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CaillinAU
CaillinAU
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First video editing + server use build

Jun 8, 2012 7:04 AM

So I'm in the process of getting myself a new machine that will be used as a general purpose (low use) personal server, but also as a multimedia editing machine (so PPro,AE,PS etc, (also dreamweaver but that shouldn't be too taxing))[CS6 versions]. I don't really care about gaming on it, and I'll be using a sony bravia as the primary screen.

 

I've had at Harm's and ADK's sites and have come up with the following:

 

OS: Win7 Pro 64bit (I'll also be virtualising ubuntu).

 

Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS

CPU: i7 3930K

Cooling: Based on the default ADK build, the intel water system.

Video Card: Either a GTX 670 or a GTX680. I've had a look at reviews and the 670 seems to be able to boost up to similar levels as the 680, but what's the PPro comparison like? I've seen Harm suggest a 4GB GTX670.

RAM: 4x4GB (the P9X79 appears to have 8 ram slots so I can bump up to 8x4 at a later stage if needed).  What about brands? I've seen that it needs to be a lower voltage than normal, and that samsung has been mentioned (http://forums.adobe.com/message/4464921), and newegg talks about ripjaw (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231505)

Optical Drives: Bluray burner. (any preferred brands?)

Storage:

I was thinking of going with a SSD for the system drive (Crucial 256GB M4). From what I can tell, this would mainly help the boot times and the server side of things rather than the media side of things.

For the data drives I was thinking of at least initially, a pair of 2TB HDDs (unraided). Not sure about the brand. Since I'm not using raid I don't need to worry about the spindown issue if I use greens.

PSU: Well, that'd partially depend on the components chosen above. I put it through the eXtreme power supply calculator and got 455W, but that was excluding fans and the water cooler, and assuming green drives.

On that note: Fans. Harm's beast has a lot of them. Of course, I'm not trying to cool a a massive stack of drives.

I may also put a wifi card and a tv tuner in too.

I think that just leaves the case. I don't care about it looking flashy, but I'd prefer something that doesn't have funny wings or handles sticking out of the top, front or side (ala alienware).

So. Over to the professionals.

Suggestions?

1418 Views   12 Replies   Latest reply: CaillinAU, Jul 3, 2012 9:49 AM
 
Replies
  • RjL190365
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    1. RjL190365,
    Jun 8, 2012 7:11 AM   in reply to CaillinAU
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    Guess what? Green drives should be relegated to backups. Worse, most Green drives have slower sequential transfer speeds than their 7200 RPM counterparts (because they have slower spindle speeds), and they have automatic spin-down features that cannot be disabled at all whatsoever (whuch means that if the Windows power settings are set to never spin down the drives, many of the Green drives will spin themselves down after 10 minutes anyway, thus completely ignoring any Windows power management setting to delay the spindown for more than 10 minutes. The spindowns, plus the fact that the Green drives take much too long to spin themselves back up to speed, cause editing performance to be even slower than the lower sequential speed alone would indicate.

     
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  • CaillinAU
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    2. CaillinAU,
    Jun 8, 2012 7:22 AM   in reply to RjL190365
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    Greens are Worse than I thought then.

    Greens are off the list.

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    3. Harm Millaard,
    Jun 8, 2012 7:27 AM   in reply to CaillinAU
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    If the 6xx series shows the same behaviour as the 5xx series (and I have not yet seen 670 benchmark results to confirm or deny this) one can assume that the 670 gives the better BFTB than the 680, just as was the case with the 570 versus the 580.

     

    I just got off the phone with a very helpful chap at Asus Benelux about memory. He is going to take it up with Asus in Taiwan to suggest 8 GB memory sticks when fully populated and the i7-3930K overclocked to 4.6 - 4.8 GHz. I will probably hear from him next week.

     

    While most X79 motherboards do support 64 GB, the official Intel stance is that when fully populated, 32 GB is the maximum. Your Samsung memory will not cause any problem. Eric confirmed that, but of course you are limited to 32 GB max, within the official Intel limits.

     

    I will contact all people who have an i7-3930K with 64 GB to get the details of the memory they use. There are currently 4 people in the benchmark that meet these criteria and let you know what I find out.

     

    Green disks are ill advised, since the spin-down still happens, only on a disk by disk basis. Yesterday I added some considerations about the disk choice, Seagate, WD or Hitachi to the Disks panel here: Planning and building a new NLE system

     
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  • ECBowen
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    4. ECBowen,
    Jun 8, 2012 8:30 AM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    If you don't mind 8GB 1333 sticks then the compatible options open up. It's the 1600 and higher ram sticks that are far more problematic.

     

    Eric

    ADK

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    5. Harm Millaard,
    Jun 8, 2012 8:41 AM   in reply to ECBowen
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    The first reply I got back from people with an i7-3930K was the following:

     

    I am using [ RipjawsZ ] F3-12800CL10Q2-64GBZL (8Gx8), It worked right out of the box but when overclocking the cpu I have to up the DDR ram voltage slightly.

    But since I am on “OCD” tweeker I have tried  DDR 2133 16GB and DDR3 2400 16GB to get every bit of performance out of my system with no luck.  I have spent weeks in forums with ASRock & Gskill forums & tech support with no success.  I have also looked at other motherboard manufacturers SLM memory compatibility lists and noticed the same thing 8 x 8 sticks of ram will only be supported with either DDR3-1333 or 1600 ram on x79 systems.

     

    This seems to confirm your remark Eric, although at 1600 it works, but not at higher speeds. Still awaiting other replies.

     
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  • ECBowen
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    6. ECBowen,
    Jun 8, 2012 8:48 AM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Running the sticks at 1600 really comes down to timings and modules. The modules rated for 2133 are often the ones used for low voltage ram. I am not surprised if some run at 1600 as long as the timings are tatoo'ed correctly for the density and speed.

     

    Eric

    ADK

     
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  • CaillinAU
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    7. CaillinAU,
    Jun 8, 2012 8:17 PM   in reply to ECBowen
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    What is the practical difference between 1333, 1600 and 2133? Given a set system and set "task", would the one be a certain percentage faster consistently?

     
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  • CaillinAU
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    8. CaillinAU,
    Jun 8, 2012 8:29 PM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Harm Millaard wrote:

     

    If the 6xx series shows the same behaviour as the 5xx series (and I have not yet seen 670 benchmark results to confirm or deny this) one can assume that the 670 gives the better BFTB than the 680, just as was the case with the 570 versus the 580.

     

    I looked at http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html and it seems to have a similar score for 80% of the price

    I then looked at Tom's hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-review,3200-15.htm l they seem to have the 670 at about 5% less performance wise than the 680 (despite only having 88% of the cuda core count), and the prices have it at 80% of the price.

    Based on those sample's you're right about the BFTB.

     

    Depending on how long I procrastinate in getting the graphics card more might come to light, but right now 670 looks like it might be the way to go for me (assuming that it's "compatible" of course).

     
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  • CaillinAU
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    9. CaillinAU,
    Jun 14, 2012 4:34 AM   in reply to CaillinAU
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    Ok, quick update on my decisions so far.

     

     

    Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS

    CPU: 3930k

    GPU: GTX670

     

    RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL (compatible based on http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/P9X79-WS/Manual&QVL/P9X79_ WS_Memory_QVL_120531.pdf)

     

    Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 140mm and 120mm SSO CPU Cooler ("fits" the ram based on http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_ram_gen&products_id=3 4&lng=en#DDR3_G.Skill", and is the model for the 2011 boards)

     

    Optical: Lite-On IHBS312 12x Blu-Ray Disc Writer

     

    Storage:

    System: Crucial 256GB M4 (or 128GB depending on price when I get it).

    HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 (non-raid)

    Hotswap Bay:  basically I want to be able to bung in a drive, backup to it, and yank it out when it's done.

     

    PSU: Extreme power supply calculator recommends about 550W or so, but that is only the 2 fans on the Noctua, not other case fans.

    Case: How do I choose?

    Case fans: As above.

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    10. Harm Millaard,
    Jun 14, 2012 4:58 AM   in reply to CaillinAU
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    In the previous link I gave you, there is a decent section on the case and on fan choices and specifically on the why.

     
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  • JEShort01
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    11. JEShort01,
    Jun 14, 2012 9:03 AM   in reply to CaillinAU
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    Regarding the hotswap bay idea, I do that too. I do however suggest that if you are using SATA connections to your motherboard for the hot-swap bays, I would suggesting not hot-plugging and hot-unplugging them.

     

    If you truly need hot-swap (without turning your PC off / back on), I would suggest a USB3 or eSATA external device, or getting a RAID controller card and a decent brand (i.e. Supermicro, etc.) of hot-swap device.

     

    Jim

     
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  • CaillinAU
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    12. CaillinAU,
    Jul 3, 2012 9:49 AM   in reply to CaillinAU
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    JEShort01 wrote:

     

    Regarding the hotswap bay idea, I do that too. I do however suggest that if you are using SATA connections to your motherboard for the hot-swap bays, I would suggesting not hot-plugging and hot-unplugging them.

     

    Jim

    Thanks. Might skip the hotswap then.

     

    -----

     

    Ok sorry for the late update.

    I was looking at the Fractal Design Define XL USB3.0 Titanium Grey case which everything seems to fit in. (I may go with the R3 assuming everything fits). I'm also thinking of dropping from the WS to the Deluxe motherboard.

     

    Just need to work out PSU and any other fans now.

     
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