Video Encoding Rig

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thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,060
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I looked into the separate video encoding machine suggestion and I could build a Sempron 2800+ machine (with I think single channel ram) for about $360 Canadian and a P4 2.4A machine for about $440 Canadian. Both with 512 ram (add $50 for 1gb ram) but I think the P4 can do dual channel DDR.

How do those specs sound? THe P4A Prescott has SSE3 and 1mb cache so it should be better at encoding right?

I wanted to keep the price under $600 because that is how much extra I would have to pay to go for an Athlon64 X2 (which I wanted so that I could do some quick divx/xvid encoding) in my new rig. Someone else suggested that I buy a 3200+ instead of the X2 4400+ and build a separate encoding rig.

So any comments/suggestions?
Thanks for any help.
 
jpeyton

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
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For single core CPUs on a budget, I would buy the cheapest Pentium 4 with HyperTheading and overclock it.

I'm not sure if the 2.4A has HyperThreading, but it does make a difference when encoding video.
 
biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,925
7,036
136
Prescott is P4E not A, but otherwise go for that. Intel is far better for video encoding in the low price range.
 
n7

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
P4 2.4C (Northwood) would be my choice if you can still find mobos for that socket.
 
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Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
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No there is a 2.4a prescott...there is also a 2.8a and they both do not have HT...

Trust me HT is the crutch the P4 needs and the prescott at this low od speed is worse then a 2.4 northwood without HT turned on....

I would get the sempron 2800+ sckt 754 and OC that...it will be better then the P4 withot HT...HT is everything in the field of encoding. If I turned it on with my 2.4c it was 22% gain....Without it iAXPs where close to it...A64's or even the semprons (which just dont have 64bit support) will be even better...Aslo dual channel makes some difference but in the field of encoding it is like 1-3% RANGE...LESS CACHE HURTS ABOUT THE SAME 1-3%....

Get a real northwood C chip with HT at 2.4ghz (135 dollar range (US)) and it would kill that POS!!!
 
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Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
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Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
You can get a 570J for cheap these days.
Click to expand...


excuse me!!! That is a near 600 dollar cpu and a nuclear fusion reactor...i wouldn't touch any 500 series chips....

The northwoods are cooler and without HT the Intel P4 netburst design is a heap of crap...plain and simple....
 
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fatty4ksu

Golden Member
Mar 5, 2005
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Who gives a sh1t if its hot?

It's the best single-core vid editing chip out there, and you can find it on ebay for 300 dollars.
 
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Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
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Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
Who gives a sh1t if its hot?

It's the best single-core vid editing chip out there, and you can find it on ebay for 300 dollars.
Click to expand...


he give a s1it you moron!!!

I wanted to keep the price under $600 because that is how much extra I would have to pay to go for an Athlon64 X2
Click to expand...
that is for the whole system and not just the cpu.....

At that kind of money he would be better off going dual core...That is just plain stupid....

Go use your X2 and STHU...
 
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Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
0
71
Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
Video encoding requirements

1)CPU
2)CPU
3)CPU
4)CPU
5)Ram.
6)Hard drive


That is it.
Click to expand...


DUH!!!!

But you buy what you can afford...And responders to threads learn to fvcking read!!!!

anybody willing to pay 600 dollars when they can buy an X2 that absolutely KILLS the 3.8ghz prescott is a moron (or close friend of yours)....Heck even the Pentium D 820 and 830 would stomp it and cost a whole heck of a lot less....

face it, you gave bad advice!!!

 
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fatty4ksu

Golden Member
Mar 5, 2005
1,282
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^^^^^^Refuses to use logic^^^^^^^^

*fatty4ksu*<<<<<Now leaving thread

Winner of thread>>>>>*fatty4ksu*
 
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Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
16,215
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71
Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
570's going for around 300-350 at ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...3&item=6775040411&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Click to expand...



Yeah you buy cpus at ebay...jack-ass!!! I quoted price as seen at pricewatch through reputable dealers...I dont know many ppl around here who buy things such as that at ebay....

I want warranties ans assuarnces if something is faulty with it I wont be screwed....

fatty4KSU wins!!! The big TARD award of the week!!! Congratulations!!!


UPDATE:

What about this one??? Ebay is no price defacto and not realistic to tell this OP...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...3&item=6747868208&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V
 
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Romir

Member
Jun 5, 2005
50
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Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
570's going for around 300-350 at ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...3&item=6775040411&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Click to expand...


None have gone below 350 and they've had 19 bucks for shipping. That's a 23% more than the unatainable 300...


thilan29,

If you're going for an inexpensive dedicated encoder, the 2.4c with hyperthreading is as others have said, an excellent choice. Northwoods are still very solid encoding CPUs, and the 865/875 platform is tried and proven. It's Intel's best since the 440BX IMHO. Both made somewhat of a mockery of their predecessors.

If you're thinking about an X2, here's what a 4400+ at 2.75ghz can do. :)

xvid - movie encoded at 53.70 fps
Divx - move encoded at 82.05 fps
DVDShrink Deep Analysis - 680 to 780 FPS

It doesn't seem that long ago that real time Divx encoding was amazing. The cycle will continue with AVC though. The high profile h.264 encoding brings all current systems to their knees but it will provide the best quality compression, which will be useful since we'll still be using cheap DVD-5 blanks for a good while.
 
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imported_wyrmrider

Senior member
Dec 6, 2004
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T

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,060
2,273
126
Originally posted by: Romir
Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
570's going for around 300-350 at ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...3&item=6775040411&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Click to expand...


None have gone below 350 and they've had 19 bucks for shipping. That's a 23% more than the unatainable 300...


thilan29,

If you're going for an inexpensive dedicated encoder, the 2.4c with hyperthreading is as others have said, an excellent choice. Northwoods are still very solid encoding CPUs, and the 865/875 platform is tried and proven. It's Intel's best since the 440BX IMHO. Both made somewhat of a mockery of their predecessors.

If you're thinking about an X2, here's what a 4400+ at 2.75ghz can do. :)

xvid - movie encoded at 53.70 fps
Divx - move encoded at 82.05 fps
DVDShrink Deep Analysis - 680 to 780 FPS

It doesn't seem that long ago that real time Divx encoding was amazing. The cycle will continue with AVC though. The high profile h.264 encoding brings all current systems to their knees but it will provide the best quality compression, which will be useful since we'll still be using cheap DVD-5 blanks for a good while.
Click to expand...


Hey, that last pic you quoted, how long is that movie clip and how long did it take to encode(Pirates of the Caribbean right?)? ANd also, is that Win 2000 you're using? How does Win2000 handle dual core? (This is assuming that those were your pics of course)

And as for budget, yes I would NOT spend another $300 US to get one of the newer P4s. Waste of money for me honestly. SOmeone said that the Northwood C is good for encoding but the Northwoods did not have SSE3 did they? I though SSE3 only came with the Prescotts?

THanks for all the help.
 
R

Romir

Member
Jun 5, 2005
50
0
0
Originally posted by: thilan29

Hey, that last pic you quoted, how long is that movie clip and how long did it take to encode(Pirates of the Caribbean right?)? ANd also, is that Win 2000 you're using? How does Win2000 handle dual core? (This is assuming that those were your pics of course)

And as for budget, yes I would NOT spend another $300 US to get one of the newer P4s. Waste of money for me honestly. SOmeone said that the Northwood C is good for encoding but the Northwoods did not have SSE3 did they? I though SSE3 only came with the Prescotts?

THanks for all the help.
Click to expand...

The last screenshot was just the deep analysis before transcoding. I didn't actually transcode the movie because it seemed to be limited by the hard drive speed, and yes it was PoTC. That's WinXP with the eye candy off. I only have an 8MB pci video card in that system right now so using the classic theme helps.

The northwoods do not have SSE3, that is correct. Their advantage over Prescott is having hyper threading where the slower Prescotts don't and generally being able to overclock higher from running cooler. In Feb 04 I bought two 3ghz CPUs with hyperthreading, a prescott and a northwood. The prescott encodes around 15% faster but was only able to overclock around 250mhz, it got hot quickly! With the same cooling the northwood overclocked 550mhz and edged out the prescott in encoding. And as Duvie has pointed out, prescotts without hyperthreading are at a disadvantage vs northwoods.

I'm now trying to get by on one X2 machine. It has the gaming performance of an AMD and the multimedia performance of an Intel. :)

Here are some xvid results of encoding Chapter 24 of The Incredibles dvd. The results aren't really fair because the 4400+ is overclocked but anyway... I need to do some stock speed tests with the X2.

Overclocked 4400+ @ 2.7ghz - 43.92fps
Stock 3.0c Northwood - 21.66fps
Stock 3.0e Prescott - 24.72fps.

EDIT: I forgot that I did a 90% quality xvid encode of Pirates of the Caribbean. 4400+ @ 2.7ghz

encoding time -> [6/21/2005 11:41:44 PM] Duration was: 1 hour, 2 minutes 29 seconds
[6/21/2005 11:41:44 PM] Speed was: 54.93 fps.
[6/21/2005 11:41:44 PM] Job finished. Total time: 1 hour, 5 minutes 24 seconds
 
T

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,060
2,273
126
Originally posted by: Romir
Here are some xvid results of encoding Chapter 24 of The Incredibles dvd. The results aren't really fair because the 4400+ is overclocked but anyway... I need to do some stock speed tests with the X2.

Overclocked 4400+ @ 2.7ghz - 43.92fps
Stock 3.0c Northwood - 21.66fps
Stock 3.0e Prescott - 24.72fps.

EDIT: I forgot that I did a 90% quality xvid encode of Pirates of the Caribbean. 4400+ @ 2.7ghz

encoding time -> [6/21/2005 11:41:44 PM] Duration was: 1 hour, 2 minutes 29 seconds
[6/21/2005 11:41:44 PM] Speed was: 54.93 fps.
[6/21/2005 11:41:44 PM] Job finished. Total time: 1 hour, 5 minutes 24 seconds
Click to expand...

Wow, so I guess the X2 eats the P4s for lunch even in encoding. And is that 90%quality encoding time for the FULL movie? If so that's pretty quick(1 hour is not too bad at all). Usually for me, encoding to MPEG2 from XVID using 2-pass VBR takes about 6-10 hours.

ALso, your X2, did you overclock it using stock cooling?

Oh and BTW, thanx for the real-world results.
 
Gamingphreek

Gamingphreek

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
11,679
0
81
Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
DV-MPEG2 encoding is all that matters.

That is where intel shines, and the X2 doesn't do as well.


http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/cpu/athlon64-x2/mainconcept.png

Now, TMPGENC will give the X2 the nod...but not that much.
Click to expand...

You are the most hopeless member i have ever had the displeasure of meeting.

#1. You are looking at a software suite that is highly optimized for intel.

#2. The CPU's are 40 seconds apart, that among a whole host of things that the AMD chip is better at, as well as offering lower power consumption thereby having lower heat output.

#3. Where in the hell did you find that link at. I cannot find it ANYWHERE on Xbit Labs page. Hell there isn't even a /images extension!?

-Kevin
 
Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
27,259
16,117
136
Originally posted by: fatty4ksu
DV-MPEG2 encoding is all that matters.

That is where intel shines, and the X2 doesn't do as well.


http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/cpu/athlon64-x2/mainconcept.png

Now, TMPGENC will give the X2 the nod...but not that much.
Click to expand...

You pick the one it does well on instead of the whole page where the X2 beats the Intel rigs big time. Go play with your imaginary X2 until you join the real world.

Try using the whole page here

Bottom line: GET THE X2 !!!
 
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thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,060
2,273
126
How would a DUAL 2.0GHz Xeon RDRAM do in encoding? THis I can pick up for about $300 Canadian with the CPUs and Tyan motherboard. Used of course and previously in an HP server.

THe RDRAM is no problem as I can easily get a hold of that.
 
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