Adobe Community: New PC for Adobe CS6

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New PC for Adobe CS6

Jun 9, 2012 7:45 PM

Tags: #hardware #creative #cs6 #cloud

OK, I know I have not been around in a long time, but I need some help. I have read a tremendous amount of online material regarding the components I want for a new editing PC to use with the Creative Cloud.

Rather than clog up the forums, I put up a page with the specs I am looking at, set up an email address for suggestions and an email address for integrators to use if they want to quote it. I want to pull the trigger on Friday June 15th.

I would really appreciate it if some of you would take a look and let me know what you think. I am OK with what I listed on the page, but I want you all to poke holes in it if I have made a mistake.

I would also appreciate some quotes. Either for the system as shown, or one that is along the same lines using your own suggestions.

If you think your suggestions warrant everyone seeing them, please feel free to put them here.

And yes, I really do plan on cleaning up my web site and bringing it current.

Thanks,

Steven Gotz

http://www.stevengotz.com/New_PC_for_CS6.htm

6826 Views 61 Replies Latest reply: matthew_cotter, Jul 18, 2012 9:34 PM

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1. iammykyl,

Jun 9, 2012 10:49 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Hi Steven.
I am researching a similar build for a friend but leaning more towards photgraphy 70%, video 30%. Can you leave you link ofr quotes as is, but get suggestons on the forum as there is no way to see how your build developes.

One issue seems to be with the i7 3930K and finding a stable RAM.

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2. Harm Millaard,

Jun 10, 2012 3:55 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Steven,

Welcome back. We missed you and all your valuable input.

Have a look here Comparing G.Skill memory modules.

From this page I derive that your choice of memory may well work. I mean certified on the X79 Asus boards indicates a certain confidence that it will work, which of course with that price it should. I have not yet heard whether there are more people using this type of memory. I know one person uses the Ripjaws Z 1600 modules without any problem, even though the Newegg site does not mention that they are certified, like the 2133 sticks. I would not choose the 2400 sticks because of the 1.65V. I hope Eric can have a look as well and give us his opinion.

Instead of the H80, I would consider the H100 if you opt for watercooling. Given your choice of memory sticks, it makes sense to assume you intend to overclock the system, and then the bigger radiator of the H100 can show its advantage over the H80.

If you intend to edit RED 4K or Epic 5K material somewhere in the future, I would look at a 4 GB GTX 680, not the 2 GB model.

Out of curiosity, why the choice of an Atto card? Atto is one of the best cards there is, but what differentiates Atto from all other cards is their support for Raid4.

I have told you about Planning and Building a new NLE System but at this moment the groundwork has been done and I'm in a holding pattern now, testing my patience. I am waiting for new announcements about an Ivy Bridge-E successor of the SB-E, the Areca ARC-2082iX-24 PCIe-3.0 card, and possibly a 384 bit video card of the 68x generation.

If you have any more questions, you know how to reach me. Good luck with your build.

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3. JEShort01,

Jun 10, 2012 5:46 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Steven,

Power Supply - make sure you specify a brand name or names; 1000w units from different vendors can vary from horrible to excellent

RAM - agree with Harm's suggestion; in general, for the 3930k's memory controller I think that most users are finding they can run 64GB up to 1333 or 1600 MHz (DDR3 2133 may work, but not when you fully populate to 64GB with RAM that you can purchase at this time)

RAID card - the ATTO is a high quality RAID card, however your build plan does not utilize it at all. Either add some more drives (5x2TB with current generation drives and a fast controller should actually perform quite well with "all" files on it) and plan for RAID 5, or dump the controller card all together and make sure your motherboard choice has enough SATA connections, and RAID 0 capabilities to connect all of your drives.

Boot SSD(s) - suggest 120GB or 128GB SSD for you boot drive(s); that should be plenty large enough and will save just about 1/2 the cost of SSDs twice that size

Regards,

Jim

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4. lasvideo,

Jun 10, 2012 11:29 AM in reply to JEShort01

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Hi Steven. I am also in the same position as you. Since I want to be prepared to work with ANY kind of media (from AVCHD to Red / Epic) I opted for the Sandy Bridge EP 2687W system for the extra power to deal with such large files. I just want to be able to deal with whatever life throws at me I also do lots in AE so am going for 64GB ram and the most powerful GPU which will benefit me both in Premiere Pro (CUDA) and AE (new Ray Tracing mode) which is the Nvidia Maximus (Quadro 4000 and Tesla 2075).

Here are the specs for the system I am have Puget Systems build for me. FWIW.

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5. Steven L. Gotz,

Jun 10, 2012 8:14 PM in reply to lasvideo

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I really appreciate the feedback I have gotten so far.

I was thinking that the extra $300 for the faster memory couldn't hurt, and it is what Tony Hale suggested. (http://www.performancepcus.com). I am reasonably certain that his suggestion came from the note on the page Harm linked to that says "Certified on ASUS Intel X79-based motherboards". Tony seems like a careful guy.

However, I was NOT planning on overclocking, mainly because I don't truly understand why people do it (and I have read a bit about it - didn't help). I mean, I get it, but I don't trust it.

I will ask Tony about the H100.

As for RED. Heck, I doubt it. I really do. I am prtty much just editing my HDV and the MP4 from my Smartphone at this point. And by the way, the Samsung Galaxy S2 really has produced some amazing 1920X1080 video. Which, considering how big and bulky my Sony FX-1 HDV camera is, I wonder how much that smartphone video can really do. And as soon as I have a faster PC, I will really put it to work. I would like to try using it for Greenscreen just to see how good it really can be.

I may eventually need to edit more complicated codecs. So I want to be prepared. But RED? I don't know. On the other hand, the 4GB version isn't that much more expensive. I guess I better think about that one too.

About using a smaller capacity SSD. I never really gave it much thought. But when I just looked at my current boot drive, the one with all kinds of crud on it besides the OS and applications, I have not exceeded 100G. However, I may have to bring a lot of temporary files (and the Registry) on to the SSD when I change it out for the one where I am not beta testing. So for less that twice as much, I think I will stick with 256G. Also, when the blasted things start to wear out, they can write to more areas than I am not using, therefore lasting longer.

About the Atto ExpressSAS R608. I just priced it out. Ouch! I had no idea. I hadn't really researched that one. It was a suggestion I threw in there. My mistake. That one will certainly be reconsidered. The motherboard has 4 SATA 6Gb/s drives. So I have to wonder if I even need a controller card. Thanks for that suggestion.

I will update my web page.

Hopefully I will get some quotes on Monday from some additional integrators.

Steven
http://www.stevengotz.com/New_PC_for_CS6.htm

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6. lasvideo,

Jun 10, 2012 8:31 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Steven it seems our needs for projects are different.

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7. iammykyl,

Jun 10, 2012 9:32 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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My needs are different as well so, while keeping an eye on this thread, I will start my own.

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8. Steven L. Gotz,

Jun 11, 2012 8:35 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Oh crud. Now I am thoroughly confused.

Someone please explain the deal with the 3Gb/s vs 6Gb/s when it comes to RAID controllers (or point me to where I can learn more about it please). Also, I was told that I need a controller because the four 2TB drives in two separate RAID0 configurations left me without a port for my SSD.

Then I was told I didn't need a controller by a different integrator. He said that only the SSD really benefitted from the 6Gb/s port. Not the other drives. Does that sound right? I can't figure out how to research this.

Then the memory issue. ADK says that there are memory compatibility issues and they get the OEM RAM from Taiwan. And that the 64G is like $1800 more than the 32G. Yikes! So I had him quote the 32G. Yet the RAM the other integrator chose says that it is compatible.

Oh my poor aching head.

Help?!?!?!?

Steven

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9. lasvideo,

Jun 11, 2012 9:04 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Heres a couple of aspirin. I feel your pain.

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10. ECBowen,

Jun 12, 2012 3:02 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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I did not realize how much confusion explaining the current ram issues was going to create.

Prebuilt - If a system integrator is recommending ram based on your requirements then you want to go with what the integrator recommends. The integrator is assuming the responsibility of support for the entire configuration as you purchase it. If you are buying a system from them then you are already assuming they have tested the ram as they configure it with the specific ram they use. The integrator may be using a default configuration for the bios which uses the base profile from the ram along with the base speed. If that is 1066 or 1333 then it will likely work with most modules on the X79. If the integrator is loading the extreme profile with speeds of 1600 or greater then you are assuming they have tested and are willing to support that configuration. The support staff is going to be familiar with the hardware they recommend and would best be able to support you with that hardware. So if that integrator recommends 8GB sticks for their system then I recommend you go with their recommendation.

DIY - The memory compatibility information and likely pitfalls we posted about were mainly for the DIY editors. Since we have a much larger scope of hardware tested, we can give pre-emptive warnings to those who DIY so they know what is working and what is not. We are simply stating this is what works 100% and this is what you are rolling the dice with and why. If you decide to buy ram that does not work at 1600 and you cannot return it then there is a very good chance you can get it to work at 1066 or 1333 depending on what the base profile is set to. The key though is making sure the OS is installed without memory corruption. So if you find issues with the ram at 1600 or higher then you may have to re-install the OS. You can also install the OS at base profile after memtesting the ram and then enable the XMP profile for the higher speed after when you can test from the OS. However if people are not aware of what to look for then they can spend a ridiculous amount of time just isolating the problem before the fix is even in place. That was the reason for the information for the DIY.

I hope that helps clarify and ease the confusion.

Eric
ADK

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11. Steven L. Gotz,

Jun 12, 2012 9:35 PM in reply to ECBowen

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OK. I give up. I admit that I should have just taken the advice I got when I first started this journey. I am going to have Eric build my new PC.

I just sent him an email to help nail down the final configuration. When he finishes it, I will post it.

Just to make sure, I asked him in the email if he would have done anything different. Did I ask the right questions? Did I miss anything? At about the same price range, of course. We'll see what he says.

Oh, and I am going to have him overclock it a little. Apparently they do a LOT of that. Who am I to argue?

I probably subjected myself to a lot of needless pain. Oh well. Live and learn. I really feel bad about the other two integrators who spent time helping me with advice and quotes. I pretty much decided it tonight in a hotel room in Broken Arrow OK (I am here for some job related training) after I read about the 50th post on this forum written by Eric.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Some I took, others I didn't. But I considered them all.

I learned to edit video from the people on the Adobe forums. I had only been editing vacation videos a few weeks using inferior products when I downloaded a trial of Adobe Premiere 6.0 back in 2002. Thanks to the folks around here, I got the gig doing the Premiere Pro 1.5 tutorials for Lynda.com in 2004 and around the same time got a contributing writer credit for a Premiere Pro 1.5 book that required more than 1000 screen shots and caused me to nearly tear all my hair out. I have been away a long time, but hopefully I can pay back the help I have received by helping other people again.

You will see me around more. I promise. And http://www.stevengotz.com will once again be a popular place for video editors. Give it some time.

Thanks again,

Steven

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12. Jeff Bellune,

Jun 13, 2012 5:24 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Nice to have you back, Steven.

Most of the old gang is gone, but Ann Bens is still here, as well as John T. Smith.

I'm glad you've got the time and means to start playing with this stuff again.

Jeff

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13. John T Smith,

Jun 13, 2012 8:42 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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>lot of temporary files (and the Registry) on to the SSD

I don't use SSD (built my CS5 computer about 2.5 years ago) but I do spread the file load over 3 drives

Including having the Windows swap/page file on non-boot drive AND telling PPro to use non-boot drive for temp files

Drive C space http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1007934?tstart=0 for PPro temp file location... which I set to my project drive

I found instructions for moving swap/page file at http://search.microsoft.com/search.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US - if you don't already know how

I use about 60Gig on my boot drive for Win7 + CS5 MC + MS Office + other small programs + the usual My Documents folder

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14. Steven L. Gotz,

Jun 13, 2012 7:36 PM in reply to John T Smith

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I made my decision. I am buying my PC from ADK in Kentucky. http://www.adkvideoediting.com/

Eric was just so helpful with his explanations, even through a lot of changes. I wanted someone to challenge my assumptions and he seemed happy to do that. The fact that he is on the Adobe Forums so prominently really made a difference. I used to be a fixture here. This is where I got my start. I have to say I got a lot of help refining my thoughts on this from two other integrators and people on this forum as well.

Anyway, here it is. This is what we came up with. It just so happens, that after everything is said and done, it came to only USD $79.00 over my original budget. Pretty remarkable. Yes, I took a few shortcuts. I settled on 32G of RAM. And I settled on the ever so slightly less powerful GTX670 instead of the GTX680. The “bang for the buck” on the GTX670 was just too good to pass up. I also gave up my second optical drive. It would have required another SATA port and it really was just there because my last system had one. I have only used it a few times over the last few years and I can do without it.

I got rid of the card reader also. If I need one, I can get a USB version. It was also just something I threw in there – just in case.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! I am going to have Eric overclock it after all! Hey, he supports them after the sale, and he basically said it is almost silly not to do it with the parts I am using. The reduction in price due to the change of the GTX680 for the GTX670 more than made up for the charge to overclock the system. I can live with that.

I was told when I first started all of this research that I should contact Eric. I rather wish I had. And just let him help me get to where I am now without quite so much tedious research and tearing out of what little hair I have left. Oh, well. Live and learn.

Quite a bit of thanks goes out to Bill Gehrke and Harm Millaard. By the way, neither of those names is particularly easy to spell without looking them up. ;-) Those two guys have been at this a long time. Heck, Harm beat me to joining the Adobe forums by a whole 13 days back in 2002!

I can’t wait to get this system humming and I look forward to running the CS6 version of the benchmark test at http://ppbm5.com/ - It doesn’t look like the CS6 version is ready for us to use it yet, but I did a little poking around and it looks like those two might be pretty close to getting it ready. Hopefully by the time I get my system.

I did not include the price here, because such things change quickly, I imagine, and I don’t want to put Eric on the spot. But you can use their online configuration tool and get pretty close if you are curious. They don’t exactly have this configuration on their site. But I am sure if you called and asked for the Steven Gotz special, they would help you out. But by the time I have it in my possession and get it benchmarked, something new and better and faster will be available. That is inevitable. It is probably a lot easier just to tell Eric what you want to do, and let him advise you as to the best way to do it.

I am on the road for business and the company laptop won't let me FTP. So I can't post this on my web site. That will have to wait until this weekend.

Case	ADK - ADK Tower: (8) 3.5" bays 6 are removable, (4) 5.25 Bays Firewire/USB2 in fr
Power Supply	Top Power - Striker 850 - 850W, up to 94% efficiency, 5 year Warranty
Motherboard	ADK - Core i7 SB-E, 4 PCIex16, 2 PCIe, up to 64Gig ram no firewire.
Processor	Intel - 6 Core i7 overclocked 4.5GHz or better with HT 12meg cache
Cooling	Intel - Intel Liquid cooler self contained unit (quiet)
Cooling 2	ADK - ADK Quiet Case fans (2) 8DB Noctua
Memory	32Gig (8x4gig)DDR3 1600 Low Voltage
Hard Drive 1	Intel - 240G 520 Series SSD: 550MB read/520 write (Boot Drive only. No data storage. No "My Documents" to wear it out)
Hard Drive 2	Western Digital - 4000G raid 0 or 1 (2x 2 TB 64Meg Cache - Sata 6Gb/s) (Media)
Hard Drive 3	Western Digital - 4000G raid 0 or 1 (2x 2 TB 64Meg Cache - Sata 6Gb/s) (Temporary files, cache, renders, etc)
Hard Drive 4	Western Digital - 2TB Black 7200rpm Sata 600 64Meg Cache WD2002FAEX (Finished products and maybe the Windows Registry?)
Hard Drive 5	Intel - 240G 520 Series SSD: 550MB read/520 write (Duplicate boot drive - all clean and nice without beta testing software)
Video	GeForce GTX 670 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Lifetime warranty.
CD/CD-RW/DVD	Asus - BW-12B1ST Internal Blu-ray Writer
NIC	Included wired not wireless
Firewire	SIIG - Firewire 2-port PCIe card. Firewire 1394a (I still shoot HDV with a Sony FX-1 when not just using my cell phone.)
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 7 Pro 64 bit OEM
Other Software	Paragon Backup & Recovery 11 Suite with ADK recovery DVD.
Keyboards	Logitech - Cordless Desktop Optical: Cordless Internet KB and Cordless Optical Mouse.
Warranty	2 year parts and labor, onsite pickup, Lifetime tech support.

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15. John T Smith,

Jun 13, 2012 8:56 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Looks great... with that, you'll be ready to film-edit-produce the next generation of Star Wars "like" movies!

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16. lasvideo,

Jun 14, 2012 6:19 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Congrats. Looks like Eric has set you up with a fine machine!

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17. Jerry Klaimon,

Jun 14, 2012 9:11 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Looks like an excellent system, Steven, and it's good to have you back in the forums.

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18. Steven L. Gotz,

Jun 15, 2012 5:36 AM in reply to Jerry Klaimon

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Thanks guys.

We finalized all of the little details, I parted with more money than two brand new Volkswagen Bugs would have sold for back when I first started driving in the late 1960's, (about what I paid for my last system), and I should have the new system in about three weeks.

They have to get the parts, put them together, burn them in, fully test them together, load the entire Adobe software collection, and then I have to wait for FedEX to get it to me. Sigh! In this era of instant gratification, it is tough to wait for anything, you know?

In the meantime, I am going to start watching training videos and reading forums. I have a LOT of catching up to do.

Also, I am going to pretty much delete 90% of the old links on my web site and start over. I will concentrate on making sure that I collect links to as many of the best music sites, template sites, video sites and tutorial sites as possible. I used to get around 40,000 hits every month. It would be fun to get back to that. Maybe I can get some original content from old friends like Tim Kolb. I'll bet that I can get some AE templates from all around the world if I run the right contest. We'll see.

It is time to get rid of my HDV page, I think. But I will be looking into Cineform, to see if they are still relevant to my video editing experience. When I first got my Sony FX-1, Cineform was the only way to edit the HDV video. Heck, Adobe used Cineform before they started editing HDV natively. Also, I have a lot of Cineform captures on hard drives stacked on shelves in the closet.

So, thanks again for all of the assistance, and for the well wishes.

Steven

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19. hesseli,

Jun 19, 2012 4:34 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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I would recommend looking into Acronis TrueImage for system and file backups.

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20. John T Smith,

Jun 19, 2012 8:30 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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The product I use for full drive backup/restore is at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-linux.htm
.
Image runs off of a bootable CD via Linux (the Zip you download includes a program to make the bootable CD) and it reads EVERYTHING on the drive, even the hidden registration information, so everything is restored when needed... and you may restore the image to a brand new drive in case of a crash, and not have to re-install anything

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21. Bill Gehrke,

Jun 19, 2012 8:46 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Steve,

Thanks and I expect to see some great PPBM scores from this wonderful system! Wish I could join the x79 club. Maybe I will have to sell my i7-3770K that I have posted a PPBM5 score with CS6.

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22. klfi,

Jun 21, 2012 5:49 AM in reply to hesseli

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Acronis, attention:

till (15.6.2012) i updated my NLE i was running;
ASUS P6T WS (socket 1366), i7960, C:/ SSD Vertrex 3
i was able to clone 1:1 C-drive operationg System with ACONIS 2010 without any problems. the clone was running perfect.

After having updated to
ASUS P9X WS (socket 2011), i73930k, C:/SSD Vertex 3
it was not able to clone with ACONIS 2010.
I updated to ACONIS 2012 and cloning also was not possible.

the clone problem i still could not solve

klfi

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23. Harm Millaard,

Jun 21, 2012 5:59 AM in reply to klfi

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Thanks for reporting that, Klaus. Makes me wonder if John has better luck with his Linux solution.

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24. hesseli,

Jun 21, 2012 6:09 AM in reply to klfi

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Do you have the addon pack for Acronis 2012?
That might be the reason. Addon pack has ability to install the backup to a new pc.

BTW I was looking a new motherboard and got interested on Asus P9X79 WS. Is yours that too and are you happy?

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25. klfi,

Jun 21, 2012 11:39 AM in reply to hesseli

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ASUS P6T WS
Acronis 2010 worked in clone modus perfect.

ASUS P9X WS
Acronis 2012 + addon package ist installed on my system and does not work in clone modus. I dont have any idea why.
Is it ASUS or is it Acronis ??
Acronis 2012 works fin in normal backup and restore modus, but this is not interesting for me. I want a 1:1 clone of C./drive. This is in my opinion the easiest way to secure C-drive. In emergy case put the old drive (SSD Vertrex 3) out und the clone (cheep HDD 320 GB 7200) inside. Sytem runns again. Then clone HDD 320 back to SSD Vertrex 3.....and you will be happy in minutes

ASUS P9X WS experience.
Very good, I would by it again. Everything you need is there.
I run 64 GB RAM, 2x Nvidia 570, 1x Areca 1680i (12 connections), 1x Blackmagic multibride card..... and there is still one free slot to use in future.
Installation is easy, ASUS OC tool helps to OC my 3930K for first experiances. At the moment i run 4,3 GH. max themperature +/- 75, Coolmaster watercooling H (?) 100.

But - only my personal oppinion. I dont like this Marvel- stuff. For me its too difficult to handle via bios and is f__ to handl.
Follow Harms general recommendation, go ahea to areca+BPM, a little bit expensive to get, but worth the money. Easy to install (even if you are unexperiance like i), easy to setup multiple Raid and Volumes. also multiple pass throu is possible, Easy to expand or change raid.. I run 1x Raid 0 7TB + 1x Raid3 3TB + 2x pass throu. All this since 2,5 years, not one problem.
I for myself would by it again.
Feel free to ask.

Klaus klfi

Message was edited by: klfi sorry not coolmaster but corsair

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26. hesseli,

Jun 21, 2012 9:23 PM in reply to klfi

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I'm not sure but if i understood correctly it should work so that you take a full backup of c:\ drive and boot from acronis bootdvd in case of c:\ drive crash. The restoring with that transfer option. You should contact Acronis about your cloning problem.

Thanks for the info.

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27. klfi,

Jun 22, 2012 5:41 AM in reply to hesseli

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no you missunderstood. your workflow works, but its not the elegant way-in my opinion
My wokflow:
1. open acronis and go to clone (not to backup)
2. say acronis to clone C:/ to drive X./ (for example)
3. NLE shuts down and makes 1:1 copy of C./. (means X;/ drive is a 1:1 bootable drive of C:/)
4. i secure X:/ outside my NLE
5, when C./ does not work, i put out C./ and put in X:/ (X:/ runns 100% same as C:/)......no restorage with acronis is necessary.
you have to change in Bios boot from X:/.

In other words i have 2 C:/ dirves with same status (one is original C:/, one is 100% clone and called X:/)

in earlier workflows i had problems with workflow you described. i did backup C:/ but later restore did not work properly.

Klaus klfi

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28. Steven L. Gotz,

Jun 23, 2012 3:34 PM in reply to klfi

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I appreciate the advice on backup software.

Since Eric recommends the Paragon Suite, I figure I will go with that. I will test it using the extra SSD I bought, just to make sure, but my guess is that ADK wouldn't use it unless it had been thoroughly tested.

If I have any issues with it, I will download the Acronis.

It has been about a third of the time that I have to wait for my system. It is probably a good thing I don't have it yet. It is giving me time to look at a bunch of tutorials and articles about CS6. If I had the system, I would probably just dig right in. Better to educate myself a little first.

-- Steven

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29. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 3, 2012 10:38 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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I spoke with Eric today. My PC is in testing. I should have it early next week.

He just wanted to make sure I wasn't planning on using the second SSD for anything other than a copyt of my boot drive. I know it sounds a little nuts, but I have always wanted a perfectly clean copy of a boot drive I could revert to after beta testing or trying out lots of different software.

I have watched a LOT of tutorials and still have many, many hours of training to take. Plus, I have been researching other software I might need. Like Cineform. I have a LOT of old footage I captured to their codec.

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30. Bill Gehrke,

Jul 4, 2012 7:37 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Steven L. Gotz wrote:

I spoke with Eric today. My PC is in testing. I should have it early next week.

He just wanted to make sure I wasn't planning on using the second SSD for anything other than a copyt of my boot drive. I know it sounds a little nuts, but I have always wanted a perfectly clean copy of a boot drive I could revert to after beta testing or trying out lots of different software.
Steven, your progress is great and your configuration is very logical. I must tell you that I have at least 3 or 4 boot drives that have been used as we transition between versions and for instance, proving that with PPBM there is no performance difference between SSD and hard drive for boot drive usage.

It has happened so often that I have my boot drives on removable "mobile" mounts. For instance if we ever have to consider Windows 8 (heaven forbid) that will mean cleaning up one of the older Win 7 boot drives and loading Win 8 on it. Then with just normal boot-up time I can have it almost instantaneously back to Win 7. That would then be accomplished faster on the SSD's

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31. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 4, 2012 9:13 AM in reply to Bill Gehrke

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My research indicates that programs load a lot faster off of a SSD. And that is what I am really after. I really don't want to wait a long time for Premiere Pro and After Effects and Photoshop to all load so I can get started. And since I will have enough RAM to do exactly that, I might just decide to have those three open every time I turn on the PC. It depends. Just how fast is this beast going to be?

Having a spare SSD to use as a clone will allow me to play with Windows 8 when the time comes without worrying. Or if I get back into beta testing, perhaps having a clone will save me hours of reinstalling.

Will the SSD make Premiere Pro any faster? No. Not once it is already loaded. But if I decide to quickly load Dreamweaver, or Illustrator or Encore, it would be nice to not have to go get a cup of coffee while I wait. You know?

My current PC uses a 10K boot drive because I wanted it to load faster than a 7.2K. It got me to the top of the PPBM back when PPBM was using CS3. Right up until a few days later when someone put SCSI drives in their machine and edged me out.

I told Eric that I was hoping to get to the first page of the results again this time. I can't afford to get to the top and probably will never be able to do so. Heck, the ADK folks are building my PC and the number one spot belongs to them. But the first page should be fine. Maybe in the top 10 or so for a few days? Maybe?

The combination of the SSD (7 out of the top 10 use SSD), and the GTX670 (should produce better results than 9 out of 10) and 32G of RAM (more than 4 out of 10 and less than the 48G of the top spot) and my clock speed being overclocked to 4.5 or so - not sure yet (faster than only 1 of the 10 - the OC was necessary for sure) and the model of my CPU (more powerful than 4 of the 10) - all of that might get me into the top 10. I am looking forward to finding out.

Obviously it would be silly to buy components just to get into the top 10. But it would be nice to place high just to help verify that I made the right choices along the way, partially using "biggest bang for the buck" as a guideline. I was after speed. I am getting too old to wait for programs to load or timelines to render. Not to mention that when I finish a project, I don't want to wait forever to put it where others can see it.

I am in the middle of trying to clean up my web site so that it becomes relevant to CS6 users. It is really funny to see which links are still alive and which are not. But I saw today that I have a link to an article on how to get Premiere Pro to use more than 2G of RAM using the /3GB switch! Can you imagine?

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32. lasvideo,

Jul 4, 2012 10:10 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Sounds like exciting times Stephen!

I am also waiting on the delivery of my new edit system...the HP Z820. I went for the dual CPU approach due to the nature of my work flow.

I was initally considering several vendors to build a system (ADK - Eric is a master and a very nice guy, Puget Systems - Very classy operation) but something happened last week with my current Mac Pro that changed my perspective.

The other day I had a bad experience with the PSU on my Mac Pro that has really made me sit down and think. It started acting weird in the middle of an edit session, but at that point I didn't know what it was. I had to call Apple for $60 for them to try to interpret my symptoms. The next day , after figuring out the problem, I had to start running around looking for an Apple store to drag the machine to. And they had to have the part in stock. Then I had to wait a few days until they fixed it!

What this made me realize is I need a situation where repair folks familiar with my machine will come to me in a timely fashion. They need to know the machine and be able to swop out parts. I can't be sending the machine out for repairs. This requirement changed my original plans of getting a custom machine.The HP Z820 is widely used in professional circles and has 24 hour repair service that will come to my house to fix whatever ails it.

In deadline situations with nervous clients on your back, this kind of service reeally gives me peace of mind.

I look forward to hearing more about your new system!

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33. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 4, 2012 11:01 AM in reply to lasvideo

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I thought long and hard about that. However, I decided that in the vast majority of cases, if something goes wrong, it will most likely be something that Eric (or the support guys at ADK) and I can diagnose over the phone, and then they can get me the appropriate replacement part. I doubt I will need to send it in.

On the other hand, if I do need to send it in, I can be assured that the people working on it will be the most competent to do so.

It was something that really bugged me until I remembered that I had a guy in New Jersey build my current PC. I was living in Florida at the time and went to New Jersey to work with Aanarav Sareen on a project (that didn't pan out, unfortunately). I have never had to send this back in. I did have to replace a power supply after a couple of years, but fortunately I was able to do that without any problems.

I do understand how a professional comes to rely on his machine for his bread and butter though.

The HP Z820 can be a pretty powerful machine when properly configured. Out of my price range though. At least configured with the graphics, memory and drives I chose. Congratulations on getting one. I can only imagine having 16 memory slots and 16 cores. I would feel compelled to fill up the slots and I really can't afford to. So it would just depress me, I think.

Which processor, at which speed, with which memory (and how much memory) did you chose. And what hard drive configuration?

Please run the test at http://ppbm5.com when you get the system set up the way you will be using it. I would like to see how it compares to the other beasts out there.

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34. lasvideo,

Jul 4, 2012 1:33 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Actually its in one of my many dialogs with Eric that I learned that to much memory can be counter productive. So I ONLY populated the system with 64GB, more than enough for my PrP and AE needs, at the moment.
I go the Sandy Bridge EP 2687 3.1 dual CPUs. After 30 years at facilities Im on my own and need power to cover all the possibilities of media (H.264 to Red).

I went with the external Caldigit HD Pro2 system at 16TB. It gave me lots of R/W speed and storage.

I should get the machine in the next week. The one thing I find very cool is the HP Performance Advisor. Not only does it display system info for troubleshooting when necessary. It allows you to customize the bios to the software you are using. This was developed by HP, Adobe, Nvidia and other vendors to allow users to configure the system in the most optimal fashion, depending on what software they were using at the moment.

I will keep you posted on my experience.

After thought.. the PPBM is a very interesting way to gauge system performance, but there is a catch.

It reminds me of a car rally. Bigger engines, super fuel and monster tires. Yes those computers go from 0-60 in a very fast fashion. I see my edit system as a big truck, able to do heavy lifting and reliable for the long haul, with damn good speed on the highway

As a long time editor in touch with lots of other folks working at facilities and now some on their own, I dont know hardly any editors that overclock their systems.

I know that is where a lot of the systems on the PPBM that get their great results from , but it doesnt seem to reflect my real world expereince of 7 days a week / 12 hours a day use. It obviously works for many folks to overclock, but every facility engineer I know is not in favor of that procedure. That is another reason I went with what I did.

I understand there are lots of different niches of editors here, with different work flows. And I say do what ever works for you. But I personally will not overclock a system. Each to their own

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35. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 4, 2012 1:36 PM in reply to lasvideo

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I understand completely about the overclocking. I never trusted it. I didn't really understand all of the ramifications of overclocking.

However, I am going with Eric's recommendation. He said that about half of their systems go out that way and based on the other components I chose, it was a reasonably logical choice. So what the heck? I will give it a shot.

Basically, as I said, I want blindingly fast speed. As fast as I can get. I hate waiting for programs to load, timelines to render and I really hate waiting for encoding to different codecs for YouTube and DVD. The overclocking is less expensive than buying more cores.

We'll see what happens, I suppose.

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36. lasvideo,

Jul 4, 2012 1:38 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Im sure it will be great!

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37. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 10, 2012 6:47 AM in reply to lasvideo

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FedEX will be delivering my new PC today.

I just wish I could take the day off to play with it. Heck, the week - or the month!!!!!

It is going to take many hours to transfer all of my data, add the programs I use regularly (many I will have to buy again to get current) and generally just get it ready to use. I haven't really figured out how I am going to do that exactly. Hopefully the Microsoft tools designed for transferring data will actually be useful.

It will be both a pain in the neck and an exciting experience. I can't wait to compare my machine to the others out there by way of http://www.PPBM5.com

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38. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 10, 2012 11:12 PM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Holy Moley this thing boots up FAST!!!!!

I have clocked it from hitting the power button to having all icons on screen and even my virus program loaded - at just under 60 seconds.

And quiet? It barely purrs.

Oh, this is going to be fun!!!

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39. Steven L. Gotz,

Jul 11, 2012 7:52 AM in reply to Steven L. Gotz

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Well, it didn't do as well on the PPBM5 test as I had hoped. I think that if I calculated it correctly, I will come out about number 21 or 22. (It takes a while for the results to show up.) Not bad, but perhaps there are CS6 issues involved. Or because the GPU isn't approved by Adobe yet. It looks like the MPEG-DVD test is the Achilles heel. I guess I will have to wait for Bill or Harm to post my results.

I look forward to seeing the CS6 version of the test. Of course, by then, many people will have faster PCs. It only takes a couple of weeks for a PC to become obsolete. Right?

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