Video editing build

[vigorvermin]

Approximate Purchase Date: within next 4 months or so

Budget Range: 700 - 900 USD (After rebates)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Video editing, camtasia, sony vegas, audacity, maybe premiere pro eventually

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: sonata III maybe for case, like the discrete look. Also would love to use intel quick sync, might be willing to wait till z68 comes out but from what I understand I can use quick sync today as long as I don't overclock.

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050 (either)

Additional Comments: As stable, quiet and low power consumption as possible.

 

[WR2]

Hello vigorvermin;

Four months out is about 14 weeks too early.
You budget should allow you to get a AMD Phenom X6 1100T Thuban CPU, a nice AM3 motherboard with 3.0 USB and 6GB/s SATA support,
8GB of RAM, a nice case and all the rest you need.

In 3 1/2 months you'll also have a choice of some of the Sandy Bridge CPUs & motherboards that should give that X6 1100 some serious competition in video editing.

Here is a benchmark comparison between the AMD Phenom II X6 1100T BE vs Intel Core i7 2600K - 3.4GHz

 

[dalauder]

From what I recall in the initial Tom's Sandy Bridge review, the i5-2500K actually keeps up with the 1090T in video tests. And it should blow it away once overclocked. At your budget, you could probably get the i7-2600K.

But come back closer to your build to get a fully detailed build. If you're ready to order, we'll give you links for what specials and deals exist at that time, or just tell you several excellent choices and you can wait for deals if you like.

 

[photonboy]

GPU and CPU video transcoding:

I big article confirmed that adding a GPU can speed up video transcoding HOWEVER the only way to get the best possible QUALITY was using only a CPU approach. GPU video transcoding introduces issues.

That said, I recommend either onboard DX11 graphics or an inexpensive DX11 graphics card. $80 or less for an add-on board. Get DX11 for sure because the INTERNET will use the DX11 (info at IE9 site) but you don't need much GPU power.

Get either the HD6xxx series or GTX5xx series for add-on or similar for onboard.

 

[photonboy]

Reference above:

I'd wait and get a GOOD graphics card when the software really makes use of it and doesn't introduce errors. I don't think it's worth the investment yet. I do video transcoding of BluRay->portable etc but I don't use the GPU. I'd rather take 2-3 times as long and get the best quality.

 

[vigorvermin]

hey guys,

the computer is at most 4 months out but could be as early as 2 weeks from now. I just figured I might want to wait for the z68 mobo series.

 

[vigorvermin]

I also read up on quick sync, saying it's faster and better quality then any GPU. However if I add in a discrete GPU it will opt to use that first. Hence the wait for z68, when this is fixed... I also read that a company fixed it on a current mobo series but it's not available to the public yet. Thoughts?

 

[vigorvermin]

here's an article on it: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/lucid-enables-quick-sync-with-discrete-graphics-on-sandy-bridge

 

[WR2]

Since you aren't interested in overclocking there is the H67 and i5-2400 option.
That's viable as soon as the motherboards are back in stock.

You only need a Z68 if you also what to overclock a SandyBridge & use Quick Sync.
That's what I got from your link.

 

[WR2]

Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) CPU $195
ASUS P8H67-M LX LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s Intel Motherboard est $95
8GB G.Skill (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 RAM $100
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SATA II (SSD) $120 $15 rebate
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD $65
Asus 24x DVD burner $19
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply $140

~$734 before rebate, shipping and any taxes.

You will be able to boost i5-2400 to around 3.6Ghz Turbo 3.8Ghz.

 

[WR2]

Here is the background on the i5-2400 'overclock' XbitLabs: Core i5-2500, Core i5-2400 and Core i5-2300 CPU Review

 

[batuchka]

It really depends: does your project size justify leveraging on Mercury Playback Engine?


A case for GPU computing: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and the Mercury Playback Engine
http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/reviews/a-case-for-gpu-computing-adobe-premiere-pro-cs5-and-the-mercury-playback-engine/

This project consists of compressed 640×480 video footage. These small video files were being eaten alive by the massive 1090T hexa-core processor and 8GB of RAM. Premiere Pro CS5′s increased performance with multi-core systems coupled with bleeding fast hardware will make fast work of any simple projects such as this, not giving the GPU enough work to really make a difference. These results do suggest that if you’re editing small-time video footage, you will not benefit much from using Mercury Playback.

If it does

1090T + Gigabyte 880G mATX $235
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

Items off Egg $363AR

$598AR in total

else stick to 880G IGP ^^

 

[vigorvermin]

I would love to take advantage of mercury, but in reality most of my work is going to be encoding / decoding stuff. I really think quick sync is the way to go, it'd be awesome to do both quick sync and mercury playback if I could.

 

[vigorvermin]

also i dont think the 460 supports mercury

 

[batuchka]

Not officially but
http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

 

[vigorvermin]

okay, so it sounds like the best way to go so far would be an h67 mobo, the i5 2400, and the 460 GPU 1GB ram. I'm tempted to wait on the GPU because throwing it in now would cause quick sync not to work.

maybe a raid 1 and scratch ssd would be good too?

 

[WR2]

The GPU and a scratch disk/SSD are all things that are very easy upgrades.

You can keep the initial cost down, get up and running, and let the performance you get give you guidance as to how much further you need/want to upgrade.

If project & data security is something you want to address maybe an external HDD with USB3 connection in place of RAID1.

 

[vigorvermin]

raid1 would be sooooo much cheaper haha why external?

 

[WR2]

So you can lock up your valuable files (in a fire proof safe) after you backup your system.
If someone walks off with your computer you'd like to have your IP safe at least.

 

[vigorvermin]

I've tried having an external backup system before and it would be so much easier for me if it just did it automatically without me having to worry about it. I'm not so much worried about theft. Let's go with the raid 1 solution and possibly add in external backup later in addition.

 

[WR2]

No problem adding a 2nd internal HDD and setting up RAID 0 in BIOS before OS installation.

 

[vigorvermin]

will i need a raid controller or is that int. in the mobo?

 

[WR2]

The P8H67-M LX motherboard itself supports RAID 0,1,5 & 10.

 

[vigorvermin]

thanks,

Is there a normal ATX model of that board? I'd prefer not to have to work with micro if I can help it.

 

[WR2]

P8H67 & P8H67-V would be the full size ATX boards.
You can get a side-by-side feature comparison (Compare Product) on the Asus website.

The Z86 was introduced at CeBit today.
Here's a picture.