i7 the best choice?

[Dorkenstein]

If I was to go quad core from dual core right now would an i7 processor be the best for the money? Thanks. This is for a video editing machine.

 

[cmdrdredd]

For video editing yes, nothing comes close to an i7 but you also have to remember memory and motherboards will not be cheap.

 

[Lonyo]

Value for money, not in most cases.
But yeah, it depends on what you are doing and what the other components (e.g. graphics card) will be.
The i7 out now is the high end enthusiast product, not the mainstream affordable one. And it uses DDR3 which also carries a premium over DDR2.

 

[adams828]

Hello all - hoping for some advice here. I have asked to get a PC at work that would be suitable for video editing. There may be some HD editing, but not a ton. Most videos will be less than 20 minutes. Primary software will be Adobe Premiere.

Here's what I was planning on getting and then the questions I have - your help is appreciated! Overall budget is under $5k. Obviously the best we can get for that $ that will last, but saving some money (say like getting 750GB HD instead of 1TB, etc) is good too.

Since this is for work, probably best to come from either Dell/HP/etc.

CPU: Core i7 or Xenon? What is the best choice here?
RAM: 8GB - would there be a significant benefit to 12 or even 16?
HD: 1TB RAID 0 - Already have a 1TB external for storage
Video: No idea here.. help!

TIA!

 

[zerogear]

If you go i7, 6GB RAM or 12 GB RAM. What are you planning to do with your video card?

 

[adams828]

Video editing - probably mostly SD video, simple fades/cuts, text overlay, etc.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: adams828
Hello all - hoping for some advice here. I have asked to get a PC at work that would be suitable for video editing. There may be some HD editing, but not a ton. Most videos will be less than 20 minutes. Primary software will be Adobe Premiere.

Here's what I was planning on getting and then the questions I have - your help is appreciated! Overall budget is under $5k. Obviously the best we can get for that $ that will last, but saving some money (say like getting 750GB HD instead of 1TB, etc) is good too.

Since this is for work, probably best to come from either Dell/HP/etc.

CPU: Core i7 or Xenon? What is the best choice here?
RAM: 8GB - would there be a significant benefit to 12 or even 16?
HD: 1TB RAID 0 - Already have a 1TB external for storage
Video: No idea here.. help!

TIA!

With $5k budget you really have no excuse to not have a pretty zippy rig if you target your dollars for hardware/software that removes bottlenecks to your productivity.

I recommend getting an i7. With 8-thread capable processing it doesn't really matter whether Premiere takes advantage of all 8 threads because no doubt you will be loading up multiple runs in parallel (semi-batch) and you will take advantage of that extra processing power.

Also I have no specific video-card recommendations but without a doubt you should be thinking dual-head with minimum dual 24" screens for video editing. You'll use every last square inch of the real-estate.

Extra ram will help, help a lot too, if you set aside 4-6GB as ramdisk and make it your premiere's primary/default cache disk.

Also if DELL gives you the option you should try and get Intel SSD for your OS/app drive. And get a nice areca card with 2GB of cache for your raid arrays.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: adams828
Hello all - hoping for some advice here. I have asked to get a PC at work that would be suitable for video editing. There may be some HD editing, but not a ton. Most videos will be less than 20 minutes. Primary software will be Adobe Premiere.

Here's what I was planning on getting and then the questions I have - your help is appreciated! Overall budget is under $5k. Obviously the best we can get for that $ that will last, but saving some money (say like getting 750GB HD instead of 1TB, etc) is good too.

Since this is for work, probably best to come from either Dell/HP/etc.

CPU: Core i7 or Xenon? What is the best choice here?
RAM: 8GB - would there be a significant benefit to 12 or even 16?
HD: 1TB RAID 0 - Already have a 1TB external for storage
Video: No idea here.. help!

TIA!

For the money your folks are willing to spend an 8-core Apple Mac Pro with Final Cut is the way to go. This is 'pro' stuff - or 'prosumer' at a minimum. If you are sticking with Premiere and 'PC' for your projected work flow any basic quad-core from Intel or AMD will suffice. DivX encoders seem to favor Intel and MainConcept encoders seem to favor AMD (even if Intel now splashes their logo on their website).

The greater your understanding of the input/output parameters the better you will be able to design your hardware/software requirements. SD pretty much operates on a 'smart render' so that only your transitions and overlays are processed - this is not overly demanding on your hardware and will be a quick process. It's the 'conversion' process (h.264, etc.) where the hardware really earns it keep.

Do your homework. DivX works great but once you encode your source file you are stuck and can only encode into other DivX formats (no Mpeg-1/2, h.264/AVC etc.). 'Serious' codec plug-ins will cost $400-$500. A new Premiere package is in the $700-$800 range (thank goodness I'm on the 'upgrade' glide path). It's easy to stub your toe, burn a load of cash and have a ""Doh!"" moment if you don't have a complete understanding of the work flow and how it works within your software and hardware.

WARNING You can drop a wadd on hardware these days and look like an idiot. Premiere CS4 will accelerate certain video encoding 500%+ with an nVidia Quadro workstation graphics card over a CPU. This is where we are now (and no telling where this is going). Spending $3k+ on hardware today when a $400 workstation card with a $100 CPU can seriously kick it's arse may not be so great for your company career.

My advice to you is to do your research and explain this to your bosses - and go cheap with the mobo/cpu/ram if you have to purchase today. Get some fast drives as IDK suggested (maybe Raptors), a big 'storage drive' and wait to see how this shakes out in the next six months.

To give Dorkenstein back his thread --- It really is a fine balance between performance and price for your hardware and software. You can throw a lot of cash around and not get where you need to go. Premiere and Vegas don't scale very well beyond 4 cores. Final Cut Pro is the best software to use beyond 4 cores but that is big leap for you most likely.

Depending upon your work parameters spending $1,200 on Premiere CS4 and a Quadro on your current rig may well whip that investment in an i7 platform - and put you on the Premiere $300-$400 upgrade path (I remember when it was a lot cheaper than that).

These are exciting times for us old video geeks :laugh:

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, I only ask because I have dual core right now, and while thats fine for most things, it takes an age to process video. I mean a long time. I looked at DDR3 prices and almost had a stroke. I need to hold off, as much as the temptation is there to spring for an i7.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: adams828
Hello all - hoping for some advice here. I have asked to get a PC at work that would be suitable for video editing. There may be some HD editing, but not a ton. Most videos will be less than 20 minutes. Primary software will be Adobe Premiere.

Here's what I was planning on getting and then the questions I have - your help is appreciated! Overall budget is under $5k. Obviously the best we can get for that $ that will last, but saving some money (say like getting 750GB HD instead of 1TB, etc) is good too.

Since this is for work, probably best to come from either Dell/HP/etc.

CPU: Core i7 or Xenon? What is the best choice here?
RAM: 8GB - would there be a significant benefit to 12 or even 16?
HD: 1TB RAID 0 - Already have a 1TB external for storage
Video: No idea here.. help!

TIA!

....
Also if DELL gives you the option you should try and get Intel SSD for your OS/app drive. And get a nice areca card with 2GB of cache for your raid arrays.

IDK, I think it would be much more wise to purchase more disk space with that money (Raid 6 array possibly). Video editing will eat up every last type of memory you have available, so get lots of ram and hard drive space. I don't really think that the video card is TOO important (IE 2 9600GTs should be plenty) as most editing software that I know of doesn't really use the video card.

The ability to use 8 threads, and loads of ram will be very important to you, so that is where I would spend most of my money, after that, a good monitor, and then the video card.

SSD is a waist IMO because it is at a premium and all you gain from it is slightly faster application loading times, and more reliability. (Video editing works with large files, SSD is about the same, even a bit slower then regular hard drives, and at a premium.)

 

[Arkaign]

Video Editing Box on a budget :

Gigabyte GA-EX58 Extreme ~$330
Core i7 x965 ~$1030
6GB DDR3-1866 Corsair ~$630
OS HDD 2X Raptor 300 Raid ~$460
Data HDD 4X 1TB Sata ~$400
Full Tower Server Case ~$100
1000W PSU ~$100
CuadraCX 1.5GB ~$1800

Add the misc small stuff, and the price is ~$5000, for something that is truly out of the reach of *any* Mac. Don't buy the Mac Pro hype, they're overpriced and under configurable. Try and configure a Mac Pro, you'll have to go with last-gen Core Quad, last gen Memory (DDR2), slow hard drives (unless you go SAS for $$$$), very limited video options (what is there is often 2x the price for the same card for PC), and so on. $5,000 on Mac Pro will be a joke compared to $5,000 on PC.

 

[adams828]

Okay guys thanks for all the info, but now I am confused on one main part: video card

Will it have a significant impact on video editing/rendering/output or no? One person says spend $400 on Quadro, another says $1800?

 

[shempf]

video editing, no.
rendering, depends on what. Video? then, no.

I'd get a AMD 4850 or something around there.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: adams828
Okay guys thanks for all the info, but now I am confused on one main part: video card

Will it have a significant impact on video editing/rendering/output or no? One person says spend $400 on Quadro, another says $1800?

http://www3.pny.com/MarketingP...x.aspx?Category_ID=393

"Faster video encoding: Encode H.264 at lightning-fast speeds with the NVIDIA CUDA? enabled RapiHD plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 developed by Elemental Technologies and exclusive to Quadro CX"