New Build for Video Editing/General Use

[Immortal1]

So I haven't built a computer ever, but thought it was something I would like to try, plus I thought it would be a good experience for my boy so he could learn about them.
This will be used mainly for HD video editing, some audio editing, photo editing web surfing, streaming video, and office apps. No gaming or OCing at this time.
Some programs used: Firefox (usually with 5-10 tabs/windows open), Sony Vegas 8/9, Corel VideoStudio Pro x2, Photoshop Elements, MS Office.
I would like to futureproof this as much as possible i.e. SATA 6.0, USB 3.0, DirectX11,. also need external eSATA and firewire (for external drives)

Budget is $500-600 and have a Microcenter about an hour away.
Will be reusing some parts (see below) or have, and plan on doing this over the kids spring break in a couple of weeks.

CPU: i7-860 $230 @ Microcenter
MB: Asus P7P55D-E $140 @ Newegg
RAM: 4 GB Corsair XM53 DHX DDR3 1333MHz $85 @ Amazon
Case: CM Centurion 534 Plus $55 @ Amazon (will use $25 GC)
Video Card: ???

Parts reused from my old rig:
2 500GB Seagate HDDs (16mb cache)
1 or 2 DVD burners (not sure yet:still might pick up another for $30)
Front bay card reader or again might get another for $20
PSU: Antec EA-430 (new bought a few years ago)
Win7 Pro 64 bit

So after GC this comes to $485, without shipping/taxes, video card. Add in the DVD burner and card reader it's at $535 without video card.
Now the question is on which video card? I was leaning towards a HD 5750 @ about $150 but really think it's more than I need. Realistically would like to keep the card price to around $100 so was thinking on a HD5670 unless there is a compelling reason to spend more. Also I can wait and use my current card (HD 3850) if prices might drop anytime soon (Fermi release?)
Also would it better to get a smaller drive for the OS and programs or are the current HDDs fine? I know that the SSD's right now are more than I want to spend but maybe later when prices drop.
Lastly would this work fine or is there something better? I believe an AMD setup would be cheaper but not real sure on that.
Hopefully I've covered everything and haven't missed anything
TIA

 

[Blain]

For Hard Driving video editing, you want the fastest HD's you can afford.

 

[klocwerk]

If you're not gaming, keep your current vid card. No need to replace it.

Also I totally agree with Blain, you want the fastest HD's you can afford.

If you can't afford SSD's (who can for mass storage) I recommend Samsung Spinpoint F3's, as per tom's reviews.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/HDD-6Gbit,2528-7.html
Faster than VelociRaptors, believe it or not. A lot to be said for the read/write speed of very dense 7200RPM drives.

 

[Davidh373]

Ok, Video card is kind of important... for HD. What is your current video card?

It should be at least 512MB with a 128bit memory controller (for around $100) or 1GB with 256bit controller(probably best you can get for $150-$200).

Those Seagates should be fine for now. The i7 960 will perform well for rendering video, the 920 seems to do better in 3D rendering and such.

4GB is enough, but probably will be pushed if you ever edit 4K, 2K, or maybe even 1080p. I have worked with Red footage and DAMN are those files HUGE!

 

[mfenn]

Ok, Video card is kind of important... for HD. What is your current video card?

It should be at least 512MB with a 128bit memory controller (for around $100) or 1GB with 256bit controller(probably best you can get for $150-$200).

Sorry, this is just wrong. An i7 860 has enough horsepower to decode anything under the sun, and a 3850 has plenty of support for decoding as well. I agree with klocwerk that the OP should just use his current card.

Those Seagates should be fine for now. The i7 960 will perform well for rendering video, the 920 seems to do better in 3D rendering and such.

4GB is enough, but probably will be pushed if you ever edit 4K, 2K, or maybe even 1080p. I have worked with Red footage and DAMN are those files HUGE!

More spindles is always better for video editing. 🙂 OP should get a smallish SSD for OS+Apps, get a new 2TB drive for bulk storage, and use his current disks as scratch and pagefile.

I can see the argument for 1366 on a video editing rig, but I personally don't believe that we'll see reasonably costed 6-core machines within the life of the socket.

 

[Davidh373]

Sorry, this is just wrong. An i7 860 has enough horsepower to decode anything under the sun, and a 3850 has plenty of support for decoding as well. I agree with klocwerk that the OP should just use his current card.



More spindles is always better for video editing. 🙂 OP should get a smallish SSD for OS+Apps, get a new 2TB drive for bulk storage, and use his current disks as scratch and pagefile.

I can see the argument for 1366 on a video editing rig, but I personally don't believe that we'll see reasonably costed 6-core machines within the life of the socket.

Getting all that would be wonderful, but you'll notice he's working with a max of $600. If he had $1200, or even just $1000, I would recommend that. The fact is he's working with a tight budget and I am assuming since he mentioned future proofing he'll be taking his time upgrading. Everything mfenn posts tends to be good advice. If you can't buy what he recommends now, save his advice for later.

 

[mfenn]

Getting all that would be wonderful, but you'll notice he's working with a max of $600. If he had $1200, or even just $1000, I would recommend that. The fact is he's working with a tight budget and I am assuming since he mentioned future proofing he'll be taking his time upgrading. Everything mfenn posts tends to be good advice. If you can't buy what he recommends now, save his advice for later.

Whoops, completely missed the $600 budget part. 😳

OP, the parts you picked out seem pretty good. You have about $90 left in the budget, so get yourself a 750GB or 1TB WD Black or Samsung F3 and use that for scratch and long-term storage. Use one 500GB for OS + pagefile and the other as a render target + short-term storage. The idea is that you want to have pagefile + scratch + final output all on different drives with the scratch being on the fastest drive.

 

[Immortal1]

First and foremost thank you all for the replies. It feels good to know that I didn't totally screw this up.
If it wasn't for the budget, I would have probably gone the i7-920/1366 route, as that would have been the best way for future proofing (5 years+)
I have plenty of storage via externals (1 TB Fantom via eSATA, and 2 320GB via firewire) and with 15 years of raw footage I will probably need most of it.
Point taken on the Samsung F3 HDDs: will probably order one.
So should I use the new drive for OS+apps+scratch+pagefile and use the other 2 for short term storage? And should that new drive be a single partition or 2?
Lastly, what would be the best video card at around $100 for what I need it for? I was looking at the HD 5670 as it didn't require external power and appeared to be a bit better than my HD 3850. Purchase probably will be soon as I believe I have a computer going out and my old rig will have to be operational to be passed down to one of the kids.
I know that both purchases would cause me to go over budget, so I will prioritize on one or the other (probably the video card for now and then get the HDD later) as the recent development with the computer kind of throws things out of kilter.
TIA

 

[mfenn]

First and foremost thank you all for the replies. It feels good to know that I didn't totally screw this up.
If it wasn't for the budget, I would have probably gone the i7-920/1366 route, as that would have been the best way for future proofing (5 years+)
I have plenty of storage via externals (1 TB Fantom via eSATA, and 2 320GB via firewire) and with 15 years of raw footage I will probably need most of it.
Point taken on the Samsung F3 HDDs: will probably order one.
So should I use the new drive for OS+apps+scratch+pagefile and use the other 2 for short term storage? And should that new drive be a single partition or 2?
Lastly, what would be the best video card at around $100 for what I need it for? I was looking at the HD 5670 as it didn't require external power and appeared to be a bit better than my HD 3850. Purchase probably will be soon as I believe I have a computer going out and my old rig will have to be operational to be passed down to one of the kids.
I know that both purchases would cause me to go over budget, so I will prioritize on one or the other (probably the video card for now and then get the HDD later) as the recent development with the computer kind of throws things out of kilter.
TIA

You don't want the OS, apps, pagefile, and scratch file all on one disk. You also don't want to use externals for anything other than long term storage. Also, if you need to buy a GPU, the 5670 is good for your purposes. I think you would be better served with regard to video editing by getting a WD Black.

I would lay a system that has a WD Black out like this:
WD Black: Partition 1: Scratch, Partition 2: storage (long-term)
500GB #1: OS, apps, and pagefile
500GB #2: Final output (render) target and short-term storage
Externals: Long-term storage

Since it sounds like you would really like to have a new GPU, then I would do this:
500GB #1: OS, apps, pagefile, and scratch
500GB #2: Final output (render) target and short-term storage
Externals: Long-term storage

This is less than ideal since it's really better to have a disk devoted to scratch. It's OK have long term storage on the scratch disk since you don't touch it while you render.

 

[Immortal1]

mfen: thank you for the info.
It's not that I really want the new GPU, it's more that I need to keep my current rig operational as there is no intergrated graphics on this rig, so the card has got to stay with the rig.
I think I can pull off both after getting some BB RZ certs: I think I can get a 1 TB for about $50 after certs and the HD 5670 (512MB) for $90 (Sapphire) with free shipping @ Newegg.
So all told $625 with the new drive and video card, and forgo the DVD burner and either reuse this card reader or find the extra I know I have here.
Thanks all for info.

 

[mfenn]

mfen: thank you for the info.
It's not that I really want the new GPU, it's more that I need to keep my current rig operational as there is no intergrated graphics on this rig, so the card has got to stay with the rig.
I think I can pull off both after getting some BB RZ certs: I think I can get a 1 TB for about $50 after certs and the HD 5670 (512MB) for $90 (Sapphire) with free shipping @ Newegg.
So all told $625 with the new drive and video card, and forgo the DVD burner and either reuse this card reader or find the extra I know I have here.
Thanks all for info.

No problem, I'm glad that you were able to work everything out.

 

[KamiXkaze]

Well good luck on your build hopefully everything will go well.

kXk

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

This may help.

 

[Immortal1]

Well good luck on your build hopefully everything will go well.

kXk

Thanks: it'll be interesting with 2 teenage boys helping 🙄

This may help.

Thanks: that was very informative. I'm still old school when it comes to hard drives: 1 drive 1 partition, so it takes a bit to realize how important it can be to set up multiple drives for video editing/rendering and even on my current rig it really wasn't optimized for file locations.

 

[Immortal1]

Got it all together and up and running today: very surprised it worked the first time with help I had LOL
Ended up getting a new PSU (OCZ modxtream 600 watt) because I didn't like the leftover spaghetti of the Antec. Very quiet and fast!
Now I need to find a deal on a Samsung HDD...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Which particular Samsung HDD were you looking for?

 

[Immortal1]

Which particular Samsung HDD were you looking for?

I guess it was the Spinpoint F3: 500GB is all I need as I have the 2 500GB and a couple of externals. Most of the prices I have seen have been around $70 just waiting for a special. It's not a big hurry as I can clone the drive and then reinstall on the new drive. WD Caviar Black would be a second choice, (640GB) but again just waiting on a deal.