I guess there are three possibilities. Firstly you could use a ready-made machine. They tend to be fairly expensive but you have the full back up from the assembler. Secondly, you could install a RTX card in an existing computer. This, I would suggest, is the least preferable route. The third is to build a suite from scratch. While I would not recommend this to everyone, I feel anyone with a modest knowledge of computers would have no problems. If you have problem the Matrox help line is only a phone call away - no premium rates. Every time I have rung them I have either got straight through or only waited for a minute or two. If they have not got the information at hand they even ring back.

Building the system
As the system is fairly cutting edge, it is a little choosy on what bits of hardware you use. Anyone contemplating building a Matrox RTX100 should first take a look at the actual components Matrox validate. I personally used an Asus A7S333 motherboard with a 2Ghz AMD processor, 512MB of DDR RAM, a Matrox G550 graphics card, a Creative sound card and three IDE, ATA 133, hard drives (a 120Gb plus 2 x 60Gb). For an operating system, I chose Windows XP home. With the extra drives it may be necessary to upgrade the power supply to a 300 watt version. When I built the system this was pretty top end, however a year later the above spec is pretty modest. Consequently I would recommend this spec as a minimum.

Whereas several other combinations may well work, Matrox warn against using the popular VIA chipsets. If you want to use non-validated bits, I would suggest contacting Matrox first - they have tried most combinations. I built my suite nearly a year ago and the Asus motherboard that I used is no longer being made. Matrox have recently validated a few new ones. However at the moment their recommended list is fairly short - I guess it will lengthen in the next few months.

Building a RTX 100 system falls into four parts:

1. The first stage is to build the actual computer and install all the relevant drivers. On some cases it is a little snug fitting in three hard drives. This, I normally reckon takes about two to three hours, of which over half that time is purely loading the operating system and drivers.
2. More watching software load. Stage two just consists of loading Adobe Premiere. After checking everything is still working it is time to switch off for the next step.
3. Stage three involves the side off again and inserting the Matrox video card in one of the PCI slots. The card is fairly large. On some motherboards you may have to juggle the boards around so the end of the card does not hit the memory strips.
4. Nearly there. Finally boot up again and load the new video tools software and a few minutes later you are ready to start editing.

This is about it - sounds pretty simple and it is. The Matrox handbook has an easy to follow step by step guide. About the only thing to do is to register the product and have a look at www.fxzone.matrox.com - more about that site later.

 

The RTX 100 suite

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Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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