HD video editing build

[ferdball]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I can wait for Windows 7 (10/22) if a clean install is better than an upgrade.
BUDGET RANGE: $1000-1800 After Rebates

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: HD video editing, Internet, burning movies, hosting media, Office and Productions apps.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers*

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com is fine.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: Core i7

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200 (HP w2408h)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: The monitor has an HDMI input, which I would like to use. So, I think *audio must come through the HDMI cable. I'm using a Sony consumer grade HD camcorder (AVCHD) and Adobe CS4. My wife uses various Office apps as well as Illustrator/Photoshop for work. I have a 1TB USB drive and a 1TB network drive for nightly backups. Stuff me with RAM and spindles please. Needs to be fast and reliable. No gaming!

 

[neonmonkey]

I would reccomend a 1156 Motherboard and intel core i7 860,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121320 for video

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007 Power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260 DDR3 memory


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131410 MOTherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136175 disc drive

I didnt have time to add up the price cause i have to go but somthing along these lines should be enough horse power for you

 

[snowgoer1998]

Here is a very helpful thread for what you're doing...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264258-31-system-editing-adobe-premiere

With that being said..

If you stick with a 1156 socket cpu, you will be tied down to a max of 8 gb of RAM...with the 1366, you will have the 12 GB limit

I was in the same basic situation you're in now...I bought the HD TV w/Blu-Ray and a HD video camera (AVCHD)

Here is the system I recently just built:

I7 920 - Microcenter ~ $230 (if you live near a Microcenter, if not $280)
CPU cooling - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608014 - $75

The Dark Knight is ~$45, which is also an excellent choice, however I read many reviews that had the Noctua being very quite...and it is...I have it running max RPM and it's quite...I have a Antec 1200 case with all 6 fans (stock) running at the min RPM, the Noctua running at max, the PSU fan, and a GTX 275 graphics card fan running ... and my old Dell 8400 is the louder of the two systems, with ONE fan for the CPU and ONE fan for the PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 - Dark Knight - $45

MOBO - EVGA - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188046 - $250
Power - Corsair 850 (non-modular) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009 - $120
RAM - OCZ Gold - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365 - $112
Burner - LG Blu-Ray burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136164 - $200

I bought this burner because I wanted to be able to burn Blu-ray...if you don't have the blu-ray requirement...you can save a chunk there and just get a DVD burner...

HDD's - I went with this configuration:

- One - WD 640 GB Black Edition - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 - $75
- Three - WD 1 TB Black Edition - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 - $195

I have the 640 for OS and Programs and the two 1 TB's in RAID 1 for storage and one 1 TB for (external) backup

Case - Antec 1200 - ~$135 at Microcenter
Graphics - EVGA GTX 275 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130478 - $240
OS - Vista x64 w/free upgrade to 7 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116677 - $110

The total cost for that system - ~$1,840

Now, given that you will not be gaming, you will not require the GTX 275...So, I would recommend this graphics change to allow more invested in another 6 GB of RAM...

GTX 260 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434 - $160

Unless someone can come back and recommend a good workstation card (don't know those very well).

I also wanted the EVGA MOBO...ASRock has this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157163 - $160

With that MOBO and the GTX 260 and ADDING another 6 GB of ram, bringing your total to 12, you're sitting at a price of about ~1780

Power supply savings can take you down to $1740
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 - $70

I went with the 850 for SLI and Overclocking

you can save another $100 by only using two of the three 1 TB hard drives I have on this list...you've already got the back up solution.

Now you're down to $1640

My thoughts on only getting two hard drives at this point is because technology is changing so fast that I figure I'll add more hard drives as I need them...no sense spening the money now when later I may be able to get twice the storage capacity at the same price...and this is one of the easiest components to add.

Being that this price is at about $1640, if you did not want to have your scratch drive be the OS drive, you could do a RAID 0 with a set of WD 640's and that would put you right at the $1,800 limit.

Like I said earlier, if you went with a dvd burner instead you can save about $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136144

Lots of possibilites to consider...let us know how it goes.

 

[ferdball]

Okay, what do you think of this rig?

CPU - $280
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Mainboard - $210 (-$20 MiR)
ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386

Memory - $285
CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model HX3X12G1600C9 G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145235

OS - $110
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116677

=-=-=-

Case - $70 (-$20 MiR)
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156078

Power Supply - $100 (-$10 MiR)
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

CPU Fan - $63
COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055

=-=-=-

Optical drive - $153
LG 8X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 6X BD-ROM 2MB Cache Blu-ray Burner Model BH08LS20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item= [Jeff] N82E16827136164

Hard Drive OS - $230 (-$30 MiR)
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322

Hard Drive Data (x2) - $80
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

=-=-=-

Video Card - $170 (-$20 MiR)
ASUS ENGTX260 GL+/HTDI/896MD3 GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121337

Edit 10/8: The trigger has been pulled.

 

[snowgoer1998]

For a good cooler review:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=285&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=16


Hard drive:

I was steered away from the Raptor (do a search with "raptor vs caviar") and you'll find that most hold opinions that for the price, the Raptor's just aren't worth it unless you really like to have bragging rights.

If you really wanted something for a fast OS drive, get two WD 640 Black's and do a RAID 0...you'll have a ton more storage at half the cost of ONE Raptor...with a minimal loss of performance.

As far as the storage HDD's...Seagate vs. Western - Pick your poison...both are reputable companies that make solid drives. I simply went with Western because of the 5 year warranty on the Caviar Black's.

On the drives you listed, I saw 3 year warranties

Video Card:

I favor Nvidia, ATI also makes solid cards...again, pick your poison. The only reason I picked the Nvidia is because you were talking about CS4...which I believe has the potential to use the CUDA technology of Nvidia...

Usually a workstation card will be recommended for what your uses will be, however, they are pricier, but play better with rendering...with other changes to your rig, you may be able to swing a full workstation card.

Case:

Two things to consider here
- will the graphics card fit?
- will the cpu heatsink fit?

I don't know the answers to those...you'll have to do some searching/asking.

 

[ferdball]

The trigger has been pulled. Thanks everyone for your input. I'll report back with anything worthwhile.

 

[ferdball]

Smilodon case opens on both sides

Added bracing and fans everywhere

ASUS P6T SE

The Core i7 is about the size of a Pentium 200MHz

Huge. Massive. Vast. Enormous. Giant. Mammoth. Gigantic. Colossal. Gargantuan.

Tiny. Minute. Small. Little. Petite. Insignificant. Infinitesemal. Teeny. Diminutive. Microscopic.

Even the GPU is overshadowed by it. "It" being the Flux Capacitor.

 

[ferdball]

It's 5 stories taller than the double height memory heat sinks.

The phalic opject can't even get into its own pants.

The GPU takes the place of the 3rd hard drive.

What?!?

C'mon!

Five and a half hours later...

 

[bluescreen]

So how did you get the motherboard into the case? Did you have to take the heat sink off and then put it back on again with the motherboard in place?

And what did you do to resolve the collision between the heat sink and that fan support bracket in the 2nd to last picture?

I'm curious because I went through the HP e9180t ordeal with three crashing/hanging/bluescreeing systems and have now given up on HP. I was looking at the exact case you bought, and am thinking of putting together a very similar system.

 

[ferdball]

The heat sink needs to bolt on before the motherboard is screwed down. So I had to close that part of the case and drop the MB in from there, just like any other case. It sucks that I'm not able to use the drop down door feature, but I don't think it would have been practical when all the other wires are in place.

I couldn't use the two fans on the bracket and on the clear part of the case. Aesthetics aside, I'm still not sure which way will keep the CPU cooler: The large heat sink, or a fan on the case directly above it.

I bought and cancelled both an HP 9180 and a Dell XPS 9000. But I'm very happy with my build, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[bluescreen]

FYI, I'm following in your footsteps here. I am modifying a few things, but basically planning to build the same system you did. Thanks for posting the pictures and information!

Here's the thread I started on my build: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/273360-31-build-photo-audio-video-editing-recording