Best processor for a video editing/gaming system?

[SpokeLee]

I finally got sick of using a laptop and found a good touchpad keyboard so I can get a desktop (physical disability leaves me unable to use a mouse). I am going to build it myself, so I ordered a x-UFO ultimate cube case. I have a general idea of what I am going to get, I have a budget up to around 6 grand for it.

I want to end up with two raptor drives in a raid 0, 6800 Ultra for the games, and a matrox RT.X100 Xtreme for the editing and capture, and 2 gigs of ram.

But I am stuck on a processor, but I do want dual processors. I was convinced to wait till they fixed some lundenhurst pci express problem, but after pokeing around these forums a bit, I am not so sure.

I read some threads, but could not get a clear answer for a gaming AND editing machine. Everyone seems to say xeons crush opterons in video editing, but nothing else. But WHY is it better for editing?

If opterons will give me better gaming performance, how much will my video editing suffer? If I have to I will sacrafice a little bit of editing performance, but not much.

I figure I'll get the system now, then sell the mobo, ram, and vid card for Ddr 2, pci express graphics, and dual x16 pci e mobo later when one comes out either way.

I would wait, but I am an aspiring film maker and have to start building a portfolio if I wanna get into film school anytime soon.

Thanks in advance, and I am not well versed in computers, I know how to put em together, but I am not to up on the intricacies, so laymen terms will do, lol. Thanks in advance.

 

[SpokeLee]

Also, I am going to be using adobe premier pro 1.5, encore 1.5, audition 1.5, and after effects 6.5 to edit.

 

[Falloutboy]

my opinion? get seperate systems it makes things alot smoother.

for the editior I would get:

P4 3.4ghz (xeons are overkill for premier if you were using something like an avid mojo system I would say duel xeons but for premier stick with a single CPU
P4C800-E
2gb memory
Matrox P650
Matrox RT X100 Xtreme Collection
36gb raptor for boot
3x250gb SATA in a RAID 0 for Video

then fill in the rest with the components you like

then for the gamming rig get:

Athlon 64 2800
MSI Nforce 3 board (can't think of it off the top of my head)
1gb Ram
2x36gb Raptors
Geforce 6800 Ultra


I know its not as nice as one uber computer but gamming on a computer that also needs to make you money is not wise. because alot of times components that work well for gamming don't play well with components made for good stable video editing

with these setups it should still leave you some money left over to get a couple nice CRTs for duel monitors then just run a KVM so you can switch between systems. another plus to this setup is you can setup a render farm for after effects and use your gamming system to render your projects quicker (if you haven't used after effects in a complex project you'll find out quickly how slow it renders. I once had a 30 second spot take over night on a duel xeon 2.8 rig

and I read your an looking to be a film maker have you considerd going mac and final cut pro its about the best you can do for the money for film making. unless you jump up to a high end avid and thats a bit out of your budget

 

[SpokeLee]

I'm really trying to keep it in one system. I am not going to be making money off of this yet, I am just a student making things for myself. But thanks for the suggestion/

 

[Falloutboy]

are you enrolled in school if so you could proubly get a pretty sweat deal on an powermac dualy system with finalcut pro.

I'm not downlplaying premier (i use it at work) but for what your going to be doing with the system finalcut is a much better application and more respected on the film side and to be honest your getting alot more for your money with a final cut pro system. it will support HD which will help you alot down the road.

 

[Falloutboy]

just did a little research with an educators discount you can get a dually 2.5 g5's w/ 1gb ram 2x250gb SATA drives for 3200 and you can get the educational version of FCP production edition for 499 you would have a very nice editor for under 4 grand. then you have 2 grand left for displays and a gamming rig

 

[SpokeLee]

I am in school, not film school though. How do I go about getting the discount? But I am still wondering about xeon vs opteron in a gaming/video editing system.

 

[Mik3y]

if you want it for video editing and gaming, get the athlon 64 3500+. it performs better in encoding/decoding and at gaming then the intel. as for the harddrive, its not worth getting the raptor. i dont think a few seconds of faster loading times is worth the extra $$$. i recommend you get the maxtor diamondmax or maxline harddrive with 16mb of cache. it performs just as well as the raptor for a better price/performance/size. for a xeon vs opteron system for gaming/video editing, go for the opterons for that their faster and far better performers. i very doubt you will get the brand new xeon (which is no better then the opteron in most cases, or at least worth the $ for its performance against the opteron). i say just wtih with the 3500+ and you will be set.

 

[Falloutboy]

when you order thryu apple you just go to store then on the left thier is educational link you just tell them what school your going to its that easy.

on the opteron xeon dilima if your going that route just go xeon its supported alot better by video software and cards. its less performance in gamming but not by alot

but in my opinion just go with a single proc system if you insist on going with a premier system. I got a duel xeon and a single p4 rig running Matrox X100 cards and honestly thier is very little if any differnce in speed between the two. the only reason I see to go xeon is to get the dual PCI bus for a fast harddrive array but thats only important on the higher end when your doing uncompressed video editing not dv which you will be doing fromt he looks of it

 

[SpokeLee]

I had always heard intel was better, but I didn't know the athalon 64 was good at encoding. What about an FX?

 

[Falloutboy]

yes amd is better in encoding but unfortionatly if your looking in higher end video editng (realtime cards, avid systems) they say intel only it may work fine with amd but you toss all your support out the door if you go amd. I hate it too but unfortionaly its the way it is hopefully it will change though

 

[SpokeLee]

What do you mean when you say support?

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Falloutboy
yes amd is better in encoding but unfortionatly if your looking in higher end video editng (realtime cards, avid systems) they say intel only it may work fine with amd but you toss all your support out the door if you go amd. I hate it too but unfortionaly its the way it is hopefully it will change though

how do you toss out your support out the door if you go amd? also, why not go the opteron way? the opterons own the previous xeons at almost everything. i very much doubt that spoke lee will spend the money on the new xeons taht just came out. i've heard taht the xeons are better supported by video editing cards, but that was a while ago. the athlon fx is the fastests single cpu you can get by amd and is generall faster then intel's P4 3.4E EE (though i wouldnt mind having one myself), and its cheaper then the intel counterpart. i dont have a problem with intel, but since you're a gamer and video editor, why not go the cheaper and more powerful route by sticking with amd? amd is currently the performance king right now, but still the underdog when it comes to marketing.

 

[SpokeLee]

I really do want to go the amd route, I am just wondering exactly how much performance I am sacraficing in video editing. Also how well will an amd processor run adobe premier pro 1.5 and the other programs I use compared to the other options?

 

[Mik3y]

if you go with socket 939, you'll only be sacrificing performance if you use an intel. currently, the amd cpu's for socket 939 beat intel in about every benchmark. i assume you'll be getting the fx-53, and that those programs will run superbly on your cpu. i run premier, photoshop, illustrator, and other programs on my 2500+ and i find it running pretty well. on an fx-53, i can only assume how godly it will be.

 

[SpokeLee]

Would dual opterons perform better at editing than a single fx 53 in the adobe programs? I think that the intel vs amd in editing has a lot to do with what codecs you use based on one of the threads I read here.

 

[Mik3y]

well, kinda. a dual system allows for better multi-tasking. it performs "better" then a single cpu system, but not "faster". the fx-53 is the same thing as teh opteron 250. the only difference is that the opteron is on socket 940 and that you can use multiple cpu's with it. to have a dually sytem operating at fx-53 speeds, you'll need to get 2 opteron 250's and get registered ecc memory also, which costs a bundle. if you can give me a budget of the max you'll be willing to spend, i'll be more then glad to compile you the best system you can get.

 

[SpokeLee]

Here is what I am looking at so far:

Case, fans, power supply, fan controllers - 665.97

2 12ms 17" monitors - 800

Wall mounting kits - 140

Plextor 12X SATA dvd burner - 180

Matrox RT.X100 capture card - 1000

Creative gigaworks 5.1 surround speakers - 340

Creative sound blaster audigy2 zs platinum sound card - 175

bfg 6800 ultra - 530

mobo - ???

processor/s - ???

ram - ???

total so far - 3830.97

budget - 6000-6250

 

[voodoochili]

3.2 P4 with a ton of ram and your set for everything , editing & gaming =)

 

[Mik3y]

For the cpu, i totally recommend you get Dual AMD Opterons 248. for motherboard, get the MSI K8T Master2-FAR. for Memory, get PQI TURBO Series Dual Channel Platinum Kit 184-Pin 2GB(1GB x 2) ECC Registered DDR PC-3200. you can get all these at newegg, and the total cost of everything comes to about $6000. dual opterons 248 is like having dual athlon fx-51's. It's any amd fan's dream to have a dually opteron system. u will find that this system will perform excellently in EVERYTHING. if you could somehow add an extra $100 or so more to your budget, you could then afford dual opterons 250 (like dual fx-53), which will currently be one of the fastest systems you can buy.

 

[Mik3y]

as for the dvd burner you chose, you can get the pioneer 16x dvd burner for $100 at newegg. plextors are good, but are overpriced.

 

[SpokeLee]

I am trying to keep future upgradability in mind. Are there any plans for a new opteron soon, or a 939 pin 250? I am asking because I know some amd pci e boards are coming out very soon, but I have only seen socket 939 boards, though I am sure a socket 940 will be out soon.

I am just wondering because I would like to keep the processors if I were to upgrade to the new mobo, gfx card, and/or ram.

 

[SpokeLee]

NM, I see some socket 940 sli mobos on this site. But will a 939 pin 250 be release, sorry if its a dumb question, but I'd rather ask and look stupid, that not to ask and get burned.

 

[Dman877]

I'd go with a dual cpu, p4 3.4 + A64 3400+ . You'll just have to invent your own chipset to support that...

 

[Mik3y]

there will be no socket 939 opterons. socket 939 will support a single cpu. socket 940 is still the high end and future opterons will be based on socket 940. also, there is no such amd motherboard with pci-e yet, and its pretty unlikely for dual pci-e x16's to be out any time soon. its smart of you to ask if you dont know. that's how people learn, right? if you want to have a single opteron performance on socket 939, the cpu's are called the athlon fx series. when pci-e comes out and new motherboards support it and ddr2, you should be able to keep the cpu's for use on the next generation of motherboards.