PC configuration for professional video editing

[nanodom]

Hi everybody

I'm a freelance filmmaker

I just took the decision to come back on PC after a lot of years on Mac.

I will work overall with Premiere and After Effect.

A friend is giving me an hand for a good configuration, cause I'm really rubbish on pc hardware. I would like to know what do you think about it and if I ave to know smoething really important that I don't know.

Here my configuration:

Processor	Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz Cache 8MB Ivy Bridge LGA1155 BOX
Dissipator	Zalman CNPS9900MAXBLUE Silenziosa Led Blue sk1155/1156/1366/775/AMD
RAM	Corsair 16GB Kit 2*8GB DDR3-1600 CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9 XMP serie Vengeance CAS9
MB	ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS
Hard Disk	WesternDigital HDD 1TB VelociRaptor 64MB 10000rpm SataIII
Video board	Sapphire Radeon HD7970 Dual-X 3GB 384bit Gddr5 Dvi/DP/HDMI + Holiday Bundle T
Case	Corsair Carbide 200R Middle Tower Nero ATX
Burner	Lite On IHBS112-115 DVD Writer / BluRay Writer 12x Sata Nero
Power	Corsair Enthusiast TX750M 750Watt ATX Modulare EPS Pci-E(8) PFC Attivo 80+ Bronze Nero
Fans	CORSAIR SP120 Ventola Cabinet 120x120x25 Low Noise 3 PIN High Performance Edition

Thanks for any kind of help!

Ciao.

[Jeff Bellune]

[moved to hardware forum]

[RjL190365]

Welcome to the Adobe forums!

Which version of Premiere Pro are you going to use? You see, all versions of Premiere Pro up to the current CS6 6.0.3 release do not support any AMD/ATi GPUs at all for GPU acceleration duties. CS5 introduced GPU acceleration that worked only with nVidia GPUs with 896MB or more VRAM. Releases of Premiere Pro since then have added additional nVidia GPUs to the "official" supported list. Currently, with an AMD GPU, Premiere Pro is permanently locked to the MPE software-only mode, which means that your editing performance will be no faster than if that same PC relies solely on integrated or onboard graphics/video (assuming that an equal amount of RAM is available for programs in both setups). AMD GPUs do not support CUDA at all; they support OpenCL instead for GPU accelerated applications. Unfortunately, OpenCL GPU acceleration support is permanently disabled (and cannot be enabled at all without destroying the program's functionality) in all current Windows versions of Premiere Pro CS6. OpenCL support for Windows will be included in the next release of Premiere Pro (which is tentatively called "CS-Next"), whose release date has yet to be definitively determined.

In addition, go for the i7-3770K instead of the plain i7-3770: The plain 3770 is only limited unlocked (this is if you intend to overclock the CPU for potentially greater performance). With all four cores in use, the maximum clock speed that you can attain with the plain 3770 would be 4.1GHz while the 3770K can be theoretically set to as high as 6.3GHz (though the amount of heat that the Ivy Bridge processors give out will limit the maximum practical overclocked speed to around 4.5GHz or so).

Third, if you ever want to install a large, good-performance CPU cooler that overhangs some or all of the memory slots on your selected motherboard, skip the CMZ Vengeance series in favor of memory that doesn't have such tall heat spreaders: The Vengeance's heat spreaders are all of 56mm tall! Unfortunately, good air coolers leave only about 44mm of clearance underneath the CPU heatsink and/or fan. This would result in either you being forced to install the CPU cooler's fan way off-center or the heatsink itself not fitting onto the CPU properly or at all with the DIMM slots occupied with the Vengeance RAM modules.

Fourth, your choice of a round Zalman CPU cooler is less than ideal, especially when overclocking the CPU, because round heatsinks in general are less efficient in conducting heat than square heatsinks are. After all, the CPU's heat spreader and the CPU's core(s) themselves are square for a reason. Furthermore, the Zalman cannot accommodate additional fans due to its proprietary fan design (the fan on that cooler is less than ideally located; it tries to pull air from the front fins but also push air through the rear of the heatsink, resulting in less-than-optimal cooling performance).

And one disk for absolutely everything (including the OS and programs) is not enough. In fact, Adobe strongly recommends that you get at least one additional hard disk to run Premiere Pro at a level of performance that's comfortable to most users (however, more disks are better still).

Finally, I would not recommend a Lite-On BD burner if burn quality on BD-R disks is important. Go for a Pioneer BD burner instead (if that brand is available where you're ordering from).

[Bill_Gehrke]

If you are going for the mid class i7-3770K and can wait just one month more before you build, the next generation (so-called 4th generation i7).  There will be an i7-4770K possibly announced on June 3rd.and should be in stock shortly later

[nanodom]

Hi everybody again.

Thanks to all your advice.

I spoke with my friend and he gave me another configuration.

What would you think about it?

Thank you very much.

Processor

Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz Cache 8MB Ivy Bridge LGA1155 BOX

Dissipator

Zalman CNPS9900MAXBLUE Silenziosa Led Blue sk1155/1156/1366/775/AMD

RAM

Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-19200 CL10 - Kit 16Gb - 2400 Mhz (DRAKO.IT)

Motherboard

ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS

Controller

Lsi MegaRaid SAS9240-4I/SGL Mini-SAS 6Gb/s Raid 0/1/5/10/50 PCi-Express x8 Multi-Lane LP BULK

Hard Disks

WesternDigital HDD 500GB VelociRaptor 64MB 10000rpm SataIII

WesternDigital HDD 500GB VelociRaptor 64MB 10000rpm SataIII

WesternDigital HDD 3TB WDGreen 64Mb sataIII

Videoboard

PNY NVIDIA Quadro K2000 2GB GDDR5 128bit Dvi/DP Pci-Ex

Case

Corsair Carbide 200R Middle Tower Nero ATX

Burner

Lite On IHBS112-115 DVD Writer / BluRay Writer 12x Sata Nero

Power

Corsair Enthusiast TX750M 750Watt ATX Modulare EPS Pci-E(8) PFC Attivo 80+ Bronze Nero

Fans

CORSAIR SP120 Ventola Cabinet 120x120x25 Low Noise 3 PIN High Performance Edition

What do you think about it?

[Harm_Millaard]

The case is too small. Go for a big tower. The video card is overly expensive and does not deliver a third of the performance of a $ 160 GTX 650 Ti Boost but carries a price tag of around $ 460. Additionally you intentionally cripple the lousy video card performance by another 10 - 15% by adding that LSI controller. The PSU is only bronze label, not gold+. The CPU cooler is only mediocre, the Velociraptors are heat and noise engines. The WD Green is only good for outdoor usage , buried in your lawn, the Corsair fans are pretty noisy, the memory is too costly and don't fit to the CPU in a balanced way, in short this is an ill-configured and lob-sided system.

[RjL190365]

I agree with Harm, especially with regards to the GPU and the 3TB hard drive. If you take a good look at the hardware specifications of the Quadro K2000, you will find out that it is exactly a lower-clocked GeForce GTX 650 (non-Ti) - in fact, the K2000 is actually a bit slower than even the GTX 650. Yet it costs more than quadruple that of the GTX 650 that it's based on!

And the reason why I advise against any Green drives as internal drives inside an editing system is because they spin down to a complete stop during idle (and that can occur even if data is still being written to the drive!). Worse, Green drives take far too long to spin back up to full speed once stopped. Moreover, no current Green drive spins anywhere close to 7200 RPM; in fact, the current WD Green spins at only 5405 RPM (fixed spindle speed - no current HDD spindle ever offered variable speeds). The hyped "Intellipower" feature refers to this "spin-down-to-a-complete-stop" feature, especially since currently produced HDD spindles know only "two" speeds - 0 RPM or maximum speed.

As for the addition of the RAID card, be aware that with the P8Z77-V LE Plus motherboard that you selected, the primary PCI-e x16 slot will drop to only x8 bandwidth if you install that card into the other PCI-e x16 physical-length slot. This can slow down the GPU (and thus MPE) performance - by around 10 to 15 percent in some cases.

As a result of such poor choice of components, your planned build could end up being significantly slower than a properly tuned i5 quad-core desktop (or even an AMD FX CPU-based configuration) with a properly balanced choice of components.

[nanodom]

Ok guys,

now I'm very lost.

So it's better to start from the first configuration he did? (The one which I open the topic?)

I start from this configuration and I change the GPU from the Sapphire to an Nvidia, cause of Premiere and Adobe preferences on CUDA. Which Nvidia? Geforce GTX 650 ti?

Hard Disk stuff: people told me that the best way to work is to have an SSD where to put Windows and Adobe and an Hard Disk (1 or 2 TB) for files.

On my first configuration I had just one Velociraptor of 1TB.

I told to my friend the advice of the people on SSD + HDD but he put a RAID of Velociraptor more one 3 TB Disk, cause he said that Velociraptor is better than an SSD (if you don't want to spend so much), overall in raid.

What can I do?

About the rest I will try to understand with him and the shop what to do.

I'm really lost.

[RjL190365]

No. The first config is still let down by its single disk for absolutely everything. And you have still not addressed the fact that all CMZ-series Corsair Vengenace memory kits have extremely tall heat spreaders that severely interfere with the proper installation of any decent CPU air cooler.

And NEVER configure any OS disks in RAID 0! This will significantly increase the likelihood of problems, while delivering little if any real-world performance boost when running the OS and its programs. Reserve RAID for data (outside of the OS and programs) that needs to be changed or modified frequently.

And contrary to what you have heard, Velociraptors actually do not work as well as many other hard drives for RAID. That's in part due to their firmware, which doesn't support TLER (only WD's enterprise drives, as well as similar drives from Seagate, support TLER or a similar feature). Additionally, two Velociraptors do not work as well together even in a RAID 0 compared to two identical 7200 RPM hard drives from WD and other brands.

[nanodom]

Ok,

so I told to him:

SSD (OS and Adobe) + HDD (files)

Nvidia GTX 650? 670?

RAM too tall heat spreaders.

All right?

Thanks.

[Harm_Millaard]

Speccing out a computer is no rocket science, if fact it is pretty easy if you understand the pro's and con's of each coponent and how they interact with each other.

Generally, you start with a budget of $ X. That generally limits your choices to either a 1155 or 2011 platform. Then you choose the motherboard, the most powerful CPU and the maximum memory your budget allows. That usually eats up around 30% of your budget. Then you choose your disk setup, which eats up another 28 - 33% of your budget, then you choose your PSU and case, usually good for another 10 - 15% of your budget. You have now allocated around 75% to these components, so the video card and other components are limited to the remaining $$$.

This page shows some examples: The price tag when you scroll down a bit.

Your disk setup is way underspecced for a decent system, especially if you want to call it professional, as in your topic description.

[nanodom]

Hi,

I'm here again.

I have been in the shop and with the assistance we did a new configuration.

They assure me there was no problems with the Ram and this type of cooler, cause of the shape of the fan.

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 3.40GHz Cache 8MB Ivy Bridge LGA1155 BOX

MoBo: Asus P8Z77-V-LX Intel Z77 CrossFire DDR3 GLan Gen 3.0 sk1155 ATX

Ram: Corsair 16GB Kit 2*8GB DDR3-1600 CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 XMS3-12800 serie Vengeance CAS10

GPU: PNY NVIDIA Quadro K2000 2GB GDDR5 128bit Dvi/DP Pci-Ex

SSD: Samsung 250GB Serie 840 SataIII 540/250Mb/s 96K IOPS OEM

HD: WD 1TB Enterprise RE4 64Mb 7200rpm SataII

Burner: LG BH16NS40 Bluray 10x 3D Nero

Power: Fortron Raider 750Watt ATX EPS Pci-E*4 PFC Attivo 80+ Bronze

Case: Corsair Carbride 200R Middle Tower Nero ATX

Fan for Cpu: Zalman CNPS9900MAXRED Silenziosa Led Red sk1155/1156/1366/775/AMD

What would you think?

I know I read is better GTX than Quadro, lower price, better performance... but so why Nvidia and Adobe recommends Quadro? Quadro aren't the professional version of Nvidia?

The fact that my GPU doesn't have an HDMI out could be a problem?

Thanks everyone!

Sorry to be boring!

[Harm_Millaard]

Only things that I would change are:

• Video card. The K2000 is underpowered and overpriced.
• PSU. Get at least a Gold label PSU.
• CPU cooler. Get a CoolerMaster H212 EVO with push-pull fans.
• Disk setup. Get a couple more disks. One will not do.
• SSD. Get the Samsung 840 Pro.
• Case. Get a max tower,

and leave the rest as chosen. You probably haven't read the previous links or posts.

After these changes, you may end up with an entry level 'professional' editing system, in the current configuration it is a handicapped game system.

[ECBowen]

Quadro cards are the professional series cards from Nvidia. They are recommended because they cost more and are sent for testing with software/hardware partners. Since they are available for testing, this makes it common sense that the software partners such as Adobe will recommend them. This however does not equate to better performance. The Specifications of the cards decide the performance. Simply go to Nvidia's website and look at the specs of each card you are considering. That will clearly show the better

performing cards.

BTW you may want to look at Haswell at this point. Testing is showing a good increase over the Intel 3770 Ivy.

Eric

ADK

[nanodom]

Ok guys.

Thanks for the help.

Which GPU GTX do you recommend? 680 or 770?

[Harm_Millaard]

Both are overkill and a waste of money. I said it before, the GTX 650 Ti Boost is the best with those components.

[Kowla]

Great forum you guys

Like nanodom, I'm a freelance filmmaker too and was looking forward to get some help. After reading all the replies and opinions I was compelled to believe this is the best forum for me to post my questions.

I'm a filmmaker, yes, but far from making anything like an Avatar or a Life of pie, so I don't need a machine which can do all that. All I'm looking forward to do is some color correction and other basic necessities of editing. Moreover, I'm on an extremely tight budget. Here is the configuration I've come up with:

CPU: AMD FX 8350 (tight budget; can't afford intel)

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990fx

Ram: Corsair Vengeance 8gb x 2

Graphic Card: The popular opinion on this forum suggests GTX 650 Ti Boost and it's well within my budget too, so if you think it's going to do well in an AMD setup, I'll buy it. (It's around $225 here in India)

Harddrives: Currently I'm using a WD green and I agree with Mr. Millard when he says the right place for it to be is outdoors, except, I wouldn't bury it in my lawn lest it spoils the ecosystem of the garden too. Currently I'm using the fourth replacement of this Harddrive (I'm serious). DO NOT BUY WD GREEN!

I have a spare seagate 1 TB 7200 RPM. Will that work fine or is it absolutely necessary to install an SSD?

NOTE: (this is going to be embarrassing) This is my current system:

Processor: AMD phenom II X6 1090 t 3.2 Ghz

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-880GM (max memory 8 Gb)

RAM: 1 x Corsair 4 gb + 1 x corsair Vengeance 4 gb

Graphics Card: *hangs head in shame*

Harddrive: WD Barracuda Green 1 TB

With the above configurarion I've been able to edit and render short videos in premiere pro and after effects but only if I don't use any effects. The moment I start using effects esp the third party (like the red giant magic bullet etc) it doesn't render at all. In after effects it just gets stuck after 2 seconds. Could this be happening due to the lack of a graphics card?

Coming back to the question I asked before 'just how imortant are SSDs?' I know they are super fast and all that but they are super costly too. Is it going to be worth spending on an SSD (post production) when I could spend that amount in the production of the film.

Also, I mentioned i'm currently using an AMD Phenom II X6. Can I continue with it and drop the idea of an AMD FX 8350?

Note: I have never overclocked any of the components and never will; Indian summers are too harsh.

So basically four questions:

1. Harddrive VS SSDS and if it's worth spending so much on an SSD when I can spend that amount on the film production

2. Graphics Card: Is the GTX 650 Ti boost the go-to hardware in this setup?

3. Can I continue with my current AMD phenom II processor?

4. Why do you think with my current setup I'm not able to render videos when using too many effects?

And an off-topic question:

5. I'm planning to buy the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera. It records in the cinemaDNG raw format. Can those files be directly imported into premiere pro and worked upon?

Thanks a lot for reading. I look forward to some help

Regards,

Kola