Super PC!
- Thread starter ronedee
- Start date
John DeLuca
Member
The i7 chips are MUCH better than the older gen quad cores. The i in i7 means that the chips can read, process and write all at the same time (the older quads can only read, process then write one step at a time). This new chip design allows faster/more access to the disk, so a fast disk set up will certainly help with the overall performance and editing. I personally have the disk set up as-
1.) One 300gb 10k rpm Raptor for the OS
2.) Four 250gb 7,200k rpm RE3 drives set up as four channel RAID 0 via PCI express RAID card for editing
3.) Two 1tb 7,200k rpm Caviar Black drives for storage
If you wanted even better performance you could replace the Raptor with a 15k rpm Seagate Cheeta and the four 250gb RE3 drives upgraded to the Raptors.
I'm curious if anyone is setting up a "RAM disk" for temp files. I haven't done this myself but it seems like it's worth looking into now that most people have a ton of extra ram to spare.
-John
ronedee
Active member
John DeLuca
Member
I have a multi boot OS setup(Vista 64 and XP). We are editing with the Adobe CS4 collection, Cineform Prospect 4K and IRIDAS Color grading software for custom LUT color profiles.
-John
John DeLuca
Member
I will go ahead and post my whole set up. I originally had this posted in Dvinfonet with full pictures, however, I had to pull the thread because I received a threatening email shortly after posting. I informed Chris Hurd about it and all he did was wait a week and repost it at my expense. Needless to say, I encourage everyone to think twice before posting pictures of private property in a public forum.
1.) Antec 1200 computer case
2.) Kingwin Mach 1 1000W SLI ready power supply (can support two Nvidia CX cards)
3.) Intel Core i7 3.2 Extreme (overclocked)
4.) Asus P6T WS Professional Workstation motherboard
5.) Monsoon 3 LT heatsink
6.) Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal compound
7.) Nvidia Quadro CX with Rapi HD encoding
8.) Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333 overclocked to 1600 with the xmp profile in bios
9.) Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB x2, 3Gb/s (dual processor, 32mb catch) 7,200rpm
10.) Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB, 3GB/s 16mb 10,000rpm (for dual boot operating systems)
11.) Western Digital RE3 250GB 16mb x4 set up as four channel RAID 0 via PCI express controller card
12.) Sony BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Burner
13.) Rosewill multi format card reader (internal)
14.) CyberPower battery backup
15.) Vista 64 and XP
1.) Antec 1200 computer case
2.) Kingwin Mach 1 1000W SLI ready power supply (can support two Nvidia CX cards)
3.) Intel Core i7 3.2 Extreme (overclocked)
4.) Asus P6T WS Professional Workstation motherboard
5.) Monsoon 3 LT heatsink
6.) Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal compound
7.) Nvidia Quadro CX with Rapi HD encoding
8.) Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333 overclocked to 1600 with the xmp profile in bios
9.) Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB x2, 3Gb/s (dual processor, 32mb catch) 7,200rpm
10.) Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB, 3GB/s 16mb 10,000rpm (for dual boot operating systems)
11.) Western Digital RE3 250GB 16mb x4 set up as four channel RAID 0 via PCI express controller card
12.) Sony BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Burner
13.) Rosewill multi format card reader (internal)
14.) CyberPower battery backup
15.) Vista 64 and XP
John DeLuca
Member
I am very happy with its performance. I designed the build specifically for native AVCHD, 10-bit Cineform RAW, 3-D and other uncompressed video formats. The NLE can scrub/playback/edit Native AVCHD like mini dv and the CPU encoding via Adobe Media encoder is so fast it almost tied the GPU in the Quadro CX card(this will probably change when they update the drivers in the CX). The next upgrade will be a Seagate Cheeta for the OS and maybe another CX card for SLI (I used the WS mother board because it supports 15k rpm drives). The biggest drawbacks at this point are the drivers for the Chipset and CX card(I recently re-flashed my motherboard to support the overclocked RAM profile). The hardware is somewhat future resistant in the fact that the drivers and software will continue to unlock more speed.
-John
ESTEBEVERDE
Veteran
John DeLuca
Member
?$?
Haha, I knew that was coming. I will have to dig around for the total because the build was pieced together over a few months. You're looking at $4500-4800. I waited for promo codes/rebates/discounts and free shipping notifications from New Egg. The biggest break was a promo code for $350 off the CX card and I think $100 for the power supply(savings total was around $600-700). You could probably piece together a more affordable version by replacing the 3.2 with the 2.9 chip and drop the CX card for something cheaper. It's important to do a lot of research before buying parts, build the system around your requirements.
-John