HD Video Editing Rig - Sanity Check Required

Soldato
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Been out the performance hardware market for some time now and am looking to update my current Q6600, 4gb, raptor system as it is creaking really bad when editing HD videos (my main usage). So rather than just doing an oh so lazy spec me thread I've spent the last few hours reading and so far have come up with the following based on what other people on here are recommending:

- i7-2600k: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-358-IN
- Asrock Z68 Extreme4 mobo: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-051-AK

UPDATED:- Crucial Real SSD M4 128gb: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-009-CR&groupid=1657&catid=1660&subcat=1669
UPDATED:- Corsair XMS3 1 x (2x4gb):http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-290-CS

Now my budget is around the £600+- mark for the above parts. Any obvious problems with the above? Could I get better performance for my money?

Regarding other parts I currently have:

- 2 x 23" IPS dell ultrasharp monitors
- GTX 460 1024mb
- Be Quiet 600w psu

I'm hoping the GFX card is sufficient. Would my 600w PSU be adequate for powering the above?
 
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Caporegime
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I would get some new drives 1TB 7200 rpm drives.

These are more important when working with HD than pure CPU power.

Have you overclocked your Q6600? At 3.6ghz and some nice fast drives along with a SSD for OS it would be handle 1080p video editing easy.

Your ordering 16GB ram and yet have poo storage drives? :p

I have a 64GB OS drive a quick 1TB Disk scratch disk and render and edit out to a 2TB Raid 0 Drive ( 2 x 1TB samsung F1)
 
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Soldato
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I would get some new drives 1TB 7200 rpm drives.

These are more important when working with HD than pure CPU power.

Have you overclocked your Q6600? At 3.6ghz and some nice fast drives along with a SSD for OS it would be handle 1080p video editing easy.

Your ordering 16GB ram and yet have poo storage drives? :p

Nah, everything is completely stock. Except for the SSD though I am running what I thought was a fast drive i.e. 10k 150gb raptor (OS) + 7200k everything else :) Not sure I can have SSD on my old Intel 975XBX2 board either.

I did look at overclocking from 2.4ghz to anything above but I've not been very successful. Followed lots of user guides I've found via google and normally once I've tweaked things accordingly my pc is unstable or just won't boot so have always ended up putting it back to stock :(
 
Soldato
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Not if the bottleneck is the drives.


Ah indeed.....I've been watching my raptor max out which is why I need to get some SSD goodness in my life. However my current rig won't support SSD as far as I am aware so need to upgrade the mobo anyway. Once I do that I need to change my ram (currently DDR2) and before you know it I'm into a new build so figured I may as well get the best machine I could for my budget.
 
Caporegime
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Nah, everything is completely stock. Except for the SSD though I am running what I thought was a fast drive i.e. 10k 150gb raptor (OS) + 7200k everything else :) Not sure I can have SSD on my old Intel 975XBX2 board either.

I did look at overclocking from 2.4ghz to anything above but I've not been very successful. Followed lots of user guides I've found via google and normally once I've tweaked things accordingly my pc is unstable or just won't boot so have always ended up putting it back to stock :(

Compared to an SSD the Raptor is very slow...You need a separate OS drive to your Video footage and then a third to render to...This way the video is not being written and read to the same disk at the same time causing slowdowns and issues.

I would swap that mobo out for a P45 and clock it to 3.6 ghz...This can be done in 5 mins...( I know what I'm doing)

Get another 4GB ram and some drives. Save yourself some money..The Q6600 is a fantastic CPU still.
 
Soldato
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Compared to an SSD the Raptor is very slow...You need a separate OS drive to your Video footage and then a third to render to...This way the video is not being written and read to the same disk at the same time causing slowdowns and issues.

I would swap that mobo out for a P45 and clock it to 3.6 ghz...This can be done in 5 mins...( I know what I'm doing)

Get another 4GB ram and some drives. Save yourself some money..The Q6600 is a fantastic CPU still.

Hmmm interesting........gonna have to sleep on this now :o

Thanks for all your advice :)


EDIT: Unless I'm missing something OCUK don't sell a P45......I take it this is an old school mobo that is just renowned for its overclocking abilities?
 
Soldato
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Ok, I should probably go bed but I've been dabbling and have just rigged up a 2nd 15gb raptor that I have making that 3 drives in use in total as suggested above:

raptop 1 = OS
raptor 2 = storage
Seagate 250gb = rendering

This has since improved the hard drive performance (thanks :)) and now my CPU is the thing maxing out.

While I am tempted to try the p45 route as suggested above to buy 8gb of ram + the mobo is half way to an i7 setup which should last me a whole lot longer.

So going back to the i7 route, is there anything better I can get for my money other than what I listed above? Is 16gb ram overkill for what I'm doing?
 
Caporegime
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Ok, I should probably go bed but I've been dabbling and have just rigged up a 2nd 15gb raptor that I have making that 3 drives in use in total as suggested above:

raptop 1 = OS
raptor 2 = storage
Seagate 250gb = rendering

This has since improved the hard drive performance (thanks :)) and now my CPU is the thing maxing out.

While I am tempted to try the p45 route as suggested above to buy 8gb of ram + the mobo is half way to an i7 setup which should last me a whole lot longer.

So going back to the i7 route, is there anything better I can get for my money other than what I listed above? Is 16gb ram overkill for what I'm doing?

YOu don't need 16GB ram really....what software are you using?

When rendering 100% cpu is good...Whats it doing on the timeline?

Upgrade's are nice but they have to be wow IMO. many are running Q6600's and waiting for Ivybridge and has this feature VVVVVVVVV

"Tri-gate or 3-D are terms used by Intel Corporation to describe their nonplanar transistor architecture planned for use in future microprocessors. These transistors employ a single gate stacked on top of two vertical gates allowing for essentially three times the surface area for electrons to travel. Intel reports that their tri-gate transistors reduce leakage and consume far less power than current transistors. This allows up to 37% higher speed, and a power consumption at under 50% of the previous type of transistors used by Intel."

sexy
 
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Soldato
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YOu don't need 16GB ram really....what software are you using?

When rendering 100% cpu is good...Whats it doing on the timeline?

Upgrade's are nice but they have to be wow IMO. many are running Q6600's and waiting for Ivybridge and has this feature VVVVVVVVV

"Tri-gate or 3-D are terms used by Intel Corporation to describe their nonplanar transistor architecture planned for use in future microprocessors. These transistors employ a single gate stacked on top of two vertical gates allowing for essentially three times the surface area for electrons to travel. Intel reports that their tri-gate transistors reduce leakage and consume far less power than current transistors. This allows up to 37% higher speed, and a power consumption at under 50% of the previous type of transistors used by Intel."

sexy

Using Pinnacle Studio as it is the only decent app I've found that lets me edit AVCHD files. Even Final Cut Pro on my mac wouldn’t play ball with them. So 16gb ram is overkill then you think? Any particular reason for this? Is it likely to be sat there not being used?

Oh and as for what the CPU is doing on the timeline it bounces between 85-100% but mostly sits at 95-100%.

As for upgrades most people I know who went from a Q6600 to an i7 did go wow. Apparently rendering times are way better with an i7 so thinking it is the way forward rather than spending half my budget on old tech (appreciate your input nonetheless though :))

Finally you mention waiting for Ivybridge....I have one word for you......"impatience". It's being impatient that's got me in this predicament :D
 
Caporegime
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You load AVCHD files into it.

Process them without loss of quality

You can them edit them and your cpu usuage on the timeline will drop 60%

Don't blame the hardware...Blame the software and lack of true AVCHD codec support
 
Soldato
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You load AVCHD files into it.

Process them without loss of quality

You can them edit them and your cpu usuage on the timeline will drop 60%

Don't blame the hardware...Blame the software and lack of true AVCHD codec support

Ok, been reading about it....once processed can I still then just edit it in pinnacle/FCP etc?
 
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