the bottom of the system requirements... i didn't notice it before) They said that some Dell systems work and some don't... they don't know why...but they have had a lot of problems with people trying to install thier Intensity Pro Cards on Dell Systems... so its probably best to avoid Dell if you planning on using Intensity Pro Cards as there is no guarantee that it will work.

I think I am going to have a local computer shop build us a custom system, thanks for giving me a motherboard model(previous post) that I know will work. I will post my results, when I get it all up and running.

Regards,
Randy

OK, I am now about to make a complete new system for HD recording (2 channels) and playback, + all kind of video manipulation.
I am looking to invest in a machine that is relatively small (for travel/location work) but (very) high end and can last for several years.

I understand that it is difficult to endorse certain equipment but please have a look at these parts and tell me if I am doing right here.

Also, with the internal (onboard) graphics being more and more powerful, is it still needed to have an PCIe GPU as well to handle vMix?


Motherboard:
GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER M3 (REV. 1.0) LGA1155 / Z77 / 4 X DDR3 / 2 X SATA 6GB/S / 3 X SATA 3GB/S / MICROATX

or

ASUS P8H77-M PRO SOCKET LGA1155 / H77 / 4 X DDR3 / 2 X SATA 6GB/S / 4 X SATA 3GB/S / UATX

Cpu:
INTEL CORE I7-3770 PROCESSOR (8M CACHE, UP TO 3.90 GHZ) IVY BRIDGE (BX80637I73770)

Memory:
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 16GB QUAD CHANNEL DDR3 1866MHZ 4X4GB (CMP16GX3M4X1866C9)

SSD for system/programs:
OCZ 128GB AGILITY 4 SATA III 2.5" SSD (AGT4-25SAT3-128G)

HDD (2x) for content:
WESTERN DIGITAL WD CAVIAR BLUE 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 3.5" 7200RPM 64MB CACHE (WD10EZEX)

GPU:
ASUS AMD ATI RADEON HD7870 2GB GDDR5 (HD7870-DC2-2GD5)



Thanks,
Rob

Hi Rob,

I have looked into various possibilities and came up with two options with portability in mind:

1. a rack mounted custom made computer, based on a high end gamers motherboard. The offers I got include two SSD in raid for highest speed. I don't think the CPU and GPU will be the bottleneck but HDD vs SSD will be. Be sure to look into enough PCIe slots that you can use. I use 2 blackmagic PCIe cards as input and one USB3 shuttle as output.

(I do all my testing on 'cheap' of the shelf systems and get good results, from there I build my specks)

be sure to have a good power supply, I had to upgrade because the PCIe cards did not work.

Also be sure to have 3 or 4 USB3 slots. At least two hubs!

2. I just purchased a HP laptop with SSD and HDD and 2 USB2 ports. I did some testing and you can only use one USB3 shuttle, even if you have more than 2 USB3 ports. I guess this is just a limitation since the USB shuttles take up all bandwidth. (a combination of 2 PCIe and one USB3 works OK, even at a low end system...)

if you consider using USB3 ports (which I recoomend because you have more options and you are more flexible on the road) be sure the USB3 chip is NEC renesas - The intel USB-chip I could not get to work.

I all depends on what you want to do and you might run into all kinds of setbacks once you test your system (I just replaced the HP laptop and reversed the replacement since 2 USB3 shuttles just don't work, even BM recommend using only one!). So I guess theory and practice don't always add up. You have to test it, use the latest drivers and find the right settings related to your specific use and requirements (live streaming also, only recording, recording and editing afterwards, etc etc...)

Good luck and please share your results and experience.
Stefan