PC Piece by piece building

[mrpeter]

Hi guys.

I want to build a new video editing DEDICATED computer. But I want a top PC, with the following specs:

- Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition $1,029.99
- G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2133Mhz $139.99
- ASUS P9X79 $299.99
- OCZ Vector Series SATA III 256GB $269.99
- EVGA GeForce GTX 690 $1,019.99
- 2x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 269.98

As you can see, it´s a expensive PC. So, I want to build it piece by piece, one at a time. Actually, I have a Intel Dual-Core E5400 with 4GB RAM. My doubt is: at first, should I buy a GTX 690 and put it in my atual PC (to improve video preview and rendering) or should I buy at first the i7-3970X Extreme Edition with the ASUS P9X79 mobo without the GTX graphic card? Which way will I have more performance? Just remembering, after I´ll buy all the set above.

P.S.: You can suggest any component change that you think I´ll get more performance.

Thanks.


NEW! I´ve just found the Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache. So, will be this one instead Barracuda.

 

[TenPc]

"Mounting" is not really the right word, "build" would sound better.
"Workstation" is not really the right word if there are no other PCs in the network, a Workstation is a PC that derives its sofware and applications from a server PC that might be located in the same building or elsewhere. So, basically you want a desktop Pc that can handle video editing, compiling and possibly some good Pc games when you have some leisure time.

What you have selected seems good but the PSU should be in excess of 700 watts, Seasonic would be best suited.

 

[mrpeter]

Thanks TenPc.
Corrections done.

 

[TenPc]

Great, I hope the changes brings you more replies.

When building a PC, it is a good idea to start with the motherboard then check the specifications of the motherboard for the CPU & ram requirements. Try to find the best ones that suit your needs.

Video editing is more about the ram and the CPU than the video card, a decent video card is good because using onboard video out will mean that part of the ram will be reserved for the gpu, as much as 2gb however, this motherboard has no onboard video out so you will need a video card.

The ASUS P9X79 is Windows 8 ready but could be servicable for Windows 7 x64. The memory channels are Quad Channel Memory Architecture which means a kit of 4 ram modules rather than dual channel which is a kit of 2 modules (sticks). Quad Channel is better however, should one stick become unstable, you can't revert to 3 sticks, only 2 of them and only if the motherboard will support dual channel to support only 2 sticks and that the ram is a combo type of dual/quad channel ram as is with the Corsair Vengeance ram.

There is usually a footnote at the bottom of the specs page refering to 32 bit operating systems but it is not present so it must be assumed that the motherboard is a pure 64 bit OS board. There is no reference to Linux so it must be assumed that Ubuntu would also be excluded.

Also, being Windows 8 ready, might mean certain features would not be available to Windows 7 although I am not really sure about that, the Overview just does not state anything about those features being suited to Windows 7.

You might want to consider a lesser model that is not Windows 8 ready and that it does support dual channel ram so that you can have the use of double channel ram. Also, older models are more akin to be being backward compatible with a previous OS like Vista or XP should the need arise for a dual boot system.

With a 64 bit OS motherboard, there might be some issues regarding 32 bit programs and applications (and games). There is not a lot of software that utilize 64 bit drivers so there may be some concern in that quarter.

Video editing can be done with as little as a Pentium 3 CPU based motherboard but takes 10 times longer to render or compile but it just means that you don't necessarily need a top-of-the-line- PC to actually do it.


We all assume that building a PC is a matter of just "Plug and Play" but there are about 10 million other things you also have to take into consideration.

 

[mrpeter]

Ok TenPc.

Thanks for help.

But there´s a error on your text: for SURE the graphic card matters on the video preview, and, mainly on rendering. As a example, you can see this video of rendering in After Effects (in portuguese) with and without graphic card acceleration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm8w4lKnHr4&list=UUWOYPQWC4PlKou7qJeYiSOA&feature=player_detailpage#t=551s

With CUDA (NVIDIA paralell processors), the velocity is about 76x times faster.

And yes, I need a top of line pc, because what I want is EXACTLY the render speed.

My doubt is: at first, should I buy
- the i7 3970x Extreme Edition
or
- the GTX 690?

And one more thing: do the memory frequency REALLY matters on rendering speed? For sure it is better, but I want to know if the difference is big from a 1600Mhz to 2133Mhz.

Thank you all.

 

[TenPc]

2133mhz would make for faster ram but might impact on the speed of the CPU. !600mhz would be more in line with the CPU with a 1:1 ratio. Considering that rendering relies heavily on the speed of the CPU, I'd rather go with the 1600mhz.

Make sure you have plenty of free space on the hdd, temp storage is almost as large as the animation you are working on. Some programs allow UNDO so that, too, would also require temp files.

I had another OP that was rendering for Imax video and he claimed that a video card was not a pre-requisite for video compiling. His problem was that his CPU was AMD and they are not really suited to such tasks which is why it took 25 minutes to render one animation as compared to his friend with Intel CPU that only took him 10 minutes for the same animation.

I've done rendering, compiling and video editing for about 90 videos on a Compaq Pentium 3 (2ghz) with only 2gb of ram (DDR400), XP x32, 128 mb AGP video card (4 years ago) and my compile took almost as long as the movie itself so one movie to decompile, edit, compile and burn to disk took about 10 hours. Just movies for personal use, not for distrubution in any way or form. I created my own menus etc... I didn't bother with printing a label on the disk, just used a marking pen. I still got them but are again getting a bit scratched up so may need to re do some of them again.

A 2gb video card would more than suffice, it would also allow for watching the final result, playing PC games and other uses.
You have no onboard video port so you will need a video card, regardless.

Might be better to go ask in the Category of Memory about the ram.

Here is the thread about the imax render, it is rather long and boring - 3 pages of it - but you will get some really good information -
Vray Render