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New PC Specs

Jul 5, 2012 7:37 AM

Am considering the following PC specs to replace an aging machine which hopefully contains a bit of future bullet proofing.. Along with using Lightroom and Photoshop I am also into video editing. I would appreciate any comments i.e. sound OK, not enough future bullet proofing or over the top specs etc. Thanks.

 

Processor - Intel® Core™ i7-3820 (Four Core, 10MB Cache) 3.60GHz

Video Card - Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555 SLI

Memory - 16384MB (4x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Quad Channel

Hard Drive - 500GB (7200RPM) Solid State Hybrid + 1TB SATA 6Gb/s (7200RPM) 32MB Cache

Additional Hard Drive - 1TB SATA 6Gb/s (7200RPM) 32MB Cache

Windows 7/64

 
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 5, 2012 7:53 AM   in reply to ElliR

    I would go for the fastest CPU you can afford.

     

    Lightroom doesn't use the video card, but if you are doing the video editing outside of Lightroom, you would require a top-end video card.

     

    Looks like a very good set of choices (although I honestly don't know what you mean by bullet-proofing)

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 5, 2012 8:27 AM   in reply to ElliR

    The specs are good.

    But I would split the 1 TB Sata into two 500 GB Satas. here's what I wote in another post:

     

    In my experience sharing the workload between several drives will give a significant performance boost.

    Naturally, faster hard drives (10K conventional or SSD) will speed up performance in any configuration. But as long as prices for 400 - 500 GB SSDs are relatively high and their life expectancy is somewhat iffy, it might be worthwhile considering the concept of sharing the work between several drives.

    Here's my system: I have 3 internal hard drives (7200 RPM, 500 GB each), named C, D, E.

    On C there is the OS and Lr.

    D is dedicated only for paging file (I'm on Windows), Lr cache, Photoshop scratch disk.

    E contains the Lr catalog.

    Images are on external hard drives.

     

    This setup avoids read- / write competition between OS paging file, Lr cache, Lr catalog, and image files and provides good performance in Lr.

    In my opinion, the slow performance of Lr that some people complain about, might be due to

    a) cache too small (I have set mine at 75 GB, Adobe recommends 25 GB, but the Lr default is 1 GB);

    b) read-/write competition due to the fact that images, catalog, and Lr cache are on one hard drive. Keep in mind that Lr constantly reads from and writes to the catalog. If the images, the Lr cache and OS (with paging file) and Lr itself are all on one drive, the read-/ write cycles for this drive pile up and slow Lr down.

     

    Certainly, a SSD has much faster read- / write times, so it will alleviate the problem of read- / write competition. But as long as they are expensive and have - maybe(?) - short life times, it might be worthwhile to install at least 2 - but better 3 - conventional hard drives and so that the workload can be shared between them

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 6, 2012 5:34 AM   in reply to ElliR

    There's some good and bad points about your new system:

     

    1. While I like the Intel X79/Sandy Bridge-E platform you've chosen, I'd go with the 6-core Core i7 3930K CPU if you can. For $200-300 more, it buys you 2 additional cores, 2 MB more cache, and an unclocked multiplier for the option of overclocking down the road.
    2. Ditch the dual GeForce GTX 555 cards and get a new GeForce 670. The 555 is an OEM card that's basically a watered down GTX 560.  A single 670 will run circles around dual 555s at about the same price and is (relatively) quiet and power-efficient. It features super-fast transcoding of MPEG-2 sources using the NVEnc fixed-function logic built into its GK104 GPU (for your video editing work).  Unfortunately, depending on what manufacturer you're buying from, they may not offer the 670 yet.
    3. Another great aspect of the Sandy Bridge-E platform is the quad-channel RAM.  Since you mentioned future-proofing, I'd make sure your motherboard will support at least 32 GB, if not 64 GB, with 8 GB DIMMs.  Now that you can get 64 GB of fast RAM for about $500, why not go for it?! (You'll need Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate 64-bit edition to do so.)
    4. There's been some good analysis done on SSDs' effect on Lightroom speed. (For example, read Ian Lyon's article referenced in Adobe's Optimize Lightroom Performance page.)  While it won't speed up Lightroom the way that it will other programs/tasks, I still recommend you get one (or more).  Actually, with fast and reliable 256 GB SSDs (e.g., the Samsung 830) available for $200-250 (less, if you catch them on sale), I think you'd be nuts not to get at least one for your system drive. (Trust me, you'll never go back to a HDD again.) The Seagate Momentus 750 GB Hybrid Drive is a fantastic piece of technology, but I'd use it only if I had room for one drive.

     

    You didn't give us a budget, list a vendor preference, or mention if you're worried about power consumption.  As such, our recommendations can't be complete.  I assume too that you've looked at the regular Sandy Bridge and new Ivy Bridge platforms and decided to go instead with Sandy Bridge-E.  In any case, good luck to you!

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 6, 2012 9:55 AM   in reply to ElliR

    ElliR wrote:

     

    At this time the Studio version is only offered in 32 bit but I am hoping that Sony will release a 64 bit version in the next update. I'm holding off on my PC upgrade until this is confirmed as I use this video editing app a lot.

     

    Just in case you weren't certain, any 32 bit app should run on Windows 64bit....it just isn't as efficient in its use of the system resources as a genuine 64bit version would be. But it'll still run OK, so no need to hold off waiting for a 64 bit version to be released...

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 6, 2012 1:55 PM   in reply to ElliR

    Vegas Movie Studio will run on W7 64 bit and can use 4GB of physical RAM at the same time, while on 32 bit Windows it can use only 2GB of physical RAM at the same time.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 7, 2012 3:39 AM   in reply to ElliR

    I ran a trial of Vegas Movie Studio on W7 64 bit to compare its AVCHD editing with that of Corel Video Studio Pro and Avid/Pinnacle Studio. I saw no problems with it. I did stay with Video Studio (I am a longtime user of Medio Studio Pro/Video Studio Pro) after Corel upgraded its compatibility with AVCHD files.

     
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  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 7, 2012 4:29 AM   in reply to ElliR

    ElliR wrote:

     

    Am considering the following PC specs to replace an aging machine which hopefully contains a bit of future bullet proofing..
    ...

    My personal observation is that "future bullet proofing" does not work.  The problem is that future components don't exist in the present.  Buy wht you want for now.  There is no way to prevent the need for future upgrades. 

     

    The good news is that the future is rolling out a little slower than it was in the recent past.

     

    Jerry

     
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