Recommendation for FRAPS Recording

[p4ck3tl055]

Let's set some information and guidelines first:

1). I'm about to build a new PC. The new system will be built with three goals in mind - Gaming, Video Capture/Editing and Photo Management.

2). I'm working on a budget. That budget is forcing me to re-use parts so, SSDs are not available to me.

3). I'm currently planning on building my system around the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard and a Core i5 3570k (probably overclocked). I'm willing to change motherboards as long at the price doesn't fluctuate too much and I can be convinced that it's better for my goals.

4). I currently have 4 HDDs available to me - all Seagate SATA2 7200RPM models. They are arranged as 2x750GB and 2x1TB.

My current plan is to connect the two 750GB drives to the SATA3 sockets and the two 1TB drives to two of the four SATA2 sockets. Both pairs will be used in a RAID0 configuration.

The 750GBs will be used for the OS, programs, music, etc. and minor storage (like downloads) The 1TBs will be used to capture FRAPS video and be the repository for the final encoded videos before offloading to Youtube/DVD/external storage.

My hope is that the RAID0 configuration will help the recording capabilities of FRAPS and not have as major an impact on frame rates as recording to a single mechanical drive does.

That's the plan anyway...if anyone can suggest a better setup, given what I have, I'd love to hear it.

 

[dmoney1980]

Can you answer the following questions ? (you covered some of them already) The big one there is budget, and where you're buying from. If you have a Micro Center near you, you can save big on the CPU / Motherboard

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

 

[p4ck3tl055]

Answers:
1. Gaming, Video Capturing/Editing and Photo Editing/Management

2. $600 MAX.

3. US

4. Don't think I'll be buying from outside the US.

5. nVidia GPU and Intel CPU fanboy here, thank you. The rest really are determined by price and performance.

6. I already have an optical drive (SATA DVD-RW), 4 HDDs (As noted in original post, 2x750GB and 2x1TB Seagate 7200 SATA2) and Video Card (Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce Edition)

7. IF I overclock, it will be mild - something that can be handled with air cooling alone.

8. I have two monitors - a 24" Dell (1920x1200) primary and a 20" Dell (1600x1200) secondary.

My current plan is to get the system spec'ed here, coupled with the parts I'm re-using to arrive at my final rig.

My main concern, and the reason for this post, is the viability and impact of using the HDDs in RAID0 for recording during gameplay. Since I've not built a PC in a while, I'm concerned about the motherboard abilities and performance in such a setup. I was hoping that someone here would have experience with this board and possibly the RAID features of it and could speak to how well they work.

Alternately, if someone knows of a problem with this setup, I was hoping for a suggestion for an improvement.

 

[sm625]

RAID0 can potentially adds latencies in addition to increasing sequential speeds. You probably dont want to take a chance on higher latencies while gaming. Why not just use a 128GB SSD? You have enough processing power to compress your recordings to the point where they take up less than 20MB per minute. My recordings look great at that quality. Better than most youtube 1080p anyway. I use bandicam with xvid codec. (Fraps seems like it is on the way out... too poor performance.)

 

[p4ck3tl055]

Why not just use a 128GB SSD?

It's not that I don't WANT to use an SSD, it's that given the money I have, I simply can't AFFORD one right now.

RAID0 can potentially adds latencies in addition to increasing sequential speeds. You probably dont want to take a chance on higher latencies while gaming.

Latencies that would be worse than using a single drive to write the data to? I think the bigger bottleneck would be a single hard drive trying to keep up with the sheer flood of data being thrown at it. (If my math is right, roughly 7 megabytes per frame or, at 30 frames per second, 210 MB per second.) Frankly, I'm concerned that even the RAID0 won't be able to keep up.

I use bandicam with xvid codec.

Honestly, I've never heard of Bandicam. But I will check it out based on your input.

 

[dmoney1980]

OP- thats a pretty nice build you have there, but you do have some alternatives for the mobo and PSU. for the MB, the ASrock e6 is a nice option as well (same price) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157295

You can save a few bucks by getting the Antec 620W unit for $30 after rebate, but it's not modular - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371031

I can attest to Bandicam, I picked that up for a buddy of mine that wanted to record gaming sessions and it's worth it

 

[p4ck3tl055]

OP- thats a pretty nice build you have there, but you do have some alternatives for the mobo and PSU. for the MB, the ASrock e6 is a nice option as well (same price) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157295

Interesting. I started planning this build with the Extreme 4, because at the time I was leaning toward ASRock, the Extreme 6 was more expensive...glad you pointed this out.

You can save a few bucks by getting the Antec 620W unit for $30 after rebate, but it's not modular - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371031

While it's not a killer, I do prefer the modular power supply. Fewer cables = cleaner looks = hopefully cooler system. Besides, the case has very few tie-down points and less is definitely going to be better.

I can attest to Bandicam, I picked that up for a buddy of mine that wanted to record gaming sessions and it's worth it

Not to get too Off-Topic here, but I tried Bandicam last night. I did like its feature set and increased performance vs FRAPs. I truly enjoyed the smaller file sizes.

However, I had a ton of compatibly issues - First with sound, which I fixed. I also kept getting an error upon starting: "Not a valid application". But the final straw is that while Bandicam is running, I can't activate the docklets on my Rocketdock panel. For now, I'll stick with FRAPS. I'll give Bandicam another look once the new PC is built and see if things have improved.

Back on topic though: The Bandicam excursion did point out one thing - the compression during capture will certainly lessen the strain on the storage subsystem. So much that I may not need RAID0 to compensate. Assuming that I can get Bandicam to actually work.