Setting up PC for DVCPRO HD editing

B

benandaim

Well-known member
Hi,

I was wondering if i could get some advice from you guys on PC setup for HD editing...

I have:

E6600 core 2 duo
2 gig corsair xms2 800mhz ram
asus p5b deluxe m/board
asus x1600 pro 512mb
1 x 80gb seagate 7200rpm sata 2 (system drive)
1 x 320gb seagate 7200rpm sata2
1 x usb 250gb seagate external HDD


I have never had RAID before and wanted to know if getting another 320gb seagate and setting the both of them up in RAID would help performance?

Any suggestions to help get the most out of my gear would be great! I am willing to spend a bit more cash if i have to.

Cheers

Ben:beer:
 
I am planning on upgrading my main rig very soon to a very similar setup to what you have (E6600/P5B-Dlx), so I would be interested to know how that rig handles DVCPRO HD when you have some results.

Based on my current Athlon64 3000+ Winchester rig, which has 2x320G 7200.10 Seagate drives, I would say YES, they work great in RAID0 and are my main scratch drives for media storage. I believe the datarate of the RAID is about 160 Mbit/s as measured by HDTach, which should handle DVCPRO HD reasonably. Worst case is to add another drive to the array for increased datarate, but they are relatively cheap drives that should serve you very well.
 
Hi John,

I was gonna get another 2 gig of the corsair aswell if you think it would help, I wasn't sure if the reasonably low end video card would be holding things back either. I've never set up a RAID 0 before but i'm guessing i can keep my 80gb system drive as it is, then apply the RAID to the 320's.
 
Since you currently use your 320g drive, you will want to low-level format it before planning to use it in the RAID array. Unfortunately in your case, when you building a RAID array, no data on the drive can be retained.

I'm not sure on the direct performance you would gain from 4GB as opposed to 2GB of RAM. Most turnkey systems for Avid and the like would suggest 4GB, but I am not aware of any quantitative results that show if it's worth the additional investment.

One question we should ask is, what editing system do you plan on using?
 
Hi,

It's cool the current 320gb is empty & ready to go, i just gotta format it. I've been using liquid for a year but since i got the 16gb card i'm hating it. So looks like i'm goin with Vegas & Raylight. I've been using the Raylight trial and seems to work awesome! Vegas looks scary though. I just had to get the Lynda.com essential training for it..lol. Can't even work out how to edit..ah well start again i guess i think it'll be worth it. What do u use John?
 
Hi Benandaim,
Lets backtrack a little. How to set up your computer and how to get the most out of it? Well, that's a very open ended question, but I'll try to answer as best as I can.

E6600 core 2 duo: if you really want to get the most out of your system, I'd look into overclocking. I haven't kept up with overclocking much lately but USLatinContent has been busy about it. Maybe you can get more juice out of your processors. Check out this thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=95454&highlight=uslatin

2Gigs vs 4Gigs: I'm sure more is better, but I've never used more than 2gigs when editing. So I'd hold of on that

Raid vs No Raid: well, I'd download software to test the throughput of your 320 Hard drive (ie. HD Tach) and see where you are at. and also ask yourself a few questions. How many streams of HD video do you want to work on real time? and is 320gigs really enough. Frankly, I'd get the second 320 in a heart beat. Actually, i'd sell it or use it to back up projects and get at least two 500s.
with 1 HDD connected SATA to your motherboard, you might be getting around 50-60mbs sustained read write. with two and raid 0 you might get 100-120 sustained. I bought a WesternDigital MyBook 1000gig set up in Raid 0 and with FireWire 800 and I get about 72mbs. Enough to edit 3 streams of 720HD real time. I haven't tried 3 streams of 1080HD.

Then Software. I haven't heard any claims from Avid, but as far as I know Edius is the fastest at handling real time. Vegas seems to be very intuitive and have some good plug in options, and will also be coming up with a 64bit version soon. So maybe that's the way to go, but if you want to be able to do the most with your current hardware today, as far as speed, then go Edius.

I think that's most of it.
 
I would not waist money on more ram it wont make much difference, for now at least. Unless u have some other 64 bit applications that might use it. For video editing it wont really make a difference.
If you edit 720p you probably wont need raid. I edit 1080p with raylight and vegas without raid, you might try it on your system before upgrading. Then again drives are so cheap ...
If you get a better cpu cooler you could overclock your cpu and get faster render times without spending much money, thats assuming you are still using stock cooling.

Your system seems fine to me.

Peace

-Pierre
 
Thanks heaps guys.

It does seem to edit well at the moment, I guess i've heard everyone talk about RAID as if it's crucial for video editing. Pierre would u be able to answer my Vegas render questions in my other thread re: Render settings for DVCPRO HD & Vegas.

Thanks for all the comments,

Ben
 
Overclocking is not for the faint of heart, and unless you really know what you're doing to ensure stability, isn't recommended for a production system. A crash when working can mean lost time, lost money, and possibly a lost client, not to mention it often voids the warranty of your parts.

That said, the E6600, P5B-Dlx and that Corsair XMS memory are great candidates for overclocking your system. If you want to read more, www.ocforums.com is a great place to start reading.

I am not sure on the performance requirements for Raylight + Vegas, but from my working with Vegas since 4.0, it is a great app. But if you are used to Liquid, it will be a step back in terms of media management, but a step-up in user-friendliness. If Vegas' method of timeline editing works with your material, then by all means go for it.

Since you asked about what I edit on, it would depend on what I was editing. I like Vegas for simple SD 24p footage off the DVX. Premiere works better for quick in/out marking and building an edit more-so than Vegas, and I use the multicam feature for mixing SD live events. Then if I was doing a more intense planned out project I would stick with Avid for its media management and its quickness in building an edit. My philosophy is, use the right tool for the job!

Media Composer handles a single stream of DVCPRO HD 720/24p flawlessly with my current rig... Athlon64 3000+ 1.8ghz, 2GB ram, 2x320g Seagate 7200.10 RAID0. Unless you're working with multiple streams of DVCPRO HD at once, you might think twice about how hardcore you upgrade.
 
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Streams of HD - Streams of High Definition.
Example:
You filmed a guy walking in the park, and then you filmed the same guy walking inside a building. that would be two streams.
When you cut you want to fade from walking in the park to walking in the building to let people know that time has passed by.
Well during that transition you would have 1-3seconds where both streams are being played at once.
Hence multiple streams of HD being played at ONCE.
 
benandaim said:
Hi,

I was wondering if i could get some advice from you guys on PC setup for HD editing...

I have:

E6600 core 2 duo
2 gig corsair xms2 800mhz ram
asus p5b deluxe m/board
asus x1600 pro 512mb
1 x 80gb seagate 7200rpm sata 2 (system drive)
1 x 320gb seagate 7200rpm sata2
1 x usb 250gb seagate external HDD


I have never had RAID before and wanted to know if getting another 320gb seagate and setting the both of them up in RAID would help performance?

Any suggestions to help get the most out of my gear would be great! I am willing to spend a bit more cash if i have to.

Cheers

Ben:beer:
Click to expand...

I just built an ASUS P5W desktop with an E6600. Running the CPU at 3.3 GHz with 4 GB of low cas RAM. This machine eats HD for lunch! :thumbup:

Contrary to popular opinion I recommend setting up the machine as follows:
RAID 0 volume 0: separate partitions for OS and data files
RAID 0 volume 1: exactly the same as volume 0

Use Achronis true image 10 to mirror 'copy' volume 0 to volume 1. I use volume 1 as my primary backup. You can also backup to external drives............. smart move.

Once you've seen RAID 0 crunch files you won't go back to non RAID systems. :beer:. Also, after extensive testing I've concluded that the OS and data files CAN reside on the same physical drive................... IF that drive is MEGA fast. My RAIDS are running over 400 MB/sec in burst mode and 160 MB/sec sequential. :Drogar-Shock(DBG):. My single Raptor wasn't even close to this performance!!!! Pulled the Raptor and it's sitting in my tech graveyard. LOL.

If you're using Adobe PP2 go to the Adobe help forum and find the PP2 benchmark link. My machine crushed this BM......... :Drogar-Love(DBG):.

I'd recommend newegg for parts. There is also a new Asus MB just out that uses the newer Intel drive controller chipset. I don't have time to explain it all but the current "Intel 7 chipset" sorta sucks.

Regards
JohnG
 
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