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Very nice little guide!

the only thing i would make comment on.

the 860 and 920/930 are the same price.

the boards for each are only $30 apart. (p55 being slightly less)

so the cost of a P55 vs X58 are not that big a jump.

4 vs 6 gig or 8 vs 12gig not a big stretch..

however for many the 860 is more than they need. (DV, HDV)

FYI the 860 overclocks very nicely to 3.6GHz without voltage increases.

As to the Apple my biggest reason for not recommending them to clients right now is not about cost or choices.

its all about OSX inability to properly mutli-thread.

at least Adobe is much better on an Apple right now that Final Cut! FC is rather embarressing.

Scott

ADK

as mentioned the Dell is silly the power supply is barely enough to boot the default config.

add harddrives and a serious video card forget it....

IMHO a 700W is minimum and a qualoty one at that not some off brand.

the only good for video dells are in the workstation area and then they are way more than a custom builder.

Scott

ADK

Harm, I did have a one module in a set of three go bad and OCZ quickly replaced the whole set.  I have had my i7-920 experimental computer running at 4.2 GHz with my 1600 6GB Platinum OCZ with 7-7-7-20 timing.

man thats a nice OC. i have not seen one go to  4GHz in months. much less 4.2GHz.

mine is @ 3.8GHz.

Scott

ADK

Thank you very much for your extensive efforts to educate...your advice is succinct and pertinant, the fruit of many years experience, I'm sure. Thanks for sharing with us.  I've read the links you sent & printed them to use while I compare options.

If I had more time, I'd build one...best way to learn! Thanks again.

Hi Harm Millaard,

First of all I would like to thank you for the great posts I've seen here, about hardware in general, and the rich information you have been providing for long. Then, as I need to assemble a NLE PC capable of dealing with 2 or 3 simultaneous layers of AVCHD and TOD video files with average 35GB size, with a 2.500,00 € [$ 3.000,00] budjet, after reading most of your articles I've managed to come with the following configuration:

CASE:
- 1x CoolerMaster RC-690 II Advanced (89,90 €)
- 1x Fan 80mm NoiseBlocker Silent X1 Black/ Blue (4,40 €)
- 2x Fan 120mm NoiseBlocker Silent XL2 Black/ Blue (6,00 €) (12,00 €)
PSU:
- 1x Corsair HX-850W (165,00 €)
MOTHERBOARD:
- 1x Asus P6X58D-E Skt1366 iX58 (224,00 €)
PROCESSOR:
- 1x Intel Core Quad i7 930 2.8Ghz Skt1366 8Mb (277,00 €)
COOLER:
- Noctua NH-D14 Fan 140mm (69.90 €)
GRAPHICS:
- Asus GeForce PCI-E GTX470 1280Mb GDDR5 (359,90 €)
RAM:
- 2x Pack 3x 2048Mb DDR3 GSkill PC3-16000 (2000) CL9 RipJaws Tri-Channel (194,90 €) (389,80 €)
HDD-SYSTEM:
- SSD Intel 2,5" SATA-2 80Gb X25-M (225,00 €)
HDD-PRODUCTION [RAID0]:
- 4x Western Digital SATA-2 1TB 7200rpm 32Mb Black (85,90) € (343.60 €)
HDD-STORAGE:
- N/A [available USB 2.0 2TB device]
BR-RW:
- 1x DVDRW Blu-Ray LG BH10LS30 8x SATA LightScribe bulk (189,00 €)
DVD-RW:
- 2x DVDRW SATA Asus 24B1LT 24x LightScribe Black bulk (26,00 €) (52,00 €)
OTHERS:
- PCI OEM w/ 2 Firewire + 1 Mini-Firewire (9,90 €)
- Sharkoon Media III Card-Reader (5.25/3.5/USB) (10,90)
OS:
- 1x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit PT OEM (112,90 €)

---

TOTAL: approximately 2.500,00 €

---

Well, what can you say about this assembled machine? What modifications would you do? Any recomendations?

Regards.

Thank you for your fast reply!

Notes: The "2x" DVD is a typo! It was from another custom machine! And extra Firewire is needed for several peripherals [client arguing]. And I guess you may be right with the SSD HDD..

Now, imagine you can spend more 500,00 € [maybe $ 750,00], what would you do to increase performance and reliability? And for Win7 what are the main settings that I should do?

Software to use: Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Corel Video Studio Pro, Pinnacle Studio HD Ultimate Collection.

PS: I had some problems in the past with some PC configurations that used to stuck / crash during HD editing [not rendering], that's why I chose that particular graphic card.

Regards.

Please, tell me what difference will Pro Win7 produce in spite of the Home Premium version, concerning a NLE PC.

Thanks.

Harm:

I'm a video editor using a Sony ZI and editing in HDV burning in SD. Hope to up grade to NX5. Need a new computer to use Cineform Neo 4k and CS5 Production Studio.

The following suggestion has been made:

Gigabye GA-P55M motherboard with Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire and eSATA ports,

8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM (4x2 GB)

Intel Core i5 750 quad core processor (2.66 GHz)

2x1 TB 7200 rpm WD "Black Series" HDs-32 MB cache

nVIDIA GTX 285 video card - dual monitir support

2x LG DVD Rewritable drives with Nero software

Mini tower case with room for 3 Hard Drives

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

Rosewill 650 watt 80 plus Certified power supply- energy efficent and quiet

3 yr warranty

$1700 approx

What do you think of such a set-up? How can it be improved and hopefully lower cost or at least not increase it too too much?

Thanks

Dave514

Scottsdale AZ

Hi Harm Millaard

I seriously need help choosing the components for my next pc!

I’ve been trying to come up with a decent configuration over the last few weeks but each time I star to choose components I seem to blow my budget. I live in New Zealand where PC components tend to be more expensive than what they are in the US/ Europe.

I am currently a media assistant at a marketing firm and find that I often need to take my work home to work to tight deadlines. I plan on using on my future PC CS5 (for work) and Avid Media Composer (for my own personal projects). Potentially I would like to play around with Maya as well at some point.

I’ve never built my own PC before but I’ve decided that I would like to give it a try. That said while I can use a computer (fairly well) I still have allot to learn in terms of putting one together.

My budget is $4000.00 (New Zealand dollars)

I have come up with the following list of components so far:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-960 3.2GHz Quad-core with Hyperthreading

MB: Asus® P6X58D Premium Supporting SLI/CrossFire, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s

MEMORY: 12GB Kingston HyperX Triple-Channel DDR3-1600MHz Low Latency

GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA® Quadro™ FX580 512MB GDDR3

DVD-RW: LG Electronics GH22NS50 DVD Writer, DVD 16R/22W/8RW, CD 48R/48W/32RW, Internal, SATA, Black, OEM   

SOUND CARD: Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 VX Sound card, 5.1, PCI

WIRELESS ADAPTER: D-Link DWA-520 Xtreme-G, Wireless Adapter, 108Mbps, 802.11b/g, PCI   

HARD DRIVES:

(RAID 0) 2x VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS, 150GB, 10000rpm, 16MB Cache, SATA-2

Caviar Black WD1002FAEX, 1000GB, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, SATA-3

As you can see so far I’m missing cooling, a case and a power supply, potentially a RAID Controller card, usb ports (i would also like to add a HDMI output port) etc

Could you please give me a hand and modify what I have above in any way that you see fit and help me by completing the list of all the other components that i will need?

I would really appreciate your help!!!!

I second all of Harm's comments, but when you get through a very important step is to make sure you tune your OS (hopefully Win 7 64) to get rid of the garbage that Microsoft has to include to cover every possible use but features that are not necessary for an editing machine.  As an example one function that you will not need is Tablet PC components, there are about two dozen or more of these that I turn off.

Note that many people have reported problems with the LG GGW-H20L BD burner disappearing under Win7, never to return.  I'm one of them.  It worked perfectly under Vista 64 but none of the fixes proposed on the web have worked for me.  Device Manager reports a problem with the driver but the Microsoft troubleshooters say they can't find a better one.

Fixes proposed on the web and in various forums include uninstalling and letting the system reinstall, hacking the registry, running the Microsoft Auto-Fix program and disabling AHCI on the mobo.  The drive is not listed in the Win7 compatibility list and the LG website includes drivers and SW only for XP and Vista.

Others are recommending the Pioneer BDR-205.  I've just ordered one.

Thanks for posting that, Bill.  It's the same driver mine shows.  Hmmm....

Here's another thought.  I think the drive is connected to an IDE controller, not SATA.  Could this be the problem?  All the Device Manager data talks about IDE and I'm pretty sure the burner is not connected to any of the internal SATA ports on the mobo.  But if that's the issue, why did it work ok in Vista but not Win7?  And do you know if there's a setting I can tweak if Explorer cannot see the drive?  Or should I bite the bullet, kill a Hard drive and use that port for the burner?

Thoughts, anyone?  This is puzzling.

Yes, sorry, this is just me being stupid.  I opened up the box and it is the old Asus drive that is connected with a wide IDE cable.  The OS drive and the LG are connected via SATA to the SATA ports on the mobo (and yes, you remember correctly -- it is the X7DWA-N).

I already have AHCI enabled; I went through that whole soap opera, including the BSOD and registry tweaks, a year ago.  So we had all six SATA ports working under Vista 64, but now under Win7 we're having the problem with the LG.  (It is connected to channel 2).  The Intel Matrix RAID storage manger does not at the moment see the drive at all, but I think it is because I've been messing around inside the case and did not properly re-seat the connector; Device Manager does not even see the drive either, but it used to.  Up until the last reboot I did have a blue flashing light on the LG, but not now.

I'm on the Intel website now and I see they have an updated Matrix Storage Manager available; I'm going to try that.  In the meantime, all other thoughts are welcome.  Thanks for everything so far, Bill.

EDIT:  Reseated the power cable (duh!) and drive powers up but same problem persists as before.  Downloaded and installed latest Intel Matrix Storage Manager found here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17882&P rodId=2101&lang=eng

and lo and behold.  It works.

Here's an interesting thread which discusses the problem, and from which I got the link:

http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=132422.0

It theorizes that Win7's AHCI drivers are funny and should be replaced by Intel's.  Maybe so.  Ironically, it may have been the clean install of Win7, which everyone recommends over the "Upgrade" install, which did me in.  Formatting the OS HDD wiped out the Intel Matrix Storage Manager app, which was needed in order to see all the drives.  I'm not sure it was installing the newest version that helped, but just installing a version, period.

Hope this helps others if they are having the same problem.

Read the two articles: they are very useful. In the meanwhile, I have two more questions: 1. What about a solid state 'drive'  for system 'disk' (I was told that they are faster, but rather small - and probably expensive). 2. This is about the case: Antec P183 looks good, has 120 mm top fan, 120 mm rear fan and 120 mm lower chamber fan. Is this enough for the system described above, or do I need the P193 with 2 x 140 mm top fans, 120 mm rear fan, 120 mm lower chamber fan and a 200 mm side fan? How does one calculate the needed fan 'farm' based on the power dissipation of the system? Also, would a slight over-clocking change the picture (other than an extra CPU fan)? Thanks, Laci.