Desktop Specs for Video Rendering

[dodger46]

Daughter's Uni work for next semester involves lots of Video Rendering which is mind numbingly slow on her otherwise capable lappy. So Dad promises to build her a desktop fit for the job, but I'm not too sure where to concentrate the computing power. I have a spare mobo (M4A78LT-M LE) which will drive an AMD Phenom up to 6 core (1045T) So question is, will that be enough, and how much RAM required. Also do I need a high-end GPU, or is that inconsquential where the actual rendering is concerned?
TIA,
Dodger

 

[Guest]

have you used that motherboard and cpu together before. it looks like it need an updated BIOS to support that cpu:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A78LTM_LE/#CPUS

that will work not the greatest but i am sure it will be better than a laptop. when video editing RAM is your friend.

oh, i just saw that board supports 8 gigs and 16 gigs is much more desirable . .

got a budget?

 

[dodger46]

have you used that motherboard and cpu together before. it looks like it need an updated BIOS to support that cpu:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A78LTM_LE/#CPUS

that will work not the greatest but i am sure it will be better than a laptop. when video editing RAM is your friend.

oh, i just saw that board supports 8 gigs and 16 gigs is much more desirable . .

got a budget?

Had hoped to do it on what I had available, but suspect 8gig not enough, what do you suggest? Budget flexible when it's for Education... I usually stick to what I'm familiar with, Asus and AMD...

 

[Guest]

Had hoped to do it on what I had available, but suspect 8gig not enough, what do you suggest? Budget flexible when it's for Education... I usually stick to what I'm familiar with, Asus and AMD...

are you sitting down?

ok, i am going to give you a few large numbers here:
ivy bridge i7 cpu -$300
motherboard- $120
16 gigs of ddr3 1600 ram $100
power supply $70
hard disc $90
video card $150+
add another $200 for a case, operating system, dvd drive, keyboard and mouse; thats about ~$1200.

tell me when you picked yourself off the floor.

 

[dodger46]

OK I'm off the floor, (just!) One Question, presume an SSD would make a difference?
I have a suitable case and other bits, inc a good Hyper PSU so a bit of a start , and the family will chip in to help, so achievable...

 

[Guest]

an SSD would help with booting into windows and launching applications. as far as rendering video and editing there really is a need to a separate disk for that; it is not a good idea to have the OS disc and "scratch disc to be the same one; it will cause a bottleneck.

here is a list of parts i put together earlier for someone else:
Intel Core i7-3770 $319.99
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP $119.99
CORSAIR XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) $109.99
Zotac (ZT-50301-10M) GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Sale Price $ 134.88
get that NOW - such an excellent price!
Corsair Carbide Series 300R $74.99
SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W $85.99
for the OS:
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe $94.99
a scratch disc:
Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB $ 89.99
storage:
Seagate Barracuda Green (ST2000DL003) 2TB $ 99.88
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT $99.99

$1160.68 with $44.86 shipping costs TOTAL $1205.54

now that is a very "high end" video editing build. there are few items that can be downgraded such as swapping out the i7 for an i5. (an i7 is really great for editing becuse the software makes use of the hyper threading)
Intel Core i5 3450 $189.99

that asrock board is really great but that can get swapped out with:
ASRock B75 PRO3 $79.99

a nVidia card is desirable because video editing software makes use of the cuda cores and provides a large increase in speed when rendering. unfortunately that great price won't be available since its a candian web site i had to use for this build
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti $124.99
$109.99 after mail-in rebate card

the case is more because of the budget than functionality that can go down a bit
GIGABYTE GZ-F3HEB Black SECC Steel $19.99
now that is a very sparse case and it doesn't have front UBS3 port but that won't hurt anything.

the PSU is really nothing to skip on, if that goes so does the whole system; maybe permanently if it takes out anything when it goes down.it could go down a little in wattage.
Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W $59.99

unfortunately i have to go and sorry to leave. i can get on what changes can be made to the disks set up, the scratch disk can go and the larger one (media) can get replaced. hopefully this can get down toward $850 before its over.

 

[dodger46]

an SSD would help with booting into windows and launching applications. as far as rendering video and editing there really is a need to a separate disk for that; it is not a good idea to have the OS disc and "scratch disc to be the same one; it will cause a bottleneck.

here is a list of parts i put together earlier for someone else:
Intel Core i7-3770 $319.99
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP $119.99
CORSAIR XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) $109.99
Zotac (ZT-50301-10M) GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Sale Price $ 134.88
get that NOW - such an excellent price!
Corsair Carbide Series 300R $74.99
SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W $85.99
for the OS:
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe $94.99
a scratch disc:
Western Digital Caviar Black 500 GB $ 89.99
storage:
Seagate Barracuda Green (ST2000DL003) 2TB $ 99.88
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT $99.99

$1160.68 with $44.86 shipping costs TOTAL $1205.54

now that is a very "high end" video editing build. there are few items that can be downgraded such as swapping out the i7 for an i5. (an i7 is really great for editing becuse the software makes use of the hyper threading)
Intel Core i5 3450 $189.99

that asrock board is really great but that can get swapped out with:
ASRock B75 PRO3 $79.99

a nVidia card is desirable because video editing software makes use of the cuda cores and provides a large increase in speed when rendering. unfortunately that great price won't be available since its a candian web site i had to use for this build
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti $124.99
$109.99 after mail-in rebate card

the case is more because of the budget than functionality that can go down a bit
GIGABYTE GZ-F3HEB Black SECC Steel $19.99
now that is a very sparse case and it doesn't have front UBS3 port but that won't hurt anything.

the PSU is really nothing to skip on, if that goes so does the whole system; maybe permanently if it takes out anything when it goes down.it could go down a little in wattage.
Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W $59.99

unfortunately i have to go and sorry to leave. i can get on what changes can be made to the disks set up, the scratch disk can go and the larger one (media) can get replaced. hopefully this can get down toward $850 before its over.

Thanks for that, appreciate the time and effort! Time to get the begging bowl out and go round the family...

 

[dodger46]

Best answer selected by dodger46.