Adobe CS5.5 Premiere Pro build advice.

[ConfusedOne]

Hi there,

I am building a new PC for my bro specifically designed for Adobe CS5.5 Premiere Pro and to be compatable with his Canon 5D Mark II.

We are on a budget of $900, which should include everthing except the OS (Win 7 64-bit).

Here is what I have so far:

Cooler Master HAF912.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

LGA 1155 Intel H67 Mobo.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121509

Intel Xeon E3 1230.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115083

PNY Quadro 600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133354

2 x 4GB PNY Optima 1333 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178333

WD Caviar Black 1TB 6.0Gb/sec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Antec EarthWatts 380 Watt 80+ Bronze
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033

Lite On DVD Writer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106334

Acer P215H 21.5" Monitor.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009299

Ok, now for my questions:

Processor. I chose the Xeon E3 1230 after watching the guy on Adobe.TV recommended it, also it is the cheapest 1200 series that has Hyper Threading. I realize it is a server processor. I would like to know if it will fit the 1155 Mobo I have selected. Here is a link to the Adobe.TV episode:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/maximizing-cs55-performance-with-intel-xeon-processors/entrylevel-video-editing-performance-with-the-intel-xeon-e3-processor/

Motherboard. Will my selected motherboard take advantage of the Processor's Hyper Threading technology?

GPU. After reading a ton of forums, it seems the NVidia Quadro series is the best choice for Premiere Pro with its CUDA technology. What do you all think? Also, the website says it only consumes 40W of power, is the 380 Watt Antec PSU too much or too little for the job?

Memory. I have seen 1600 RAM that is specifically designed for Sandy Bridge. From what I can tell, it is because if its 1.5 Volts, is that correct? Will the 1333 RAM I have selected work well with Sandy Bridge, or is there other 1333 RAM that specifically designed for Sandy Bridge? The guy from Adobe.TV suggested roughly 2 GB of RAM per Processor Core, what do you think?

DVD Drive. How important is it to have a Blue Ray drive for Premiere Pro? He does not watch Blue Ray, so we are only concerned if it will limit him when it comes time to export.

Monitor. This monitor does not have HDMI. How imortant is it to have a monitor with HDMI for Premiere Pro? Also, is the monitor I selected compatable with Premiere Pro? Here are the tech specs for CS5.5:

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/tech-specs.html

Card Reader. I have not included a Compact Flash card reader as part of the hardware. He already has an old one that connects via usb (2.0 I think). Do Canon 5D users tranfer data by physically removing the Compact Flash cards from their camara and putting it in a card reader, or can he connect that camara with, say, a 1394 port to transfer data?

Overall System. How well do these components work together in relation to each other? Is there a bottleneck? Is one component too fast compared to the rest?

How future proof is this build?

Wow, I guess I had a ton of questions.

Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated.

ConfusedOne

 

[ConfusedOne]

Bump.

 

[Timop]

Check compatibility for the E3, the socket is correct, but only a few consumer mobos officially support the Xeons, though it doesn't mean it won't work. If you want to be sure, switch to an 2600 or a server board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121526

HT should work fine as as as the CPU does.

The Quadro should help as MPE supports CUDA, but support is not limited to Quadros. The 600 you chose isn't officially supported however. Here is the list from Adobes website:
GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac OS)
GeForce GTX 470 (Windows)
GeForce GTX 570 (Windows)
GeForce GTX 580 (Windows)
Quadro FX 3700M (Windows)
Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
Quadro FX 3800M (Windows)
Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)
Quadro 2000 (Windows)
Quadro 2000D (Windows)
Quadro 2000M (Windows)
Quadro 3000M (Windows)
Quadro 4000 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro 4000M (Windows)
Quadro 5000 (Windows)
Quadro 5000M (Windows)
Quadro 5010M (Windows)
Quadro 6000 (Windows)
Quadro CX (Windows)

Out of these, the GTX570 might be the most affordable, though it will need a ~500W+ PSU.
You can hack the drivers though, as the Quadros are essentially identical to GeForces in terms of hardware. A GTS450 is essentially the Quadro 2000. You can also hack your card even if it doesn't have official support also.

On the RAM, SB officially supports up-to 1333, any higher is considered an "OC". Being video rendering, you might want a set of RAM with lower latency like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231402

As for the amount, it would actually be the more the better, 8GB would be my minimum recommendation.

I don't under stand the whole Blu-ray thing though. If he doesn't use it then he doesn't. He will lack the ability to write onto a BD disk, but not how he can export.

On the card reader, it would really depends on the speed he wants, either way would work fine, but USB2.0 is limited to 48Mpbs, which might be slower than the CF card itself.

Monitor wise, anything above 1200*900 would work, HDMI is DVI in another wrapper so get an adapter if you really want one. Here is a cheaper monitor BTW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824262011

 

[ConfusedOne]

Thanks for the reply Timop.

From what I can tell, the Xeon should fit the 1155 desktop Mobo. The reason I have chosen it instead of the server mobo is for its extra ports and audio card. What features of the E3 do you think might not be compatable with the H67?

Thanks a ton for mentioning the ability to hack other CUDA cards. I found this website, which walks me through it:

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

Going back to that budget of $900, which of the NVidia would you recommend? I did check out the GTS450, and it is reasonably priced.

I will take your advice and buy RAM with lower latency. How much RAM is too much for my specific set-up?

ConfusedOne

 

[aznshinobi]

It's hard to say. I think you should just get the 2500K though. It should just perform the same as the E1230, why exactly do you want to use a Xeon instead. Maybe I didn't catch this, and you probably explained it. Oh... It was because of HT. Well... It should be able to use the HT even on an H67 but it's hard to say.

The 450 GTS is good, but I think going with something like a 460 would give you much better performance. I suggest this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121390

For this specific purpose. I strongly recommend 8GB. I'm editing with 4 (PS5+Lightroom) and it's not exactly the best for creating the files. (So exporting the final result). So with that said, I suggest this 8gb kit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231308&cm_re=8gb_ddr3-_-20-231-308-_-Product

As for some recommendations, change the motherboard and allocate money elsewhere.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128473
Or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128482&cm_re=h61_gigabyte-_-13-128-482-_-Product

Save some dough on the HDD. The Samsung F3 would do the same but cheaper. It's cheaper on Amazon than Newegg. BTW The F3 is quieter and faster in areas and slower in areas but pretty much even. In reality, you're friend wouldn't notice the difference.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Spinpoint-Cache-Desktop-HD103SJ/dp/B001U3S5S0%3FSubscriptionId%3D19BAZMZQFZJ6G2QYGCG2%26tag%3Dsquid1240995-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB001U3S5S0

 

[ConfusedOne]

Thanks for the advice AznShinobi.

Do you think the 460 would be too fast compared to the rest of my system @ 8GB 1333 7-7-7-21, with the E3 @ 3.2 GHz?

ConfusedOne

 

[aznshinobi]

I think there wouldn't be a bottleneck. CUDA is benefitial to the processing process (which is what the CPU is for) so i'm pretty sure there would be no bottleneck but benefits.

 

[Timop]

GTX 460 would work, with more CUDA cores, you should get better performance too. Get the 768MB suggest above too, 1GB doesn't benefit you much.

 

[ConfusedOne]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[ConfusedOne]

A final thought.

From the website:

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

He states:

"Number 6 - Video Card Memory
The Mercury Playback Engine requires the NVIDIA video card to have at least 896 megs memory or more. Anything less, the Mercury Playback Engine and the unlock will NOT work. I recommend at least 1 gig or higher of video memory."

I would like to get your opinion on this before I select the GPU for my final build.

ConfusedOne

 

[aznshinobi]

Alright well then just get this model.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121391&cm_re=460_1gb-_-14-121-391-_-Product
Don't get the SE models, they're ripoffs

 

[ConfusedOne]

Good to know!

Thank you both for the help.

 

[ConfusedOne]

Best answer selected by confusedone.

 

[aznshinobi]

Alright GL