36 replies to this topic

[spikespiegel]

Hi everyone, its been many many years since i've used OCC, but its great to be back. I 've been using sager laptops for all my computing needs at work but now my business mandates a desktop that can render video/editing matters and have a HUGE amount of storage. As such, these are the specs: 

 

-Processor: Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 Six-Core Desktop Processor
-RAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR GT 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) 
-ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
-GPU: EVGAGeForce GTX680
-PSU: Thortech 1000Watt PSU
-HDD: OS drive 480gb SSD
-HDD: Storage: 8 x 3tb

-CASE: Xigmatek Elysium Black CCC-HSA0DS-U01 All Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Super Tower Computer Case

 

 

I really need some advice on how I can assemble my storage drives with this build; the case supports that many drives, and the PSU can power that many drives.. Do i need a raid controller now to build my raid  (most likely raid 5 or 6)..? 

 

Also, if you have any advice on what I can do better, please let me know. $$$ is not an issue. 

 

Thank you!!

Edited by spikespiegel, 12 February 2013 - 02:02 AM.

[wevsspot]

Hey Spike - personally I think you need to re-think your entire storage solution.  The X79 Sabretooth has a total of 8 physical SATA connectors onboard ( 4 SATA 3Gb/s and 4 SATA 6Gb/s).  By my count you've got nine physical drives to connect and that doesn't include a connection port for an optical drive yet.  That leaves you with the options of an add-in card / external DAS / external NAS solutions.

 

Definitely you want to build a RAID6 array - I highly discourage anyone from using RAID5 with 2Tb or larger storage drives.  You are setting yourself up for failure if you ever really have a drive fail and need to rebuild the array.

 

I was surprised by your choice of video cards too.  If you won't be doing any gaming, then I think you would be better off researching workstation class gpus instead of consumer class gpus.  Although if you need a compromise between the two, personally I'd be looking at the HD 7950 or HD 7970 instead of the GTX 680.  

 

Good luck.

[hornybluecow]

I would scrap the CPU and think about a dual CPU setup like 2x 6core xeons (2.4ghz will cost a about the same total but give you much better results.

Second is your video card , what app are you using? I ask because some support video acceleration (h.264) others don't , maybe what format you will be encoding in.

Last I suggest you get 64gb (8x8gb) , video editing / encodin eats ram . No need to go any faster than 1600 so whatever is the cheapest it won't make a difference in render time for big things.

P.s if you haven't been in the loop for a while check out my workstation guide in my sig to get you started on the information train .

Edited by hornybluecow, 12 February 2013 - 07:13 AM.

[ohldboy]

Thortech does not seem the "best choice" for power supply, Seasonic, Corsair, Antec, would be better choices.

see http://jonnyguru.com and jonnyguru forums.

Also 750 watts would work suffice, pprobably 650.

 

http://www.techpower...rtech/TTBPK00G/

 

http://www.jonnyguru...=print&reid=260

Edited by ohldboy, 12 February 2013 - 07:35 AM.

[vandreadstriker]

Agree with all of the above...

 

Definitely stay with RAID6. Don't really know much about RAID controllers but this seems to be one of the best AFAIK:

LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 9260-4i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 w/ 512MB onboard memory RAID Controller Card, Kit

 

If you insist on staying single CPU, I'd say get this board instead:

ASRock X79 Extreme9

Might not have the 'ASUS edge' or be a tank like the TUF, but it has sh*tload of SATA ports, good powerphase design and solid performance as far as I can tell.

Plus a free sound card/network card...

 

Like bluecow said, you don't really need anything quicker than 1600 so here's something you might fancy:

CORSAIR Vengeance 64GB (8 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model CMZ64GX3M8A1600C9

 

You really don't want to skimp out on PSU. Sh*t happens and when it does, your PSU can fry the whole system. The Thortech Thunderbolt seems quite alright from reviews but voltage regulations seems a bit off. I really suggest getting Seasonic made PSUs instead. The X-1050 only cost $5 more afterall (50W for $5 more doesn't seem unreasonable in this case..)

 

Also, out of curiosity, what SSD do you have in mind?

 

[hornybluecow]

Watch out on the x79 onboard raid kinda doesn't work and has been noted on many forums . I have a thread someone on occ with my failed attempt. I ended up getting a older Lsi card ( because I'm only do raid-1 and don't care about speed ) .


Personally I really dislike asrock and it hates me too. For $15-50 more you can get a asus board and it may not have as many ports but at lest it works how its suppose to . Also watch out as some board do not support raid cards ( I thought it was odd until I did some reading ) . Certain pcie slots will cause a no post or the card just won't show up . Sometimes emailing the company or googling if anyone had issues saved you headaches.

Also I'm wondering why raid-5 is bad with 2tb drives ? The only thing I can think if is you can ink have 1 bad drive at a time

Edited by hornybluecow, 12 February 2013 - 09:16 AM.

[EuroFight]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but could you not approach this from a software RAID point-of-view. Although you loose some functionality and some performance, it bypasses all hardware compatibility issues you may run into and is much cheaper?

 

I'll leave this one to hornybluecow, considering he is the expert, but it may be something to consider.

[hornybluecow]

Haha I'm not an expert , I think weve knows more . I personally could not get raid to work on the x79 in software and after I googled it I found about 98% of everyone else had the same issue . The raid drivers for the x79 is a bastard child of the c602 and either works (Iike loads ) or give you an error . I tried 30 different set of drivers and only 1 loaded but no drives showed up .

Also we've pointed out the lack if Sata ports

[El_Capitan]

Yeah, RAID 1 for my HDD's on my x79 motherboards go out every now and again. RAID 0's on my SSD's have been stellar, though.

 

Look at my systems, I have a 3-year old dual XEON server using a 3ware 9650SE-8LPML with 3ware BBU-MODULE-04 for 8 x 1TB HDD's in RAID 10. Works quite well. Though throughput can be an issue. If you're looking for just storage, then all 8 drives in one array is best. If the drives are going to be constantly accessed, you might want to create multiple array types, maybe setup a SSD or RAMDisk for caching or temp files.

[wevsspot]

I don't know the technical reasons why, but RAID5 has been a fairly well documented pain in the arse with drives 2Tb or larger when trying to rebuild.  My best guess is that the dual parity offered in RAID6 is more robust when dealing with the larger drives and overall amount of storage space.  RAID5 is a single parity scheme, and I think that is what causes the majority of the problems.  I'm not aware of any software options for creating a RAID6 so that points you back to more reliable option of a hardware based RAID6 array similar to what Cappy describes above.

[ComputerEd]

I would first look at dropping the video. All of the articles I have read and the people that do it professional I have spoken to have told me that software based (CPU) word is better quality than the various GPU driven systems. It might be slower but in a professional capacity slower and higher quality should win. I would also look at what kind of overclock you can get on the CPU. This is one of the times that a CPU overclock with provide a serious boost to the performance at every level. A pure CPU use system will benefit from the higher speed and use it to max potential.

[hornybluecow]

I would first look at dropping the video. All of the articles I have read and the people that do it professional I have spoken to have told me that software based (CPU) word is better quality than the various GPU driven systems. It might be slower but in a professional capacity slower and higher quality should win. I would also look at what kind of overclock you can get on the CPU. This is one of the times that a CPU overclock with provide a serious boost to the performance at every level. A pure CPU use system will benefit from the higher speed and use it to max potential.

 

I would agree CPU renders are much better quality for the most part. I use the GPU for H.264 and I don't care about a little artifacts (youtube videos). The only major reason to have a certain video card is if you scrubbing video and or adding filters / video effects.

 

For the CPU yeah an overclock will make a difference but a even a dual socket (6core 2.4ghz) is faster than a single 4.5ghz 3960k. If you have dual 8cores at 2.0ghz thats even faster. don't let the low clocks fool you as it did to me in the past. Only reason not to go dual socket for video editing is money limits.