Topic: Help me build a nice fast video editing PC

[mizary]

Ok... I am spec'ing out a new computer for work.

I don't have an exact budget... but I think it's around $2500-3000 with display... I'll probably ask for a 24" dell LCD for a display - so that's $700 right there...

here are my ideas so far...

case + PS $100-150
MB $100-150
CPU $980 QX6850 3.0ghz extreme
VID $50-100
HD1 $240 150gb x2 raptor RAID 0 striped
HD3 $105 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 16mb
RAM $175 ($100AR) 4gb CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - Retail $87 for 2gb $47 AR
DVD burner $25-40
OS $140 WINXP PRO or probably Vista in order to take advantage of the 64bit goodness.

I'll be using this machine for design, flash as well as video editing... so I want a fast CPU and fast drives. I would never buy an extreme cpu for myself... you can OC cheaper cpus to the same speeds. But I doubt they will let me OC my pc at work for some stupid reason. Oh, well.

Other than OC'ing is the QX6850 the fastest chip out there? Would there be any benefit to going xeon? I couldn't see much advantage in going xeon for what I am doing.

My biggest question at this point is what MB and video card should I get.

Should I try to do dual sli? would 2 $50 video cards be better than one $100 card?

I don't do any 3d so I don't need a fancy gamer video card. A single $50 card should be fine... I just know NOTHING about video cards. What is a good card for video? I don't need any video outs or inputs. Just decent performance. Also I am familiar with NVIDIA cards as that's what I have at home and currently at work, so that would be a plus - but I can go with anything.

I'd like to look into SAS for the HD's - but it's just too new... plus the striped raptors should scream.

does anything else look funny?

RAM suggestions? the CORSAIR XMS2 is pretty popular.

Case/PSU suggestions? I shouldn't need a beefy PSU. And could care less about the case... the cheaper the better.

MB suggestions? I like gigabyte and ASUS... but could be talked into another brand.

are the sony/NEC dvd burners the way to go? I had bad luck with my last plextor.

Also I suspect everything will have to come from newegg and I doubt they will want to deal with any rebates.

any suggestions are appreciated...

--mizary

[gearscout]

You failed to mention the most important element: Your software.

For example, if you are going to use Adobe Premiere Pro, there are some specific hardware requirements.  This goes even further if you will add a graphics/editing effect accelerator, like the RT.X2   The editing accelerator really will reduce editing time and give you more "real time" effects.

Basically, don't figure on a lot of advantage going to a RAID array.  It's more important just to have fast hard drives and put the OS on HDD 1 and use HDD 2 for scratch edits and export to HDD 3.

Consider Matrox Graphics cards for dual or even triple monitors.  It's very convenient and no doubt cheaper to use two 20" or larger monitors than one of the larger, 24, 26 or 28" monitors.  You end up with more real estate on your desktop, too.  The P750 is a good video editing card.  (But doesn't "qualify" for use with RT.X2 hardware accelerator.)

I think most of today's systems will accommodate video editing very well.  Double check over at

Motherboards.org

I would also skip the "Extreme CPU."  You don't really need it.  Spend your money on RAM, a Lian-Li aluminum case, extra fans and an Enermax high-end power supply.  Separate SATA HDD drives are essential.

Avoid problems: Check with your video editing software manufacturer (like Adobe, etc.) to determine which motherboards and chipsets will work best with their products.  In the end, video editing is somewhat less about speed and somewhat more about compatibility.  If you get a hardware accelerator, it is absolutely essential.

[John Kary]

You don't need 2 raptors for your system drive.  Get ONE and put the other money towards a RAID0 for storage.

You DO need a good video card... $50/100 won't cut it really.  You should spend about $150 on a card.  A lot of video effects in software are GPU-accelerated.  If you leave it to the CPU to process you'll be bogging your system down.  SLI isn't worth getting in this scenario.

Don't bother with Vista, either, IMO.

I've had luck with the Asus P5B-Deluxe board.  If you know what you're doing you won't have any issues.

[phanophish]

Actually some of the less expensive cards support Premiere.  Here's the list from their site...

ATI Radeon X1950 PCI-Express Full Support 
ATI Radeon X1900 PCI-Express Full Support 
ATI x1900 PCI-Express Full Support Mac only
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI-Express Full Support Mac only
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 PCI-Express Full Support Mac only
NVIDIA Quadro FX 55/5600 PCI-Express Full Support 
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI-Express Full Support 
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 PCI-Express Full Support 
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 PCI-Express Full Support 
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 PCI-Express Full Support 
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 PCI-Express Full Support 


I'd also lean away from the absolute top of the line processor.  Maybe something like the Core 2 Quad Q6600, it's got 95% of the performance in Premiere for about $300.  http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=946&model2=882&chart=432

[taper420]

not to get into a pc mac fight, but for what you're doing a mac would be primo. Although my work just spent $7000 on an editing mac (which is much more than you have to spend), so I can see maybe you're trying to get the best deal for your money. It's just... I personally love the software that mac has: FCP, DVDSP, and you can get adobe too.

Anyway I just saw this recently... maybe it's worth you checking out....it's called a hackintosh, you build it yourself:
http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800-321913.php

[kskreider]

If you are building a Windows PC then here is your case.  I use it and love it!

Nevermind, sold out.

[mizary]

You failed to mention the most important element: Your software.

I currently use vegas, which I don't think uses any GPU acceleration... it's all about the CPU.  (I think)

The cpu is probably going to be a Q6600 unless the Q9300 comes out real soon.  And I think I am going to be allowed to OC it.  The 9300 has been OC'd to 3.5ghz

I still can't decide on how to do the HD's - for a while I was thinking of raid 5 with a HW raid card.  But it's got some speed problems...  but I need my current project data to be backed up.  Currently I am considering 2 raptors striped for OS/current project drive and "mirroring" just my working folder onto a third 500gb drive as a back up.  I've also thought about two separate raid 0 arrays.  but then you need 4 HD's...   or maybe raid 0+1

which would be faster
#1 having a working directory on the same raid 0 array as the OS.
#2 having the working directory on a separate drive from the os but not striped/raid 0.

in situation #1 does it matter if you make several partitions?  I'd probably make a 30gb partition for the OS/apps and one for working files.

Same question for the windows swap file...  keep it on the raid 0 array which also contains the OS - or put it on a separate drive that's not raided.  is it "6 of one, a half dozen of the other?"

at this point I am tired of thinking about it.  Anything will be better than what I have now...

as for the video card I did upgrade it to a $170 one...  evga 8600gts 512mb ddr3

and I will be using two monitors...  a 24" dell ultrasharp and an old 21" trinitron CRT.  Eventually I'd like to get a SLI system and run 3-4 monitors but that's a good 3-5 years off.  1920x1200 + 1600x1200 will be ok for now.  That's more total res than a dell 30" (2560x1600)

--mizary

[wilsonedits]

i don't think nice fast editing systems exists on pc... unless your a big fan of constant crashes

buy a mac ! 

[saltman]

You failed to mention the most important element: Your software.

I currently use vegas, which I don't think uses any GPU acceleration... it's all about the CPU.  (I think)

The cpu is probably going to be a Q6600 unless the Q9300 comes out real soon.  And I think I am going to be allowed to OC it.  The 9300 has been OC'd to 3.5ghz

I still can't decide on how to do the HD's - for a while I was thinking of raid 5 with a HW raid card.  But it's got some speed problems...  but I need my current project data to be backed up.  Currently I am considering 2 raptors striped for OS/current project drive and "mirroring" just my working folder onto a third 500gb drive as a back up.  I've also thought about two separate raid 0 arrays.  but then you need 4 HD's...   or maybe raid 0+1

which would be faster
#1 having a working directory on the same raid 0 array as the OS.
#2 having the working directory on a separate drive from the os but not striped/raid 0.

in situation #1 does it matter if you make several partitions?  I'd probably make a 30gb partition for the OS/apps and one for working files.

Same question for the windows swap file...  keep it on the raid 0 array which also contains the OS - or put it on a separate drive that's not raided.  is it "6 of one, a half dozen of the other?"

at this point I am tired of thinking about it.  Anything will be better than what I have now...

as for the video card I did upgrade it to a $170 one...  evga 8600gts 512mb ddr3

and I will be using two monitors...  a 24" dell ultrasharp and an old 21" trinitron CRT.  Eventually I'd like to get a SLI system and run 3-4 monitors but that's a good 3-5 years off.  1920x1200 + 1600x1200 will be ok for now.  That's more total res than a dell 30" (2560x1600)

--mizary

you want your raptors in raid0 with the programs/swap.  and your working files on a scratch drive.      video card is not important for rendering but is important for editing.  When you are doing 3-4 cam HD mixes, preview will kill low memory slow cards.

[rastasean]

apple.com

you can custom make your own machine and use a great OS

[gearscout]

I've used Premiere Pro on Windows and Final Cut Pro on Mac.

There really isn't THAT much difference.  Whatever you become accustomed to, becomes the easiest.

There are advantages and disadvantages using either one.  Both do an excellent job.

I have no personal experience with Sony Vegas Pro, but it is around $600 list...$400 street.  The two listed above are around twice that. 

Premiere has bundles that go much higher -- CS3 Suite lists for $1700.

Final Cut Pro HD isn't cheap either. The Studio edition sells for $1300.

The operating deck really isn't an issue.

[mizary]

we went with a Q6600 cpu (due to budget) - right now it's OC'd to 3ghz...  might go higher it's running very cool right now...  I figured with the OC I should get close to the extreme c2d speeds (w/o OC)

We got 4 raptors...  one for the OS/app drive and 3 for a hardware raid 5 array.   I really needed a backup solution for my current projects and this took care of it.  I would have liked to have ran with 5 raptors, 2 striped and a raid 5.  but $$$ was adding up.  Heck the HD's and raid card totaled almost $900.

It got slapped into a nice cooler master case.

the vid card ended up being a $170-ish evga 8600gts (I think) with 512mb of ddr3 ram...

I just wish I'd got faster ram...  I just have 4x1gb CORSAIR XMS2 ddr2 800mhz ram...  but I might be able to OC it...  I didn't do the OC...  So I don't know how it's set up.

the new box is sitting right next to me - but I've been too busy to look at it...  I will start moving my data over to it on monday.

--mizary

[Brian Skalinder]

I really needed a backup solution for my current projects and this took care of it.

I think you already know this, but I'll reiterate for those who may stumble across the thread:  RAID doesn't provide backup, it provides redundancy.  You should still ensure you have backups offline from the RAID array.

I just wish I'd got faster ram...  I just have 4x1gb CORSAIR XMS2 ddr2 800mhz ram...  but I might be able to OC it...  I didn't do the OC...  So I don't know how it's set up.

What RAM, specifically, do you have?  Do you know its latency specs?  Faster speed (i.e. > 800 MHz) may or may not help you, depending on the motherboard's FSB (front side bus) speed.  But using lower latency RAM and running dual channel (2 x 2 GB) v. a single 4GB may help.  Regardless, I'd talk to whoever did the OC and ask them to clock the RAM at a rate that's optimal for the FSB speed and CPU clock speed.

Note:  I only recently dug into the details of how CPU, RAM, and FSB speed all work together to deliver performance, so I'm not a diehard, super-experienced expert.

[gearscout]

we went with a Q6600 cpu (due to budget) - right now it's OC'd to 3ghz...  might go higher it's running very cool right now...  I figured with the OC I should get close to the extreme c2d speeds (w/o OC)
--mizary

Mizary,

I would NOT overclock a video editing rig.  Yours should be plenty fast.  Stability counts for more than raw speed. 

[saltman]

should have gotten more ram.  with what you have spent on hdds you could have gotten bigger chips.  ram is so cheap nowadays.  are your slots full?  does your mobo allow 8GB or more?

you're also going to miss having a striped primary drive set.  That would have been your biggest performance item.

no need to have raptor speed drives in a backup array.