13 Replies Latest reply: Jun 15, 2012 5:21 PM by iammykyl

Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 10, 2012 10:42 PM

Hi everybody.

This build will be mostly for photography, 70%. Video, 30%. this will increase in the near future.

Main camera, http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_5d_mark_ii#Specificati ons OS, Window 7, 64bit.

There is a limit to the budget so will be reluctant to spend more on the listed components but would appreciate and consider any constructive suggestions.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9Tem

Q1. Do I need more RAM?

Q2. Would a Quadro 2ooo be a more appropriate GPU?

I have a mottle array of HDDs, including SSD, but before configuring them.

Q3. Do i need any form of RAID?

Thank you for reading, I look forward to some input.

1. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

John T Smith Jun 11, 2012 8:25 AM (in response to iammykyl)

Read http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1020794 about SSD... especially the parts about directing all temp files to other drives

Q1 - See the results here (more for version 5, since v6 is new)
CS6 Benchmark http://ppbm6.com/
CS5 Benchmark http://ppbm5.com/

Q2 - Only if you need 10bit output, otherwise costs more for less performance

Q3 - What kind of video are you going to edit?
Build http://forums.adobe.com/thread/878520?tstart=0
-more build ideas http://ppbm6.com/Planning.html
-Build it Yourself http://forums.adobe.com/thread/815798
-http://www.shawnlam.ca/2012/premiere-pro-cs6-video-editing-computer-build/
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2. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 12, 2012 2:34 AM (in response to iammykyl)

Thank's for the information.

I should let you know, this build is not for me but a friend. She is a semi professional, (going full time, soon) mostly working in animal portraiture and going to events, hence the interest in doing more video.

I do not consider myself a hardware expert but have researched, configured and built about 30 rigs, across the range, many gamers, + 2 DAWs.
This will be the first photo/video editing workstation.

Having been a keen photographer doing my own developing and printing, I have some reasonable understang, but apart from the bare mechanics of Digital, I am a complete novice.

"Q2 - Only if you need 10bit output, otherwise costs more for less performance"
Would that be less performance for PhotoShop, with the Quadro? or with the GTX 670?

Will stay with 16GB RAM, may add more if enough room in the budget.

Video editing would be up to HDV 1080, but with a new camera no higher than XDCAM-SR.

For the Boot drive, WD2500HHTZ 64MB Cache, Or WD2500HHTZ 32MB Cache? Will buy.

The SSD for a scratch disc?

And if beneficial? a RAID 5 with 4 available HDDs?

A 1TB green, available + HDDs in external enclosures.

Thank's for reading.
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3. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

Harm Millaard Jun 12, 2012 3:29 AM (in response to iammykyl)

Q2: 10 bit output is only sensible if you use a HP Dreamcolor (€ 2200+) monitor or better. If you use more affordable 8 bit monitors, the GTX 6xx series gives way better BFTB. Just yesterday I added a PPBM benchmark result, based on the Quadro 6000 card. At current prices this Quadro card is 15 times more expensive than a simple GTX 470 and shows no performance gains at all. A complete waste of money. Unless you really need 10 bit output.

Current generation SSD's still suffer from serious write degradation, despite the Trim function and require regular reformatting to get the original write speed back. If you have no problem with that, then you can use it for scratch material, since there is nothing essential lost in reformatting, apart that all your projects need to recreate the index, conformed and peak files again after each format.

The 'green' disk is best used for backups, not for regular storage. Parity raids can best be run from a dedicated raid controller. If using the on-board chip, it will be dead-slow. Note that WD Caviar Black disks are not suitable for parity raids at all because of the WDTLER problems. See Adobe Forums: Raid Performance and Rebuild Issues

For the boot drive I would look at a Corsair Performance Pro or Samsung 830 SSD.
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4. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 13, 2012 5:05 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)

Thank you for the information.
Will now not even look at 10-bit output and I don't think the proposed GTX 670 is capable.

Boot drive, Which do you consider would be the better choice. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007603%2050001306%206000033 44&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=50

Scratch, RAID 0 with 1TB WD blacks. I have explained the risks and she will use these until she can afford to replace them with Enterprise drives.
DATA, 1TB WD Black.
Will this work for Photoshop?
is there an alternative solution?

Available is a Vertx 3 vtx3-25sata3-120G. Is there a way to incorporate it in the set up?

Thanks for reading.
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5. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

Harm Millaard Jun 13, 2012 5:10 AM (in response to iammykyl)

Although the Vertex3 is plagued by the serious SF-2281 bug, which does not allow AES-256 bit encryption, and which can not be solved, even with a firmware upgrade, it may be the better choice for the boot disk if you can restrict yourself to AES-128 encryption. Otherwise the 250 GB Velociraptor would have my nod, because of the bigger cache.
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6. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 13, 2012 6:02 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)

Thanks, was not aware of the issue.

The SSD is the OS drive in her system at the moment and no reported problems. There is little room left on the drive so that's why considering something larger. I would move the My Doc to the DATA drive, but don't want to make things to complicated for her.
Time and again on the Forum I see :don't use an SSD for the boot drive:, but I nearly always use them for a gaming build.

Please advice on the drive set up.
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7. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 14, 2012 6:07 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)

Thanks for the reply.
I will use the SSD for the OS Programs. I am still uncertain about the other drives so would be grateful for you input.

Scratch, RAID 0 with 1TB WD blacks. I have explained the risks and she will use these until she can afford to replace them with Enterprise drives.
DATA, 1TB WD Black.
Will this work for Photoshop?
is there an alternative solution?

Thanks for reading
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8. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

John T Smith Jun 14, 2012 8:49 AM (in response to iammykyl)

>little room left on the drive

For PPro... move the temp files... http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1007934?tstart=0

For Windows... move the swap/page file... search for instructions at http://search.microsoft.com/search.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US
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9. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

JEShort01 Jun 14, 2012 8:53 AM (in response to iammykyl)

2x1TB RAID 0 will work well for Photoshop.

Do NOT get Enterprise (RAID) drives for RAID 0! (they retry less and drop off the RAID faster which is what you want for RAID 5, 6, 10, etc. but NOT what you want for RAID 0 ("non-RAID" with no redundancy).

Also, in addition to John's tips, you can turn off the Hibernation feature if that is activated and save LOTS of space too.

Jim
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10. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

Nicol Simard Jun 14, 2012 9:13 AM (in response to iammykyl)

I was very happy with an Asus P9X79 Pro until I added a RAID card. I guess you could say that it worked but it was not consistent. Two identical units gave me different speed results. I tried an Asus P9X79 WS and I get perfect speeds across all my drives.

Nicol
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11. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 15, 2012 7:16 AM (in response to John T Smith)

Thank you all for your input.
I can get this drive at a great price, Raptor WD300HLHX
If used for the Boot drive, could the SSD be effectively used elsewhere?

----

Is there a way to answer to the whole topic, not just to a poster?

I found this most usfule for a tenderfoot like me, > http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2011/05/how-to-tune-photoshop-cs5-for-peak-performance.h tml

Thanks for reading.
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12. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

JEShort01 Jun 15, 2012 2:39 PM (in response to iammykyl)

SSDs are simply awesome for boot drives; stick with it.

If you have a good lead on Velociraptors they are good drives. As they are small, you may need to choose a motherboard with more SATA ports if you want to use lots of them.
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13. Re: Advice please for a new workstation.

iammykyl Jun 15, 2012 5:21 PM (in response to JEShort01)

Thanks Jesshort01.
Still seeking info on the use of the SSD elsewhere in the set up.
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