Looking for help building a 360 Video editing PC

Kyle,

It's an interesting project. I've been manually stitching rendering backgrounds (often sets of Google Earth photos projected onto pieces onto a cylinder) for awhile and Video Stitch Studio is running 4K video stitching up to real time. That is, if you have the right stuff,..

I had a look at "How to optimize your computer for VideoStitch"

http://www.video-stitch.com/optimize-computer-videostitch/

In that somewhat vague article, it says that, "VideoStitch optimises the performances with the most powerful algorithms, which scale perfectly on many-core CPUs or multi-GPUs."

Taking them at their word, I'm going to make an unconventional recommendation:

1. Buy a low specification Dell Precision T7500 or a T7500 having one or two Xeon X5690 CPU's. Those are 6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz. Get one in good condition and with a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit COA. This will cost from $100-700.

Dell Precision T7500 3.46GHz Six Core X5690 12GB RAM 2x 250GB HDD Win7 Pro > $489

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T7500-3-46GHz-Six-Core-X5690-12GB-RAM-2x-250GB-HDD-Win7-Pro-/171956234686?rmvSB=true&hash=item280963e9be%3Ag%3AQU8AAOSw0HVWDtNN&afsrc=1&nma=true&si=FrHPSu32lkDqNXo%252BQl0sgEGGNck%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

2. Upgrade the system purchased so it has 2X X5690 CPU;s. If the system has only one CPU, you have to buy a 2nd CPU /heatsink memory /fan riser board- about $75-$100 now.

3. The T7500 can use 192GB of DDR3-1333 ECC Reg RAM. There are 12 slots on the motherboard and 6 on the 2nd CPU riser. Configure the maximum same amount of RAM on each, for example 48GB on each. A balanced amount seem to produce much better memory benchmarks. The RAM is not expensive, yesterday, someone bought 48GB (6X 8GB) of this RAM on ebahhh for only $90. It's triple channel (X58 chipset) so buy in sets of three modules.

4. Add one or a pair of the NVIDIA- GTX or Quadro GPU's of your choice. Unfortuneately Precision do not support SLI until T7600, but you can run two that will can run different monitors. I should think though that you would have an extremely wide aspect monitors to view the panoramic images.

5. Add a RAID controller to convert the disk system to 6GB/s- possibly an LSI 9260-8i. Attach a fast 500+GB SDD that can contain the OS/ applications and the current project files. Have a RAID 5 of mech'l disks 2-4TB or you could connect eSATA to an external NAS stack.

I think this is possible to do well within the $2,000 budget and you'll have 12-cores /24 threads @ 3.47 / 3.73GHz, 48 or 96GB of RAM, one or two fast GPU's because the lower cost of the used system will increase the GPU budget, and a very fast disk system. Keep in mind an X5690 new was $1,650 and the $489 system new was probably $6,000+

If your budget can be extended a bit, I could list a faster system basing it on a T7600 with two Xeon E5-2680 8 -cores @ 2.7 /3.5: http://ark.intel.com/products/64583 , SLI video,1600 Speed RAM and 6GB/s native disk system. With a new Quadro M4000 (8GB, 1644 CUDA) GPU the cost is about $2,200-2,500 or so, depending in the disks. The M4000 runs 3D scores similar to a GTX 960 but can run higher AA and 10-bit color. The T7610 can use E5-v2 which are generally faster and support up to 12-cores plus 1866 RAM. There is a very good 10-core E5 v2 I think the LGA1366 CPUs are terrific, and are fantastic cost /performance when depreciated, but the Xeon E5's really extend the limits. This might be a step more future -looking that could put off a big upgrade a couple of years or so if your projects get more complex and there are time limits.

I've been doing a special rendering system this way for the last 5 years and I've never had either of the systems- T5400 and T5500- fail.

Besides the extremely good cost /performance ratio, this is much faster to get working than researching , ordering, assembling, and troubleshooting a new system. When I bought the T5500 for $171 in February, I loaded Windows and a a couple of applications and was using it three- four hours after it arrived. It was a low specification -2.4 /2.66 GHz 4-core, but I had a spare Quadro 4000 to use temporarily and I used it while the new parts arrived, just plugging in each new part as soon as it was there. Eventually- over about three weeks- when I added the SSD everything was reloaded from a system image of the main system, so I had duplicate systems. The software I use allows loading on two systems as long as they are not being used simultaneously. I run renderings on the T5500 and continue to draft and 3D model on the faster HP z420.

Unconventional requiring careful shopping, and no guarantees, but It's been a fast, reliable, high performing system.

What kinds of projects are you doing?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. CAD /Modeling /3D, graphic design: HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Calculation /rendering: Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > 2X Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 30GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3671 / CPU = 14361 / 2D= 653 / 3D= 3561 / Mem= 1741 / Disk= 2249

Pending upgrade: PERC H310 PCIe SAS /SATA RAID controller, 2X WD Black 1TB (RAID 1)(Converts disk system from 3GB/s to 6GB/s) 2. Remove 3X 2GB in CPU riser and replace with 3X 8GB to increase RAM to 48GB total to have 24GB for each CPU.

The total cost for the T5500 including the system /shipping and all upgrades was about $1,250