Please advise on $2500 PC for videowork

[glasseye]

Dale, thanks for your contribution, but why would I want to put windows and software on the highest performance disk? I would've thought it was the least important of the 3 drives:
•Windows, programs, music, photos, general personal stuff
•Media, captured video, audio, DVD files, project savefiles
•Scratch disk for temp files, preview files, renders etc

Thankyou also Mooseman, but there's something about the single mouse button and way everything I want to control is hidden away behind a pretty face, and is incompatible with everything.. eugh macs. Plus pricey I think...

 

[diabloII]

Case/psu of your preference (i'd suggest any Lian Li case and thermaltake 680w is it's 20 pin or an OCZ powerstream 600w if it's 24pin)
Intel 8xx Dual Core
Abit mobos are nice, but anything else will do
2gb DDR2 ram (is 3 or 4 needed? i know 2 is)
2x 74GB WD raptors in RAID0
2x Seagate 160GB SATA id RAID1
2x NEC 3510A dvd-rw (or one if you don't need two)
workstation gfx card
sound card (m-audio???)

 

[Dell XPS]

A little over budget. but this system will fly.

Case

Lian Li Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Case, Model "PC-V1200" -RETAIL

$195.50 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-112-055&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

CD/DVD Burners (RW Drives)

NEC Black 16X DVD+/-R DVD Burner support Dual Layer, Model ND-3520A BK, OEM

$50.99 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-152-035&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Hard Drives

STORAGE
One Day Sale, Ends 4/19/2005 5:30 PM PST
Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD2500JD, OEM Drive Only

2X $262.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-154&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

SYSTEM
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only

$178.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-160&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Memory

Kingston ValueRAM 184-Pin 1GB ECC Registered DDR PC-3200 - Retail

2X $471.34
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-431&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Motherboard

INTEL "SE7505VB2" E7505 Chipset Server Motherboard for Dual Intel Xeon CPU -RETAIL

$359.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-121-178&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

PSU
Antec 550W Power Supply, Model "TRUE550" - Retail

$95.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-910&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Processors

Intel Xeon 3.2EA GHz with EMT 64, 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology (active heatsink) - Retail
Item# N82E16819117027

2X $758.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-117-027&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Video Card

ATI FGL 9700 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, Dual DVI, 8X AGP, Model "FireGL X1" -RETAIL

$499.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-278&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

Product total: $2,865.83

All in all this system will fly with no lag when video encoding, etc. It's a little over your budget but you will love it.

 

[glasseye]

Cripes! Thanks DellXPS, I don't think you saw the URL in my topic though, it linked to my plans that I wanted critiqued! It's not a million miles from the system you reccomended.. I'd love you to check out what I've planned so far and tell me what you think

 

[Dell XPS]

sorry glasseye! ididnt see it. well, dual XEON processor would be good *cough* intel fanboy *cough*. But i think only 2 maxtor drives would be sufficient for your video encoding. a 10,000rpm raptor would give you excellent performance for your OS and Adobe. or you can get 2 120gb hardrives in raid 0 and you'll have about the same performance with more space. Video card is up to you. i only put that one down because its a professional vid card that gives you stability,etc.

good luck!

 

[dale5605]

The reason you want the faster drives to run your programs is because they will benefit the most from running on faster drives. I mean isn't it more important that your critical programs are accessed on the much faster hard drives?
For your other things having a faster hard drive just means it opens up faster, eh so what.

But look the 2 X 74GB gives you like 140gb of space. So jsut putr your OS and programs and your commonly used files/active projects on there so thye benefit from the speed. Then back up anything critical into the RAID 1 array and use that for your "cold storage". That way the stuff in those drives will be protected somewhat because it is on a RAID 1.

 

[glasseye]

I would have thought the most critical thing to have on the fastest disk would be the enormous media files, so I can 'scrub' through video in Premiere, and work with image files and audio on it really fast. That's why I was going to put the 2 diamondmax10s in RAID0 for that. I could use Raptors for that, but I think 140gb is pretty limiting. You think windows and the applications themselves need to be run off a superfast disk? I don't mind waiting a while for them to open up if I can put the pennies elsewhere you know..

 

[Apokalipse]

Tyan dual socket 940 motehrboard $419
Tyan has the best motherboard architecture. this one has AGP 8x also, so you can use a good video card

2x AMD Opteron 248 CPU's $882 ($441 x 2)
these CPU's are already 2-way, so you will get 4 virtual processors

BFG 6800 GT 256MB $395
you won't have any problems with this video card. it comes stock overclocked too.

Kingston 2x512MB ECC PC3200 RAM $118
socket 940 CPU's require ECC RAM

Seagate 200GB IDE HDD $79 each
Seagate make a quality hard drive. get a few of these, put 2 in a Raid 0 and you will have 400GB of fast storage

 

[glasseye]

Mmm Opterons. So how do those chips compare to a MP2800+ ? Are they worth paying more than twice as much for? and would II have the issue with windows where I have to pay loads extra for a special license permitting more than 2 processors?

That Seagate isn't SATA! Do you think 2x 250gbMaxtorDimondMax10 in RAID0 would be good?

 

[Apokalipse]

Opterons are the server version of the Athlon 64
Athlon MP's are the server version of Athlon XP's

they are a newer generation, designed for raw power

*edit*
you can get SATA Seagate's, I would recommend Seagate or Western Digital over Maxtor - Seagate is my preference, because they are also very quiet, and probabbly better designed for SATA.
and yes, go for a Raid 0

here are some Seagate hard drives, they have 40, 80, 120, 160, 200, 250, 300 and even 400GB drives