Building a new PC... what would you put in it to churn through HD video?
 

I'm going to build a new editing machine and unsure what exactly what I need to be able to churn through HD video rendering with ease.

What specs?

I was going to make the jump to MAC but chickened out at the last minute. :disgust

Bump for answers. I need a new one too for the exact same reason.

I put together a nice one for this same thing, what is your budget?

Get an i7 920 and overclock(easily) to 3.8ghz.

It's best upgrade I've ever done. Almost twice as fast as my other PC's, and their pretty fast in their own right.

Just outsource your video stuff to me instead :)

These guys build custom systems. Might be worth checking into what they're using.

http://www.cpusolutions.com/custom-video-editing-pc.htm

hmm...I have this setup ...no hiccups!

• Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
• EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
• CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D
• EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
• CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7
• 2 x in RAID 0 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
• COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

I'm stuck on an older board for now, but I dropped in 8GB of ram (totally made a huge difference from 4GB) and upgraded to Vista64. Video card is still a 7600GT as it's pretty irrelevant when encoding. Waiting for the "cuda" system to come out on that one, still. Q6600 CPU mildly overclocked. Liberty Enermax 430W PSU. WD "Black" caviar drives. Scythe mini ninja cooler.

My e-penis is huge, I know ;)

What did that set you back?

$4000

The trick is, I'm in Asia so I'm a bit limited on what I can get. To have things sent here will be marked up and taxed, costing me MUCH more than it should.

I really need to build from parts I can get at local stores, if at all possible.

I'd go with AMD Quad-Core technology!

http://multicore.amd.com/us-en/quadcore/

If I were you, I'd get someone you trust to send you this as a tax / customs duty free "present" - only $1700 and is a better machine than Amateursets which cost $2K more: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...1&Sku=SYX-1014

Thank me later :)

Get a PS3, install Linux and use it for encoding. In August (I think) there will be a major exclusive codec released specifically for it's Cell that will have you encoding lightning fast :)

i got exact setup minus the video card.... clocked to 3.8ghz

mobo quad socket - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813151085

16 cores, cpus 4x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819105199

SSD - 4x or so http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167005

Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703022

few of these HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136322

Case - http://www.coolerguys.com/llpcv2010.html (black ;p)

16G or so ram, whatever's compatible in the mobo manual.

Decent nVidia video card or two.

And whatever other small stuff.

That system would smoke any mac ever made and maybe even cost less or at least it wouldn't be much more.

i bought everything at a local microcenter, i believe it set me back around $1,600 after taxes and everything.

With a $4,000 budget ...you can build something sick ...don't buy that POS from tigerdirect.

I'm loving mine so far ...prolly gonna upgrade to SSD harddrives when i get some more cash from the 9-5

go to one of the hardware forums and ask for an advice - these guys really know their shit, simply choosing the best and putting it together isn't your best option

btw what you are looking for shouldn't cost you more than $1500 let alone $4000

God that makes me horny.

I presume you are encoding AVCHD its funny that none of these brainiacs bothered to ask the format because it will make a huge difference.

Is it avchd to avchd or are you going uncompressed hd to avchd or avchd to what?

I believe there are encoding accelerators for AVCHD but they are probably pretty pricey at this point you may want to hold off a bit on those see if the price drops or if CUDA technology will help you but theres not enough here to properly answer your question without knowing what you are shooting in and editing to....

Nice system
 

Search for eBay Item number: 300313460518

Processor: Intel Core i7 - 2.66GHz
Motherboard: EVGA x58 SLi
Video Card: EVGA GTX 260 - 896Mb GDDR3
250Gb Primary Hard Drive, (Buy it Now and I will Include extra 750Gb HD)
Blue Ray and HD Player
Lightscribe Slim Slot Optical Drive
Media Reader
12Gb DDR3 Ram 1600Mhz
Power Supply 900w
Windows Vista

Looks Like something that you need and it can be shipped to Asia.

tigerdirect sucks ass would buy a comp from best buy before i touched them again

lol

i7 encodes like no other processor, fucken smash's it! Either get one of those puppies or go Mac, i wouldn't consider anything else. Just my 2 cents :)

I'm bumping this thread since I had a question for those of you using I7 workstations with AVCHD video: does the video play smoothly on these systems? If so, what editing software are you using? I tried Sony Vegas on a laptop with a dual core Centrino processor, 4 MB of ram and Vista and the AVCHD video plays back very choppy... impossible to edit this way. Am thinking about upgrading to an I7 but won't do it if the video is still choppy.

A related question: will an I7 laptop perform as well as a I7 desktop for video editing, assuming all of the other major specs are similar?

Wait a couple of months, then these 3 things will be available:

1 x EVGA Classified Super Record 2 (SR-2) Motherboard - Price: $600 EVGA Store (More info on board)

1 x Intel Xeon X5680 - Price: ~ $1600

1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 Hydro Copper FTW - Price: 2 x $650 EVGA Store

---

1 x Lian-Li Armorsuit PC-P80 Case to fit above motherboard - Price: $350

1 x 12Gb Corsair Dominator memory kit - Price: $400

1 x Enermax 1250W Revolution 85+ PSU or the upcoming EVGA 1200W Super Record 2 (SR-2) Power Supply (briefly described on the motherboard link page above) - Price: ?

Total: $3600 + PSU

You can then always upgrade with a second CPU and graphics card.

At least this will be my own upgrade this summer. Perfect for everything from 3D rendering to gaming, and with 2 cpu's and gfx cards it will blow away any current Mac and at a lower price.


Just checked Apple store for a Mac Pro with following config:

Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
12GB (6x2GB) Memory
640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB

Total price: $6,349.00

Talk about getting fooled.
Price for the custom build PC including 2 CPU's and GFX cards: $5850 + PSU.
This is with the new Xeon 6-core CPU and newest DX11 Geforce cards just released, and still it will be cheaper :helpme

Why do you say that? I've bought TV's and built a computer with parts from TD and never had a problem...knock on wood!