Looking for advice building video editing PC

[manofaffairs]

My old homebuilt just bought the farm. Freezes after 7 minutes, power cycle, then 4 minutes, power cycle, then freezes in the BIOS. Probably heat related? Anyhow, I built in in 2007. It had a good run. Time for an upgrade.

I am not entirely sure of what components best benefit video editing, besides plenty of RAM and a good CPU. I'm trying to spec something that will perform consistently, and for a reasonably long period of time.

I have so far decided on the following parts:

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GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $209.99

*Great reviews, lots of features. The wifi and bluetooth could be cut to save $25, buuut... still cool features.

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770 - $319.99

*Seems to be riding the line of high end CPU, but not to the extreme end of $1,000+ for the chip.

Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-900 900W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - $129.99

*I have NO idea what kind of power supply I will need. I will eventually want to power a mid-high end graphics card too. 900W enough?

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 - $114.99

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Looking for suggestions for a nice, upgradeable case, with USB 3.0 in front and NO bling, would be great. ~$60 - $120 would be nice.

Also, looking for suggestions for a good graphics card. OpenGL is being utilized to accelerate non-linear editing programs these days. There are so many different versions of cards these days, it makes my head spin...

Any input is highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Isaac

 

[manofchalk]

Motherboard is good.

CPU is good. Though I would suggest getting a 3770k, so you can overclock. On that note, get a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO to keep it cool.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

900W is overkill for a dual card setup, yet alone a single. Get 600W for a single GPU, or 750W for dual. Make sure its Modular and 80+ Bronze or better. Look for Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone and XFX Power Supplys. I recommend this one or the 600W version.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256059

RAM is good.

For a case with no bling, Corsair is the way to go and they are very good cases.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008

As for which GPU to get, for video editing you will want an Nvidia card as its CUDA cores will help. A GTX670 will be fine and will game everything at high settings. You could go the extreme route and get a Quadro card, but that's a bit overkill and wont let you game.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423

 

[Nw333]

Budget? What parts do you have? 900W is overkill. Have a look at this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bmI5
Edit: manofchalk has a better one so check that one out xD

 

[Wisecracker]

AMD FirePro V4900 1GB: $155

AMD FX-8120 Zambezi: $170
(a promo code pops up every few weeks for $15 off)

Asus Sabertooth 990FX AM3+: $188.50

Benchmarking Sony Vegas Pro 11 using GPU on FirePro V4900

GPU acceleration for video FX, transitions, compositing, pan/crop, track motion and encoding

 

[manofaffairs]

Great feedback folks!

To amend, my budget is around ~$1000.

I have a Seagate Barracude 1.5TB drive, and an Asus DVD-RW+/- that I will be salvaging from the old box.

 

[manofaffairs]

OK, so it looks like with the GPU, budget will be around $1350. PCpicker is a pretty fun little site... thanks for the link.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bnHz

That's what I've got lined up for now.

 

[Wisecracker]

Pssst ...

You've spent $953 for a CPU, mobo and gaming card that will be obliterated by the $525 rig I spec'ed for you.

To each his own ....

 

[manofaffairs]

Sorry Wisecracker, It seems I have accidentally overlooked your specs.

Comparing the video cards, the v4900 seems to be a great choice, and certainly saves a big chunk of money. I think I can handle that.

However, I'm not sold on the FX-8120. I haven't been keeping up with hardware for years, but everything I can find now puts the 3770k up there pretty far for performance. AMD certainly has the value, but is there evidence to support the 8120 competing significantly with the 3770k? I am not the best at picking through all of the benchmark scores I see...

Thanks again for any input!

 

[obsama1]

It's slightly slower, but a lot cheaper!

 

[manofaffairs]

Fair enough! New specs with the FX chip, the V4900 card, and the Sabertooth board: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/boFV

Grand total is $876.42. That saves like 400 bucks. That's actually pretty exciting!

 

[obsama1]

Good choices!

 

[Draven35]

Video editing software is accelerated using OpenCL or CUDA, not OpenGL. If you're usning Premiere, use an nvidia GPU, pure and simple.

 

[Wisecracker]

FX-8120 for $155 at the Egg today with code. A 2x4GB kit of 1866 RAMs would be fine if you need to bump up your drive investment. That's your focus because the 900FX is enterprise class. You could RAID 6xSATA 6Gb/s -- OS, Capture/Scratch, and 0utput. Bombs away, matey!

No doubt the 3770k is faster, but in this application (multi-threaded video editing and encoding) the BDs generally hold their own and are competitive with the iCores.

The V4900 should boost the FX-8120 over the top. Pro cards (and their accelerators) are a great investment to get your mojo working.

My understanding is OpenGL is used for some advanced functions in editing --- something about some OpenGL calls to the shaders are a really efficient way of doing certain functions.

There are accelerated functions that are next to useless, though. CUDA is great at certain filters and color correction -- not really my interest or thang. The secret is trying to find the software that does what you like to do best, and the hardware to compliment it.

The "...video FX, transitions, compositing, pan/crop, track motion and encoding" in Vegas in that link is what I'm all about. I left Adobe 6 or 7 years ago for the dim lights of Vegas (after coming in early on the ground floor 'back in the day' with PS, Premiere, AE ...). I owned every piece of software and bundles they ever sold, and dumped them like a bag of dirt.

Motion graphics in Vegas ain't quite AE, but you can still do some great stuff with it. It integrates well with every bit of software I've thrown at it. It will take a good work-a-round, too.

Premiere is good -- my complaint was more with the Adobe idiots. Premiere really likes fast RAMs and disk I/O on multiple drives.