Video card recomendations with CS5

[Scott Chichelli]

HI Jay,
your pricing is pretty much dead on. and while i am all about saving money for clients i have to question having to be concerned about $50

for a few $ more he can have a considerably faster system.
for me the X58 platform is dead unless doing heavy animation (6/12 core vs 4/8)

FYI the 950 and 960 are pretty much the same price as well..

Scott
ADK

[Jay West]

I agree that a I7/2600k system is preferable for a budget system if all other things are equal.

They may not be equal.

Anyway, Terry cannot go wrong with either CPU. The actual difference in actual PPro CS5 editing performance between and I7/950 and an I7/2600k --- again, Terry, remember that "k" --- is far less than, say, the difference between working in CS5 with an I7 and working in CS5 with AMD processor. Whether the economics of a tight budget favors the 950 over a 2600k is something that can vary from week to week and from vendor to vendor.

For example, it would seems that an I7/950 mobo bundle should cost less than an I7/2600k simply because the I7/950 CPU costs less (at least this week) than the i7/2600k CPU costs. However, bundle pricing may be different. Maybe Terry can get an I7/2600k bundle for the same as or less than or close to the price of his i7/950 bundle? In those cases, the I7/2600k would be the better buy.

Assuming, of course, that the mobos included in bundles would be a good buy. If the reviews/customer comments show a lot of problems with the mobo included in the bundle, then that deal is "a bad deal" and should be avoided. You might find "good" I7/2600k bundles are less than "good" I7/950 bundles or vice versa.

My point about the $50 came because Terry seems to be working with a very tight budget. One thing that jumps out at me is that Terry is buying the absolute minimum amount of RAM. He says he wants to edit DLSR footage from his T2i and will be using an external drive for his media files. If his external drive is a USB drive, I think he will get more benefit from adding an internal SATA drive for media than he gets by paying extra to move from an I7/950-X58 system to an I7/2600k-1155 system. (But, it may be that he does not need to pay extra, though?) If his external drive is an e-Sata, he may till get more of what he wants from CS5.5 by adding another internal SATA drive.

If he has to make that kind of choice. Maybe he does not. Maybe the economics go the other way when he looks at "Sandybridge" bundles?

[Terry Lee]

Hey Jay, Sorry it took me so long to get back to you..

I do have an external drive with eSATA. I also have an internal that runs 7200rpm, though its 500gb.. But I did that to RAID 0 two 500gb drives. So another matching drive is in the budget as well. This was all bought with attention to future planning...I had to finance running off to another country for awhile and just now got back to my system.

You're right. My budget is tight..but I am making it that way on purpose, bassically to get this kind of dialogue going to see what IS usable..and what is not. So far, we have been discussing some very usefull things to consider when building an editing system. I could have just posted that I wanted to build an editing system, what do I need? and everyone would have posted a long list of hardware and not explain why I need it...this way..we get an explination to boot. Which I very much appreciate you taking the time to do!

Right now I am behind the scene of everything I want to do..I am a loan wolf. Have been that way from day one simply because I have no one in a 100 mile radius that has any interest in film what so ever...or even any ambition to do anything other than work a factory and play house with some girl (haha). Only kidding...

Needless to say, I am moving. Probably going to be in a location near a film school (New York Film Academy), though everyone says film school is a waste of money when you could do it yourself. But I find that not aplicable in my situation since I can't do a thing without other people. So bassically i'm going for the connections. But for right now, I have to do something...so shooting what I can to build a portfolio is all I can think of..

Without a working editing system, I can't do a thing. I have the camera, I have the mics, I have built dollys (good ones not pvc home depo weekend projects) and I even built a 12' crane that is still in the works.

Anyway...back to the editing system...(sorry I went on a long rant)

The difference between the i7 950 and the i7-2600k bundle is $50 correct?
i7-2600k http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...459&CatId=6982

i7 950 MSI X58M Motherboard and Intel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 Bundle at TigerDirect.com

With the GT 440 - $80

2x corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 sticks of ram - $65

and another HD - $80

I am looking at $675 total with the i7 2600k set up..

[Jay West]

1. An I7-950 is definitely very "usable." My system is an I7/950, ASUS P6T Dv2 mobo, 12 gb RAM, GTX260. An I7-2600k would be "better" -- and probably $50 better --- simply because you will get more out of your 8 gb of RAM with it (faster encoding, etc.) The Tiger Direct page indicates that both bundles are overclock-capable ("unlocked"). Both come with ASUS boards and most ASUS boards have an "AI" function which enables some mild, automatic overclocking. Either way, the stock configuration of either bundle will be suitable for what you want to do.

2. 500 gb is fine for a system drive.

3. Do I understand that you want to combine your existing 500 gb system drive with a second SATA drive to make a RAID 0? Don't do it. Under no circumstances should you put your system functions on a RAID 0 that you will use for anything else. Actually, there is no reason for you to build a RAID 0 unless you are going to add two drives. There is no real benefit to be gained from having your system run from a RAID 0. As a practically matter, it would not speed things up to any noticeable degree and would not be worth the hassle. As others have explained, using a RAID 0 for both a system drive and media editing creates a bad bottleneck that seriously slows down your system to the point of being unusable for editing. Far better to simply add a second internal SATA drive. A Raid 0 could be worthwhile if you left your system drive as is and added two more SATA drives and made the RAID 0 out of them. If you added two 500 gb SATA iii drives, you would have a 1 TB RAID 0 with significantly greater throughput and a noticeable increase in speed. You could render from that out to the e-SATA drive for your DVDs or HD files. For what you are doing, and with your budget, you are better off adding an internal SATA drive and using it in combination with your e-SATA drive for the media files.

4. I'm guessing that you will be using the same computer case. Most video cards (including your GT440) are pretty long compared to what used to be common. Check the measurements and case space to make sure it will fit your current case when you get the new motherboard installed.

[Terry Lee]

Thanks alot Jay!

[Terry Lee]

Hey 2 more questions if I still have your attention..

Can I mix PC ratings of ram? like 10666 with 12800... I am sure the answer is no but I thought i'd ask anyway..

Also..Do I need to have CS4 installed on my computer to upgrade to CS5? or do I even need CS4 to purchase the upgrade?

Thanks!

[Jay West]

1. Can you mix? In theory, yes, but you probably should not mess with this. It is possible assuming the two types have the same operating specs and settings (e.g., voltages, CAS Latency, etc.) The computer should throttle down to the lowest stick's capabilities. In theory. As a practical matter, the mixing you asked about can be a can of ever moving and shifting worms. You might actually wind up slowing things down and diminishing capacity in undesirable ways.

2. CS4 does not need to be installed for installing an upgrader's version of 5 or 5.5. CS5 and 5.5 are each a major install. They do not overwrite prior CS versions. Instead, they install alongside the prior versions. In theory, one could have and run CS 2, 3, 4, and 5 after installing 5.5.

You will need to have your CS4 serial numbers etc. to hand because an upgrade version will ask for them during installation. If you have a boxed disk set for CS4, the numbers will be on the case. If you have a download version of CS4, check your Adobe e-mails or go to the Adobe web site and log-on on to your "My Account" to find the numbers.

[Terry Lee]

Well I had a downloaded version...of which I thought would have been fine..but apparently Adobe doesn't think so and is asking for verification of which I do not have..All I had was a burnt CD that someone installed on my computer for me. It worked just fine..untill I did a reformat.

[Jay West]

I'm a little confused about your situation. I gather you have hit on something distressing, but I'm not quite sure what it is that got formatted and why you cannot log-on to Adobe's web site and find your serial numbers.

Is this a case where you completely reformatted your existing system drive so you can no longer call up CS4? (If you could call up CS4, you find your old serial number). Did you, maybe, decide to do a clean install of Win 7 for moving to CS 5.5, and completely wipe out your system disk? And, you do not have make any back-ups that you could use to restore your previous OS and applications? (If I'm wrong, then you have some obvious solutions such as restoring your previous installation and copying the serial numbers before starting over.)

Or, is this a situation where you had somebody build you a computer and had them install and activate everything, including CS4, and then, at some later time, you had to reinstall everything but cannot do it now? If that is the case, this should not be a problem. Your copy should have been activated on your computer and registered to you. even if somebody else did it, Adobe will have an online record of serial downloads and serial numbers. If your installed registered it to themselves, you can have them do this, You go to Adobe's site, go to "my account" (creating a log-on and account if you haven't already done so), and check into orders to find out the serial number for your copy of CS4. If somebody else did the activation and registration for you, you may need to have them do this for you or provide you with the serial number and activation key.

Or, did you reformat on the DVD with the CS4 install files? If so, this does not matter unless you are trying to reinstall CS4. In that case, you will need the install activation info from Adobe's "my account" if your installer did not write it down for you. It does not matter that somebody else downloaded the CS4 software. If your copy is registered to somebody else, you will need to have them change ownership to you. Unless the DVD was a mirror image of your Adobe files, the install files on a DVD will not have the information that CS5.5 needs to properly install. The activation key/serial number should have been written on the CD/DVD you have or else you need to retreive it from whoever installed it for you or from Adobe itself.

In the meantime, I gather that 5.5 will give you a fully functional 30-day trial period so you can be working as you try to straighten things out.

[Terry Lee]

Hey Jay, Sorry for the late reply...I hadn't seen your reply until now.

I purchased the GT440, 8gb of ram and the i7 2600K. Everything works great. However...

Apparently I had a "pirated" copy of CS4 master collection. I had my friend install the program on my computer but come to find out he used a CD Key loader... Therefore I do not have a CD key. I am a little confused on what my options are now because I think that the program is legit..but I just do not have a CD key. I have the program saved on my external.

[Jay West]

I still am not clear about what has happened. You copied something to your external drive. Did you copy the CS4 downloadable installation files or did you copy an actual installation? If your external drive has the installed files, can you still run your CS4?

If you still have a functioning copy of CS4, you should be able to find the product key by clicking "Help-->about." If you still have your previous operating system installed someplace, you can probably find the product key in the Windows registry. (If your a leery of going into the old registry, google for software to recover product keys from the registry. There are several free or testable programs out there.)

I am mystified by your saying that your "friend" provided a a "legitimate" copy of CS4 but used a "key loader." A "legitimate" copy could be downloaded from Adobe's web site. The download is indeed Adobe's program and "legit" in that sense. However, until you have an Adobe product key, you have only a demo version and it functions for for only 30 days. If your friend gave you a hacked product key that bypassed Adobe's activation and registration process, you do not qualify for the upgrade version of CS5 and you will not be able to install it.

If your friend's CD Key Loader hacked activation, your choices are: (a) buy a legit copy of CS 5.5, maybe even just the PPro package (which is PPro and Encore) or (b) buy something else that is less expensive such as Vegas or Edius.

[Jay West]

Oh, and one other option. If you are enrolled in a college or university, you probably qualify for educational discounts which can be as much as 80% off list price. See, for example,

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Student and Teacher Editions

[Terry Lee]

...Yeah..So what i'm saying is that its a legit copy..he just used a CD Key Loader to bypas it. I thought he had a legit CD key and everything so I was just going to upgrade from there. But I guess I can't.

[Andrew Smith]

Not much of a friend, when you think about it.

Andrew