Video editing workstation

Got a shopping cart of parts that you want opinions on? Get advice from members on your planned or existing system (or upgrade).

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:36 am

I'm building a video editing workstation for a friend, and I've tried my best to make a perfect system for him. The aim was to get a Mac Pro Hex-Core like computer for half the price.

I've based the system around Puget System's Genesis, with some modifications where I found appropriate. The prices are in GBP.

Asus X79-DELUXE - 251
Intel 4930K - 415
Kingston 16gb ram - 112
EVGA 760 - 199
250GB Samsung 840 EVO - 105
Fractal Design Define R4 - 79
Seasonic X 650W - 108
Cooler Master Hyper 412S - 27
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 60
Seagate 7200.14 2TB x 2 - 126
wd 4tb green - 120
arctic mx4 - 4

total 1606 GBP

The hard drives would be SSD for OS, 2x2TB 7200 RPM for editing, 1x4TB WD Green for backups.

Can you tell me if there is something which you'd change or which is not compatible with the rest?

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Mar 13, 2014 11:34 am

Staying within this budget, I'd replace the 2 x 7200 HDDs with another SSD. Have one SSD for OS and apps and another for the scratch disk. Then use the Green for storage.

Is there a reason for the GTX 760 class gfx card? While many video editors can make use of the GPU for acceleration, there seems to be very little benefit past the lower end discrete cards. Puget has a couple of articles on this. Consider dropping down to the GTX 750 Ti, if not the GTX 750 and use the savings toward faster/bigger SSD and maybe replace the Coolermaster with a Mugen 4.

RAM: make sure it clears whatever cooler you go with.

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Thu Mar 13, 2014 11:48 am

CA_Steve wrote:Staying within this budget, I'd replace the 2 x 7200 HDDs with another SSD. Have one SSD for OS and apps and another for the scratch disk. Then use the Green for storage.

Is there a reason for the GTX 760 class gfx card? While many video editors can make use of the GPU for acceleration, there seems to be very little benefit past the lower end discrete cards. Puget has a couple of articles on this. Consider dropping down to the GTX 750 Ti, if not the GTX 750 and use the savings toward faster/bigger SSD and maybe replace the Coolermaster with a Mugen 4.

RAM: make sure it clears whatever cooler you go with.
I choose the GTX 760 because of this article / reference guide:
http://ppbm7.com/index.php/tweakers-pag ... -pc-to-use

It recommends balanced systems between CPU - GPU and recommends a 760 to go with the 4930K.

The HDDs are an absolute must as with today's hacked DSLRs the space literally vanishes as soon as you start shooting. The SSD has no actual use in a video editing workstation, unless you invest in say a 1TB Samsung EVO, which can store enough material for a few small projects.

The Kingston RAMs are small, they won't have a problem, I hope. I think the weak part now is the cooler, I'm considering a Mugen 4 / M4 PCGH / Noctua D14-2011. The Noctua seems huge and very expensive, which one do you recommend?

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:34 pm

Read the article and understand about balance - too bad they didn't back it up with benchmarks to show the tradeoffs - or maybe it's behind the paywall.

Are you planning to OC this CPU?

Mugen 4 vs Mugen 4 PCGH: You tradeoff 1 PWM fan for 2 voltage controlled fans with max 800rpm. You'll get a few degrees cooler with the dual with the tradeoff of the single PWM will idle down to silent.

Noctua - take a look at the NH-U14S rather than the other. That said, the Mugen is better.

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:48 pm

CA_Steve wrote:Read the article and understand about balance - too bad they didn't back it up with benchmarks to show the tradeoffs - or maybe it's behind the paywall.

Are you planning to OC this CPU?

Mugen 4 vs Mugen 4 PCGH: You tradeoff 1 PWM fan for 2 voltage controlled fans with max 800rpm. You'll get a few degrees cooler with the dual with the tradeoff of the single PWM will idle down to silent.

Noctua - take a look at the NH-U14S rather than the other. That said, the Mugen is better.
Here is some more information about the video cards on that page, but it's a weird website I have to agree:
http://ppbm7.com/index.php/tweakers-pag ... ed-systems

I might OC the CPU a tiny bit but I might just leave it at stock, I'll see when I have the system. Thanks for the Mugen 4, I think I'll go with the single fan version!

For the VGA, the cost is so small between a 760 and say a 750 Ti that there is no point sparing on that part, as I'm not planning on changing the VGA. The RAM can be upgraded to 64 GB, more HDD can be added as well, so I prefer to go with the 760 for now.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:02 pm

zsero wrote:EVGA 760 - 199


It's probably one of the loudest GTX 760 around, personally I'd look at a different brand (maybe ASUS or MSI).
Moreover I second CA_Steve advice to downgrade the graphics card: and with reference to that, if the video editing sw may benefit of a workstation-class graphics, I would also consider a FirePro V4900 with a passive Arctic Cooling S1 Plus on it.

zsero wrote:Seasonic X 650W - 108


Due to the expected power draw, you may rather a PSU sporting a fan controller with a less aggressive profile.

zsero wrote:Cooler Master Hyper 412S - 27


IMO it doesn't look like up to the task of taming an hexa-core (I own it).
Moreover it has a 3-pin voltage controlled fan, so check if the proposed mobo can control it (otherwise you have to rely onto some software control).

zsero wrote:Seagate 7200.14 2TB x 2 - 126


Unless there's something video-related that I don't know, the Seagate SV35 is quieter than the Barracudas, more reliable, and probably even more performing.
Last edited by quest_for_silence on Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:15 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
zsero wrote:Seasonic X 650W - 108


Due to the expected power draw, you may rather a PSU sporting a fan controller with a less aggressive profile.

I choose it for the reliability, and even during rendering I don't think this system will use more than 250W of power, so it would still be in the <50% for this PSU.

zsero wrote:Cooler Master Hyper 412S - 27


IMO it doesn't look like up to the task of taming an hexa-core (I own it).
Moreover it has a 3-pin voltage controlled fan, so check if the proposed mobo can control it (otherwise you have to rely onto some software control).

I'm going with the Mugen 4 now.

zsero wrote:Seagate 7200.14 2TB x 2 - 126


Unless there's something video-related that I don't know, the Seagate SV35 is quieter than the Barracudas, more reliable, and probably more performing.
I think all HDDs are quite unreliable and backing up overnight is a must with any kind of HDD. Are you sure it's more performing? SV35 seems to be aimed at WD Red, which is a 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm for the Barracuda.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:27 pm

zsero wrote:I choose it for the reliability, and even during rendering I don't think this system will use more than 250W of power, so it would still be in the <50% for this PSU.


Check the SPCR review, the fan controller is either temperature and load based, so that lots of PSUs offer better noise levels at 250W (and up).
And about reliability, there's still lot of PSUs equally or more reliable than that Seasonic: it's a very good PSU, indeed, but it's not the best candidate for the role.

zsero wrote:I think all HDDs are quite unreliable


Not all HDDs are created equal: the SV35 is more reliable, period.

zsero wrote:Are you sure it's more performing? SV35 seems to be aimed at WD Red, which is a 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm for the Barracuda.


The Seagate counterpart of WD Red is called NAS, check the SPCR review.
And check the Seagate datasheet also, the SV35 is a 7200rpm drive.

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:30 pm

OK, thanks I'll go with the SV35 then. Can you recommend me a good and reliable PSU for this build? Puget puts Seagate X in all their systems and they do ship quite a few, hence why my preference.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:47 pm

zsero wrote:For the VGA, the cost is so small between a 760 and say a 750 Ti that there is no point sparing on that part, as I'm not planning on changing the VGA. The RAM can be upgraded to 64 GB, more HDD can be added as well, so I prefer to go with the 760 for now.


Aside that usually the 750Ti IS NOT so close to 760 pricing (around 110 vs around 180 in UK), but the 750Ti draw less than half the power of a 760: so less heat dumped into the case, and less overall noise.

Please do not forget also that the proposed EVGA is a bit noisy.

zsero wrote:OK, thanks I'll go with the SV35 then. Can you recommend me a good and reliable PSU for this build?


The usual SPCR "favourites" (along with the Seasonic): the BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10, the various Super Flower Leadex and King (Gold or Platinum, you can find it under several brand, like the EVGA SuperNOVA), the Enermax Platimax.

The Cooler Master Vanguard series (Seasonic KM3-based, like the X-650) would seem to sport a different fan controller, more "gentle", but YMMV.
Anyway, if you rather to stick with a Seasonic platform, I guess you'd better to go with a fanless one (there are also Super Flower fanless PSUs).

On a slightly lower level, the Corsair RM-series, Super Flower Golden Green and BeQuiet E9 are viable (and cheaper) alternatives.

markanini
Posts: 163
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:59 am
Location: Malmo, Sweden

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by markanini » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:01 pm

The 750ti will have enough juice for rendering all standard formats:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1477339/so-yo ... t_23512510
Chances are you'll want to upgrade the GPU anyway once GPU powered processing gets more common but right now it's kind a small niche AFAIK.

tim851
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:45 am
Location: 128.0.0.1

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by tim851 » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:00 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Not all HDDs are created equal: the SV35 is more reliable, period.
Citation?

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:19 am

markanini wrote:The 750ti will have enough juice for rendering all standard formats:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1477339/so-yo ... t_23512510
Chances are you'll want to upgrade the GPU anyway once GPU powered processing gets more common but right now it's kind a small niche AFAIK.
Thanks, but this is for MadVR HTPC usage, which is totally unrelated to Premier Pro processing.

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:23 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Aside that usually the 750Ti IS NOT so close to 760 pricing (around 110 vs around 180 in UK), but the 750Ti draw less than half the power of a 760: so less heat dumped into the case, and less overall noise.
Please do not forget also that the proposed EVGA is a bit noisy.
OK, I agree there is no point going above 750 / 750 Ti, and a 760 is more loud. But the real reason is that once spend 1.6k to build such a beast machine, you might want to play some games from time to time, occasionally. In this regard, a 760 is a better choice :-)

Also, I'm looking at this card:
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked ACX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DMB6D8W

The ACX is supposed to have a better cooler, is it right?

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by Abula » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:33 am

zsero wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:Aside that usually the 750Ti IS NOT so close to 760 pricing (around 110 vs around 180 in UK), but the 750Ti draw less than half the power of a 760: so less heat dumped into the case, and less overall noise.
Please do not forget also that the proposed EVGA is a bit noisy.
OK, I agree there is no point going above 750 / 750 Ti, and a 760 is more loud. But the real reason is that once spend 1.6k to build such a beast machine, you might want to play some games from time to time, occasionally. In this regard, a 760 is a better choice :-)

Also, I'm looking at this card:
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked ACX 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DMB6D8W

The ACX is supposed to have a better cooler, is it right?
If you are bulding a quiet setup, I would skip on EVGA, nothing bad on them, as a matter of fact, they are pretty good in terms of cooling and overclocking, and their warranty and rma are good. But in terms of noise there are better options, I would chose the msi tein frozr line over evga in all cards, N750ti (Gtx750ti), N760 (GTX760) or if you want more gpu power N770 (GTX770) or N780ti (GTX780ti).

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:41 am

Abula wrote:If you are bulding a quiet setup, I would skip on EVGA, nothing bad on them, as a matter of fact, they are pretty good in terms of cooling and overclocking, and their warranty and rma are good. But in terms of noise there are better options, I would chose the msi tein frozr line over evga in all cards, N750ti (Gtx750ti), N760 (GTX760) or if you want more gpu power N770 (GTX770) or N780ti (GTX780ti).
This build doesn't actually need to be so quiet, it'll be used in an office environment. OK, quiet in SPCR forums has quite a different meaning to quiet in general offices :-) I know, I went crazy because on electric whine / noise once I've silenced my system at home, but this is an office environment, no worries here.

Also I'd never go with MSI for a videocard, GPUs love dying all the time and a good RMA process is more important the any cooler for me.

markanini
Posts: 163
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:59 am
Location: Malmo, Sweden

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by markanini » Fri Mar 14, 2014 5:07 am

zsero wrote: Thanks, but this is for MadVR HTPC usage, which is totally unrelated to Premier Pro processing.
Premier doesn't render using the GPU?

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Mar 14, 2014 5:30 am

tim851 wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:Not all HDDs are created equal: the SV35 is more reliable, period.
Citation?


Well, I would point you out the relevant product manuals, Tim, but AFAIK Seagate does not publish comprehensive and easily readable reliability data for current generation drives, as it did before.

At any rate, with reference to the immediately previous generation, the MTBF was 750,000hrs @ 27% duty cycle for the Barracudas, and >1,000,000hrs @ 100% duty cycle for the SV35s.

Finally, the SV35s have higher temperature ratings and sport a 3yrs manufacturer warranty, while the Barracudas a 2yrs warranty: I have no evidence to suspect that something has radically changed with regard to those differences between the two series.

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Fri Mar 14, 2014 5:47 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Not all HDDs are created equal: the SV35 is more reliable, period.
If something we know the opposite from BackBlaze:
Enterprise Drives: Fact or Fiction?
What Hard Drive Should I Buy?

andymcca
Posts: 404
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:19 am
Location: Boston, MA, USA

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by andymcca » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:46 am

zsero wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:Not all HDDs are created equal: the SV35 is more reliable, period.
If something we know the opposite from BackBlaze:
Enterprise Drives: Fact or Fiction?
What Hard Drive Should I Buy?
Those results are interesting, but: 17 drive failures when drives are being bought in bins is hardly significant. And, if anything, it brings into question Dell/EMC's sourcing of drives, burn-in policy, etc. (Note that Backblaze states that they buy drives for their own machines, but buy prebuilt servers containing the enterprise drives.) I don't see any reference to average age of drive at death (bathtub reliability curve applies, and how old were the drives at the start of this 8-month data window?) From a reliability engineering standpoint, that article has very little useful information, and no significant results. (Again, interesting to see, though.)

Edit: This is not to say that I'm defending enterprise drives. I'm a strong proponent of doing everything on RAID 1 or 5. Unfortunately, Windows does not have good RAID support, and sub-$300 RAID hardware seems scary as hell to me -- Can you get your data if the controller breaks? Single point of failure.
On Linux, mdadm is amazing for reliability on a budget.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:53 am

zsero wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:Not all HDDs are created equal: the SV35 is more reliable, period.
If something we know the opposite from BackBlaze:
Enterprise Drives: Fact or Fiction?
What Hard Drive Should I Buy?

The BackBlaze survey (already discussed here, as you may know) is really interesting, but also nothing definitive to any purposes: they run consumer drives (rated 2400hrs/year) but 24/7 (8760hrs/year), in a highly vibrating environment... so what?
Not to mention that after realizing such an high AFR for Seagate, what they lend to buy? More and more Seagates.
IME the only drives which really disappointed me in an office environment were the infamous IBM DTLAs a very long while ago.

With reference to your needs, nowadays the SV35 are more probably that not the quietest 7200rpm consumer (it's not an enterprise drive: the Seagate ones are the several Constellation series) drive available: the SV35s have also the highest industry reliability ratings (higher than the Barracudas), and they're also fast (not less than the Barracudas: the previous SV35.5 was a lot faster than the coeval Barracuda, but now I can't confirm that for the contemporary series). If that's enough for you, pick a pair of them.

If you want noticeably noisier drives, but "BackBlaze approved" (whatever that may mean in relation to your actual needs), pick a pair of Hitachi or WD 7200rpm drives.

The same it goes for the EVGA videocard: if you want a quieter GTX 760 go for a MSI Twin Frozr III, an ASUS DirectCU-II, even a Gigabyte WindForce 3X, because any EVGA (even the ACX-equipped one) is substantially more noticeable than those ones (not to mention that very often the idle noise can't be lowered with Nvidia cards, even if EVGA may release some modified vBIOS to address the issue as it did in the past).

If you rather to get rid of the "quietness" requirement for any subjective or not reason, well, pick that EVGA: my somewhat educated guess is that probably you'd better not to ask to that system to be quieter than a MacPro, but who am I to make you unhappy?

Cheers, Luca

zsero
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:51 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by zsero » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:59 am

quest_for_silence wrote:If you rather to get rid of the "quietness" requirement for any subjective or not reason, well, pick that EVGA: my somewhat educated guess is that probably you'd better not to ask to that system to be quieter than a MacPro, but who am I to make you unhappy?
I never wanted to make it quieter than a Mac Pro, I'm building it because it's half the price.
I want a card which has good RMA policy in Europe, and it's not something which most brands can say - EVGA being an exception.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:09 am

zsero wrote:I never wanted to make it quieter than a Mac Pro


But here you are on SPCR, you know: you shouldn't ask to us to make a rig less quiet than it could be.

zsero wrote:it's not something which most brands can say - EVGA being an exception.


I guess that's a gratuitous statement.

bonestonne
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:10 pm
Location: Northern New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by bonestonne » Fri Mar 14, 2014 8:06 am

Well, to answer a previous question, no, Premiere Pro doesn't actually use a GPU during rendering. It uses the GPU (when available) during playback to create the preview files. You can select to use those files when rendering, but it's not a default option. If you're a heavy Premiere Pro user, it wont really make a difference in the long run.

I agree with Luca on this, you're asking us to lower the bar of standards, which isn't going to happen. As far as manufacturer return policies, everything comes standard with 1 year warranty. eVGA has a more relaxed 3 years if I remember correctly, however you'll more than likely look to replace the card before that time is up, because if you're doing a lot of graphics work, you'll need an upgrade more often than any other component (aside from RAM).

Opting for a system like the Mac Pro is a little silly, considering the Mac Pros use Xeons, and you're going for an i7. It's comparing Apples to Oranges. Yes, Apple computers are overpriced, however the Mac Pro series has a partial excuse, and that's the higher end hardware. My advice? Go for 32gb of RAM. Get a Xeon based system. Get a Dual Socket motherboard, and start off with a single CPU so you can upgrade later. It'll be cheaper than replacing the whole system, and actually prolong the life of the system. Not what I would ever consider a "traditional" upgrade path, but if you want the system to compare to a Mac Pro, you need to use comparable hardware.

I would also forget about Western Digital Green drives, and use a Red for long term backups, and only in a NAS or external enclosure. You don't need it in the machine, or powered on all the time. I'm still running a GTX660Ti, and haven't had any problems with it. In a few months I may look to upgrade to something newer in an effort to keep up with projects, but it's still plenty powerful.

Also, use motherboard PWM control for the fans, not a fan controller. If you have to manually adjust any fans to make up cooling ability, it means you didn't think out the cooling ahead of time.

That's what I would do. I might even look for a cheaper case. I haven't spent more than $60USD on a case in years, and I don't know why I would want to at this point. There are some real gems in the lower price ranges, you just have to look around. Just me though. I do agree with CA_Steve though, because GPU rendering is only during preview, a lower end card will do just as well as the higher end one. You wont see a performance difference when doing any rendering. Arguably, you wouldn't even notice a difference during preview playback. You'll have to also make sure you tweak the CUDA supported text file to make sure it will even use the GTX, not all are officially supported.

As far as MadVR goes, it's just a decoder for playback. Yes, it's GPU assisted, but it's not really related to video editing unless you're using some special codecs. So, more importantly, is this machine for HTPC work, or is it for video editing? There's a big difference.

andymcca
Posts: 404
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:19 am
Location: Boston, MA, USA

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by andymcca » Fri Mar 14, 2014 9:55 am

bonestonne wrote:if you're doing a lot of graphics work, you'll need an upgrade more often than any other component (aside from RAM).
It's worth pointing out that CUDA and OpenCL standards are still developing very rapidly. I'm less familiar with the OpenCL side of things, but for CUDA there are huge differences between the current features and those in devices from a few years ago. I don't think there is a single card on the market today that will enable the sort of data structures that will be standard when heavy CUDA/OpenCL usage makes its way into general purpose tools (like Premiere). Assuming there is a 3-5 year horizon on products like Premier making significant usage, I think an upgrade would be well worth it when the support exists, and no "future-proofing" will really work.

(Edit: 3-5 years is optimistic, but I think 10-15 is conservative? Lets see if AMD can live that long :( )

markanini
Posts: 163
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:59 am
Location: Malmo, Sweden

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by markanini » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:17 am

bonestonne wrote: As far as MadVR goes, it's just a decoder for playback. Yes, it's GPU assisted, but it's not really related to video editing unless you're using some special codecs. So, more importantly, is this machine for HTPC work, or is it for video editing? There's a big difference.
No, it's definitely not a decoder.

rotor
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:52 am
Location: Londinium

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by rotor » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:29 am

I would buy a Dell Precision workstation from the Dell Outlet.

For example, a T3600 with a single Xeon E5-1650 (hexa-core), 15GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2 GB NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for £1262 incl VAT. And there's a 10% off all workstations coupon right now.

I own a T3600, and it is very quiet. Not SPCR silent, but extremely quiet nonetheless, and very high quality construction.

Click on this link, and sort by price low to high. Look for T3600 or T5600 (previous gen), or T3610 or T5610 (current gen). The T36x0 line is single processor, and the T56x0 line is dual processor.

rotor
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:52 am
Location: Londinium

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by rotor » Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:35 am

Here's another extremely powerful option:

A T5610 with E5-2630v2 (hexa-core), 2 x 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 310 for £1318 incl VAT and after the 10% discount.

Oh, and all these systems come with 3-year next-business-day support, the engineer comes on-site to fix the problem.

I sound like a salesman! =)

bonestonne
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:10 pm
Location: Northern New Jersey
Contact:

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by bonestonne » Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:52 am

markanini wrote:
bonestonne wrote: As far as MadVR goes, it's just a decoder for playback. Yes, it's GPU assisted, but it's not really related to video editing unless you're using some special codecs. So, more importantly, is this machine for HTPC work, or is it for video editing? There's a big difference.
No, it's definitely not a decoder.
Okay, then I'll say it's like VLC on steroids. It's nothing I would ever use professionally because it doesn't work with professional standards.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/madVR wrote:madVR is a high quality video renderer (GPU assisted). features: high quality chroma upsampling, high quality scaling (bicubic, mitchell, lanczos, spline etc), high quality YCbCr -> RGB conversion, gamut & gamma correction for display calibration, full 16bit processing queue, final 16bit processing result is dithered down to RGB output bitdepth, bypasses graphics card's video (damage) algorithms, all work is done via GPU shaders, no shortcuts, highest quality has priority over anything else
So all this does is take a file, and play it back at high quality, order allow you to convert another file to a different file format? It's like VLC with different playback options.... With so many HTPC threads regarding it, I don't see what this has to do with video editing. Other than this madVR software, what will your friend be using to edit video? Is this just for ripping blu-rays to a specific format and avoiding color changes on the output file? I work in Radio and TV, I'm shooting a documentary currently, and I own workstation that is meant for editing blu-ray quality video. When you say "video editing workstation," I expect something that will see professional use, therefore I raise these questions of what the machine will actually be used for.

As rotor pointed out, the Dell Precision T series workstations are a lot closer to what you're looking for. I would also agree that they're pretty quiet with light usage, however under load, they're some of the loudest machines you'll ever use.

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: Video editing workstation

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:38 am

bonestonne wrote:Other than this madVR software, what will your friend be using to edit video? Is this just for ripping blu-rays to a specific format and avoiding color changes on the output file? I work in Radio and TV, I'm shooting a documentary currently, and I own workstation that is meant for editing blu-ray quality video. When you say "video editing workstation," I expect something that will see professional use, therefore I raise these questions of what the machine will actually be used for.


IIRC, the OP (zsero) didn't talk about any expected MadVR usage, but with reference to the video editing workstation he talked just about Adobe Premiere Pro: in a single post he just addressed some notes about madVR linked by another forum user, markanini, telling him that the proposed workstation won't use it.

Post Reply