First Build HD Video Editing & After Effects Rig

Anonymous

March 23, 2009 9:21:22 AM

I'm getting ready to (finally after 6yrs) build a new rig. This will be my first from scratch build, and as expected I'm having trouble picking a mobo. I'm also planning on upgrading to a 1080i DV cam along with newer versions of adobe programs, possibly Avid HD, and Vista at least until win7 hits. I already have a new 1920x1200 monitor ready to go.

Thus far I've been looking mainly at the Asus P6T6 WS Rev with the 2.66Ghz i7, mainly because of its x16 3way SLI (later on), but the lack of firewire won't due as the video camera is firewire out, and it seems to me (I may be wrong, not sure) that if I do the three way SLI there won't be room to add a firewire card as well.
Also I've seen some discrepinces as to how much RAM it supports, according to Asus' site the board supports up to 24gb, but I've seen several sites that list it as only 12, and others that say 24 as well. I'm guessing that with all the different spec numbers these large sites deal with these contradictions are not uncommon.

Aside from that one, I've also looked at the Asus Rampage 2 Extreme, MSI Eclispse, and Gigabyte EX58 Extreme, though there appears to be only minor differences between these as pertains to my intended uses. They all did well in the recent round-up, but I'm wondering how they will stack up with the Asus P6T6 for my purposes.

I have other questions but I'll save them for after I get feedback on this important one.

I'd also like to thank everyone in advance for their help, I've been reading a lot of the other newbie threads and they've all recieved good feedback and involvment from the community.

-Treiz

More about : build video editing effects rig

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gkay09

March 23, 2009 10:03:41 AM

Well just a doubt regarding the Graphics card...
For your need, I feel you should get a Workstation graphics card...unless you want to game on the PC...

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flyhiloone

March 23, 2009 11:11:02 AM

Hey,
I think the p6t6 ws rev would be a good solution for a video editing rig. Right now I am out of PCI Express slots on my Asus p5e3 deluxe and was looking at your motherboard for just that reason. As far as i know it only supports 12gb (newegg confirms my thinking) which is more than likely the case.

Just out of curiosity what camera are you planning on getting and what kind of work do you do?

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Anonymous

March 23, 2009 5:32:50 PM

Right now I have an old Dell P4 rig set up for SD editng, 2gb maxed, XP Pro, and a Canon XL2 SD DV Cam. I would like to upgrade to the XL-H1s which is the 1080i version of my current cam, but I may go with the cheaper XH-A1s. I'm still in college at the moment, but I do some videography on the side to make spending cash, and I figure that I can charge a bit more for HD and bluray options if a customer wants.

I saw that cnet, newegg, and motherboards.org (and several others) have the P6T6 listed as 12gb max, but Asus claims 24 in its specs, and several other sites regurgitate what is on Asus' site. Not sure who to believe, though considering that this is a high end board I see no reason to think that it isn't 24 like all of Asus' other X58 baords I've looked at.

As for the graphics cards, I'm not familiar with the newer cards, but I've read that the slots are too close together on the P6T6 causing the larger cards to encroach on the other PCIe slots effectively blocking them. I'm not sure if this only applies to certian video cards or not though.

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battlemarz

March 23, 2009 5:43:39 PM

I think right now the 12 vs 24 max for ram doesn't really matter. Unless you plan on picking up some 4gb DDR3 DIMMs, you will be limited to 12gb anyways.

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Anonymous

March 23, 2009 8:53:52 PM

I just spoke with a tech at Asus, who confirmed that the boards were 24gb max, but recommended that the Rampage would be more suited for my uses. So here are my choices thus far:

MSI Eclipse SLI Mobo w/ I7 2.66 ghz

CORSAIR 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

2x Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

2x EVGA 896-P3-1258-A1 GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 SSC Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Pioneer Black 8X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner

~~~~
I'm not sure what I should be looking for with cases and power supplys, and cooling especially. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

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flyhiloone

March 24, 2009 1:31:41 AM

Im not sure why you don't just go with an GTX 295 like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... instead? If you are worried about PCI Express slots being available why not just get one card to do it all?

By the way the Pioneer Blu-ray burner is a good choice i just bougjt one and have no complaints after about 20 burns now... As far as the case look up Cooler Masters Cosmo's line and see if a full tower is what you want. And for cooling the Ultra 120 line from thermaltake is really good.

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battlemarz

March 24, 2009 1:35:12 AM

There is no reason to start off with two mid range graphics cards in a build. For the price of 2x GTX 260 216s you can get a GTX 285 and almost a GTX 295. You would be much better off picking up a single GTX 285 now, and leaving the upgrade path to SLI down the road.

A Corsair 850 TX should be able to handle 2x GTX 285s for future proofing if you take my above advice.

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Anonymous

March 24, 2009 6:43:01 AM

I looked at the GTX 295 and decided it was worth the extra cash.

Would the Corsair be enough to run 2 of the 295s if I add another down the road? What about if I add more drives?

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battlemarz

March 24, 2009 12:59:27 PM

2x 295s will use much more then 2x 285s. You will have to look at 1000W+. Corsair 1000HX should do it. Keep in mind a GTX 295 is already two GPUs together, so adding a second card will make for quad SLI, you may find that by the time you need to purchase another GTX 295 to quad SLI, it would be cheaper just to get the latest and greatest single card and sell the 295.

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Anonymous

March 25, 2009 6:24:32 AM

Alright then, the final specs should look something like this:

Core I7 920
MSI Eclipse mobo
Corsair 1000HX PSU
Cool Master Cosmos 1000 case
Corsair DDR3-1600 (6x2Gb)
EVGA Geforce 295 1792Mb
WD VR 300Gb & Caviar 1Tb
Pioneer Blu Burner

Am I missing anything? I've seen some people mentioning thermal compound, do I need that or anything else besides screw drivers for assembly?

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battlemarz

March 25, 2009 1:45:56 PM

Looks pretty good to me. The only thing you could potentially add is an aftermarket cooler for Overclocking. If you decide to OC then you would need the thermal compound (I suggest MX-2) to go with your selected cooler. Otherwise the stock Intel cooler will come with its own thermal interface.

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