HD Video Editing Workstation

[Retrospective]

- Intel Conroe E6400 Core2 Duo (2.13Ghz)
- ASUS P5W DH DELUXE
- OCZ EL DDR2 PC2-5400 (2 GB)
- Seagate 400GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATAII
- LG L1932TX-SF
- Matrox Parhelia APVe PCI-E (128 MB)
- LaCie DVDRW w/ LightScribe 16x DB Layer 
- Case/Power Supply/Cooling (Any suggestions?)

Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Bobthelost]

You're wasting money on the motherboard, check out the gigabyte lines.

 

[Retrospective]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
You're wasting money on the motherboard, check out the gigabyte lines.

Really? I thought the 975X for Gigabytes are alot more expensive than the Asus ones?

 

[chairbornrangerx]

only 400GB for video editing?? I'd throw another HDD or two in there.

Case: thermaltake armor jr./antec P180
PSU: PCP & C 510W
Cooling: Air, any fans that fit the case and are low dB.

 

[Blain]

Dang...
Sweet video card for what you need! :thumbsup::laugh:

 

[HendrixFan]

If I were you I would use a RAID setup for a scratch disk. Keep the large drive for storing the data, but maybe a couple Raptors in RAID for what you are actually working on.

Since HD is widescreen, you should go for a widescreen monitor. You should also seriously consider going with two monitors as the amount of workspace you need is quite large. I personally use Vegas and I feel cramped with my 20" widescreen and 21" CRT.

 

[mitchelt]

Have you looked into possibly getting a dedicated capture system from someone like: http://www.avid.com/

I was never much into a do-it-all solution. This way you can always upgrade your video card and not effect your capture system.

I have a Pinnacle capture card that does a very good job but it's old and not sure about the new products.

Just a thought.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: mitchelt
Have you looked into possibly getting a dedicated capture system from someone like: http://www.avid.com/

I was never much into a do-it-all solution. This way you can always upgrade your video card and not effect your capture system.

I have a Pinnacle capture card that does a very good job but it's old and not sure about the new products.

Just a thought.

educate me - don't the hd cameras use 1394 connections like mini dv cameras?

 

[krotchy]

Theres really 2 realms in the HD video editing world. Theres capturing uncompressed HD video (4:2:2 8 bit YUV is common), in which case you need pretty much an 8 HD RAID 0 to even have a chance at getting it onto disk via an HD-SDI connection.

The other kind are the compressed forms of HD video, stuff like DVCPRO-HD(panasonic) and HDV(Sony). I assume your using HDV, and honestly, processing power isnt going to be the brunt of what you need, a large amount of fast disks are most important for any video editing.

A good setup in your case would be 4-6 320GB 7200.10 seagates, with a dedicated SATA RAID controller (PCI-e is a good idea here). I/O is almost always your limiting factor for Video editing, I have found. Premiere barely uses 30% of a core (8% overall) on my computer when exporting video, despite be having an 8 disk RAID 0.

To get an idea of what a video station, that was built from scratch contains (this is a 4:2:2 Uncompressed YUV 8/10 bit station), check my profile under HD Video workstation, although this is clearly overkill for you.

 

[gsellis]

Based on your video card choice, I assume Adobe Premiere Pro, right?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: krotchy
Theres really 2 realms in the HD video editing world. Theres capturing uncompressed HD video (4:2:2 8 bit YUV is common), in which case you need pretty much an 8 HD RAID 0 to even have a chance at getting it onto disk via an HD-SDI connection.

The other kind are the compressed forms of HD video, stuff like DVCPRO-HD(panasonic) and HDV(Sony). I assume your using HDV, and honestly, processing power isnt going to be the brunt of what you need, a large amount of fast disks are most important for any video editing.

A good setup in your case would be 4-6 320GB 7200.10 seagates, with a dedicated SATA RAID controller (PCI-e is a good idea here). I/O is almost always your limiting factor for Video editing, I have found. Premiere barely uses 30% of a core (8% overall) on my computer when exporting video, despite be having an 8 disk RAID 0.

To get an idea of what a video station, that was built from scratch contains (this is a 4:2:2 Uncompressed YUV 8/10 bit station), check my profile under HD Video workstation, although this is clearly overkill for you.

what compression is hdv? mpeg2? also, can those cameras shoot in only 1080i or can they do 720p? cameras like prosumer - sony hc1 or hc3, or even the higher end fx series? also do you use regular mini dv tapes? can you shoot in regular dv - 720x480?

thanks in advance.

 

[Retrospective]

@chairbornrangerx: I will definitely get another hard drive!

@mitchelt: The Avid capture system is hefty for my wallet so Im going with the Matrox solution since its cheaper.

@HendrixFan: Any recommendations of a good and affordable widescreen solution???

@gsellis: yes Im going to use Premiere Pro.

Originally posted by: krotchy
Theres really 2 realms in the HD video editing world. Theres capturing uncompressed HD video (4:2:2 8 bit YUV is common), in which case you need pretty much an 8 HD RAID 0 to even have a chance at getting it onto disk via an HD-SDI connection.

The other kind are the compressed forms of HD video, stuff like DVCPRO-HD(panasonic) and HDV(Sony). I assume your using HDV, and honestly, processing power isnt going to be the brunt of what you need, a large amount of fast disks are most important for any video editing.

A good setup in your case would be 4-6 320GB 7200.10 seagates, with a dedicated SATA RAID controller (PCI-e is a good idea here). I/O is almost always your limiting factor for Video editing, I have found. Premiere barely uses 30% of a core (8% overall) on my computer when exporting video, despite be having an 8 disk RAID 0.

To get an idea of what a video station, that was built from scratch contains (this is a 4:2:2 Uncompressed YUV 8/10 bit station), check my profile under HD Video workstation, although this is clearly overkill for you.

Yes, I'll be using HDV format(Sony HVR-A1) Thanks, I'll look into your workstation setup! Looks like Im might have to get a server board if I want to follow it but Im going to stick with a Core 2 Duo setup. I thought I really need a powerful CPU and lotsa RAM to do real time editing and effects without waiting too long to render the changes? Any more tips? =D

So far thanks for the suggestions guys! =D

 

[Retrospective]

Originally posted by: bob4432

what compression is hdv? mpeg2? also, can those cameras shoot in only 1080i or can they do 720p? cameras like prosumer - sony hc1 or hc3, or even the higher end fx series? also do you use regular mini dv tapes? can you shoot in regular dv - 720x480?

thanks in advance.

HDV is mpeg2...its old! I think my HVR-A1U shoots only in 1080i and not 720p, not sure tho...

 

[Retrospective]

*delete*

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: Retrospective

Originally posted by: bob4432

what compression is hdv? mpeg2? also, can those cameras shoot in only 1080i or can they do 720p? cameras like prosumer - sony hc1 or hc3, or even the higher end fx series? also do you use regular mini dv tapes? can you shoot in regular dv - 720x480?

thanks in advance.

HDV is mpeg2...its old! I think my HVR-A1U shoots only in 1080i and not 720p, not sure tho...

Yep, MPEG2 Packetized Stream, Long GOP 1080i 59.96fps (or is it 59.97). The A1U is similar to the HC1, but a pro version with dual XLR plugs and additional pro controls. They can be found for around $2k and replace the PDX-10 camera. Sony recommends using their $10 tapes, but folks have been using cheaper tapes. BUT, because it is long GOP, any dropouts will kill about 1/2 second of video, so most folks follow the Sony recommendation.

BHPhotoVideo A1U - $2500 added to cart plus $500 MIR

 

[HendrixFan]

Price will be the determining factor for your display setup. I would honestly say dual monitors are a must, even for audio editing, certainly for video editing.

You can find 20" widescreen monitors for around $300 a piece, and 24" ones for $800 a piece. The 30" widescreen monitors are still pretty hefty in price, certainly if you aren't even dropping money on a huge RAID setup, which should come first.

 

[SonicIce]

what HD are you going to edit?

 

[krotchy]

For a storage array, I would suggest this, but the controller is roughly 350 bucks (4 disks), and the drives would be about 400. However the advantage here is that it is a PCI-e 8X controller, so it should be relatively simple to find a PCI-e x8 slot to place this in on most conroe motherboards

The controller is an Areca ARC-1210 PCI-e to SATA II RAID COntroller:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=16593069&search=arc+1210

If you then grabed 4 Seagate 7200.10 320 GB drives. This would give you 1.28TB of storage, that is extremely fast. Pairing that with pretty much any Conroe Setup out there will dominate in your video station.

I realize this is an expensive setup (750 bucks off the bat) but this will provide a real performance gain over anything else you put in the system. Keep in mind however that editing HD video in pretty much any environment is a daunting task. Also remember your gonna want a boot drive along with the storage array if you decide to go this route.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: krotchy
For a storage array, I would suggest this, but the controller is roughly 350 bucks (4 disks), and the drives would be about 400. However the advantage here is that it is a PCI-e 8X controller, so it should be relatively simple to find a PCI-e x8 slot to place this in on most conroe motherboards

The controller is an Areca ARC-1210 PCI-e to SATA II RAID COntroller:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=16593069&search=arc+1210

If you then grabed 4 Seagate 7200.10 320 GB drives. This would give you 1.28TB of storage, that is extremely fast. Pairing that with pretty much any Conroe Setup out there will dominate in your video station.

I realize this is an expensive setup (750 bucks off the bat) but this will provide a real performance gain over anything else you put in the system. Keep in mind however that editing HD video in pretty much any environment is a daunting task. Also remember your gonna want a boot drive along with the storage array if you decide to go this route.

man, having 4drives in a raid0 setup would be kind of risky don't you think? is the data transfer speed that important? are the video chunks that get moved around that big? wouldn't a 960GB raid 5 setup be better using the 4 320GB hdds?

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: krotchy
For a storage array, I would suggest this, but the controller is roughly 350 bucks (4 disks), and the drives would be about 400. However the advantage here is that it is a PCI-e 8X controller, so it should be relatively simple to find a PCI-e x8 slot to place this in on most conroe motherboards

The controller is an Areca ARC-1210 PCI-e to SATA II RAID COntroller:
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=16593069&search=arc+1210

If you then grabed 4 Seagate 7200.10 320 GB drives. This would give you 1.28TB of storage, that is extremely fast. Pairing that with pretty much any Conroe Setup out there will dominate in your video station.

I realize this is an expensive setup (750 bucks off the bat) but this will provide a real performance gain over anything else you put in the system. Keep in mind however that editing HD video in pretty much any environment is a daunting task. Also remember your gonna want a boot drive along with the storage array if you decide to go this route.

man, having 4drives in a raid0 setup would be kind of risky don't you think? is the data transfer speed that important? are the video chunks that get moved around that big? wouldn't a 960GB raid 5 setup be better using the 4 320GB hdds?

Ditto. Being R0 makes me sweat sometimes. Consider also that 320s are 'cheap' at 31 cents a GB now. Even 500s are now 42cents a GB. And places like Videoguys have vendor built externals if you don't want to build everything (having someone else's throat to chock adds a degree of comfort when it comes to stuff like that.) Videoguys may only sell Medea though.

 

[krotchy]

Originally posted by: bob4432

man, having 4drives in a raid0 setup would be kind of risky don't you think? is the data transfer speed that important? are the video chunks that get moved around that big? wouldn't a 960GB raid 5 setup be better using the 4 320GB hdds?

I agree 4 drives in Raid 0 is risky, I have 8 in RAID0 on the workstation I built, and I havent had any problems *yet*. This is mainly why I wont recommend anything but Seagates in a Raid like this. Also keep in mind a hardware Raid0 is a little less sensitive to failure than a software one, but it is always a risk that requires backup.

As far as I/O, my 8 Disk RAID0 has sustained reads/writes upwards of 280 MB/s, and I successully stressed it to max when I first got it by recording around 2 hours of uncompressed 4:2:2 HD-SDI video to it without dropping a single frame (125 MB/S). Theorhetically a 4 disk RAID0 should be capable of doing this, though it is a bit risky, however the newer 7200.10 drives are extremely fast, and have the Seagate 5 year warranty.

I have actually managed to record SD-SDI video to a 750 GB 7200.10 in an USB enclosure. I have yet to drop a frame after capturing hours of video to it, but honestly, when I told my bosses it worked they looked at me dumbfounded. To put that in perspective, the dedicated SD-SDI capture machine my lab bought for around 50k like 4 years ago uses a 6 disk RAID0 to sustain uncompressed SDI capture.