Inspiring

Question

What PC to build?

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
March 17, 2010
43 replies
77157 views

A question often asked is what system to build for NLE.

Basically you can think along three roads, a budget PC, an economical PC and the warrior PC. Notice that MAC is not mentioned here. There are three reasons for that, one is I'm not qualified to really advise on MAC's, two is that they are way overpriced and three they are severely limited in component choices. So this is all about PC.

Whether you want to have a budget, economical or warrior PC, there are a number of common components that you will always need, a case, a PSU, CPU cooler, monitor, keyboard, mouse, DVD/BR burner and stuff like that so I'm not going into those components.

So what is this all about?

1. CPU
2. Motherboard
3. Memory
4. Disk setup
5. Video card

This is certainly not intended to be a full description of what to buy, but only to point you in a direction that will make it easier to make your own list of components required.

CPU
Budget: i7-860, Economical: i7-930, Warrior: Dual X5680

Motherboard
Budget: ASUS P7P55D, Economical: ASUS P6T WS Pro, Warrior: SuperMicro X8DAH+

Memory
Budget: 8 GB, Economical: 12 GB, Warrior: 24+ GB

Disk setup
Budget: 3-4 SATA disks, Economical: 5-8 SATA disks (plus raid controller), Warrior: 12+ disks and Areca ARC 1880iX-16/24 controller

Video card
Budget: ATI HD 5670, Economical: nVidia GTX-285, Warrior: nVidia Quadro FX 3800+

Effectively at this moment (March 2010) that means in approximate costs for the 5 components and not counting everything else you may need,

Type PC	Approximate budget
Budget	$ 1,200
Economical	$ 2,100 (excluding RAID controller)
Warrior	$ 8,500 (including Areca RAID controller)

These figures are around minimum to budget for. I hope this gives you something to ponder about.

This topic has been closed for replies.

B

Bopfish

Participating Frequently

How about an update to this?

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

Adobe Forums: What PC to build? An update...

J

jsm1963

Participating Frequently

How is this for a place to start?

Bill Gehrke

Inspiring

The only problem is the 8 GB of memory because it is using all 4 slots with no expansion room. You really need 4 GB RAM modules.

R

RjL190365

Legend

Very true, Bill.

That custom-built has a total of only 8GB, and has no available DIMM slots for expansion. It should have had two 4GB DIMMs instead.

I

iijohnnyii

Participant

Harm,

Do you have a list of up to date components that you recommend for a new rig? Thanks for all the great info that you have put out.

John

G

gavingo2000

Participant

Good day.

I'm trying to setup a computer that can run adobe master collection cs5.

Is this ok?

Intel Core i7 2600 Processor

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 Motherboard

Intel P67 chipset

4 x DD3 DIMM slot

Build-in Raid 0 and Raid 1

High Definition Audio (up to 7 Channel)

Build in LAN (support up to Gigabit LAN)

Support 2xSATA 6GB/S; and 4xSATA 3Gb/s connection; 2x eSATA; 6xUSB 2.0; 2xUSB 3.0 ports

16GB DDR3 PC-1333

1 x Intel 120Gb SSD (for OS win7 professional)

2 x Seagate 2TB XT Barracuda Series 7200rpm hard drive

GTX570 Sonic 1280Mb GDDR 5320-bit

Thanks.

Gavin Go

S

Sebastian C.

Participant

I just bought a laptop not too long ago and instead of purchasing something new, is there any way I can improve the performance of what I have? I mostly use my laptop for editing photos, but I now want to work with the highest resolution of video that I can. I noticed AE and Pr are a bit sluggish with the HD video I've been playing with. Here's what I have for my laptop:

Quad Core Intel Core i7 processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost Technology (2.93GHz)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
8GB of DDR3 RAM & 500GM Serial ATA HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 310M (512MB) Graphics
External Hardrive 1TB, eSATA, USB 2.0
CS4 Master Collection

I also have a few other questions:

In the AE Memory and Multiprocessing preferences, if I have 8GB of RAM, how much is suggested I leave for other applications? I'm probably only going to have the Firefox browser running, if anything.
How much should I allocated to each CPU for rendering multiple frames simultaneously? Right now I have 0.5 GB per CPU.
For Multiprocessing, how many, if any, CPUs should I leave for other applications? It's at 0 now.
Should I use my local disk drive or my external hardrive to run AE and Pr? Would it make much of a difference?

I've tried playing with the settings, but I really don't know what I'm doing and I haven't found anything that really helps.

Bill Gehrke

Inspiring

I would suggest you start a new discussion rather than get into such an old existing discussion.

And about your external disk which way are you using it?

S

Sebastian C.

Participant

Hello Bill,

Thank you for your response. I didn't know if it would be considered rude to start a new thread when one already exists. There's a lot of participation in this thread and I didn't think anyone would mind if I asked a few related questions.

The external disk is new and I haven't used it for anything yet. I was thinking of using it for storage/back-up. If you think it would be best used for something else, I'm very open to ideas.

Do you have any suggestions?

N

Neostim

Participant

Hi,

I, like most others in this thread am building a custom PC (for someone), the only problem is the budget is $1,850 CAD after taxes and shipping, so it's a bit more limited, I had some questions:

In the minimum requirements it lists RAID 0, is this to be a dedicated drive for rendering only? I was planning on doing a RAID 0 (500GB drives) and an OS Drive (500GB), as well as a storage drive (2TB), does this make sense, would all cache/rending point to the RAID 0?

I'm getting the GTX 470, with using this graphics card and CUDA, does this mean it no longer uses the CPU at all, or does it use the CPU and GPU now to do the processing of the video?

The components I'm looking at getting are as follows, right now it's a bit over budget, so I'm looking at possibly going with a less expensive motherboard and going down to 8GB ram.

Graphics Card - EVGA GTX 470

CPU - Core I7 @ 3.06Ghz

Motherboard - Asus P6X58D-E

Raid 0 - 2 x 500GB Seagate 7200rpm drives

OS Drive - 1 x 500GB Seagate 7200rpm drive

Media Storage - 1 x 2TB Western Digital Green drive

RAM - 12GB - G.Skill ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB)

Case - Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP

Power Supply - CMPSU-750TX 750W (I've got to take a look at this, might not be enough)

Blu-Ray Burner - LG WH10LS30K

OS - Win7 Prof 64bit

Right now this is totalling around $1,950. First of all, does this setup look decent? It matches a lot of the others I've seen, I'm just not sure on the hard drive setup, Power Supply, and if the graphics card is doing all the work, maybe I could bump down the CPU a bit.

Thanks to anyone who replies!

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

In an editing rig, NEVER use green disks. Get full 7200 RPM disks only. Try to avoid using mid towers, better go for full size towers.

N

Neostim

Participant

Thanks for the reply! I'll look for a bigger tower, hopefully there is one in the same price range.

I'm curious on the green drive, you definitely know better then I, but I wanted to ask. If media is being stored on it, why the need for 7200rpm? I understand if your actively converting to a drive then you need speed, but once your project is done, do you typically store it on a usb drive or slower large drive, or is that demand for speed still there during playback (in the case of uncompressed video I guess?)

Thanks again for the input

Any input on the hardware I'm using, does it at look OK overall?

D

Dave514

Participating Frequently

Harm:

I'm in a position to build a new video editing coomputer for CS5. My budget is $2500. I have the CS5. Was thiiiiiiiiiiikng of getting two Hard Drives each two TB and mirroring them. Your thoughts please.

Thanks,

David

B

bad Timing

Participating Frequently

We purchased all new equipment this year. We do not have the time or

expertise to build a computer. So we buy them. The 4 computers we

purchased were all Dell Alien Auroras. We felt they were a low cost

option and their operation has been flawless. Some have the 920 and

some the 980x processors. They accommodate 4 hard drives. You can

purchase them with the RAID 1 option. We use RAID 0 without an issue.

But, we store nothing on the computers. With the 920 processor and

12 gb ram they cost about $2,200.

If the reason you are using RAID 1 is because you are storing the data

on your computer we would not use the standard 2tb drives. We prefer

enterprise hard drives. They cost considerably more (2 1/2 x ) , but

there should never be an issue. For storage we prefer RAID 6 NAS.

That is another subject altogether. Western Digital WDRE4 - GP

WD2002FYPS is a common choice. Be certain they were made after May

2010 for some pretty important upgrades.

Good luck to you.

D

Dave514

Participating Frequently

Thanks for your input. Working with CS5 I

need very speifc Nvidia Graphics Cards that optimize the

workflow not offered by Dell.

mikeklar

Inspiring

I would appreciate it if you or somone here would comment on the component selection I am planning to use to build a new workstation.

CPU - Intel Core i7 950 3.06 GHz

CPU Fan - Not yet decided

Motherboard - ASUS Rampage III Extreme

Tower - Cooler Master 922

Memory - DDR3 1600 MHz

System Drive - Raptor 10000 RPM VelociRaptor WD 3000 BLFS 300 GB

Caching and Program Drive - Seagate 7200 RPM 1.5 TB (extra one in my stock)

Power Supply - Antec TPQ-1000 TruPower Quattro 1000 watt

Four hard drives at 2TB eatch to be configured as RAID5 - Seagate 7200 RPM

RAID card- Adaptec RAID 3405 (moved from existing computer)

Video card - nVIDIA Quattro FX 3800 (moved from existing computer)

BluRay - LG BH10

DVD Burnger

Two SSD drives for caching- not yet decided

I'd be interested in comments about the ASUS Rampage III Extreme. My reason for choosing it is the two extra SATA ports with 6.0 Gp/s as well the USB 3.0 ports. In addition the ability to tweak the clocking.

Cheers,

Michael

flbreen9380904

Inspiring

My olny concern is that the case is large enough to provide a 1 inch gap between the video card and the drive bays.

In the PC is asembled this summer the video card was so long that there was no gap.

It was hard to push the video card in and all the power lines and some SATA lines had to run over the video card.

mikeklar

Inspiring

Your point is one I did consider when selecting this case, having gone through this a couple of months ago with a nVIDIA's Quattro FX 4800 card which did not fit into my existing tower. This case is 3.5 inches deeper than the one I have now and the hard drives are placed sideways so that the cabling does not extend into the case. I selected it in part due to the location it will have to occupy and the manner in which it vents. The biggest turnoff is the "red LED lit front fan", which, hopefully can be turned off, I mean the LED not the fan.

Your point is of importance as I expect to add another video card and this time one without compromize.

Thank you for your input.

Cheers,

Michael

R

ruma bambusa

Participant

Hi, Urgent help requested

We are running a development project in East Timor,

Currently we are trying to put together a computer to run Premiere Pro CS5

one configuration we have been advised is

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R MB, Intel P55, DDR3 2000, PCI-Ex16, SATA3, USB 3.0

CPU: i7-870 Core i7 QUAD CORE CPU , 2.93 GHz, Socket LGA1156

Graphics Card: ATI HD 5750 PCI-E 2.0 1GB 128 bit GDDR5

Sound Card: Intergrated 7.1 HD Audio

Hard Disk Drive: 2 x 1.5TB Seagate SATA2 HDD in RAID 0 (SPEED)

RAM: 8 Gigabytes 1333 Mhz DDR3 (64Bit OS only)

Found at

http://www.gr-tek.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=Corei5ExtremeGaming

or from

http://www.pcmarket.com.au/system-details.php?computersystem_id=2203&todo=switchview&newtopage=true

or could you suggest changes from options available

Cheers

JaysonM-Y

Participating Frequently

if you're not gonna build it yourself, http://www.adkvideoediting.com/ is our trusted builders.

and for laptops, go Sager.

4 things i had trouble with

you need one more disk for your OS a 200-300gb vraptor(10k-15krpm) would do.

Processor - i7950 would be better

Ram - 12gb(3x2gb sticks) DDR3 @ 1600

Gfx Card - Nvidia gtx470

Also, you forgot to mention your budget.

R

ruma bambusa

Participant

Thanks for the feedback,

Yes we are not in a position here where we can afford to build ourselves (East Timor)

I will also need to use an Australian based company as this is where we need to get our supplies from

We are an NGO development program and fund are always tight and tightly monitored but a system that will work is essential

We are not making top end productions only information and education materials to use locally

I will check your suggestions with the suppliers that I can locate

Any further feedback greatly appreciated

Cheers

A

AlistairY

Participant

Many thanks for all the advice you give.

I currently use Premiere Pro with a Matrox card for editing DV but I hope to get CS5 in the near future with a view to switching to AVCHD. Based on what I have read in this forum I put together specifications for an editing computer and requested a quote from a supplier.

I requested:

Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
Processor	Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz
RAM	12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM or similar
Boot Drive	300/500GB? Hard Drive - 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Video Storage	1 X 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 2 X 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s RAID 0	pagefile/scratch/renders Video storage	samsung hd103uj ?? Seems to be highly thought of
Case	Something with plenty of cooling
Power Supply	reliable 850W	Corsair or CoolerMaster ??
DVD Burner	Blu-ray Disc Burner	LG GGW-H20L BR/DVD burner ??
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
OS	Windows 7 64-bit Pro?

They have responded with a quote incorporating the following. I find the details confusing so have included it in the hope that you can say ok or not.

The different motherboard worries me and I am not sure if the disks are suitable.

Cpu	Intel lga1366 i7 930 - Quad core+Hyper-Threading / 8 threads , 2.88ghz box cpu / 3.06ghz turbo boost , 4.8GT/s - 1x QPi , VT-x , no VT-d + no TXT, no ASE , built-in tripple channel DDR3-1066 memory controler , support upto 24gb , 25.6GB/sec memory bandwidth , 45nm - 4x64k L1 + 1mb(4 x 256kb) L2 cache + 8mb L3 cache , with VT-x
Motherboard	ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme LGA1366 mb ; with on-board extreme OC tweakIt , Dual BIOS , external debug LED poster , EL i/o , Voltminder LED ( cpu/mem/nb/sb voltage warning led ) , on-board on/off/clear CMOS switch , fanless heatpipe design , 16+2 phase power design , nVidia SLI / ATi coressfire ready ; intel X58+iCH10R , 6x tripple channel 2-phase DDR3 2000 ( support XMP upto 1.69v ) , 9 x s-ata2 with raid 0/1//0+1/5/10 ( 8 x SATA + 1 x e-SATA ) , 1 x parallel ata133 , on-board SupremeFX II ADI 2000B Dobly Digital live 7.1 audio with coaxial+optical S/Pdif out + dual gigabit lan + ieee1394a ; 1x pci , 2 x pci-e(1x) , 3 x pci-e 2.0 (16x+16x+1x or 16x+8x+8x ) - 1 x PS2 only for kb
Ram	Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1333C9 , XMS 3 , with heatsink , 3 x 2Gb kit - support Intel XMP ( eXtreme Memory Profiles ) , ddr3-1333 ( PC3-10666 ) , CL9 , 1.5v - 240pin - lifetime warranty
Hdd	seagate barracuda 7200.12 st3500418as , 500gb, sata3G , 7200rpm, 16mb cache - 3 years warrenty
Hdd	seagate barracuda ES2 ST31000340NS / constellation ES ST31000524NS , dual processor + multi-drive firmware maximized , 500gb, sata3G , 7200rpm, 32mb cache, designed for 24x7 digital video surveillance or business-critical applications ( NAS , video surveillance … ETC ) - 5 years warrenty
Case	Coolermaster RC-690-KKN1 , CM690 black , No psu ( bottom placed psu design ) : tools free for Pci+3.5"+5.25" ; 2 x front usb + audio in/out + ieee1394 - 4/5x 5.25", 1/0 x 3.5" , 5x 3.5" hidden ( hdd side removable ) - 1 x front blue-led fan + 1 x rear 120mm fan + 1 x side 120mm fan upto 7 - atx
PSU	Corsair TX850 , Eps12V , ATX 12V V2.2 - 850w ( 12v : 840w ) , nvidia SLi ready , 80PLUS certified for energy saving , 24pin ( 4pin detachable ) , with active-PFC , 4 x 8pin (2+6) PCI-E power connectors , 8x SATA , 1x 140mm thermal controled fan ; with OCP, OVP, OPP, SCP, UVP - 5 years warranty - no power cord
Blu-Ray	LG BH10LS30 , Lightscribe , black , Dual Layer , Blu-Ray writer (10x) , 50/25/17/8.5/4.7GB : DL BD-RE , DL BD-R , DL dvd+R , dvd±r/rw ; SATA , 2mb buffer
Gpu	Asus ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5 , HDMi ready , geforce GTX470 , 40nm , SLi support , Pci-E 2.0 16x , support HybridPower , 1.25Gb/1280mb 320bit DDR5 , support 3D Surround + DirectX 11+tessellation + shader model 5.0 + 32x AA ; max resolution 2560x1600 , HDCP Compliant , RoPs : 40 , 133.9Gb/sec memory transfer , 448 cuda cores @ 1.215Ghz ( pixel shader engine + vertex pipelines ) , core/memory : 607/3348mhz , 2x dvi + HDMi ( with dvi to d-sub converter )

Apologies for the level of detail but I don't know what to exclude.

A

adam77777

Participant

According to the PPBM5 Benchmark results for the ultimate system, is an overclocled i7 920 cpu almost as good as an overclocled i7 980 for premiere pro cs5? (...so is the 920 better than the 940, 965, xeon, etc ?)