Ideal G5 Setup for use with HVX and DVXProHD

S

silentr

Member
I am assembling the best HD Editing System I can for about 12,000. I am purchasing a HVX200 and need a solution for cutting both 1080 & 720. The following is what I have put together, I am looking for suggestions or additions to the system. As far as deck are is concerned for now I am just going to transfer files from the camera to HD. Here is the system list:

Power Mac G5 Quad-core 2.5GHz
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
1x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
4GB 533 DDR2 ECC SDRAM- 4x1GB
QUADRO FX 4500 512MB SDRAM
2x Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
Lacie 2TB Bigger Disk 32MB Buffer
Blackmagic DeckLink HD Pro 4:2:2 Card
Blackmagic HDLink
M-Audio Studiophile LX4 2.1 Studio Monitor Speakers
Behringer Audio Mixer

Software:
Final Cut Pro Studio
AE 6.5
Magic Bullet Suite
 
Hey Silent,

That's a nice system. You may be able to shave a few pennies off your purchase by going with the Nvidia 7800GT rather than the Quadro card. While the Quadro is nice as it offers 512MB of Ram, the majority of it's features wouldn't really be utilized unless you're doing some high-end engineering/design, medical visualization, or similar. The NVidia 7800GT offers near equal capability to the Quadro in terms of raw performance, but it's only $350 vs. $1650 for the Quadro..

The extra Ram on the Quadro card would certainly be beneficial, but the overall performance difference between the two cards in apps like Motion is only around 4 to 6 percent. So you may want to weight the cost/performance ratio of the 7800GT & Quadro FX4500

Hope that may help.
 
Oh, and just another tip for you. All of the new PCI-Express based PowerMacs are way more than capable for doing 1080 or 720 HD editing. The Quad-Core system is obviously going to give you the best performance - especially for things like Compressor encoding, etc...; but the overall performance gain may not be significant enough for the extra expense of the Quad system.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sway you from the Quad-Core or the Quadro card; I just wanted to let you know that you'll be able to do exactly what you wish and more on any of the new PowerMacs. So if you're looking to save a few bucks, you can comfortably evaluate the lower priced options.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. How do you feel about the lacie bigger disk with 32mb buffer, for the price it seems a nice alternative to a raid array. Any other recommendations?

eric
www.silentr.com
 
I've been using a number of the lacie 400gb firewire 800 drives and have had a lot of problems. I can't say it applies to the Bigger Disk but I would imagine they are based on the same controllers. I've found that the 400gb drives are only recognized by the OS about 40% of the time and frequently dump on large file access. I've tried the same drives on multiple pc's and macs with both the firewire 400 and 800 busses with the same results. We are talking about 5 drives for 2 different clients that are exhibiting the same issues. Be careful and I agree, a raid will probably be better.
 
I suggest two 250gigs sata drives (or better) configured in raid 0, so you will have an array of 500gigs. If you have a controller with 4 ports, you can add two others hard drives.

With that configuration, the bandwidth will be enough for your editing machine.

If you care about security, you can use the raid 5 setup, but isn't really necessary unless you have the fear to lose all your footage if a hard drive fails.
 
I'd have to agree with the others. The Lacie is a nice drive, but you'd be much better off with a Raid system. Lacie makes a SATA based Raid box which is pretty nice. I like the units from The DR Group (formerly Dr. Rawstock). There are really a ton of options when it comes to a small raid unit, but I'd highly recommend you go that route rather than with a unit like the Bigger Disk.

SATA II based Raid solutions can be had fairly inexpensively, and you can build your own with components at your local Frys if you're so inclined.
 
ECC, Video & Monitors

ECC, Video & Monitors

Few thoughts...

On the RAM front, I don't believe you will benefit significantly from Reg ECC RAM. It's primary function is stability in the server sector. If you really want to spend extra, consider getting low latency RAM, but even then, the price/performance ratio, particularly for NLE, is not worth it.

Unless you're doing heavy duty animation or CGI, the Quadro card is massive overkill for FCP. The 7800 is more than adequate. You won't notice a difference. Also, I don't know how Apple has handled cooling, but Quadros make a bloody racket.

As for monitors, the consensus is that the 24" Dell 2405FPWs are better than the Apple 23s (google this). They're bigger, brighter, and have more inputs (like component video). They're also cheaper. With the right coupon, you can pick them up for as low as $730. They don't look as cool as the aluminum Apples, but they're pretty sexy.

Hope this helps. I'm about to buy the exact same system for the exact same reason.
 
Yeah, nice call on the ECC RAM, I didn't even notice that he'd chosen that. ECC would certainly be useless here. For the same price you could get 8GB's of RAM - although FCP won't use over 4GB currently.

I disagree on the Dell monitor though. I've heard just as many complaints about them as I've heard good. The Dells, in my opinion, are $730 for a reason. Dell has nowhere near the quality control level of Apple when it comes to monitors and will frequently use panels which would never meet the Apple spec. I'm not saying they're bad or anything, just that I'd be against purchasing one without being able to test the exact unit first. Both the Dell and the Apple are nice panels and you'll probably be happy with either.l
 
Hopefully you aren't planning on buying that RAM from Apple. Apple charges hideous amounts of money for their RAM... always buy the minimum amount they'll let you get away with and get your RAM 3rd-party.

Also, ditto on the problems with Lacie externals. We've had 3 of them stop recognizing connections. We've gotten away pretty easy in terms of data loss but we're also just DONE with LaCie for now. We've replaced them recently with OWC Mercury Elite drives, which came highly recommended. No complaints so far. G-RAIDs are also highly recommended.
 
harlan said:
Hey Silent,

That's a nice system. You may be able to shave a few pennies off your purchase by going with the Nvidia 7800GT rather than the Quadro card. While the Quadro is nice as it offers 512MB of Ram, the majority of it's features wouldn't really be utilized unless you're doing some high-end engineering/design, medical visualization, or similar. The NVidia 7800GT offers near equal capability to the Quadro in terms of raw performance, but it's only $350 vs. $1650 for the Quadro..

The extra Ram on the Quadro card would certainly be beneficial, but the overall performance difference between the two cards in apps like Motion is only around 4 to 6 percent. So you may want to weight the cost/performance ratio of the 7800GT & Quadro FX4500

Hope that may help.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have any experience/info with using a 7800GT/GTX with Avid Express? Avid still says under their system requirments that they "require" a Quadro... and you can buy a Quadro 1300 for about the same price as a 7800GT.
 
ditch the quadro, unless you use Maya, and even then ...

Drop the Ecc ram...

I would Get SATA Card with 4 ports.

Stay away from firewire 800 drives...

I would get the apple care warranty on the Quad.. its too expensive to be replacing parts after the warranty is up on a high end Mac like that. And its less than $300

OH... and dont forget to buy a hefty APC battery backup..

BTW this Mac has a 1000 watt powersupply.. so at full bore, it will heat the room up pretty good. Might budget for a fan ;')
 
Keep in mind, regarding external SATA RAID-0 via PCIe SATA cards, you'll have to wait. There is nothing out right now for the new G5s. So if you need mass fast storage right away, either plan for alternate storage, or buy an older dual 2.7 G5.

For me, I'm taking the plunge with the Quad G5 as well, but I have some transition plans for storage until the SATA PCIe cards hit market.

I'll be buying SATA drives to use with a Firewire 800 enclosure(s), so that when I get the SATA RAID PCIe setup going, I'll have invested in SATA drives, not external IDE firewire drives that I can't repurpose into high speed external SATA.

http://macgurus.com/productpages/firewire/U6SATA.php

Sure, it's pricey to purchase a firewire enclosure I may end up not using later, but I can always use it as an easy way to use SATA drives with non SATA PCIe card-enabled macs. For instance, I can use the enclosure as a hand off drive to clients who need my HVX200 footage, since I won't be able to hand off tapes. Just gotta make sure I get my drive back!!

Of course, if you had the $$$, nothing beats the Xserve RAID for speed and security. :|
 
on the whole external thing.. the best solution i have found is using bare external SATA drives externally, by routing a SATA and SATA power cables out the back to the top of the case. its not the pretiest.. but it is the fastest, and the easiest and cheapest solution. you can buy bottom plates for bare drives from wiebletech so you dont mess with the bottom childboard.
 
So as of right now there are no 4 port PCI-e SATA enabled drives, and I would basically be going backwards to use a PCI-x card?
 
pcix is a good way to go.. the decklink cards need pci-x. SATA over PCI-x is a way better format than PCI SATA as it has its own bus. PC guys are fine, as PCI-express has been kicking for ayear.. and you can get PCIx sata cards no problem.. those pci-x cards, if we use the delfacto that Macs are a year behind PC technology, should be out very very soon, so i would wait.
 
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