Best Performing PC system for Editing?

[Paul Kepen]

I've read several conflicting test reports. It seems everyone agrees that having a dualcore is a definite plus, but are you better off with the Intel or the AMD? Or better with the Xeon or the Opteron? Are Xeon or Opterons availabel with dual cores? On Tom's ardware I've read a test where the AMD 4800x3 beat the Intel 830 in test with Pinnacle Studio. I read another comparison on Tom's Hardware of the Intel 840EE vs AMD 4800X2. The AMD was superior in several areas, but on the DIVIXX encoding test the Intel took 30min vs 130min for the AMD. I currently have a 3+ year old AMD Athlon2000. It works good still for most things, and video editing isn't too bad, but encoding takes forevvvvver. I'm looking at moving tp HDV in the next year or so, but I need something better for DV right now. Any and all opinions welcomed. Thanks

[Kevin Shaw]

If you want maximum performance your best bet is two dual-core processors, which gives you four physical processors in one computer. Intel just announced their dual-core Xeons and AMD has been shipping dual-core Opterons for a while now, so we'll soon be seeing performance and pricing comparisons between these options.

If you want the best "bang for the buck," the Intel Pentium D 830 and Athlon X2 3800 are arguably your best current choices. I'm using the 830 and it's pretty good for both HDV editing and MPEG2 encoding, but now I'm looking forward to the dual dual-core option. You'll need all the processing power you can afford when it comes to dealing with HDV.

[Paul Kepen]

Thanks Kevin. Newegg usually has good deals for pc parts, but they don't seem to get into Xeon and Opteron processors and particularly motherboards. Where would you recommed (web site) looking for these. Also any special differences from standard pc's; ie. type of ram, video drivers/boards, compatibility issues, etc? I've built my pc's myself for the past 12 years or so, but I must admit, I haven't kept up on pc changes the last few years. I don't have a raid configuration now, just dual ide drives, but I will be using sata drives in the new machine (I have 2 new 250g SATA's sitting here-just waiting. Plan to get 2 more). In a raid do they all have to be the same size, make, and model # drive to work? Thanks for your help!

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Paul Kepen

In a raid do they all have to be the same size, make, and model # drive to work? Thanks for your help!

If you want to tempt fate you try differences between the drives!! The accepted wisdom regarding RAID arrays, is to have drives of EXACTLY the same specifications and preferably brand.

SATA RAID arrays aren't as flexible as SCSI arrays, but for performance you're always better of with RAID level 0. If you have more than 2 drives in the RAID array; you can consider adding redundancy.

I prefer going for the performance so it's RAID-0 as far as I'm concerned!!

[Thomas Smet]

There is always the method I like for encoding where I buy a seperate cheap system and use a switch to share the keyboard, monitor and mouse with my main system. This allows you to encode your video on another system while you can edit on your main system. While encoding on it's own may not be faster it does allow you to do 2 things at once. You can have the fastest 8 cpu opteron board but you still will be able to do anything else while that system is encoding or recording back to tape. In the case of recording to tape no system will make that any faster.

Having 2 or more systems will give you a huge speed boost if you do lots of stuff at the same time not to mention it could be a lot cheaper than buying one huge beast of a system.

I am setting up a system to do this right now. Instead of paying $4,000.00 for a killer system I am building 4 pretty good systems for $1,000 each. For the same price I will have a capture/print to tape station, DVD authoring station, edit station and graphics and animation station. I will be able to capture a 3 hour tape, encode a 2 hour DVD, edit a project and render some 3D animation from Lightwave all at the same time. That is something that $4,000.00 system would never be able to do.

All of the systems will share external SATA hard drives that can be swapped back and forth.

[Paul Kepen]

Thanks Everyone. Thomas, that is a very interesting idea. I don't know if I have the room, nor could I stand the heat being thrown off of 4 machines.
Back to my previous questions:
1. Does everyone agree to go PC vs MAC?
2. Who carries parts (motherboards, etc.) that support
multiple dual core processors?
3. Am I correct that Intels "hyperthreading" makes each
core function like 2 cores, ie. a dual core Pentium/Xeon
with hyperthreading would function like 4 processors,
while AMD doesn't have hyperthread, so a AMD
X2 dual core functions as 2 cores?

Thanks again for helping to bring me up to speed :)

[Paul Kepen]

Ok, I'm stupid, I'll admit. I did find these dual processor mobo at newegg under "server." I was looking nder motherboards:)

[George Ellis]

Originally Posted by Paul Kepen

Ok, I'm stupid, I'll admit. I did find these dual processor mobo at newegg under "server." I was looking nder motherboards:)

No you are not. Newegg has been stupid for putting workstation boards under server mobos. It has always annoyed me. :D