PCI Vs. PCIx PCIexpressx8 Vs....I suppose itself

[Nick Walters]

So I recently purchased an Intel sr1400 server, and I'm looking into video card options, and would love anyone's input. I'm seeing PCI(vanilla) video cards in up to 1024mb 128bit versions versus PCI Exepress x1 512mb 64bit cards, and then of course REALLY expensive PCIX video cards that seem behind the times.

I won't be gaming on this system, it will be primarily for editing, capturing(more often P2 tranfer), and the occasional creation of 3D titles and effects with the Adobe line of products. I'll also be doing basic cleaning and enhancement via programs like GIMP and Virtual Dub.

Just in case I'll add my specs:
sr1400
dual 3Ghz XEON 64bit
4 gigs DDR2 ECC Dual channel
SATA RAID1 (chunk video storage)
SCSI (OS drive){Windows 7 64 bit}
SCSI (program drive){CS4, etc.}
SCSI (Virtual Memory)
IDE (Scratch)

So with this back ground I was wondering if anyone could give a suggestion? I'm not looking to invest in more then a $200 video card, and I'd be happier around $100. My Moterboard at the moment only supports PCIX and PCI, but I can buy a riser to support PCI-Express x8(Which means I can only get PCI-Express x1 video cards).

 

[Nick Walters]

So I've run into a couple items...mostly expensive ones. There are Quadro cards in the $400 range with decent 128bit ddr2-3, but this is a bit on the expensive side. Their are quite a few FireMV cards, but they have a few problems:
1. I can rarely find it stated what the memory interface it uses(64 or 128)
2. It's basically a 2d card with a sprinkle of 3D capability
3. For what you get it's a bit expensive

So I ran into an odd duck:

Basically it's a PCI Express X16 to PCI Express X8 adapter.

Of course any card I plug in will still work at the slower speed(I believe the x8 slot is just an elongated x1 that works at x1 speed?), but it just might be the best route. The PCI-E riser specifically for the sr1400 will cost me about $12, and the x16 to x8 adapter comes in at $25. That's allredy $37 just to plug in an x16 card, so I figure another $100 or so for a card, and I'll be ok....

Any comments, worries, or things I missed? Please speak up if you have the itch, cause this is kinda odd territory and I could use anyones thoughts.

Anyone have any suggestions on x16 cards for this setup? I would definitely love to have some acceleration in editing, but I'm not sure if $100 is quite the right price for such a feature.

Perhaps I'm even on the wrong trail.....should I not even worry about a modern video card? Perhaps I should only concentrate on an editing/encoding card? The on board video is an ATI Rage XL with 8mb...should I stick with the stock? AE can benefit from a fancy GPU from what I understand, so I was thinking of removing one of my SCSI cards(and running the drives off the on-board SCSI), slapping in a PCI(vanilla) encoding card in it's place, then do the whole conflagration of adapters on the other plane to get the x16 card running.......

Alot of options, lol...I'd definitely love to hear peoples opinions of different editing/encoding cards.

 

[Nick Walters]

As a side note, I've found others who have either cut or burned away the back end of 8x 4x or 1x slot to make it physically fit a 16x card...I've also found others who have taken a dremel to the card itself to make it fit in the slot...amazing stuff!

I think I might go ahead and save myself $25 and just modify the $12 PCIe riser...if I mess up and have to buy another, I'm still ahead on cost vs. the adapter

Any thoughts on cards? I've been looking around and most encoder cards are pretty expensive, while alot of the modern x16 cards have some encoding/decoding acceleration...prolly not as good as a dedicated card, but they got it...I'm still open to suggestions, but so far it seems a Radeon 4870 I saw isn't too bad on the wallet or specs having 256bit memory interface to 512mb of GDDR5, and it has something called AVT(Accelerated Video Transcoding), which it seems this accelaration is supported in CS4 :
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9809&Itemid=65