Should I buy CS5.5 Production premium?

[Harm Millaard]

If I were in your shoes, I would look at a different brand than Biostar for the mobo, for instance Asus or Gigabyte. I would exchange the Antec 300 for a big tower like the CoolerMaster 932 HAF because of better cooling, easier installation, better cable management and more expansion capabilities. I would get a gold label PSU with around 750 W and add at least 2 more 7200 SATA disks to the equation.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Harm Millaard

If I were in your shoes, I would look at a different brand than Biostar for the mobo, for instance Asus or Gigabyte. I would exchange the Antec 300 for a big tower like the CoolerMaster 932 HAF because of better cooling, easier installation, better cable management and more expansion capabilities. I would get a gold label PSU with around 750 W and add at least 2 more 7200 SATA disks to the equation.

I agree with your recommendations for the motherboard, case and HDD: Biostar is a good choice for a relatively basic rig, but not so good for a serious editing rig due to the lower-quality components used on the boards themselves. The Antec 300 case is okay if the OP wants to limit the maximum total number of hard drives to four: This is because the higher-end graphics cards such as the GTX 560+ will interfere with two of the hard drive positions in the case, creating a conflict of interior space usage. And one hard drive in addition to the OS drive is the absolute minimum requirement for any prosumer NLE to work adequately.

And oh, yes, the PSU is definitely underpowered for editing on that system even if the OP were to stick with only his chosen components, especially when overclocking. This is because in many of the situations that he will encounter during an editing and encoding session, both CPU and GPU utilization will go up to relatively high levels. That puts significantly more stress on any lower-wattage PSU.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Thomas E. Smith

Motherboard: BIOSTAR TZ68A

Like the others have suggested, get ASUS or Gigabyte. You need a good reliable MB - period.

PSU: Seasonic M12II 520W

I suggest 850 to 1000W. Don't skimp here.

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4 x 4GB 1600

I'm not sure about this. I prefer 12GB or 24GB. I think as a new business you'd be okay with 12GB - you can scale up later if you've chosen a good board.

Drive: 64GB SSD boot drive, 2TB Hitachi second drive

I suggest the following:
SSD for OS only
500GB for Data and Programs, etc.
1TB Work Drive for Projects files, Temp, Cache, etc.
1TB for Media - Strictly a Read drive

When you ouptut large projects, you might want to add another write drive, or even go RAID. But don't dump everything on to one drive and create partitions.

If you have to have the netbook, then you can save some money by avoiding the SSD drive, cutting the RAM to 12GB and getting a lower GTX model that is compatible with CS5.5. You'll still be okay.

[Thomas E. Smith]

Good suggestions everyone.

About the RAM - are you saying that it would be better to have 12GB than 16GB? I mean, 12GB would probably be enough, but I'm just wondering the advantage of having it over 16GB.

I already have the SSD and the 2TB hard drive, so I'd like to use both of those in the setup.
I will also be picking up at least two more hard drives once the prices settle.

I definitely would prefer a mid size tower since I need it to be as small and portable as possible.
Since I only have one 5.25" drive (the Blu-ray burner) couldn't I use the other two 5.25" slots for hard drives should the need arise?

CPU: i7-2600k
GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 560 ti
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155
Computer Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850
RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 3 or 4 x 4GB 1600
Drive: 64GB SSD boot drive, 2TB Hitachi second drive (plus two additional drives to buy later)
Optical drive: LG Blu-ray burner
System: Windows 7 Professional

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Thomas E. Smith

About the RAM - are you saying that it would be better to have 12GB than 16GB? I mean, 12GB would probably be enough, but I'm just wondering the advantage of having it over 16GB.

If you can afford it, why not? I would make it a priority to get more hard drives though, or aim for a RAID 0/5 setup, before scaling up on RAM. Same applies to the GTX.

[Harm Millaard]

On an i7-2600 board you will definitely want 4 sticks, so 16 GB, not 12 GB with three sticks because that would mean you reduce dual channel memory access to single channel.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Thomas E. Smith

Good suggestions everyone.

About the RAM - are you saying that it would be better to have 12GB than 16GB? I mean, 12GB would probably be enough, but I'm just wondering the advantage of having it over 16GB.

I already have the SSD and the 2TB hard drive, so I'd like to use both of those in the setup.
I will also be picking up at least two more hard drives once the prices settle.

I definitely would prefer a mid size tower since I need it to be as small and portable as possible.
Since I only have one 5.25" drive (the Blu-ray burner) couldn't I use the other two 5.25" slots for hard drives should the need arise?

CPU: i7-2600k
GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 560 ti
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155
Computer Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850
RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 3 or 4 x 4GB 1600
Drive: 64GB SSD boot drive, 2TB Hitachi second drive (plus two additional drives to buy later)
Optical drive: LG Blu-ray burner
System: Windows 7 Professional

You still did not change the case. Read my comment about the Antec 300 case in my previous post in this thread. Plus, the air circulation inside that case is not as good as some other cases in the same price range because the 300 offers absolutely no cable management features at all whatsoever. This means that if the PSU you choose has a lot of permanently hardwired, non-modular cables, those cables will choke off airflow inside the case. This can result in your system running significantly hotter inside than is desirable or even overheating at even a failsafe speed of 1.6GHz for the CPU.

In addition, you changed the PSU from a good but underpowered Sea Sonic unit to a higher-wattage but much lower quality ATNG-built unit. Good 850W PSUs do not cost anywhere close to $106 shipped; in fact, a minimally decent 850W unit costs at least $140 (and good 850W units cost between $170 and $200).

[Thomas E. Smith]

I didn't change the case because I don't want a huge tower. It's already a stretch to go from a Macbook pro to a desktop, and a mid sized case is as big as I can go. Four hard drive bays is plenty for me.

I might go with a CorsairEnthusiast Series CMPSU-850TX 850W PSU which is $135 on Amazon. It has over 800 reviews and five stars on Newegg. I don't really know if I need something with that much wattage, but I guess it leaves me the option to overclock if I want.

EDIT: What about the COOLER MASTER HAF 912? It is supposed to be significantly better as far as airflow and cable management.

[Bart Walczak]

Guys, while I think that your suggestions are valid if a person would be buying an optimal low-end editing workstation, I'm not sure that you address Thomas' needs and budget.

For one, he is editing AVCHD files. Therefore a single system drive and another data/project drive will be sufficient for him in the short run. He can add additional two drives, and that will be more than enough for his needs, there's no need to use RAID setup unless he was playing back more than 3 streams of AVCHD simultaneously.

Second, this kind of system uses about 400-450W under full load. Even if we add additional 50W for stability or new HDDs, a decent 650W 80%+ unit (at least 520 W of effective power) will be enough to cater these needs, and 750W would be an excess.

I know this setup is not "optimal", ie. for another couple hundred bucks you can get something which would be more "future proof" if Thomas chooses to pursue another codecs, but it is "good enough", and will serve well for his needs.

[Thomas E. Smith]

I'd like to thank everyone for the good advice. I picked a good time to build a computer considering last Friday was Black Friday.
I did get the Antec 300 case, but I got a modular PSU which greatly helped with cable management. I also picked up a 23" monitor, since I was having doubts about the use of my 40" TV.
I was pleased to find out that the graphics card only blocks one HDD slot. Given that I can mount the SSD on the bottom of the case, I'll have 5 slots for additional hard drives.

The following is my setup, which I purchased with the money from the sale of my MacBook Pro.
CPU: i7-2600k
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 560 ti
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z
Computer Case: Antec 300
PSU: SeaSonic 750w modular PSU
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 4 x 4GB 1600
Drive: 64GB SSD boot drive, 2TB Hitachi second drive
Keyboard and mouse: Logitech MK520 wireless keyboard
Optical drive: LG Blu-ray burner
Monitor: Asus 23" 2ms LED backlit display
System: Windows 7 Professional

[Harm Millaard]

Bart,

Check out eXtreme Outer Vision - eXtreme tools for computer enthusiasts, get the Pro version and then enter all your components and the ones you want to add in the future, including fans, USB devices, keyboard etc. Then set CPU system load to 100% and capacitor aging to 30% and add 10- 15% for safety and you have the wattage required for the system. Also look closely at the required amperage on each rail, not all power supplies deliver the correct amperage on each rail, although the total wattage seems sufficient.

Further keep in mind that a PSU that is taxed to the max will operate with high fan speeds whereas a more powerful PSU that is not heavily taxed can run at lower fan speeds, meaning quieter.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Harm - that's a great resource. Thanks for sharing.

[Paul Wags]

Just go and download EDIUS 6.
Native AVCHD and or Canon MOV's real time together at full resolution with effects no problems even on an old 2.4 Quad 2008 PC :-),

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Heard some really good things about the new Edius...will try it the first opportunity I get.