VideoGuys DIY Cor i7 - 8 core article

[HankCastello]

Thinking of building a new video editing PC?

Check this out -

http://www.webvideoguys.com/newwebsite03-09/DIY7.html

[osbornes5]

That 920 i7 is really the way to go for a chip. Good price awesome speed in Premiere. It's my next chip and maybe soon.

[Superfly]

I think I just bought this for $1200.....  including 24" monitor.  Step back SLICED BREAD!

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11466104&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US&s=1

No monitor $999
Monitor + Office $1299.  free shipping.

2am finishing a project/experiment.  Again, maybe this will help someone one day, you never know?

Just rendered a simple 2 camera 1 hour 37 minute shoot with minimal cuts and FX to DV AVI in under one hour.  **All 8 Cores running at 60-100%....Memory usage at 4.52 gigs (of 6, soon to be 12).

Pretty sure that's fast?

Todd

PS, I'm absolutely in love with it so far and I am strongly considering buy another as these deals tend to vanish from Costco once the run is up......

Best,

Todd

[Superfly]

Thanks Hank,

I was waiting for 8.0 for a long time and finally gave up.....this makes me feel good about my new system.

What do you guys think about this RAID system they are always pushing?  I've heard that a 1TB Esata drive should handle HDV just fine but if that's not the case I should start looking into RAIDS.

I currently run the C: drive from the Dell 650gig....programs only....plus 2 external SATA drives and 3 300 gig USB drives.

PS, if you don't need the monitor he i7 Costco Dell can be had for $999.....these are much cheaper than if you get them from Dell.....Dell is typically the most expensive place to buy a Dell.

I can tell you that CS4 was rocking all 8 cores last night when I rendered a 2 hour project....it still took about 3 hours (DV) but it was VERY elaborate with 3 video tracks and 6 audio and more cuts and FX than a Yang Lee movie.

I'm not completely floored yet but I am extremely impressed so far.  VERY HAPPY SO FAR....HUGE PERFORMANCE JUMP.  We think of rendering as passive time but how valuable is it to render VIDEO and finish a DVD in a night and start a render for the next day?

Also, so far the HANNS G monitor is spectacular although I have to turn the brightness down to about 20% because it's supposed to double as a TV.  VGA and HDMI inputs only but the give you a cable that turns the new digital block monitor connectors into HDMI.  Very cool man.  Now I am REALLY seeing rendering issues on a 28" monitor.

Best,

Todd

[HankCastello]

I'm using Hanns-G monitors too.  No problems in about eight months of use, so far.

I thought eSata was for external drives?  I've got two machines supposively eSata capable, but haven't gotten it working.  I lost patience and switched to USB cabling.  If it works for you, it should be plenty fast enough.

I had a RAID system when I first setup my system.  Had a drive failure and other issues.  Finally redid the system as JBOD, got twice the storage and never looked back.  I use automated backup software for my current projects.

[Superfly]

Hi Hank,

So far so great.

On both computers I found that with eSata:
1.  I could not get my external Antec enclosure to work.
2.  I could get the Simpletek 1tb Pro drive (nice little device for $200ish...I think it turns off the drive when your computer turns off which is nice) to work but only AFTER I used the drive as a USB for a bit.   ??

Pretty sure it's a Vista but working now.  It will become more reliable with updates I'm sure....we're not the only ones after googling it.

Best,

Todd

[kwshaw1]

What do you guys think about this RAID system they are always pushing?  I've heard that a 1TB Esata drive should handle HDV just fine but if that's not the case I should start looking into RAIDS.

RAID setups are unnecessary (and potentially risky) unless you frequently use many video and audio layers simultaneously in a decompressed format. Consider that a single layer of HDV 1080i is only 25 Megabits/second and that's the same as 3.125 Megabytes/second (1 byte = 8 bits), while a single modern hard drive can sustain at least 25-50 Megabytes/sec or several layers of HDV.

I regularly do 2-3 layer HDV edits on my laptop using the Canopus HQ codec, which requires even more drive throughput than HDV, and while this bogs down sometimes it's functional.

[Superfly]

Just added a bare drive dock ....4TB external...firewire now because eSATA likes to disconnect itself from both computers....not quite ready for prime time.

I now have 2TB of internal SATA WD Blacks for a grand total of 7TB.  WOW.

I am backing up entire wedding projects for a year or two in case somebody requests a change....

My wedding video folders are typically around 400gigs when all is said and done...I can store 2-3 per drive so around 33 bucks each to store for a year.
Crazy stuff, eh?

Todd