That is a dream system Harm. I love it.

Yo!

Very helpful info, learnt allot from it. Thanks Harm and everyone else

I wish to create a system mainly for simple photo editing in Lr and very little Photoshop, but also for editing DSLR H.264 footage in Pr (mainly simple colorgrading etc.) and very little in Ae.

Unfortunately I am on a very tight budget

I already have:

An external raid: CalDigit S2VR HD 1.5TB (This craves eater eSATA 2.0 or PCIe-x8)

2x 2TB WD Caviar green

500GB WD Caviar blue

Cooler Master Silencio 550

I intend to stripe the external raid for video editing in Pr and Ae (Is it overkill to stripe 5x 7200rpm drives for H.264 footage?).

One of the 2TB drives will function as my main data drive, the other as external backup via SATA slot in the front of the cabinet.

The 500GB drive will ether function as my OS drive, or as an extra data drive (if i choose to go SSD).

I got the Cooler Master cheap. It is not a huge case, but i am not too concerned about fan noise (the raid is f****** noisy anyway!) and i can always upgrade this part.

So... Now i just need all the important parts. I cant decide whether to go with a Z77 motherboard + i5 3550 or i7 3770, or a X79 motherboard and i7 3820.

GPU wise i am thinking MSI GTX 570 1.28GB (it would be nice to render my color gradings with the mercury engine).

PSU: Corsair TX V2 750w

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4x 4GB 1600mhz CL9-9-9-24 1.5v

120GB SSD (havent come to a conclusion with this one yet.. I can see there has been a bit of a debate about it already)

ICY BOX card reader (i use CF cards).

Sony Optiarc DVD

Later optional addons: Corsair H60 (if its too noisy/gets too hot)

I know nothing about OC'ing, but i would like to try it.. I am attracted to the Asus motherboards, because they have the one button OC feature.

Hope you guys can help

Another Photographer wrote:

 

Harm,

 

Aiming for an Economic build, does this look like a good balance of components for a DSLR shooter?

 

Intel i7-2600K with stock fan

Z77-based Asrock mobo

16 GB (4x4) DDR3 1600 (1.5 v) RAM

nVidia GT 240 (already own this)

SSD for OS; 3 WD Black HDDs

750Watt Gold from Seasonic

Lian Li aluminum case

 

If you were to improve one item, what would it be?

I'm not Harm, but that system needs an upgraded GPU: That system is strong on the CPU and weak on the GPU. Go with at least a GTX 560 Ti (or better still, a GTX 670).

Intel isn't the only "good" brand of SSD. Other "good" brands of SSDs are: Crucial and Samsung, plus certain Corsair models (Performance Pro, which does not use a Sandforce controller like other Corsair SSDs). However, I do not count Kingston as a "good" brand because all of its models use either JMicron or Sandforce controllers.

Another photographer,

I would suggest getting a good CPU cooler. You can get one for under $30 that will help tons with overclocking, and keep your cpu cool too even if you are totally opposed to OC'ing.

Agree w/ SSD and GPU comments as well by others.

Jim

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!

Is it clear yet which GPUs are good under Premiere Pro CS6, or is there still some debate there?

Was it a mistake to get only 16 GB of RAM?  It was only $60 so I figure I could toss it and upgrade to 32 GB in the future without too much of a loss (prices will have come down).

I will look into OC in short while.  That's why I went with the 2600K.

Good point about the VRAM--I checked and my GT 240 is luckily a DDR5 with 1 GB.  I realize I will need to upgrade it--the question is what to look for in a GPU for CS6?

Just purchased:

Cabinet: Cooler Master Silencio 550

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-M PRO

CPU: i7 3770K 3.5Ghz

RAM: 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz CL9

-9-9-24

GPU: MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II 1.25GB

PSU: Corsair HX750W

SSD: Corsair Force Series 3 120GB

RAID: CalDigit S2VR HD 1.5TB

Backup: 2x 2TB WD Green Caviar

CPU cooler: Corsair H60

CPU cooler fans: 2x Scythe Gentle Typhoon

Front intake fans: 2x Sharkoon Silent Eagle

I can't wait to see if it works! I hope the SSD is stable after reading the debate above :/

The external RAID has an ekstreamly noisy PSU, but i think i may be able to connect 2x molex from the computers PSU instead.

I also ordered an Icy Box card reader, but didnt realize it only was a 3,5'' and not a 5,25''

So there you have a couple of things to look out for. I wil post again when the system is up and running. thanks for the help

Yeah that was the one i wanted, but ordered the 3,5'' by mistake.

Thats a monster of a computer by the way! :O

How about a GT 640 with 384 cores and DDR5 (but only 128 bit)?

Unfortunately, that particular version of the GT 640 is OEM-only (meaning that it is only supplied to big-name PC brands for use in their PCs at present). No retail cards are available in that configuration (at least not yet). The only announced retail version(s) of the GT 640 all use 128-bit DDR3 VRAM whose memory throughput is only about half that of your current GT 240 (28.5 GB/s on the GT 640 versus 54.4 GB/s on your current GT 240).

In addition, that particular GT 640 and all retail GT 640s are Kepler-based, whose shaders are only about half as fast (relatively speaking) as the shaders in Fermi (GeForce 400- and 500-series). Put it this way, while Fermi shaders run at double the core clock speed, Kepler shaders run at only the same clock speed as the GPU core clock speed. This greatly diminishes, if not completely eliminates, the effect of the greater number of CUDA cores.

As such, the GT 640 retail would not be a sufficient inprovement over your current GT 240 to justify its cost, in your case. It would cost around $100, all right - but its performance would be slower than even a two-generation-old GTS 450, let alone a GTX 560 Ti.

Harm Millaard wrote:

 

I also ordered an Icy Box card reader, but didnt realize it only was a 3,5'' and not a 5,25''

 

Change that order to the ICY Box IB-863-B, which is a 5.25" card reader. It is shown here: Adobe Forums: Planning / building a new system. Part 1

 

A close-up picture is shown on the Case panel under the Drive Cages tab. The link to the website of the maufacturer can be found in the panel 'The price tag'.

Hi Harm

Do you know it the card reader part of it is USB 2.0 or 3.0?

Thanks

Ulf

Thanks for the info Harm

Ulf

Another Photographer wrote:

Is this an issue even with GTX 670 and GTX 680?

Yes. This is exactly one of the reasons why the GTX 680 is only slightly faster than the previous-generation top-end NVidia GPU, the GTX 580, despite triple the number of CUDA cores. But you also have to remember that the total VRAM bandwidth of the GTX 680 is only about equal to that of the older GTX 580. This hurts performance to the point that a GPU with more cores isn't all that much faster (if at all) compared to an older GPU with fewer CUDA cores.

The PPBM5 benchmark will run in CS6 although you will have to do several additional steps:

1) When it asks you to save the project on first launch, leave this as the default "Benchmark_1.prproj". Then, after you run the render/export portion of the PPBM5 test (as per instructions), resave that project as the original "Benchmark.prproj" file name (this will overwrite the original "Benchmark.prproj" file if done correctly; if it asks you that the file will be overwritten, click "Yes").

2) Now, when you load in the three timelines in Adobe Media Encoder, change the H.264 output file name to "H.m4v".

After all that is done, when you look at the results, the Disk I/O time and the MPE Off time should be slightly faster (lower times) while the H.264 Blu-ray and MPEG-2 DVD encode times should be quite a bit slower (higher times).

RjL190365 wrote:

 

 

After all that is done, when you look at the results, the Disk I/O time and the MPE Off time should be slightly faster (lower times) while the H.264 Blu-ray and MPEG-2 DVD encode times should be quite a bit slower (higher times).

I am not sure I follow.  The resulst will be faster/slower than what?

Dave Cowl wrote:

 

So am I hearing righ that the new 670 and 680 video cards are essentially a bust?

 

Would I be therefore better to focus on a high end GTX 580 with 3GB and 384 bit GDDR5?

 

If not, what parameters should I be trying to maximize here for best performance?

Dave, I have a GTX 680 and it slightly outperforms my GTX 580 and produces less heat and is quieter.  There is no advantage to the memory interface width as both units have the same memory bandwidth 192 GB/s.  That is hardly a bust!

It does cost more of course. 

Bill,

I don't personally use a NH-D14, but are you maybe thinking about a different Noctua model when you slam it vs. a Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO?

I've inserted a photo of the NH-D14 below and it doesn't look to be that offensive in the RAM bumping department. Also, I just did some www searching and found a test which included the delta-T for bother coolers you mention (and a whole lot more!).

With a test using an i7-920 OC'd to 4.0GHz, the Noctual was keeping the temperatures 7 to 10 deg. C cooler than the Hyper 212 EVO! Both coolers were configured with identical fans to level the playing field. The Noctua was 7 deg. more effective using 2xNoctua NF-P14 fans and 10 deg. C cooler when both coolers were equipped with Coolink 2xSWiF2-120P fans. (ref. vortez.net)

I do really like and would recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO in the sub-$30 range. I don't however think it is one of the best coolers out there when including more expensive cooling solutions.

Regards,

Jim

Hi Harm

you said...

Also note that there are diminishing returns from increasing memory say from 32 to 64 GB for PR. For AE there is still a performance gain, but less so in PR

If i increase memory from 32 to 64...it seems like a waste of money?

and Other questions

Why doesn't someone suggest Ivy Bridge (3770K) ?

Thanks

Hsheibani wrote:

 

If i increase memory from 32 to 64...it seems like a waste of money?

 

 

 

Thanks

Personally I opted for 16 GB for PP, and so far the most the system was using at the same time was 10GB.  I do not do very complicated effects or long sequences though.