Building up myself a HD system. need suggestion and advice

H

Hiro Nakamura

Active member
hi guys,

After years working as an editor, I 've decided to build my own HD system and work some of the project at home as a freelancer or contractor, whatever its' called.
My ex company is on SD setup, however, I think it would be better to go HD, because nowadays more and more projects are on HD format.

Below is my setup sheet, I appreciate if you guys could give critics, suggestion and advice.

My budget is around 10k.

- 8 Core Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processors
- 8G RAM
- Extra Graphic card for the second monitor NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB
( I am thinking if I could not afford it, I might buy two PC screens, like Benq 24 inch
or some sort)
- Original Harddrive is 640, then plus another 3 T1 driver, ( Raid these three )
( Of course, I need to buy the raid card as well)
- Blackmagic HD extreme card, which comes with 2 HDMI ports.
- If I still have money, might go with another broadcast monitor.

As HD deck, I would probably rent from other ppl, because each time the job is different, I wouldn't want to invest in that kind of field.

Anything I still need to buy or setup... OH of course, FCP7 as well. otherwise what is the point to setup a system like this, DON"T want to just use it for browsing websites ;D

Thank you very much for suggestions and advice.

Really Appreciate

Cheers
 
You might be able to use two monitors on one graphics card unless you plan to use the second for your broadcast monitor. Which nowdays, if you have a HMDI interface you can output it in HD that way. In addition, you should get a decent soundcard, RME is pretty much the standard for high end sound or a interface from the likes of MOTU or DIGI via firewire. And a set of decent monitors to hear what your editing. Computer speakers are a no no since they don't give you a true sound. In addition a power conditionerand power backup is essential.
 
DJDecay said:
Make sure none of the video storage is running via Fake Motherboard Software Raid.

If you're using a real MAC Pro - Then You have *only* 4 available PCIe slots.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by Fake Motherboard and 'Real Mac Pro'
Do you mean there are fake ones in the market? or they put other brands of motherboard?

Before you guys mentioned the 4 slots on the motherboard, I have never thought of there are only 4 slots and I have never thought putting audio card in as well.

So...I think I would get a dual graphic, and blackmagic, RAID and audio.

However, I am still a bit blur on the storage and speed for the HD, I dont have much experience of working on HD, give me more details.

Basically, the main harddisk on the macpro would be the one come with the machine, 640G, I will put it alone as installing all the applications and plugins, other storage as I plan to get another 3 1T harddisk, and I will raid them together.
BUT from what you said , as I understood, it will be a bit risky to run them as RAID , is that right ? how about if I buy those external storage, or I will RAID 2 harddisk, and get the last one as an achive, which once i finish a project, I will media manage the project to that disk, as the disk full, I will replace it .

Or...Like this:

1. 640G main harddisk as application disk, nothing else.
2. 1T x 2 as the scratch disks, putting HD footages,
3. External harddisk 1T as archive disk, once it is full, I will get another replace it.

(normally, I give client a harddisk of media managed project along with all the tapes.)

Is that secure ...I mean the machine would crash easily?

Sorry guys, I am not very experience of HD setup.

Cheers
 
I have been using for a G5 for a long time, sometimes before the SATA port came out, I used to plug 4 firewires into a G5, there from the back of them machine, in front, and two monitors hahaha, only one of them doesnt work properly, rest are all fine.
A bit scared of getting a Mac Pro now, I am afraid I would get over budget.
Basically, I am getting a lot documentaries, corporate videos, news a lot ( but it's fast off editing) correspondent walking in with a tape, digitize it, get SOT with B-Roll, record V.O. then output. very fast job. documentaries are taking me lots of time. Some has lots of footages. Imagine they are all shot by F900R.
I think this machine would be a one stop machine, I can do graphic or aftereffects on my macbook pro, but since I spend this much to build a machine, I probably gonna install photoshops, aftereffects and the whole FCP Studio in it. But mainly it's editing with basic color correction within FCP itself. No heaving grading through COLOR though.
Mainly, all the projects are output to tape. As I mentioned earlier. If I need a HD deck to digitize the tapes for editing or output, I would probably just rent it. I am based in Asia, renting equipment is cheap here.
I think as codec wise, Prores 422, XDCAM (SR/EX), DVC PRO HD, and SD as well.

Do you mean 2 x @ 640GB - RAID 1 (OS/Application/System Volume - Software RAID in OSX)
is to mirror each other, to secure this disk , sorry I apologize my ignorance, never thought of it before. is that way to secure the OS disk, not to get crash. Because it seems the OS disk is the most important one, others I can easily replace by another external harddisk.

Again, thank you very much for your time and suggestion.
 
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