Dear All,

I posted my original question in the New System Build section of the forum. See http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] eo-editing.

I need your help building a powerful workstation for Photo/Video editing.

I am looking for a 64Bit system with 8GB of RAM. Can someone mention some components that will work together to build such a system?

Your input is highly appreciated.

Thanks.

-Amit

How much do you want to spend???????

GPU - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
PCU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Monitors - LG L207WT 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
PSU - Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Case - Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Memory - Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) X2 - 8GB total
HD - Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD6400AAKS)
Optical Drive - Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939)

About $2,500.00

video/photo editing are more CPU dependant than games, so you will want to put your money into a reasonably fast quad-core cpu, 8gb of ram, and a fast hdd (or two).

you could get away with a midrange video card, and still have a very flexible system for gaming as well.

You want a fast quad core and LOTS of RAM. The video card is less important.

Also, you'll probably be best to decide what video editing software you plan to use before deciding on the hardware. For example, Avid software really doesn't like ATI graphics cards or AMD CPUs, whereas some other software works better on ATI cards than Nvidia.

Get the gigabyte version of the 4850 and you will be set. The 9450 will be plenty powerful and save you a bundle. Any motherboard with at least one PCIx16 1.1 slot will be all you need and full, 1600fsb quad core support. Make sure it is stable, and give yourself the ability to do a moderate overclock if you decide later.

An eight gigabyte DDR2 800 dual channel kit will give you the most stability and decrease load times if you are using more then one heavy application. Although, I have heard of many issues in regards to overclocking and bios setting that result when that much memory is loaded into your operating system. Make sure your mother board can support that much ram and at the speed you get it ( this kit looks good http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 20227354).

Dear All,

First of all thanks for your input. I not sure how many of you actually read the related post that I linked in my original post so here's the summary:

1) I need a system with 64bit Windows XP/Vista Ultimate working on it.
2) I will be putting 8GB of System RAM to get the most out of the system. See http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,1775.html
3) I am currently planning on using nVidia QUADRO grafix card (3700 - 512MB) or higher.
4) Need to have lots of disc storage so I am planning on having as many 1TB HDD in the system as I can have depending on the case.
5) Thinking of having a RAID 5 for some data protection. I am bending towards FSB 1600 since I will be using SATA drives as the highest capacity SAS drives are only 300GB only. SAS drives are also more expensive but will give me better throughput. Since SATA are maxed out @ 7200 rpm I am thinking a native FSB 1600 will give me some benefit here.


@jimmysmitty,

I do not want to spend more than 4K (this does not include the monitor). Since this system is used for Photo/Video editing. I already have professional refernce monitor in mind that I will be using with this system.

@evongugg
I am reviewing your part list and get back to you once I am done. Thanks.

@pinaplex

I WILL be using Adobe products. Adobe After Effects uses OpenGL to render fast previews as well as native OpenGL support. That is why I am looking for a card with OpenGL support. I nVidia consumer cards to my knowledge do not support OpenGL. Please correct me if I am wrong as it will save me money if I am wrong.

@cjl
See my reply to @pinaplex above in this post itself.

@MarkG
I WILL be using ALL ADOBE products i.e. Adobe Creative Suite CS3 with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v2.0 with native 64bit support.

@E3210
I was thinking of using ASUS P5E3 Premium/WiFi @n. It has X48 chipset with navtive FSB1600 support. But after reading http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 727-3.html I found that with X48 chipset

@ALL,
Do I need a Core 2 Extreme or a Xenon processor? What is the advantage of having Xenon over Extreme? I wanted to get a 45nm for its low power consumption. Not sure which one I should be buying?

Do I need a server Motherboard to have 8GB of RAM? The X48 chipset with native FSB1600 requires DD3. DDR31600 does not support 8GB RAM. What do I need?

I need a grahics card supported by Adobe. See

i.e. I need a motherboard that will support one of the listed card. I am an nVidia fan so I am looking for an nVidia card only i.e. a motherboard that will support one of the supported nVidia card.

Your help will be highly appreciated here.

I do not want to pay some system builder huge amount of my hard earned money to build me a Workstation system that I can build with all your help. So please keep providing me your input.

Thanks again.

-Amit

My video editing system:

Motherboard: Asus Rampage
CPU: Q9450
RAM: 4gb OCZ Platinum (not actually recommended - some minor compatability problems with mb, even with latest BIOS)
Video card: Asus EN8600GT (Nvidia 8600)
Power supply: Antec Neopower 650
Case: Antec 900
Main drive: Seagate 7200.8 250gb (transplant from my previous system)
Capture drive: Two Western Digital RE2 500gb (RAID0)
Capture board: Blackmagic Intensity Pro

I should add, however, that I am probably getting rid of the Intensity Pro, as bought it to do S-video captures and it can't handle ANY sort of panning in the original source.

Re X48: X48 does NOT require DDR3. The Asus Rampage is an X48 board and supports DDR2.

Listen here you twit we all read your other thread and disregarded it completely. You don't seem to fully understand what a server is nor what the hardware you are considering does. We do so shut your trap and listen to us or bugger off.

You don't need that card if you simply opt for a windows operating system, because open gl is for linux. All the software you will be likely to run will be on a windows anyway you. Trust us, we know are stuff. You are only going to spend 4k on your system, but the software that you would need to get to push any of the builds we have suggested will cost you more then 10k. You are talking professional grade you you just want to run adobe photoshop and nero.

If you were a proffessional you wouldn't be here, you would already know what you need. So I am going to assume that you are not and advise you to listen.

+1, the build with professional grade software will cost more then 10k. Almost each piece of software (depending what you get) could be $1k minimum or more.

@E3210,
No offense to you Sir, but I am here to take advice from all you GURUs. If I knew everything I would not be here.

With that said, I am in a professional business. Although just starting out with the hopes of growing. I do professional wedding photography. Adobe Lightroom with Adobe Photoshop is bread an butter for me. I also use Adobe After Effects for creating VIDEO SlideShows. I use Adobe Premiere to put together the slideshow. I also use Adobe Encore to create the final DVD. And I am using SmartSound SonicFire to create my background music. In short I am currently using MOST of the applications from Adobe Creative Suite and things are running extremly slow for me. That is why I am planning on having a WORKSTATION system for me.

I also talked with DELL got some quotes about their professional workstation T7400 which is currently being quotes for ~7K to me. I was thinking if I can get something similar built under 5K with help from this forum that would save me some money to spare on other things I need.

Oh, and THANK YOU for reading my other post. Since you read that post I titled it Workstation for Photo/Video Editing. I did not say PC or desktop as I am really looking for a workstation with some power that can do batch processing stuff quickly.

@Shadowthor,
I already have professional software to use. All I need is help building a proper system.

-Amit

None of that is really professional grade. When you start getting into cinema effects and 3d rendering then a workstation card with a powerful computing platform becomes more necessary. If you just want to play with pictures and such a quad core desktop will do you just fine. Spend the extra money on advertisement.

Might want to invest in a m audio sound card for your audio.

ac - I'd suggest taking the advice you get here with a big grain of salt, as almost everyone on these forums is gaming oriented. People may claim to have expertise regarding X, but there's no way to tell for sure unless you have some decent knowledge of X yourself, which it sounds like you don't. Trying to assemble a system for your specific purposes based on comments from random people in internetland may be successful, or may be a waste of your money. I'd seriously consider hiring an experienced system builder solely to discuss the price/performance tradeoffs with you and to specify an equipment list based on that. Such an investment of $100-200 could save you from wasting a lot more money.

If you don't want to do that, at least post your question on a forum that focuses on photo editing, populated with people that have hands-on experience in the field.

@Mondoman,

I did talk with DELL before posting here. They are proposing a Xenon based system. I don't know which Motherboard as it will be some server board that they use. It is their T7400 system which can support upto 64GB of RAM. They also told me to buy their PERC card for RAID. You can also go to their website and choose customize T7400 and see what they offer.

Looking at T7400, I was thinking if I can come up with something similar and still save some money using the help from here.

Which forums are you referring too that will be more focused on say my kind of needs?

-Amit