Help me build a GOOD video/photo editing/gaming rig

[MikeMike]

Help me spec it out

dually (what brand?)
raptor??? raid 1? or what?
dvd burner
dvd-rom
no monitor
sound card??
video card? does it have to be special? although i would like to play games too
ram? 1gb????
MOBO?? no idea here

case i know what i would get

is opteron good for this, or to exspensive?

HELP

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
Help me spec it out

dually (what brand?)
raptor??? raid 1? or what?
dvd burner
dvd-rom
no monitor
sound card??
video card? does it have to be special? although i would like to play games too
ram? 1gb????
MOBO?? no idea here

case i know what i would get

is opteron good for this, or to exspensive?

HELP

Opteron will cost far too much, doesnt have any AGP slots, and isnt even available yet, so thats out of the question

I can tell you this though.

For a video editing computer 3 very important things are high clocked processor (The fastest you can get for your money), as much RAM as you can fit in it (Again as much and as fast as you can afford), and a high data transfer rate for your hard drives. The quicker the better

 

[TonyB]

this will work

CPU - (2) Xeon 3GHz 533FSB 512k Cache Retail w/Hyper Threading
Motherboard - Supermicro X5DAE dual CPU motherboard E7505 chipset w/ Onboard Gigabit Lan
Memory - (6) Crucial 512MB DDR266 PC2100 ECC Registered Memory - 3GB
Video Card - ATi Radeon 9700 Pro AIW 128MB
SCSI RAID Controller - LSI MegaRAID Enterprise 1600 RAID (4 Channel) 64Bit 66MHz performance 128MB ECC SDRAM
Hard Drives - (6) Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 18GB U160 Hard Drive in RAID 0 - 108GB Max
Hard Drives II - (4) Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 73GB U160 Hard Drive in RAID 5 - 219GB Max
Floppy Drive - Any
CDRW - Plextor PX-W4824TABP 48/24/48
DVDRW - Pioneer A05 4X DVD-RW
Sound Card - Audigy 2
Speakers - Klipsch 5.1
Case - Supermicro SC850P4 Server Chassis
Power Supply - Supermicro PWS-0039 700W + 350W Redundant PSU
Monitor - Viewsonic 22" VP2290b LCD panel
Monitor II - Any

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: TonyB
this will work

CPU - (2) Xeon 3GHz 533FSB 512k Cache Retail w/Hyper Threading
Motherboard - Supermicro X5DAE dual CPU motherboard E7505 chipset w/ Onboard Gigabit Lan
Memory - (6) Crucial 512MB DDR266 PC2100 ECC Registered Memory - 3GB
Video Card - ATi Radeon 9700 Pro AIW 128MB
SCSI RAID Controller - LSI MegaRAID Enterprise 1600 RAID (4 Channel) 64Bit 66MHz performance 128MB ECC SDRAM
Hard Drives - (6) Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 18GB U160 Hard Drive in RAID 0 - 108GB Max
Hard Drives II - (4) Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 73GB U160 Hard Drive in RAID 5 - 219GB Max
Floppy Drive - Any
CDRW - Plextor PX-W4824TABP 48/24/48
DVDRW - Pioneer A05 4X DVD-RW
Sound Card - Audigy 2
Speakers - Klipsch 5.1
Case - Supermicro SC850P4 Server Chassis
Power Supply - Supermicro PWS-0039 700W + 350W Redundant PSU
Monitor - Viewsonic 22" VP2290b LCD panel
Monitor II - Any

i guess i shoulda specified my price range, cuz that has got to be about 10GRAND

<3k USD

dual althon MP's (whats the highest speed?)
only need like 3 raptors, cuz i would then buy mayb a 120gb cheapie just for extra storage, not rendering or anything right?
NO MONITOR I AM ON A 700NF right now and its nice, dont need dual displays.
NO SPEAKERs
audigy 2 from current rig
kb/mouse current rig
dvd-rom current rig
guess i would just need

PROCs
CASE
SPEEDY HD'S
MEMORY
MOBO
RAID CARD (raid 5 good for this stuff?)
GPU (AIW???)
DVD/RW

i think thats it, i have all the proggies for it (AVID xpress DV 3.5 photoshop 7)

 

[Schadenfroh]

nver mind, you posted it before i clicked on the post button. lol, nice timing

 

[MikeMike]

<3grand (the less the better) for

PROCs
CASE
SPEEDY HD'S
MEMORY
MOBO
RAID CARD (raid 5 good for this stuff?)
GPU (AIW???)
DVD/RW

 

[MikeMike]

ne 1 else?

just saw my SAT scores, 1140 first time, not bad

 

[Kk4JC]

What programs will you be using? Do they need to be included in the cost?
Any Adobe product (Photoshop/Premier) will support Multi-threading, making an Intel Pentium with Hyper-threading ideal. Also it will take as much memory as you can afford.
HDDs- go for a few (2 or 3) SCSI if it will be in your price range, so you can have one as a dedicated scratch disk.
How are you getting video into your PC?

Kk

 

[MikeMike]

avid xpress DV for video, photoshop 7, firewire, dont need to be included in cost, i have them.

here is what i have so far (i dont really wanna spend to much for a SATA raid controller like a 3ware escalade)

RocketRAID 1540 4-Channel Serial ATA RAID Host Controller (doesnt support 5, but would 0 be fine as long as i have another cheap 120gb for backup of the movies/photos?) 125.99

2 Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA WD360GD 10,000 RPM 8MB Hard Drive OEM 175.00 x 2

CHAINTECH 7KDD AMD Server Motherboard 762+768 ATX RETAIL 190.00

2 AMD ATHLON MP 2600 /266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL 211.00 x 2

ATI All-In-Wonder RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB DDR 8X AGP RETAIL 356.00

4 512mb registered ECC ddr 2100 from crucial.com 120.99 x 4

ANTEC Performance PLUS Model PLUS1080AMG- with Antec Original TRUE 430W P4 Power Supply ATX12V Retail


i have at home a 120gb, WD, Audigy 2 for sound, and a dvd-rom drive.

all i will need is sum memory, and a dvd burner, and case correct? i will reply when i find those (dvd burner might just become the cheap office max kind).

Any changes you would make?

 

[human2k]

This thread might help

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1

Originally posted by: TonyB
this will work

CPU - (2) Xeon 3GHz 533FSB 512k Cache Retail w/Hyper Threading
Motherboard - Supermicro X5DAE dual CPU motherboard E7505 chipset w/ Onboard Gigabit Lan
Memory - (6) Crucial 512MB DDR266 PC2100 ECC Registered Memory - 3GB
Video Card - ATi Radeon 9700 Pro AIW 128MB
SCSI RAID Controller - LSI MegaRAID Enterprise 1600 RAID (4 Channel) 64Bit 66MHz performance 128MB ECC SDRAM
Hard Drives - (6) Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 18GB U160 Hard Drive in RAID 0 - 108GB Max
Hard Drives II - (4) Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 73GB U160 Hard Drive in RAID 5 - 219GB Max
Floppy Drive - Any
CDRW - Plextor PX-W4824TABP 48/24/48
DVDRW - Pioneer A05 4X DVD-RW
Sound Card - Audigy 2
Speakers - Klipsch 5.1
Case - Supermicro SC850P4 Server Chassis
Power Supply - Supermicro PWS-0039 700W + 350W Redundant PSU
Monitor - Viewsonic 22" VP2290b LCD panel
Monitor II - Any

i guess i shoulda specified my price range, cuz that has got to be about 10GRAND

<3k USD

dual althon MP's (whats the highest speed?)
only need like 3 raptors, cuz i would then buy mayb a 120gb cheapie just for extra storage, not rendering or anything right?
NO MONITOR I AM ON A 700NF right now and its nice, dont need dual displays.
NO SPEAKERs
audigy 2 from current rig
kb/mouse current rig
dvd-rom current rig
guess i would just need

PROCs
CASE
SPEEDY HD'S
MEMORY
MOBO
RAID CARD (raid 5 good for this stuff?)
GPU (AIW???)
DVD/RW

i think thats it, i have all the proggies for it (AVID xpress DV 3.5 photoshop 7)

Oh, I'd venture a guess that that's well over $10k. The two Xeons (hard to find still) are ~$600 each. The 4 73GB Seagates are ~$900 each, while the 6 18GB Seagates are about $200 each. You would need two Megaraid cards at ~$300 each. The video card is ~$300. Then, before I drudge on too long, that monitor costs $6,000.

That's already ~$13,000. Oh, and it's $121 per stick of RAM on Crucial's site, so that's another $726, bringing the total to over $13,500. It is a nice system, though.

 

[MoreSpeed]

Case: Antec PS1080 $145
Mobo: SuperMicro X5DAL-G $355
CPU: (2) 2.4Ghz Intel Xeon 533MHz 512k Cache $239 x 2= $478
RAM: (4) 512MB PC-2100 ECC-Reg. Corsair $101 x 4= $404
DV Card: Canopus DV Raptor RT-2 $499 (Canopus Website)
RAID Controller: Promise Fasttrak-100 (For OS) $99 + 3Ware 7500-8 $369= $468
HDD: (6) 120GB WD SE 8MB Buffer HDD $130 x 6= $780 (2 for OS RAID-1/4 for storage RAID-0 or buy another and have 5 for RAID-5 w/ 1 hot spare)
Video Card: Matrox Millenium G550 $100
DVD-Burner: Sony DRU-500AX supports both +/-RW formats. 4x Burning $350 (Sony Website)

Totals: $3579

I've built several AV editing systems with the help of a friend that works on professional/enthusiast/hobbyist DV capture cards. After through test at thier company they found that a 4-HDD IDE RAID-0 is more than sufficient thus saving money from SCSI and the more expensive SATA. Some of the parts I've chosen, 3Ware IDE RAID Controller is geared more for IDE file servers..it is rated as one of the fastest IDE controllers on the market. The RAID-5 setup that you are considering would be fine but unecessary unless you are planning to store you edited videos on your system. I'm sure you already know that RAID-5 gives the user, you, speed and redundency whereas RAID-0 only gives speed. Thus a RAID-5 would be advantageous to you if say a HDD dies and you need to be able to continue work without losing data. Anyways, the RAID-1 that I chose for your OS gives you redundency but no speed advantages, so it is more for just the piece of mind. The Video card is defnitely not the state of the art 3D but it does provide a very usable dual head system and 2D image quality that is still unmatched by any other card maker. Since you stated that you'd want to game then I would look into an NVDIA based card. I've tried Dual head operations on an ATI a while back and have found that the refresh rates of both monitors drop to an eye hurting 60Hz. The DVD-burner I chose is strictly for the compatibilty issues present with the +/- standards. If you are only looking to create videos playable on HT DVD players then you may want to opt for Pioneer or Toshiba DVD-R drives which can be had for a mere $177. Although I am a devout AMD fan, I prefer Intel's offerings for Dual processor systems. There is just far more support out there compared to that of AMD. The Canopus DV Raptor RT-2 card is buy far one of the best mid level cards Video editing boars out there. You may wonder why you would want that....well it allows for analog input and digital input versus just digital from iEEE1394, what you'd get from a cheapie card. I've actually had a customer opt for just the cheap iEEE1394 card then later switched to the DV Raptor and wondered why he didn't just do that in the first place. The DV raptor works well with Adobe Premiere in case you are planning on using that as well. I hope this helps GL.


Oh most of the prices I got are from this place: COMPSTORE. The prices at this place is not very cheap so I'm certain you can find most if not all this stuff at a much lower cost.