Opinions appreciated... computer build at DVinfo.net

Bruce Hedge · January 28th, 2009, 11:55 PM

I'm certainly not a computer designer, but this is what seems to me to be a solution for HD video editing. Intended purpose is for creating documentaries and infomercials from a lot of raw HD video. I had another thread regarding what to consider and received some great advice on it--thank you for those who contributed. I'd like to be as sure as possible that this is a good fit and that I'm not designing in a problem by overlooking something. Any opinions would be welcome, including on price. Also would it be unwise to attempt to build it myself although I've never built any computers before. Best regards, Bruce

CUSTOM WORKSTATION, Quad-Core Core™ i7
COOLERMASTER, HAF 932 (RC-932-KKN1-GP) Black Tower Case, EATX, No PSU, Steel

THERMALTAKE, Toughpower, 80 PLUS®, 850W Power Supply w/ Modularized Cable Management, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Quad +12V, Quad SLI Approved

GIGABYTE, GA-EX58-UD5, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000MHz 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /10, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /3, ATX, Retail

INTEL, Core™ i7-920 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, LGA1366, 6400 MT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail

KINGSTON, 12GB (6 x 2GB) ValueRAM PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz CL7 (7-7-7) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

eVGA, GeForce GTX 280, GTX 280 602MHz, 1GB GDDR3 2214MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV Out, Retail

WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB (WD1500HLFS) WD VelociRaptor™, SATA 3 Gb/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache

WESTERN DIGITAL, 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5001AALS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache

WESTERN DIGITAL, 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5001AALS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache

RAID, RAID 0 (striping), min 2 hard drives required

3WARE, 9650SE-4LPML SATA II RAID Controller, 4 ports, Levels 0/1/10/5, 256MB DDR2 cache, PCIe x4, Full-height/Low-profile, Retail

SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S223 Black 22x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, w/ Software, OEM

MICROSOFT, Digital Media Keyboard 3000, Keybiard, Black, USB, Retail

LOGITECH, SBF-96 Optical Mouse 400dpi, Black, PS/2, OEM

MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM

If assembled & Tested by a builder would be about $2900 with a warranty, Standard Service (3 Years Limited Parts, Lifetime Labor Warranty)

Roger Wilson · January 29th, 2009, 02:21 AM

Bruce, this is very similar to the computer I just built, except that I have the EVGA motherboard and opted for a nVidia Quatro FX3700 video card. I've been very impressed with the Intel i7 processor.

The only things I see missing, and you might already have thses, would be speakers and monitors.

For me putting together the PC was easy, but I've been around them for many years. There are a lot of little screws and small connectors. If you choose to build it yourself, I would recommend reading all of the product documentation once over before starting to put things together. I tend to add the processor, heat sink, and memory to the motherboard before installing in the case. Then I install the power supply, video card, and motherboard in the case. At this point you should be able to get to the BIOS screen and verify everything is working. I then add in the hard drives,. DVD burners, etc.

Installing Vista is pretty straight forward. Be sure to install the drivers for your motherboard and RAID.

Hope this helps, feel free to ping me if you run into problems.

Roger

Bruce Hedge · January 29th, 2009, 11:10 AM

Thanks again. Confirmation helps on something new. I think I'm going to build it myself after I get my office moved and that should be by Feb 15. Best regards, Bruce Hedge, Boise

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roger Wilson

Bruce, this is very similar to the computer I just built, except that I have the EVGA motherboard and opted for a nVidia Quatro FX3700 video card. I've been very impressed with the Intel i7 processor.

The only things I see missing, and you might already have thses, would be speakers and monitors.

For me putting together the PC was easy, but I've been around them for many years. There are a lot of little screws and small connectors. If you choose to build it yourself, I would recommend reading all of the product documentation once over before starting to put things together. I tend to add the processor, heat sink, and memory to the motherboard before installing in the case. Then I install the power supply, video card, and motherboard in the case. At this point you should be able to get to the BIOS screen and verify everything is working. I then add in the hard drives,. DVD burners, etc.

Installing Vista is pretty straight forward. Be sure to install the drivers for your motherboard and RAID.

Hope this helps, feel free to ping me if you run into problems.

Roger

John Stakes · January 29th, 2009, 12:15 PM

I would also go with EVGA board, just personal preference. ASUS makes great boards too but I haven't been around since the Core 2 Duo era. If you build it yourself, be sure to get some anti-static wristbands.

JS

Jason Robinson · March 9th, 2009, 12:26 PM

That should be quite the monster system. I've been a system builder for 10+ years (PCs, workstations, rack mountable servers, etc) so I'd be happy to take a look and help out (if you haven't already built this system that is) on the build if you wanted another set of eyes.

Don't discount the importance of your case. Coolermaster has some good products but you should make sure your cables can reach where the HDD racks are. Some times the SATA headers are at the bottom, and the HDD racks are above the PSU, which means you might need non-stock SATA cables just to reach up there.

For that many HDDs, good airflow will be crucial to help keep things stable. I didn't check to see if the case used 120mm fans, but the bigger the fan, the quieter it will be.

Also, you didn't mention in this post what NLE you will be working with. If using a NLE that supports offloading of color processing to the GPU, then your 1GB ram car will be able to help out. If using a purely software based NLE, then consider saving money on the GPU and putting it towards nice displays (or just ... saving the money!).

Good luck with the build and give me a ring if you want any second opinions.

January 28th, 2009, 11:55 PM	#1
Bruce Hedge New Boot Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 11	Opinions appreciated... computer build I'm certainly not a computer designer, but this is what seems to me to be a solution for HD video editing. Intended purpose is for creating documentaries and infomercials from a lot of raw HD video. I had another thread regarding what to consider and received some great advice on it--thank you for those who contributed. I'd like to be as sure as possible that this is a good fit and that I'm not designing in a problem by overlooking something. Any opinions would be welcome, including on price. Also would it be unwise to attempt to build it myself although I've never built any computers before. Best regards, Bruce CUSTOM WORKSTATION, Quad-Core Core™ i7 COOLERMASTER, HAF 932 (RC-932-KKN1-GP) Black Tower Case, EATX, No PSU, Steel THERMALTAKE, Toughpower, 80 PLUS®, 850W Power Supply w/ Modularized Cable Management, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Quad +12V, Quad SLI Approved GIGABYTE, GA-EX58-UD5, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-2000MHz 24GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /10, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /3, ATX, Retail INTEL, Core™ i7-920 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, LGA1366, 6400 MT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail KINGSTON, 12GB (6 x 2GB) ValueRAM PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz CL7 (7-7-7) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC eVGA, GeForce GTX 280, GTX 280 602MHz, 1GB GDDR3 2214MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV Out, Retail WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB (WD1500HLFS) WD VelociRaptor™, SATA 3 Gb/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache WESTERN DIGITAL, 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5001AALS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache WESTERN DIGITAL, 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5001AALS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache RAID, RAID 0 (striping), min 2 hard drives required 3WARE, 9650SE-4LPML SATA II RAID Controller, 4 ports, Levels 0/1/10/5, 256MB DDR2 cache, PCIe x4, Full-height/Low-profile, Retail SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S223 Black 22x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, w/ Software, OEM MICROSOFT, Digital Media Keyboard 3000, Keybiard, Black, USB, Retail LOGITECH, SBF-96 Optical Mouse 400dpi, Black, PS/2, OEM MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM If assembled & Tested by a builder would be about $2900 with a warranty, Standard Service (3 Years Limited Parts, Lifetime Labor Warranty)

January 29th, 2009, 02:21 AM	#2
Roger Wilson Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Denver, CO, USA Posts: 85	Bruce, this is very similar to the computer I just built, except that I have the EVGA motherboard and opted for a nVidia Quatro FX3700 video card. I've been very impressed with the Intel i7 processor. The only things I see missing, and you might already have thses, would be speakers and monitors. For me putting together the PC was easy, but I've been around them for many years. There are a lot of little screws and small connectors. If you choose to build it yourself, I would recommend reading all of the product documentation once over before starting to put things together. I tend to add the processor, heat sink, and memory to the motherboard before installing in the case. Then I install the power supply, video card, and motherboard in the case. At this point you should be able to get to the BIOS screen and verify everything is working. I then add in the hard drives,. DVD burners, etc. Installing Vista is pretty straight forward. Be sure to install the drivers for your motherboard and RAID. Hope this helps, feel free to ping me if you run into problems. Roger

January 29th, 2009, 12:15 PM	#4
John Stakes Major Player Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 558	I would also go with EVGA board, just personal preference. ASUS makes great boards too but I haven't been around since the Core 2 Duo era. If you build it yourself, be sure to get some anti-static wristbands. JS

March 9th, 2009, 12:26 PM	#5
Jason Robinson Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Boise, Idaho Posts: 1,997	That should be quite the monster system. I've been a system builder for 10+ years (PCs, workstations, rack mountable servers, etc) so I'd be happy to take a look and help out (if you haven't already built this system that is) on the build if you wanted another set of eyes. Don't discount the importance of your case. Coolermaster has some good products but you should make sure your cables can reach where the HDD racks are. Some times the SATA headers are at the bottom, and the HDD racks are above the PSU, which means you might need non-stock SATA cables just to reach up there. For that many HDDs, good airflow will be crucial to help keep things stable. I didn't check to see if the case used 120mm fans, but the bigger the fan, the quieter it will be. Also, you didn't mention in this post what NLE you will be working with. If using a NLE that supports offloading of color processing to the GPU, then your 1GB ram car will be able to help out. If using a purely software based NLE, then consider saving money on the GPU and putting it towards nice displays (or just ... saving the money!). Good luck with the build and give me a ring if you want any second opinions.