CPU for AE/Premiere Workstation

[SirJimbob]

Hello,

Long time Anand lurker, first time forum poster. I figured I'd come right to the experts.

I'm looking to upgrade my After Effects/Premiere workstation (i7 Lynnfield, 32GB RAM, SSD, GTS 250) to something a bit more beefy. I'm interested in Ivybridge but disappointed that there is no IvyBridge-E option yet that can take me to 64GB of ram. Sandybridge-E is an option though. I just don't know enough about Xeon to understand if a pro workstation cpu is better than i7 for me.

What do you guys think CPU wise would be best for an AE/Premiere rig? Is the benefit of Ivybridge greater than using SandyBridge-E with more ram and hexcore? Should I even consider Xeon?

My budget is about < $2000 for CPU, RAM, Mobo, SSDs, Video Card

Thanks <3

 

[Dadofamunky]

SB-E - 3930K in your budget range

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

CPU - 3930k - $570
ASRock X79 Extreme6 $230
4x(2x8gb) G.Skill Ares DDR 1600 - $292
2x Samsung 830 256gb - $400
Subtotal - $1492

I'm not sure what you'd want to do for the GPU. You could get a quadro nvs420 or nvs430, but it doesn't seem like you need a professional card if you've been using the GTS 250 for everything. I'm not sure how much an improvement for your workload using a professional card.

The SSDs are also more of a personal choice, but the price on the 830 seems close / lower than the rest around that capacity. Plextors are quite a bit higher, Crucial is about the same, Intel has the 330 around that price, but the Samsung 830 nails it for the capacity right now. You could also go with a 256gb ($200) OS drive, 128gb ($89) cache drive (Intel RST only lets you use up to 64gb so you'd have just half the SSD as spare space), and a 128gb ($89) scratch disk, but with so much ram I don't know how often adobe would hit scratch.

Samsung 830 256gb @ nearly 5 PETABYTES of writes. I think they can take some serious abuse.

 

[SirJimbob]

Thanks guys!

The GTS250 works with Mercury Playback Engine (with some software hacks) but I definitely want to replace it with something more beefy. Everything I read about the Quadros makes me not think their worth it on a price/performance scale compared to something more consumer like a Geforce 680. I haven't really found clear benchmarks in my research comparing Quadros vs Geforces and price/performance. I've been looking at this Premiere benchmark: http://ppbm5.com and it seems the top performing machines are all rocking Geforce cards.

If anyone knows of any benchmarks off the top of their head I'd love to see them.

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

Picking up a GTX 680 wounds like the best idea then. Sad you still need the software hack to use the normal geforce cards. The GTX 670/680 seem to be a solid increase over the 570/580. I would say the MSI GTX 680 TwinFrzr IV - $505 - $30 MIR. I just got a MSI 670 PE and it's been incredible. So quiet and cool while benched has been such a pleasant change. The CPUs are all also OC'd a bit, which will certainly impact the workload quite a bit. I don't think you need excessive aftermarket cooling to get the SB-E to 4.2-4.4ghz.