Videographer asking for some help picking MB, etc

[craftech]

Hi,

I am a videographer who is looking to upgrade my video editing computer. After a week of reading endless posts I think I am stuck and would really appreciate your help.

Currently I am running a 1GHZ i440BX system with almost 1GB SDram using Windows 98SE and Sony Vegas 4.0 for editing software with DVD Architect for authoring DVDs. The system does a nice job editing and rendering and I am able to author DVDs to sell by keeping the Mpeg 2 files under 4GB because of the Fat 32 file size limitation. I have had a copy of Windows XP for over two years, but I know the limitations of my system which would not perform very well with XP eating up the processing power. However, I need the NT partitions for larger than 4GB file sizes so I need to install the Windows XP Pro gathering dust in the box it came in. That means a new system.

My key requirement is budget and stability.

Renders of certain AVI can take as much as 15 or more hours depending upon the complexity. In terms of video editing and rendering the video card is not all that important. The processor, motherboard, and ram are. A lot of what I read seems geared toward overclocking which I wouldn't mind doing UNLESS it means possible instability or errors, but my needs seem different than most here. On the other hand, the people running this website seem really knowledgeable about all aspects of computing so that is why I am posting this question here.

It seems that a Core 2 duo would be a good idea to me, but DDR ram, and an AGP video card seem to be enough for my needs as well. I also have three 120 GB IDE hard drives and a 160 GB IDE hard drive for storage. I need lots of storage space. My current system also has a single DVD burner that I use to make a DVD master. I built a DVD duplicator to make all the copies from the master for customers.

Can you recommend a motherboard, ram, and processor that would meet my needs and be stable?

Thanks a lot for the help,

John

 

[pkrush]

Motherboard: Gigabyte 965 DS3 or Intel 975XBX2
Even though you could get by with DDR1, it's now more expensive than DDR2. Same with AGP. The Gigabyte DS3 is more barebones, the Intel BX2 is a premium board with premium stability (and some overclocking options too) but also a higher price. You'll need an extra IDE controller card (or a couple of IDE to SATA adapters) to use all your old hard drives - both motherboards only have 1 IDE port.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, E6300 - E6600
I'm not really sure on your budget, but even the E6300 will give you a MASSIVE improvement in rendering times, especially if you're using a multithreaded application. (look for renders to be at least 6 to 7 times faster).
Memory: 2 gigs of DDR2 667 or DDR2 800
The faster memory won't matter much if you're not overclocking. I wouldn't spend more than $200 on this, since you won't notice much difference with the faster speeds. Just make sure to set the memory voltage correctly, otherwise your new system WILL be unstable.

Also, you're probably going to want a new power supply since I seriously doubt that anything from the Pentium III days will work. You should be fine with the Enhance 5140gh or 5150gh, since you won't be doing heavy gaming or overclocking.

 

[tcsenter]

My key requirement is budget and stability.

BIOSTAR TForce 965PT LGA775 P965 Express ATX Retail - $112.00 shipped


Intel DG965WH LGA775 G965 Express ATX Retail (onboard IEEE-1394/Firewire) - $127.00 shipped


Unfortunately, neither support more than two IDE/ATA drives without some SATA>IDE adapter or add-in board. To get four onboard IDE/ATA drives with Conroe support, you'll have to go with an NVIDIA chipset or something like this:

ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA VIA PT880 Ultra (may not be available in USA)

ASRock 775Dual-VSTA VIA PT880 Pro/Ultra - $65.00 shipped

Either ASRock board would give you AGP and four IDE/ATA drive support, but at the expense of maximum memory support (2GB MAX) and other contemporary features such as SATA-II/300 and full performance PCI Express x16 (PT880 is limited to PCI Express x4).

However, if you are just now growing out of an Intel 440BX system, any of these should last you for several years. :thumbsup:

Check the memory QVL for each board, there are some issues with third-tier module companies and their inferior chips requiring excessive voltage to reach their intended speed, at which the mainboard might balk. Stick with first-tier module brands (e.g. Micron/Crucial, Qimonda/Infineon, Samsung/SEC, Hynix, Nanya/Elixir).

Also, you'll likely require a new PSU, unless your current one is fairly recent ATX12V.

 

[craftech]

Thanks to both of you for those informative posts. I really appreciate it. I "thought" a full size board would probably be better for me, but maybe not.

My only question is regarding the SATA to IDE adapters. Do they work well?

Are there any instances where you could boot up and all of a sudden your drives aren't recognized?

Thanks,

John

 

[pkrush]

The SATA to IDE adapters normally work pretty well if they work at all. (I've had problems with them on optical drives, though, so you'd want to use them on your hard drives.) Just remember to plug the extra floppy power connector into them. As for the motherboard, the AsRock is probably a bad idea, for several reasons.
1. The memory will only run in single channel, making it noticeably slower.
2. You probably won't be able to use your old video card anyway, since the 440BX was AGP 1X and now everything is AGP 8X and while AGP is backward compatible, the voltages have changed enough that it won't work. I'd recommend a PCI Express board and the cheapest nVidia card you can find with NO turbocache (since that steals system memory). Or, you can just go with onboard video, but be advised that that will steal RAM too.
3. I have had nothing but trouble with VIA chipsets. (Failure to recognize single sided RAM properly, inability to use an ATI card in 3D, having to jumper SATA drives to make them run at the slower speeds that are all that VIA supports...) Intel still makes great chipsets, and so do nVidia and ATI , even if they're not quite up to Intel's standards.

 

[tcsenter]

The memory will only run in single channel, making it noticeably slower.

PT880 supports dual-channel memory (PT890 does not), while VIA's memory controller has more versatile memory support than, say, any Intel or NVIDIA chipset to date. As long as the AGP card to be used is at least AGP2.0 compliant (i.e. AGP 4x) or later, the likelihood of it working is extremely high.

Also, I forgot to mention that the ASRock boards support both AGP 8x and PCI Express graphic cards. While the PCI Express x16 slot actually runs on x4 lanes instead of the typical x8 or x16, this has little affect on performance of mid-range segment cards. It does hinder the high-end graphic cards, though. The ASRock boards are not stellar overclockers, either, but the OP didn't mention any desire to overclock.

The ASRock boards are a killer value unless you need a high-end PCI-E graphics card, support for SATA-II/300, more than 2GB RAM, or significant overclocking potential (it handles mild-to-moderate overclocking just fine).

 

[craftech]

This is great. I am learning a lot from these replies.

Thanks again.

I have been out of touch with all this for a very long time. A LOT has changed.

Regards,

John

 

[Greg04]

You might help out a bit by providing a total budget.

And, you seem to be a prime candidate for the E4300 which would allow you decent stable overclocks with lower cost for the peripherals (no need for super speed RAM).

Finally, those 15 hour renders will likely be much much faster with your new setup.

 

[sjwaste]

Yes, please post your total budget -- what you'd like to spend and also your maximum that you can afford. Using those, I think we can be more helpful.

I don't do much video editing, but I do a lot of transcoding to MPEG-2 DVD compliant, including cutting down 1080i content to fit. It's mostly to archive content from my HTPC to DVD. I have an Opteron 165, overclocked to 2.4 GHz, and 1 GB of low latency DDR. Of course, that was before Core2Duo, or I would've gone that route. The E4300 or 6300 are your best bet, along with a gig or two of midrange DDR2 (name brand at least). Because it's all CPU bound still, a high end video card isn't going to speed you up. You could get by with a Geforce 7300 or 7600, the latter would allow you to play some games if you wanted to.

Disks have come a long way since you last purchased, so you might consider that in the budget too. A pair of Seagate 7200.10 drives would speed you up in some cases, especially if your source material is on one drive and the target on the other.

 

[craftech]

Thanks,

I was trying to keep the total budget under $400, but it isn't written in stone. I have four large ide drives, an ADS Pyro 1394 card (1394 HAS to be Texas Instruments - they work the best, an M-Audio and a TB Santa Cruz sound card to choose between (both PCI)

I have no suitable video card, ram, processor, or motherboard. Cases and power supplies are newer ones and have good specs for my purposes.

Regards,

John

 

[tcsenter]

You would solve some issues by turning in two (or even three) of those hard drives for one drive along these lines:

WDC Caviar SE16 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA II 3.0Gb/s - $75.00 shipped

Hitachi 320GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB 3.0Gb/s - $90.50 shipped

Seagate 400GB Barracuda 7200.10 16MB SATA II 3.0Gb/s - $120.00 shipped

SATA should have benefits for working with very large files, as in video recording. Then go for a low-end Core 2 Duo. You will freak out at the performance difference over your current setup.

Windows 98? DAYUM! As long as you go between major upgrades, spring for some extras.

 

[Shimmishim]

I think you guys mean IDE to SATA connectors since the mobo's recommended have mostly SATA ports.

With your $400ish budget, the E6300 + mobo + some ddr2 memory will give you a HUGE MASSIVELY ENORMOUS UNBELIEVABLE performance increase over what you have.

Also, don't think you have to go with intel. if you are really set on using ddr1, a 939 system will do you just fine as well. The nice thing about 939 boards is most still have 2 IDE channels allowing 4 IDE devices. You could build a decently priced AMD X2 3800+ system for under $200 (assuming you keep your ram and video card).

 

[craftech]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
You would solve some issues by turning in two (or even three) of those hard drives for one drive along these lines:

WDC Caviar SE16 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA II 3.0Gb/s - $75.00 shipped

Hitachi 320GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB 3.0Gb/s - $90.50 shipped

Seagate 400GB Barracuda 7200.10 16MB SATA II 3.0Gb/s - $120.00 shipped


SATA should have benefits for working with very large files, as in video recording. Then go for a low-end Core 2 Duo. You will freak out at the performance difference over your current setup.

Windows 98? DAYUM! As long as you go between major upgrades, spring for some extras.

Those are very reasonbly priced drives. You may be right when it comes to replacing them. I only need a fast drive for the OS. The NT storage drives don't have to be all that fast. I have filled three 120GB drives with only two video projects at times. I am sure you are right when it comes to W98SE. I only stuck with it because it suited my hardware. Thanks again. I am also looking into Foxconn boards. They seem "relatively" reliable overall although none seem as reliable as the older motherboards last time I did this if the User Reviews at Newegg and Amazon are any indication.

John

 

[craftech]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
I think you guys mean IDE to SATA connectors since the mobo's recommended have mostly SATA ports.

With your $400ish budget, the E6300 + mobo + some ddr2 memory will give you a HUGE MASSIVELY ENORMOUS UNBELIEVABLE performance increase over what you have.

Also, don't think you have to go with intel. if you are really set on using ddr1, a 939 system will do you just fine as well. The nice thing about 939 boards is most still have 2 IDE channels allowing 4 IDE devices. You could build a decently priced AMD X2 3800+ system for under $200 (assuming you keep your ram and video card).

Thanks for the reply Shimmishim. I actually started out looking at the AMD 939 systems, but they are apparently being phased out, and the other videographers seem to have been happier over the years with Intel CPUs. Also, my present video card is a Voodoo 5 5500 and my ram is PC100 SDRAM. That has to go.

John