video editing build

[Zargon]

Friend of mine asked for input on a video editing machine

his dell died a few weeks ago, and hes always wanted to build a computer(mid 50's)

asked me for help, I know very little about the requirements of video editing beyond that quicksync is supposed to rock and you can never have enough ram right?

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Video editing, likely in adobe or vegas

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

around a grand

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

nope

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

nope

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

its my understanding that quicksync is only on locked CPU's

8. What resolution will you be using?

no idea

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

in the next week or so


OTHER INFO:
no microcenter nearby. good UPS suggestions appreciated as well(going to say under 100 bucks, unless the pure sine stuff is right above that)

going a lil extra on CPU and ram is fine due to his want to not be buying another pc for quite a while(last one 'lasted' him 7 years)

is the SSD caching still limited to like 40gb or so?

something I threw together:


Antec Gaming Series One Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Item #: N82E16811129181
$49.99

Western Digital RE4 WD1003FBYX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Enterprise Hard Drive -Bare Drive Item #: N82E16822136798
$119.99


PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400W Modular 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 ... Item #: N82E16817703034
$69.99


2xMushkin Enhanced Silverline 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model 997018 Item #: N82E16820226261$189.98($94.99 each)


ASRock Z77 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813157297
$94.99


Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770 Item #: N82E16819116502
$319.99


SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Item #: N82E16820147163R
$129.99


Subtotal:
$974.92


obviously a GPU is missing

 

[lehtv]

I don't really see a reason to spend $1000 unless your (i.e. your friend's) video editing software takes advantage of CUDA or OpenCL.

CPU Xeon E3-1230 $234 - server variant of the 3770
Mobo Asrock B75M $65 - officially supports Xeon E3-1230
RAM 2x8GB G.Skill Ares $105 - buy another kit when needed, no point paying another $105 in advance for something you may not need. Does your friend even have Win 7 Pro?
GPU HIS 5450 $35 ($25 AR)
SSD Crucial M4 128GB $105 [amazon]
HDD Seagate 2TB 7200 $108 [amazon]
DVD Asus DVDRW $17
PSU Seasonic M12II 520W $60
Case Antec One $50

= $779

Not sure if your particular video projects will take advantage of CUDA or OpenCL, but I have read that OpenCL is implemented in Premiere CS6 and Sony Vegas Pro 11. If you think you'd benefit from GPU computing, a card like GTX 570 $250 would be pretty good for that.

 

[lehtv]

quicksync is supposed to rock

QuickSync isn't really relevant to video editing, it's for video conversion.

 

[Zargon]

he will have to convert the video at some point, right now hes doing it overnight on a slow old POS

I don't really see a reason to spend $1000 unless your (i.e. your friend's) video editing software takes advantage of CUDA or OpenCL.



Not sure if your particular video projects will take advantage of CUDA or OpenCL, but I have read that OpenCL is implemented in Premiere CS6 and Sony Vegas Pro 11. If you think you'd benefit from GPU computing, a card like GTX 570 $250 would be pretty good for that.

hes not sure what software package he is moving to, he is going to talk to 2 fo our friends that do video for a living

what exactly is the advantage of the seasonic over the PCP PSU?

I have replaced about 15 seagate drives in the past 12 months so I am a bit......wary of them at this point

he will be getting win 7 pro 64 for this, sorry I should have specified

the 32 gm of ram is definately overkill


thanks for the heads up on that XEON and mobo, thats a nice cost savings

 

[lehtv]

he will have to convert the video at some point, right now hes doing it overnight on a slow old POS

Not necessarily, he could edit and encode uncompressed video directly.

Did you check the list of quicksync optimized programs? If he'll be using something on that list to convert video, then QuickSync could be a good idea... But worth another $100, not sure.

what exactly is the advantage of the seasonic over the PCP PSU?

I picked it for the 2x PCIe connectors needed to run GTX 570.

The Silencer MK III is $55 ($35 AR) on NCIX with free shipping. Supports any 1x6-pin card, likely the GTX 660 will be one, should also be OK for computing.

I have replaced about 15 seagate drives in the past 12 months so I am a bit......wary of them at this point

Interesting ... DOA drives or older drives?

Maybe the Caviar Black is worth considering for the warranty and peace of mind, it's more expensive and half capacity though...

thanks for the heads up on that XEON and mobo, thats a nice cost savings

The Xeon lacks the iGPU though so if converting video with QuickSync optimized programs is really important then the i7-3770 is the way to go.

 

[Ken g6]

Another option for Quick Sync is the E3-1245 V2, which is also supported on that mobo. $35 less at Newegg, for 0.1GHz drop in max turbo.

P.S. Nice find, lehtv, that a consumer board actually supports these Xeons!

 

[lehtv]

Oh, there's a Xeon with iGPU as well. Nice.

 

[Zargon]

Not necessarily, he could edit and encode uncompressed video directly.

fair enough. I do very little of any of this

Did you check the list of quicksync optimized programs? If he'll be using something on that list to convert video, then QuickSync could be a good idea... But worth another $100, not sure.

sure didnt

I picked it for the 2x PCIe connectors needed to run GTX 570.

ah makes sense

The Silencer MK III is $55 ($35 AR) on NCIX with free shipping. Supports any 1x6-pin card, likely the GTX 660 will be one, should also be OK for computing.

yeah when is that thing due?

Interesting ... DOA drives or older drives?

less than 3 year old drives from their enterprise class(constellations) sata stuff at work mostly.

I have now replaced an entire 6 disk raid 6 array due to failures, and part of another hope. I'm sure its a batch issue, but its annoying as hell! DEll shipped me RE4's as replacements. I was surprised that the RE4 was cheaper than the same caviar black on newegg, atleast I Thought it was, it was like before 8am on a saturday when I looked at this stuff so who knows

Another option for Quick Sync is the E3-1245 V2, which is also supported on that mobo. $35 less at Newegg, for 0.1GHz drop in max turbo.

I'll have to check that out, thanks!

P.S. Nice find, lehtv, that a consumer board actually supports these Xeons!

for real. very nice find

 

[lehtv]

P.S. Nice find, lehtv, that a consumer board actually supports these Xeons!

Technically the B75 chipset is targeted at small businesses

yeah when is that thing due?

I dunno... Fudzilla says in July but really nothing is certain

 

[mfenn]

I have now replaced an entire 6 disk raid 6 array due to failures, and part of another hope. I'm sure its a batch issue, but its annoying as hell! DEll shipped me RE4's as replacements. I was surprised that the RE4 was cheaper than the same caviar black on newegg, atleast I Thought it was, it was like before 8am on a saturday when I looked at this stuff so who knows

Honestly, the RE4 isn't that great either. HP shipped us a bunch of servers with those in there and they've been dying left and right. Funnily enough, the Seagate replacements have been rock solid.

 

[mfenn]

QuickSync isn't really relevant to video editing, it's for video conversion.

Yep. QuickSync isn't some magic bullet.
- Programs have to be written specifically to take advantage of the QuickSync API
- You have to be using a codec that the QuickSync hardware is capable of handling
- QuickSync has too limited resources to really produce a "master" quality output. It is fine for quick uploads Youtube where they are going to be re-encoding the heck out of your video anyway though.

 

[Zargon]

Honestly, the RE4 isn't that great either. HP shipped us a bunch of servers with those in there and they've been dying left and right. Funnily enough, the Seagate replacements have been rock solid.

weird.

I'm about 50-0 over the last few years with them. between them and the RE3's its been a good 6 years with no failures

I did have a cav black die before

 

[bookwormsy]

Have you looked into Sandy Bridge E? Like the i7 3930K? Video encoding is all about the CPU, so I'd think that a strong CPU would be a priority.

 

[lehtv]

3930K costs $570 and the cheapest X79 motherboard costs $200. That leaves $230 for the rest of the components...

 

[Zargon]

LOL for real

I had one and sold it because I didnt want to dish out for the mobo TEC

 

[mfenn]

weird.

I'm about 50-0 over the last few years with them. between them and the RE3's its been a good 6 years with no failures

I did have a cav black die before

Yeah, I think it all comes down to batches; some are good, some are bad. You'll get variation in quality between different factories and different lines in a factory due to stuff like raw material quality, microcode revisions, plant cleanliness, or a million other factors.

 

[Zargon]

yup

 

[Zargon]

so hes looking at a few packages

Cyberlink Power Director
Corel Visual Studio

both support QuickSync openCL and CUDA

and Adobe Premiere, which mostly just supports CUDA, it says OpenCL but only recommends 2 mobile cards that are mac only


it LOOKS like in theory quicksync is faster than opencl or cuda?

hard to read through all the promotional PR BS

 

[Cyborg]

Slickdeals has an offer from Newegg for that Samsung 830 128 GB SSD for $90 with free shipping right now. Can't go better than 830 for SSD right now.

 

[Zargon]

thanks for the heads up!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

For video editing, your HD subsystem is going to take a beating (assuming he'll be using that as a scratch disk.)

I'd at least put 3 HDs into a RAID-5, both for data protection and performance reasons. Better yet, 4. If you plug those into the 3Gbps ports on the motherboard, that should leave the 6Gbps ports open for your SSD.

I wouldn't skimp on the video card that much (5450.) You'd want a midrange 7xxx series Radeon for OpenCL work. (7000-series cards have much better OpenCL performance than previous generations.)

Don't know that I'd pay extra for a Xeon rig over a 3770. Unless I was buying a motherboard that would allow me to drop in a second CPU later as an upgrade. (MOAR COAREZ!!!)

 

[Zargon]

For video editing, your HD subsystem is going to take a beating (assuming he'll be using that as a scratch disk.)

I'd at least put 3 HDs into a RAID-5, both for data protection and performance reasons. Better yet, 4. If you plug those into the 3Gbps ports on the motherboard, that should leave the 6Gbps ports open for your SSD.

I wouldn't skimp on the video card that much (5450.) You'd want a midrange 7xxx series Radeon for OpenCL work. (7000-series cards have much better OpenCL performance than previous generations.)

Don't know that I'd pay extra for a Xeon rig over a 3770. Unless I was buying a motherboard that would allow me to drop in a second CPU later as an upgrade. (MOAR COAREZ!!!)

the xeon setup is cheaper actually.



raid isnt exactly data protection

by midrange do you mean a 7777 ghz or the 7850


as a cost savings and for ease of use, I am thinking of tossing a vertex 30 a mutual friend of ours has laying around in and doing SSD caching


I'm not the onboard raid is really going to produce alot of gains in performance, esp since its going to eat CPU

 

[lehtv]

The 5450 suggestion is obsolete since Ken g6 pointed out the Xeon with iGPU. It was just to have video output in the first place.

For computing performance I recommended the GTX 570 or upcoming GTX 660.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

the xeon setup is cheaper actually.

Oh, ok.

raid isnt exactly data protection

Better than nothing. A drive failure is a common enough occurrence, and I have the sneaking suspicion he won't be backing his data files and working projects up as well as we'd all like to see.

by midrange do you mean a 7777 ghz or the 7850

Either, though the 7850 would obviously be awesomer.

as a cost savings and for ease of use, I am thinking of tossing a vertex 30 a mutual friend of ours has laying around in and doing SSD caching

Not a bad idea. Except you shouldn't be using your boot drive for a scratch disk, so you'll need more HDs.

I'm not the onboard raid is really going to produce alot of gains in performance, esp since its going to eat CPU

Even full-blown software RAID won't eat enough CPU to counterbalance the throughput gains. And your MBs RAID controller isn't that lame. (Better not be... what the hell?)

Maximizing throughput is insurance. It's like FPS, except when you drop below your minimum MB/sec, it destroys the take and you have to start the import process over. (Or at least rewind to an easily splice-able point, and do the damn splice.)

Even if you're using 10% of your capacity 90% of the time, it's the one time he gets fancy and tries to run 10 separate HD clips at the same time that the single drive will choke and the RAID will go, "...and?"

 

[Zargon]

makes sense. the 7850 gets pretty tight on the budget with some 1tb seagate 7200rpm drives

surprisingly that board has 8 sata ports...amazing

also what do you mean by scratch disk

is that pretty much JUST for the video? hes not going to be doing anything too crazy, he has a few hundred hours of videos of his kids and stuff he wants to edit convert ETC.