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Recommendations for Editing Stations under $3K?
  • 143 Replies sorted by
  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev .. please do explain further.
    I don't want to get the wrong processor at it's $350 cost

    I selected it as the fastest i7 the board will handle from here.

    http://processormatch.intel.com/
    I chose 'Find Processors' and entered the board DH67GD

  • @kavadni

    H boards do not have any overclock functionality (I mean here multiplier change available in K processors).

    Modern boards that are designed to work with K processors - Z77 based boards.

    Intel boards are usually not really popular due to very basic design.

    Check Gigabyte and ASUS boards.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev .. Thanks, I will look into some alternative boards, or perhaps the non K version will be a little cheaper.

  • Got my new Mobo and Ram set up. Some things are better than expected like rendering speed, and load times. I knew they would increase, but was still pretty blown away by how much. The board and 1090t seem to get along very well. Almost too well. I was able to OC the 1090t to scary levels with relatively low voltage and acceptable temps, but I didn't dare attempt rendering out of fear of frying it. At 5.2GHZ (I stopped going up before it did) and on air all I can say is little was to be desired in most areas, and I am finally thinking seriously about water cooling just so I can really utilize that speed. Back down at a reasonable 4.3ghz things are still fast, and I am not flinching in anticipation of an explosion from my CPU. I still have a bit of stutter when loading effects, but not nearly as bad as before. It's a fresh OS install though, and I need to see if I have the right codecs (can't remember anything from last time I got them). Time to bury my brain in tech stuff. I am very much a right brain person, so not really into computers by nature, but by necessity I learn what I need to.

  • @mee

    Right now you need to understand why you need all this GHz.

    It can be for effects and encoding mostly. Sad thing is that GPU is better at this. Intel QuickSync is also very good at encoding help and in most situations Ivy Bridge with QuickSync will be faster.

  • @Vitaliy, so would running two GPU's in Sli smooth out the stutter. I have a 465gtx, and can get another for less than $50. I use Magix fyi, not sure how that plays into it all. I haven't OC'd my GPU much lately cause I figured it was more than enough stock, but maybe tonight I will see if I can get it up there and smooth things out. It's a 352 core card with a stock clock of 607mhz, but I have had it up around 900mhz and pretty stable. Unfortunately there is very little headroom with the memory clock. Can't remember it's number right now cause I don't touch it anymore.

    Intel is out of the question for now. I have a deal with my wife that I can use what I make from Video for camera stuff and computer stuff. Right now that aint much.

  • I'm Avid MC 6.0 and in need of a desktop. Avid wants you to install the expensive nvidea quadro cards. My notebook workstation does have that card but it's a tired unit. Anyone manage to build an avid system without buying the turnkey workstations from dell or hp? Thanks

  • @bheath Hi Bill! Nice solution should be nvidia series 6 cards (660, 670, and 680 all has 1500 cuda cores). I'm checking the avid website and apparently it says, in system requirements, all nvidia cards are good, (i have a 670, that's pretty fast and affordable). Give it a try, i think it would work :-)

    Try to check this: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539

  • Update on my AMD system. At half resolution in the magix monitor I now have no stutter in my current editing and effect loads, even at stock speed, and even underclocked. I don't really need full resolution for my editing purposes, since I rarely view full screen when editing, so for the time being I am very happy with my budget build.

  • I've been editing GH13 footage on my 6 year old Dell laptop D820 (3.2GB RAM, XP, Premiere CS4). You'll be surprised how good Dell once was. But it became a complete pain in the neck, so I've decided to invest in a proper PC that will keep me going for another 6-8 years.

    I want it to be relatively "future-proof" and be ready for BlackMagic camera 2.5k RAW footage. It will be primarily for Adobe Prepiere Pro, although I want to install AVID on it and start learning it.

    Overall budget: ~ £1200 ($2000 or 1500 Euro). Here are the specs that I'm planning. Any advice that I can get, would be much appreciated!

    • CPU i7-3930k (may consider cheaper 2600k, 3820 or 3770K)
    • Motherboard ... I'm clueless, and open to advice
    • Cooler - Noctua D14, although I would love something completely motionless and silent like "Nofan" with an option to automatically start the fan only at a particular temperature like 60C. Any ideas if there's something like that on the market?
    • SSD - 256GB Samsung 840 (I will add more HDDs and SSDs with time when the prices drop and more money comes in. For now I keep my footage on external drives, 6TB in total)
    • 2x8GB RAM for now, and I will expand with time. (I have no clue which speed to get)
    • Video card - open to advice.
    • Sound card - do I need one?
    • Power supply - I think Corsair TX750W should be enough.
    • Case -- I'm absolutely clueless, but would prefer a cheap case with good soundproofing.
    • Keyboard - HP standard black (£7). I like simple keyboards.
    • Monitor - I already have 28" Hanns-G 1920x1200, but will probably get an additional Shimian 27" 2560x1440

    As I mentioned, any advice would be much appreciated.

  • U i7-3930k (may consider cheaper 2600k, 3820 or 3770K)

    3770 is absolutely enough.

    Motherboard ... I'm clueless, and open to advice

    Check posts above. I suggest ASUS as they have very good fan tuning rules.

    SSD - 256GB Samsung 840

    Yep, Sandisk also has good and cheap SSDs.

    2x8GB RAM for now, and I will expand with time

    Get just normal RAM, not overclockers sets.

    Video card - open to advice

    Check correspondint topic here.

    Sound card - do I need one?

    I strongly suggest some semi-pro USB box (with XLRs inputs and headphone amp)

    Power supply - I think Corsair TX750W should be enough.

    Do not overdo things. As I know Seasonic are top choice is you like silency and efficiency.

    Case

    Get any good case with thick walls and place for two 12mm fans, and get Noctua fans.

    Keyboard - HP standard black (£7). I like simple keyboards.

    Same here, check keyboards topic. Throw out this cheap shit.

  • Thanks for the response, Vitaliy. I have bought i7-3930K processor already (on eBay brand new in a sealed box, which was cheaper than anywhere else), so I will build the system around it. For a silent case, I think it will be Corsair 550D. The 3 questions are:

    1. which motherboard - specifically - would be good for it? (I can't afford Big Bang, Sabertooth or any high end ones, but more mid-range price would be nice. I've read the whole thread, which is pretty old by now, and still
    2. which graphix card, specifically? (I'm not a gamer, just need to edit on Premiere Pro, color correction, audio edit, plus Adobe After Effect)
    3. Which Seasonic PSU is silent enough and powerful enough for a system like this?

    Thanks.

    Also found this video that answers the topic title:

  • @kronstadt

    1. Just get any ASUS Mb compatible with your processor. Go to their site and find one with ability to tune fans (it has fancy graphs pictures). Gigabyte boards are also not bad. LGA 2011 boards are much more rare and you always pay premium.

    2. http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3823/graphics-card-for-video-editing, as I understand, if you do not use Resolve any modern 6xx NVidia card will do.

    3. About case, do as you wish, but real case noise is defined by fans and PSU.

    4. About PSU, I think anything 550W or more is good . Just get any you like, you can check tests on sites for noise.

  • Thanks @Vitaliy_Kiselev. Will make sure to read that thread.

    People can actually calculate how much power they will need using this http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

    For me it showed 500-700W (with all additions that I might get in distant future) , so I went ahead and purchased "Seasonic 860w 80+ Platinum". I hope it should be enough. By the way, for those in the UK, it is on special offer at overclockers.co.uk for £166 (incl VAT&shipping). This should keep it silent for most of the time, and I figured with current electricity prices, this efficient PSU will pay for itself in a year in terms of energy savings.

    Regarding the silent case, if you can suggest an alternative that is both cheaper and better in terms of sound isolation, then I'm open to suggestions. The thing that I liked about Corsair 550D is that it has 2 fan hatches that easily pop out. So my plan is to put Noctua fans there and a fan controller on the front. That way, on a normal day, the comp stays closed and silent. And on an editing day, the hatches open and fans are on. 2 PCs in 1.

  • @kronstadt

    There is no such thing as a "cheap" case with soundproofing, but the Antec 183v3 is often used in custom systems designed for quiet operation. Runs $120-$150 in U.S. It may pay to replace stock fans with Noctua fans, or similar, if you want a really quiet system.

    Here's more unsolicited advice, since I've been researching similar questions recently:

    The Asus Pro Px79 board is one of the cheaper Px79 boards (though not cheap!), and commonly recommended by a number of software vendors (including Resolve and I believe Avid, though you might want to confirm that).

    The Geforce GTX 660Ti looks like a decent compromise between the current high-end GPU (GTX 680) and the lower end cards, but there's not much comparative performance data around, on how much CUDA acceleration you really gain (in PPRO), with the expensive cards.

    Beware: there can be SDRAM issues with the 3930K chip. Make sure you use only approved SDRAM. You might also look into low voltage SDRAM, from Samsung. The other common recommendation is z-ripjaws.

    Your power supply looks more than adequate for the system.

  • So I just decided to upgrade from my MacPro and externals to a powerful Hackintosh system, thought I would look through here for advice and help...and I do believe my brain has imploded on its self and is now oozing all over the floor, giving the dog something to do. Thanks guys! :)

    The worst part about it, I used to be a global network guy!!!!

  • I think Thunderbolt should be on the list for a Hackintosh build. A number of TB MB's are beginning to appear.

  • @vlcharris look over at tonymac if you are going to build a hacintosh... Slugnet's video editor is a pretty good build... though I would get a different, more expensive case than the one on that system.

  • @jrd I don't understand what you mean about "only approved SDRAM". You mean that 3930K doesn't recognise anything above DDR3-1600? (I know about that). Or are there any other issues that I should be aware of???

    Right now I'm trying to decide between: Patriot Viper 3 Black Mamba 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (PV332G160C9QK) http://www.patriotmemory.com/product/specs/PV332G160C9QK.pdf and Patriot 32GB PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Intelƒ‚‚® Extreme Masters Memory, Limited Edition (PVI332G160C9QK) http://www.patriotmemory.com/product/specs/PVI332G160C9QK.pdf

    Can anybody please advise which one of the two to get? And can anyone please advise if these will work with 3930K chip and Asus Sabertooth X79?

  • I do not see that many thunderbolt devices out there. If you had a choice between the 2011 socket, X79 Chipset, 6 core CPU (Intel Core i7-3930K Hexa-Core Processor 3.2 Ghz 12 MB) and LGA 1155 Z77 Chipset, 4 Core CPU (Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache) with thunderbolt port(s) which one would you go with?

  • @Tommyboy

    Go with LGA 1155, for usual editing stuff and grading. It is cheaper, really. Most calc load go into GPU. And encoding can be done with QuickSync tech (on any Ivy Bridge CPU).

    I thinlk that 6 core can be better for 3D rendering stuff.

  • @vicharris - There's a Hackintosh thread I started on this forum. Do a search. A wealth of info.

    That being said, I built the following with one of the Korean IPS monitors VK suggests for a total of $1800

    CPU - i7 3770k RAM - 32gb Corsair XMS GPU - Gigabyte NVIDIA 660ti HDD - 128gb Crucial M4 SSD for start up as well as a 1TB Samsung drive for storage Drive - Sony Optiarc DVD burner TP link wifi card (I forget but it's all over tonymacosx as something that works natively FireWire card (again, it's the TI chipset which is compatible

    Cool master Hyper 212 CPU cooler Fractal 3000 case

    Matrix WQHD 27" monitor

    Such a beast.

  • I need community's advice about which RAM to get for my i7-3930K and Sabertooth x79 setup.

    Mushkin 994069 32GB 4x8GB DDR3 1600MHZ PC3-12800 Blackline Frostbyte CL9 1.5v http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130802476345

    OR

    Patriot PV332G160C9QK Black Viper 3 Series DDR3 32GB (4x8GB) 1600MHz (Base Timings: 9-9-9-24) QUAD Kit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130803982908

  • I don't understand what you mean about "only approved SDRAM".

    I mean SDRAM specifically approved by the maker of the motherboard which, in the case of Asus can be found on the Asus website; note that the 3930K CPU is particularly finicky. However, based on reports to be found on Adobe's PrPRO forum, I wouldn't buy either of the SDRAMs you propose; refer to my earlier post for suggestions, for what they're worth.

    And where possible, buy complete and certified sets for the full amount of SDRAM you're installing, rather than putting two or more sets together.

  • @jrd, thanks. The Asus website list of supported memory is very limited. So I had to resort to forum posts from people with similar combination to mine (Sabertooth+3930K) with regards to which memory worked for them. Thus, I ended up getting G.Skill 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL10 Ripjaws Z series F3-12800CL10Q-32GBZL, although it's CL10, rather than CL9. I hope it will work like a charm. Thanks for your advice!