Build or wait?

[nottheratboy]

hey,

So, I'm researching building a new mid rangeish computer to be used in part for video editing and to make my wife happy again. Many people have suggested waiting a while for prices to stabilize after the floods in Thailand.

I'm having a hard time determining the trend of prices and how long to wait. I hear prices have improved somewhat but does anyone have a percentage range of price increases or a good way to assess the market?

If I wait are we talking about 6 - 12 months or a couple months? I'm ok with 10% increase in price but would like to avoid 50-200% increases.

Also are any other computer components affected or mainly hard drives?

I've also come across threads where people say to just wait until spring until this processor or motherboard or graphics card...is out. I don't really know what to do with that. Seems like you'll be waiting for newer and better forever. Is there really something groundbreaking coming?

Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing a few opinions if you have a minute or two.

This Thailand flood is really cramping my personal life.

Thanks.

Jon

 

[Tavo_Nova]

like everyone else is saying, you better wait, if you can wait out until march-april that would be good, it's much better for your pocket too ^_^ unless you plan to get those nice 600 series or those 7000 series cards ^____^, even if you use an i5 2500k or i7 2600k it will still last you very long so just wait out for the new 600 series ^___^ no need for the others, its just until april ^__^ hoping for a price change on other stuff

 

[g-unit1111]

Also are any other computer components affected or mainly hard drives?

Just hard drives as far as I'm aware.

I've also come across threads where people say to just wait until spring until this processor or motherboard or graphics card...is out. I don't really know what to do with that. Seems like you'll be waiting for newer and better forever. Is there really something groundbreaking coming?

Yeah, I keep hearing "wait for this, wait for that" left and right, ad nauseum.

Ivy Bridge is not going to be as ground breaking as the hype would have you believe. If you keep waiting, you'll wait for new and better forever. Between how disappointing SB-E and the FX-8100 were, I'm really in the minority here when I say that I'm not believing anything Intel or AMD say about CPUs until I see some real numbers.

The GPUs are where we'll really start to see things differ - even the low end of the AMD 7XXX series promises to be radically different from what's out there now. I don't know what NVIDIA has planned but I'm sure it will be great too.

There's a few things you can get right now if you're itching to pull the trigger - mainly case, PSU, RAM, HD, SSD (if applicable) and optical drives. Those are not really going to change at all.

Ivy Bridge is going to continue to use Z68 from what I've heard but I haven't heard any updates from motherboard makers as to what they're going to be updating or releasing new products entirely.

 

[AbdullahG]

I really cannot recommend waiting several months for certain hardware, when the current hardware may satisfy your needs.
If they can, go ahead and buy whatever they may be.
Hardware evolves so fast there is always something groundbreaking, and it's difficult to keep up with it.
Make use of what is already available.

As for hard drives, prices are likely to return to normal close to the end of 2012.
There are a few hard drives around under $100 that you can consider (usually around 500GB) from Seagate.

 

[g-unit1111]

As for hard drives, prices are likely to return to normal close to the end of 2012.
There are a few hard drives around under $100 that you can consider (usually around 500GB) from Seagate.

That's what I keep hearing but so far only WD has commented on the status of their factory, Seagate has yet to. Most of the models offered under $100 are 500GB or less. If you don't need that much storage that's fine but if you do it's best to wait a bit.

Hardware evolves so fast there is always something groundbreaking, and it's difficult to keep up with it.

Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. The only way something will really be groundbreaking is if the manufacturers live up to the hype they actually promise.

 

[Ruid66]

Unfortunately hard drive prices are a problem with all builds atm, and look to be for some time to come. But you can certainly build her a much better computer now.

The Sandy Bridge e chips and the next gen e chip will be a high end and expensive build. But they are definitely made for video editing.
I just finished building a new Sandy Bridge e Computer for a friend. She edits video and uses the Adobe Suite, Maya, etc.

I compared my 2500k gaming rig against this hyper-threading computer, using a few editing programs, and it made my rig feel like it was an old Pentium 4 computer.

You definitely don't want to use the 2500k CPU. You will need Hyper-threading which the 2500k doesn't offer

For a mid range build, I would use the Intel I7 2600k for any video work. Put a mild over clock on it with 8gb of ram now, upgrade to 16gb later. Use an after market cooler, keep the voltage low, and definitely make sure the mb has sata III and usb 3.0 on it.

Even if you can't afford new sata III drives or usb 3 externals, when you do they will make a wold of difference in the transfer speed. Make sure her video card can keep up. This set up will make her love you forevah.

 

[simplec1]

You definitely don't want to use the 2500k CPU. You will need Hyper-threading which the 2500k doesn't offer

For a mid range build, I would use the Intel I7 2600k for any video work. Put a mild over clock on it with 8gb of ram now, upgrade to 16gb later. Use an after market cooler, keep the voltage low, and definitely make sure the mb has sata III and usb 3.0 on it.
.

Rudi is right on the noney

I just recently picked up a i7-2600k and applied a OC of 4.5 Ghz stable with 16Gigs of Ram. I use after effects,premiere pro and photoshop ALOT, plus I game on the side BF3. The hyper-threading on this cpu will make you smile and become real giddy when you start rendering your projects. Just a heads up get a decent GPU. As far as the hard drive prices, bite the bullet shop around. I got a 128 SSD for the OS and apps and 2x1TB drives for storage and files

 

[nottheratboy]

Sorry so slow to reply. Thanks for all of the helpful responses. There is a lot of information in there that I need to mull over.

Simplec1, I ran the hyperthreading "real giddy" thing by my wife and she said she doesn't know about hyperthreading but is all for real giddy...so that's promising.

You may have single handedly gotten her on board with this whole husband-building-a-pc thing. I'm getting some resistance. I kind of think she would rather just order one up from Nordstrom and be done with it.

That is interesting about the GPU's and big changes. I have a hard time figuring out how important the graphics card is for video editing. The Videoguys say it depends on the editor you are using. I'm leaning towards a prosumer type NLE like Avid Studio so maybe it's not that important to have a cutting edge card (if you're not a gamer?).

I'm trying to get up to speed on overclocking and curious if it is cost effective and if you pay much of a penalty in reliability and hassle. I assume people wouldn't be doing it if it didn't make sense.

I guess I'll just continue to do some research, drag my feet a bit and see what prices do. Would you say the hard drive market is up 50% right now? Is there any good benchmark to watch to determine when prices normalize like say a Seagate 1 or 2 TB 7200 internal hard drive should be about $x?

Thanks for all of the help.

 

[g-unit1111]

You may have single handedly gotten her on board with this whole husband-building-a-pc thing. I'm getting some resistance. I kind of think she would rather just order one up from Nordstrom and be done with it.

Nordstrom sells computers? I did not know that. :lol:

That is interesting about the GPU's and big changes. I have a hard time figuring out how important the graphics card is for video editing. The Videoguys say it depends on the editor you are using. I'm leaning towards a prosumer type NLE like Avid Studio so maybe it's not that important to have a cutting edge card (if you're not a gamer?).

The GPUs are where the biggest differences are going to lie. As Intel proved with SB-E and AMD proved with the FX-8100 is that bigger isn't always better, and that for the most part CPUs have bottomed out in terms of performance and what they can do. Ivy Bridge isn't really going to offer a whole lot new in terms of technology but where the biggest differences will come from is the GPUs and, well, all the other hardware in your PC. If you're not going to be using this system for games, there are workstation cards available like the ATI Fire Pro series and the NVIDIA Quaddro series, but those certainly aren't cheap.

I'm trying to get up to speed on overclocking and curious if it is cost effective and if you pay much of a penalty in reliability and hassle. I assume people wouldn't be doing it if it didn't make sense.

Sometimes it can be a hassle and sometimes it's not. It's pretty much simple math - set your multiplier to one level, your voltage to another, and your memory multiplier to another - that's it really. Some motherboards have a graphic UEFI BIOS that will allow you to overclock with just a couple of clicks. I don't think it really makes sense to overclock if it's going to be a workstation specific computer but if it's going to be used for games yeah it kind of makes sense.

 

[jeremyp1979]

There really is no reason to wait, especially with the great performance of the i5 2500k right now. PCI express 3.0 is cool and all, but not even the 7970 uses the full bandwidth of PCI express 2.0.

 

[simplec1]

I believe AVID supports Cuda and Open GL (helps with real time playback). If Cuda is supported then you are going to want an Nvidia Fermi card or a Quadro Card, as it really helps when editing your projects. It takes a load off the CPU for playback before rendering your projects. As far as overclocking goes its fairly simple with an ASUS motherboard, they have a fairly simple overclocking utility (Just make sure to pick up an aftermarket cooler as the stock Intel coolers are not recommended) the 2500k is fast but because it lacks hyper-threading NLE apps such as Avid, and Premiere are not going to be as fast as they are on a 2600k when comes to the final output render. (Anywhere from 5-30+ minutes depending on how complex your projects are) If you don’t feel comfortable overclocking definitely pick the 2600k. Also if helps, give your wife the old car new car analogy when explaining it to her. The 2500k is a Porsche and the 2600k is the Lamborghini

 

[nottheratboy]

Thanks for all of the help. The wheels are turning (slowly).

Off to read about overclocking...