My Video Editing Computer Build

[mdxn17]

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n Motherboard - Intel P45, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, Firewire, USB 2.0, eSATA, RAID

 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor - 2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, Kentsfield, Quad-Core, OEM, Socket 775, Processor

 

Corsair XMS3 2048MB Dual Channel PC10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)

 

Thermaltake Black Armor Full-Tower ATX Case with 11 External Drive Bays, Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports

 

Cooler master extreme power duo 650w

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM

 

Lite-ON IHAS220-08 SuperAllwrite SATA 20x DVD Burner with Lightscribe (Retail) - 20x DVD

[suchuwato]

I get by with a x1950pro at the moment

 

It depends what sort of work you'll be doing, especially what formats you're working with and what sort of plugins and stuff you use. Also, ditch the DDR3 for 4gb of DDR2, and look into getting separate drives for OS, Programs and Video...

 

Generally speaking, you won't need a Quadro though.

[ir_cow]

only the new Quadro CX is used in CS4. yes its just enabling CUDA to work but its smart marking move or people would just buy a 8800gt and have more power. also all CUDA does with CS4 is offload image scaling in photoshop (which you will not notice unless working with 20mp RAW files or larger). after effects is the biggest effected by offloading all the "3d" and "layers" to the card but than again you have to be doing some pretty heavy stuff to use that and than you might have well have a server farm for rendering times. finally in premiere you just get H.264 encoding (which is just MP4-AVC) also pointless because VC-1 looks better on blu-ray.

 

 

as for which is better, i would just softmod your 3870 if you really feel the need to do heavy 3dmax or Maya work. elsewise ANY video card will do as NONE of those cards you have listed will offload work in CS4 so its a waste.

 

 

also the 5600 is faster than the 1700 but not by that much because i dont think the quadro supports CUDA since its based on the 6600gt.

edit: i take it back the 1700 is based on the 8600gt but nvidia isnt going to enable CUDA on the rest of their quadro cards.

 

 

this is what i would do if your doing basic 1080p work and dont have more money to shell out.

 

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n Motherboard- okay

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor - okay

Corsair XMS3 2048MB - Grab some reapers instead and why are you getting DDR3?

Thermaltake Black Armor Full- case doesn't really matter

Cooler master extreme power duo 650w - no clue about power supplies

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - no need for large main drive, get something in the $70 range and by a second for scratch disc and another for your files (maybe raid-1)

Lite-ON IHAS220-08 SuperAllwrite SATA 20x DVD Burner with Lightscribe (Retail) - Lite-on sucks already have 2 that wont burn anything i would grab LG

 

Quadro FX 570 Video Card or PNY Quadro FX 1700 or ATI FireGL V5600 Video Card- wouldnt get any just stick to your 3870 because your throwing away $500

(I already have a Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Video Card)

 

 

what is your price range? from the look of it you have around $2,000 to spend.

[mdxn17]

This is what i would do if your doing basic 1080p work and dont have more money to shell out.

 

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n Motherboard- okay

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor - okay

Corsair XMS3 2048MB - Grab some reapers instead and why are you getting DDR3?

Thermaltake Black Armor Full- case doesn't really matter

Cooler master extreme power duo 650w - no clue about power supplies

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - no need for large main drive, get something in the $70 range and by a second for scratch disc and another for your files (maybe raid-1)

Lite-ON IHAS220-08 SuperAllwrite SATA 20x DVD Burner with Lightscribe (Retail) - Lite-on sucks already have 2 that wont burn anything i would grab LG

 

Quadro FX 570 Video Card or PNY Quadro FX 1700 or ATI FireGL V5600 Video Card- wouldnt get any just stick to your 3870 because your throwing away $500

(I already have a Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Video Card)

 

 

what is your price range? from the look of it you have around $2,000 to spend.

 

 

I got the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n Motherboard because it features DDR3

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - Because 4 cores!

Corsair XMS3 2048MB - I don't know it's just DDR3 Memory

 

 

Whats wrong with using DDR3 memory for Video Editing, isn't it like the fastest ever?

You could use like 2 GB and 1 DDR3 Memory stick beats that?

 

 

 

Well my price range is around $700-900 because I mostly have everything except the Motherboard, Memory, Case, HDD, and DVD Burner.

Edited November 13, 2008 by mdxn17

[ir_cow]

well if you already have the board and some memory, no bigger but really in "real world" apps ddr3 is no faster and when it comes to editing the more the better, i would start with 4gb at lest for 1080 work. I used that up in seconds so i ended up getting another pair to max out my board.

 

 

if your not going to get the Core i7s and the x58 MB (which is really costly) grab a P35 or 45 chipset with DDR2 supprt (i guess Asus if you like them i personally have been getting gigbyte boards since Socket A days. grab two sets of 2x2gb OCZ reapers.

 

 

as for case, whatever holds the stuff i guess.

 

dvd burner you want to go with LG or buy another drive in a few months

 

and for harddrives i truly suggest getting a dedicated drive for the "scratch disc" (raid-0 works the best but that cost more, so grab a seagate .11 series and it should be fast enough). than get a drive for your movie files. I was just helping out on a 110minute feature film and it turned out to be over 3tbs in space once edited. when you space it out you have to remember to times the movie by 4x because of all the retakes you have to do. I don't know how much HD work you are going to do but its about 1gb a minute compressed so keep that in mind.

[mdxn17]

well if you already have the board and some memory, no bigger but really in "real world" apps ddr3 is no faster and when it comes to editing the more the better, i would start with 4gb at lest for 1080 work. I used that up in seconds so i ended up getting another pair to max out my board.

 

 

if your not going to get the Core i7s and the x58 MB (which is really costly) grab a P35 or 45 chipset with DDR2 support (i guess Asus if you like them i personally have been getting gigabyte boards since Socket A days. grab two sets of 2x2gb OCZ reapers.

 

 

as for case, whatever holds the stuff i guess.

 

DVD burner you want to go with LG or buy another drive in a few months

 

and for hard drives i truly suggest getting a dedicated drive for the "scratch disc" (raid-0 works the best but that cost more, so grab a seagate .11 series and it should be fast enough). than get a drive for your movie files. I was just helping out on a 110minute feature film and it turned out to be over 3tbs in space once edited. when you space it out you have to remember to times the movie by 4x because of all the retakes you have to do. I don't know how much HD work you are going to do but its about 1gb a minute compressed so keep that in mind.

 

 

As for the DVD burner I I have like 2 Lite-ON DVD drives and I don't think I've even used it for labels because I heard it sucked, gonna get a LG For sure though now. Maybe a Blu-Ray DVD burner later

 

I was wondering what the core i7i was and x58 was....

If it's the latest I was looking into getting into it. I haven't learned anything about it yeat but I heard it's good.

But if it's too much I'll go with this setup until later future.

As of now im looking at this article/review about what it is

http://www.guru3d.com/article/intel-core-i...nd-965-review/3

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/11/0...l-core-i7-920/1

 

 

I have no idea about RAID, tried looking it up and it just confused the hell out of me.. LOL

Edited November 13, 2008 by mdxn17

[ir_cow]

basically the its Intels new cpu, the slowest launch cpu which is like $250 2.66ghz quad out preforms intels current fastest cpu QX9770 3.2ghz extreme. so its a big deal in the editing world with the support for SSE4.2 that only seen in the Xeons. the SSE4 can cut encoding times in half.

 

 

but yeah $300 for the 58x MB + $250 min for a CPU and $200 for 6gb DDR3 Tri-kit =$750 where as you can get Q6600 + $100 MB and 8gb of DDR2 for $400 give or take.

 

as for raid, once you decide what you're going for and the "real" amount of money you have left to spend i'll help to determine what or if you need raid. also what type of work are you thinking of doing? as in HD or SD for video and what encoding do you think you'll be using? like is all the content for the web or for a dvd / blu-ray disc?

[mdxn17]

basically the its Intels new cpu, the slowest launch cpu which is like $250 2.66ghz quad out preforms intels current fastest cpu QX9770 3.2ghz extreme. so its a big deal in the editing world with the support for SSE4.2 that only seen in the Xeons. the SSE4 can cut encoding times in half.

 

 

but yeah $300 for the 58x MB + $250 min for a CPU and $200 for 6gb DDR3 Tri-kit =$750 where as you can get Q6600 + $100 MB and 8gb of DDR2 for $400 give or take.

 

as for raid, once you decide what you're going for and the "real" amount of money you have left to spend i'll help to determine what or if you need raid. also what type of work are you thinking of doing? as in HD or SD for video and what encoding do you think you'll be using? like is all the content for the web or for a dvd / blu-ray disc?

 

 

Yeah, I guess I'll go for the other setup until it's on tigerdirect so I could do that billmelater thing

 

 

Well I use, Mini DV, and High Definition and I usually have 2 HD Angles(Panasonic HVX200, Canon HV30) with 2 Diffrent cameras and about 1-3 DV Angles sometimes, not always. I already have 2 full 250 GB Hard drives. Haven't been filming latley due to my other camera being in the shop.

[ir_cow]

i got the panasonic HVX200a its AMAZING!..anyways... you seem to have to down but 500gb will not get you far. also why are you using tigerdirect?!?! i think newegg has the same billllater thing

[mdxn17]

i got the panasonic HVX200a its AMAZING!..anyways... you seem to have to down but 500gb will not get you far. also why are you using tigerdirect?!?! i think newegg has the same billllater thing

 

 

Yeah it is!!!

 

Yeah this is what I had before getting all those cameras. I haven't captared footage in awhile until I get another hard drive. All these DV tapes are gonna kill me for the DV cameras. <3 P2..

 

 

IDK, I'd perfer tigerdirect just because I bought something from newegg awhile back and returned it and they never gave a refund or anything.

[ir_cow]

thats odd, tigerdirect is the one know to do that and re-bates just don't work. after buying retail stuff and getting a bunch of white boxes (no UPC, no cables, no nothing just the OEM part) that's the last time i'll buy anything from them.

 

 

 

yeah P2 = LOVE and i like how adobe natively supports DVCPROHD, makes life really easy unlike stupid Final Cut that im dealing with right now...GRRRR

[suchuwato]

yeah P2 = LOVE and i like how adobe natively supports DVCPROHD, makes life really easy unlike stupid Final Cut that im dealing with right now...GRRRR

 

While I'd normally be congratulating you for using Adobe over FCP, DVCPROHD sucks, so bah