First video editing + server use build

So I'm in the process of getting myself a new machine that will be used as a general purpose (low use) personal server, but also as a multimedia editing machine (so PPro,AE,PS etc, (also dreamweaver but that shouldn't be too taxing))[CS6 versions]. I don't really care about gaming on it, and I'll be using a sony bravia as the primary screen.
I've had at Harm's and ADK's sites and have come up with the following:
OS: Win7 Pro 64bit (I'll also be virtualising ubuntu).
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS
CPU: i7 3930K
Cooling: Based on the default ADK build, the intel water system.
Video Card: Either a GTX 670 or a GTX680. I've had a look at reviews and the 670 seems to be able to boost up to similar levels as the 680, but what's the PPro comparison like? I've seen Harm suggest a 4GB GTX670.
RAM: 4x4GB (the P9X79 appears to have 8 ram slots so I can bump up to 8x4 at a later stage if needed). What about brands? I've seen that it needs to be a lower voltage than normal, and that samsung has been mentioned (http://forums.adobe.com/message/4464921), and newegg talks about ripjaw (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231505)
Optical Drives: Bluray burner. (any preferred brands?)
Storage:
I was thinking of going with a SSD for the system drive (Crucial 256GB M4). From what I can tell, this would mainly help the boot times and the server side of things rather than the media side of things.
For the data drives I was thinking of at least initially, a pair of 2TB HDDs (unraided). Not sure about the brand. Since I'm not using raid I don't need to worry about the spindown issue if I use greens.
PSU: Well, that'd partially depend on the components chosen above. I put it through the eXtreme power supply calculator and got 455W, but that was excluding fans and the water cooler, and assuming green drives.
On that note: Fans. Harm's beast has a lot of them. Of course, I'm not trying to cool a a massive stack of drives.
I may also put a wifi card and a tv tuner in too.
I think that just leaves the case. I don't care about it looking flashy, but I'd prefer something that doesn't have funny wings or handles sticking out of the top, front or side (ala alienware).
So. Over to the professionals.
Suggestions?

Ok, quick update on my decisions so far.
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS
CPU: 3930k
GPU: GTX670
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL (compatible based on http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/P9X79-WS/Manual&QVL/P9X79_WS_Memory_QVL_120531 .pdf)
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 140mm and 120mm SSO CPU Cooler ("fits" the ram based on http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_ram_gen&products_id=34&lng=en#DDR3_G.Skil l", and is the model for the 2011 boards)
Optical: Lite-On IHBS312 12x Blu-Ray Disc Writer
Storage:
System: Crucial 256GB M4 (or 128GB depending on price when I get it).
HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001 (non-raid)
Hotswap Bay: basically I want to be able to bung in a drive, backup to it, and yank it out when it's done.
PSU: Extreme power supply calculator recommends about 550W or so, but that is only the 2 fans on the Noctua, not other case fans.
Case: How do I choose?
Case fans: As above.

Similar Messages

New computer build for video editing, daily use of Premiere Pro, what do you all think ?

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Thanks !!

Lots of information at Tweakers Page
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AVCHD Video Editing Stutters using Drobo FW800

I'm having problems with Final Cut Express stuttering during editing, playback of the timeline.
I've recently changed from several USB external Hard Drives to a Drobo FW800.
Using three external drives over USB, I had no problem, but now using the Drobo over the Firewire 800 connection, the video stutters and freezes whilst the audio continues.
We currently have System Settings, Scratch discs "Video Capture, Audio Capture, Video Render and Audio Render" all set to the Drobo:Final Cut Express Documents folder. Waveform and Thumbnail Caches and Autosave Vault are set to Internal Hard Drive.
I've tried deleting Preference files, and recreating the project file.
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
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Thanks everyone for your posting, comments all appreciated. Here's an update on where we are....
We ran AJA Tools and discovered that the Drobo FW800 is having trouble maintaining the data transfer rate with our iMac, despite the Firewire 800 connection: See below:
AJA System Test settings used:....
Data transfer rates with the Drobo FW800 are as follows:
Using a single external Hard Drive over USB we get the following:
On the advise of the supplier we have removed the Hitachi drive..... perhaps the Drobo does not like brand name mixing...? We are now allowing the Drobo to restore the backup data before we can continue with further testing.... 24 hours required.. !! Suppose that's the price you pay for maintaining data integrity.
We have also referred the problem to Data Robotics' Technical Support and are hoping for an answer soon.
I would expect a device designed to work with Firewire 800 should give better results than a USB connected drive...? I'll keep you posted on progress.
PS MartinR: Our clips are 1920x1080 Apple Intermediate Codec which were importing from a AVCHD camera to FCE, flawlessly, using Log and Transfer. Editing with the scratch discs on seperate external drives using the USB connection also worked very well.

Suggestions for setting up external storage for video editing please?

I am just starting up as a one-man video-editing business, using a 24 inch iMac running Snow Leopard, with Final Cut Studio. I have realised I'll need an external hard drive for HD footage, and I also need to get some back-up solution in place. Looking for speedy i/o, I would like to connect via the ethernet port (if only eSata was included in the iMac, eh!)
I've been planning to get a Drobo, but looking around the forums I see that people say it's too slow for using as a working drive to keep all my source footage, so I've been looking at the G-tech 4 Tb, as it says it is designed for media-content production. Does anyone know if I could use two of the drives for working from and two as back up? Or would it be better to keep back-up entirely seperate, and get a Drobo for that for the G-tech to back up to?
But I am also wondering whether a Mac Mini could be a worthwhile addition to this set up? I find myself sitting around waiting for rendering to complete on clips in my timeline (not to mention exporting to Quicktime conversion!), and I wondered if I put a Mac mini with Xserve installed (Apple store offers this with two 500gb hard drives inside), maybe I could farm the rendering out to the mini while I get on with editing on my iMac? That would require two installations of FCP, which I thought was allowed, but just today in a forum I saw that one would have to be a laptop... anyone have any suggestions for getting rendering done without stopping FCP from doing other things simultaneously?
Also I don't know if that arrangement is even feasible... I see all these things like Xsan and Artbox... as a one workstation editing suite, does FCP handle all the dataflows for external working drive and external back ups okay without having to introduce more controllers?
And can anyone explain to me how I could set up an ethernet connection to an external hard drive, or does that require the extra controllers mentioned above? I've seen it said that you can do it via ethernet, but haven't seen how you can actually go about doing it.
Thanks for overlooking my newbie quality, any answers received with humble gratitude!
Cheers, Syd

Hi there,
as NLEdit said, there will be loads of answers to this.
IMO i'd avoid drobo like the plague. G tech drives have served me incredibly well working on a huge variety of broadcast projects (just over the water from you in Bristol), I've had no probs with FW800 when using DVCproHD, pro res is ok, sometimes a little slow with multiple layers and of course it eats up storage space. so I'd go for 2 4tb drives, keep the backup one in a different location.
one tip that has saved me countless times is to format them as follows:-
mac os extended (not journalled)
create 2 partitions
partition 1 - make this small (1gig) and call it "drive a - do not use"
partition 2 - the rest of available storage and call "drive a"
this is because the boot sector of the drive is within the first partition and with this method if it goes down it can be re erased without losing all your footage.
If you call your backup drive the exact same name and have the exact same folder structure, you will not have to relink if you get a problem.
Ignore getting a mac mini for rendering, won't help at all in FCP. instead I would make every attempt you can at buying a mac pro rather than an imac. much more expansion/speed possibilities and a more robust solution.
best of luck
Andy

G5 dual ppc network video editing URGENT SCHOOL

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Hi
I’m not an expert on video editing but unless you have at least a Gigabit network (even then you may struggle) its best to work locally. Especially in an Open Directory Environment. Create another local account and let the students use that. They can log on to their home folders or a group folder and copy their work after they have finished working locally.
There is more to a server than adding RAM and 512MB of RAM for a server is not a lot. You should install as much as you can afford as well as looking at the quality of your physical network, cabling and suchlike. Get the best network switches you can afford (don’t be tempted to skimp and use hubs). Upgrade and install Cat6 if you can. Try and use a mac that is as high a spec as possible for the server (fast processors, fast data bus, large fast drives). Once you start contemplating video creation and editing the ante in terms of hardware and network goes up big time for client macs and servers.
Tony

MacPro for Video Editing

In configuring my MacPro to be a Video Editing system, what aspects of hardware should I focus on "expanding"? What hardware should I leave default, and what aspects should I be pouring my money into to make for an efficient Video Editing machine (using Final Cut Studio)?
Thanx.

For video editing you should…
1) Maximise your graphics performance by at least upgrading to the ATI X1900XT.
2) Maximise your hard disk aize and performance with additional drives. You can cloose make and model if you go 3rd party and it'll be cheaper than buy Apple 500GB drives. Some, including myself, have actually chosen to downgrade their internal drives knowing it will be replaced with a 3rd party drive.
3) Upgrade your RAM to at a minimum 4GB. Again it is cheaper by going 3rd party although with the current constriction on supply with the 3rd parties and the different requirements of the Mac Pro to standard FB-DIMM memory it may be simpler at the moment to just buy Apple RAM even though you do pay a premium.

Upload the Video in server

Hi i want to upload the video in server using c# in windows store app...
plz give sample code..
Thanks & Regards
krishna

ask the serve's programmer to give you the server's file upload API. There isn't a universal agreed way to upload video between video services.
Visual C++ MVP

Feedback request for First PC Build - For video editing (Premiere, AE)

Hey guys. This is going to be my first PC Build, and I've been researching for weeks to put together parts to build a balanced system that is affordable but will still perform solidly. Since I am so new at this, most of this PC jargon is extremely new to me. I would just build it, but for me this is a lot of money, and I want to double check with some more experienced people that this is a solid build before stepping forward.
I've recently started my own videography business, and I need to build something that will allow me to edit and add effects more efficiently. I don't need the best in the game, but I do need to upgrade from my current system. I edit almost entirely DSLR footage. I mostly use Premiere, but am learning AE, and hope to implement it a lot more in the near future. Anyway, if you have time to look it over, I really appreciate any feedback you are willing to give!!
-Does everything fit?!
-Is this system balanced?
-Are there any bottlenecks?
-Anything overkill?
-How upgradeable is it?
-Is there anything worth upgrading now rather than later?
-Also, are there other sites to find these parts cheaper?
Component
Choice
Link
MOBO
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293
CPU
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz 3.9GHz Turbo LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Intel HD Graphics 4000
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501
GPU
EVGA GeForce GTX 650Ti BOOST SuperClocked 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130910
Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9Q-32GXM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231569
Drives
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192
Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792
Cooling
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
Power Supply
CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010
Optical Drive
LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner, Bare Drive, 3D Play Back (WH14NS40) - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136250
Case
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0, Black Interior and Four Fans-1x 230mm front RED LED fan, 1x 140mm rear fan, 1x 230mm top fan, and 1x 230mm side fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

In addition to what cc_merchant has said, my only comments to add would be to consider the new Haswell platform and/or the Nvidia 700 series cards that recently came out.
Depending on how soon you need this machine, it may be worth your while to get a 4770k and Z87 mobo. (You might want to wait for the C2 stepping to hit shelves, as the current C1 offerings have a USB 3.0 bug). I've read that the C2 version should hit shelves early to mid August.
As for the videocard, Nvidia just released the Gtx 760, which would be a much stronger offering for a little bit more money. (Some here might argue that it is overkill for that machine, but I think the future proof aspect makes it worth it).
For the hard drives, below is the hypothetical scenario I plan to go with when I build my system (per Harm's instructions):
C:\ OS, Programs, Windows Pagefile - 128GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
D:\ Projects and Media - 3TB Seagate 7200.14 HDD
E:\ Media Cache / Scratch - RAID 0, 2x 1TB Seagate 7200.14 HDD
F:\ Misc/Non-Video Editing Hard Drive - 1TB WD Caviar Black
Exports go to whichever drive has space available.
If you're only able to afford one of these upgrades, I would focus on getting the optimum hard drive setup. Right now, that's your bottleneck.
Hope that helps.

I am considering a base 21" iMac ($1099 @ Best Buy) for home use. It would be my first Mac. Is the base model powerful enough for everyday home use and some light video editing or should I upgrade the CPU, Ram and to a Fusion drive?

I am considering a base 21" iMac ($1099 @ Best Buy) for home use. It would be my first Mac. Is the base model powerful enough for everyday home use and some light video editing or should I upgrade the CPU, Ram and to a Fusion drive?
Purchasing with the upgrades through Apple would add about $800 over the Black Friday deal at Best Buy. Just looking for some advice if I will be satisfied with the based model.

All models will do what you want. Upgraded models will do it faster than the standard models.
Just why are you thinking of switching to a Mac?

My first PC build for video editing purposes

I have done some research into building my own video editing PC. I want to spend about 800 pounds. I will list some of the components I have so far. Any suggestion would be welcomed and appreciated.
ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard - £159.98
4 x Kingston 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM Memory - £12.76 each
For CPU I am going to wait for the Ivy Bridge Core 17 to come out
PNY nVIDIA Geforce GTX 570 Graphics Card with 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
£210.97
I have heard that it does not matter how fast the RAM is but it is more important how much you have. My Mobo can take 2800 Mhz. I have also heard that the graphic card is important when video editing. It acts as a secondary CPU which enhances the performance.
Is all the above information correct?
Thanks
Dominic

I have ordered most of my components for pc build for video editing purposes. Here is the list. Any critism would be welcome.
MOTHERBOARD
AsRock Z77 Extreme6 Motherboard (Socket 1155, Intel Z77, Up to 32GB DDR3, ATX, USB 3.0, 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s, 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection)
£ 145 – Amazon
CPU
Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3770K CPU (4 x 3.50GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 8Mb L3 Cache, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)
£ 230 – Amazon
RAM
Corsair CMX16GX3M4A1333C9 XMS 16GB (4x4GB) 1333MHz CL9 DDR3 Four Memory Module Kit
£70– Amazon
GPU
Asus Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX 670 DirectCU II Graphics Card
£ 350 – Amazon
CPS
OCZ 850W ZX Series PSU 80+ Gold Rated Ultra Quiet Double Ball Bearing Fan and EU Cable (– Pos Probs – cables short especially for CPU. May need CPU extension cables but these are cheap. Also says compatible with Sandy Bridge NOT ivy bridge. Im assuming it is compatible though)
£ 100 – Amazon
BLUE RAY
LG BH10LS38.AUAU 10x Inter
£62.00 – Amazon
CASE
BNIB ANTEC 1200 (TWELVE HUNDRED) BLACK STEEL ATX FULL TOWER COMPUTER CASE £ 120 – ebay
The only thing left to buy are the hard drives. I have decided on a system of a
C: Boot drive 500 gb (7200) for the OS
Pair of drives in RAID 2 x 2 tb
E: Export drive. Single (7200) 3 tb
Somebody suggested to me that I should get SSD. However, am I right in saying that these drives, although fast, are too small for video editing purposes and also too expensive? Perhaps I should wait until they get bigger and less expensive. A future upgrade.
Thanks for any comments in advanced
Dominic

Need Help Building a Graphic Design/Video Editing PC

Greetings everybody, my name is David, and I'm hoping to get a little assistance building a computer system either from scratch or from a couple of computers I have picked out.
I hope this that doesn't sound unrealistic but I only have around $600 in my budget to build a Graphic Designer machine. My intentions are to get a subscription to Adobe cloud so I would have access to all of Adobe CS6 products. (I won’t be using any of the Touch or Game developers applications.)
I would like to post two links to two machines that I picked out that are in my price range and would like some advice as to whether or not either one of these machines have enough processing power to be able to handle all Adobe CS 6 products.
I am aware that neither one of these machines have a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and that I would have to purchase one and add it. Which leads me to my first question; are the processors on either one of these machines capable of handling a GPU that is on the Adobe recommended list for processors?
And secondly, if I were to build a machine from scratch, is $600 enough to build a machine that is capable of handling Adobe CS6 products? When building a machine from scratch can you tell me what the minimum requirements are for a motherboard? Or are there any sites that offer specific advise for building PC's for graphic design?
I noticed after looking through the list of recommended graphics processing units that the majority of those are very expensive, in the $500-$3000 range. Can you please recommend a graphics processing unit that is in the $200-$300 range that would be fully adequate to handle Adobe products? Also what things do I need to take into consideration when building the machine from scratch to ensure that all my hardware is capable of handling Adobe CS6 products.
What do I need to add to either one of these prebuilt computers to make them Adobe-ready, If they are in fact worthy at all?
Here are the links for two machines that I have picked out:
http://www.costco.com/HP-Pavilion-p6t-Desktop%2c-Intel%C2%AE-Core%E2%8 4%A2-i3-2130-3.4GHz.product.100010197.html
http://www.costco.com/ZT-Desktop%2c-Intel%C2%AE-Core%E2%84%A2-i5-3470- 3.2GHz.product.100027436.html
I do realize that neither one of these machines have a graphics card in them. Can you tell by looking at the specifications on either one of these machines, whether or not your typical graphics card would fit inside the case If they are indeed worthy in all other respects?
And I realize that I mentioned that I only had $600 to spend, however if either one of these prebuilt machines are powerful enough in all other respects, I don't have an issue waiting a month or two before buying the graphics card and installing a little bit later.
Thank you in advance for your input.
Sincerely,
David

Your HP Costco link results in an out of stock message
Your ZT Costco link is very likely NOT expandable due to the VERY small power supply... so you will likely NOT be able to add a video card later
For PPro video editing you want an nVidia graphics adapter http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith/GPU.HTM and even the low power nVidia may be too much for that computer
Also, for video editing, you need a MINIMUM of 2 hard drives... and trying to edit HiDef video with an i5 will be a study of waiting for things to happen
As Harm said... a $600 computer will work for everything EXCEPT video editing
This DIY list is just about twice your budget, but it will work for video editing
Intel i7 3770 CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502
Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121599
16Gig Ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148600
Mid-Tower Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
750w Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171053
500Gig Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
500Gig Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
1Terabyte Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
GTX 660 Ti 2Gig
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130809
120mm x2 Case Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103060
Keyboard & Mouse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109232
Sata DVD Writer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
Use Win7 64bit Home if you will NEVER go over 16gig ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992
Use Win7 64bit Pro to use more than 16gig ram
BluRay writer if you want to write BluRay discs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106369
2 hard drive MINimum, I use 3 (as listed above)
My 3 hard drives for video editing are configured as...
1 - 320Gig Boot for Win7 64bit Pro and ALL program installs
2 - 320Gig data for video project files, and temporary files
When I create a project on #2 drive, the various work files follow,
so my boot drive is not used for the media cache folders and files
3 - 1Terabyte data for all video files... input source & output export files

Thinking of Building/Buying a PC for Video Editing?

If one is thinking of building, or buying a PC for video editing, Harm Millaard has published an ARTICLE in the Adobe Hardware Forum. He has arranged it such that one can rather pick and choose from three levels of system - beginner, intermediate and full-blown advanced pro-level rig. There have been some advances in hardware, since the article was first published, but with the discussions that follow it, much has been updated.
Harm approaches the computer from the eyes of one using PrPro, but with the exception of the GPU requirements for the Mercury Playback Engine (MPE), PrE will benefit from his suggestions. Be sure to follow all of the links that he offers in that rather longish thread.
Also see his other NLE PC ARTICLE, and his storage requirements ARTICLE.
If one is considering a RAID setup, his RAID ARTICLE will prove very useful.
If one is considering working with external HDD's, then this ARTICLE should be useful.
Hope that this helps people, who are considering a new computer for video editing.
Good luck,
Hunt

Harm Millaard has written an update to his computer ARTICLE, and there is some good discussion in it, as well.
Hope that this helps someone.
Hunt

Photo/Video editing PC build; what would you change and why?

I'm in the planning phase of my first photo/video editing PC build. I've done quite a bit of research to this point, and I've finally come to a decision on all of the components (I think). After seeing how helpful everyone is on this forum, I decided to post my plan and see what everyone thinks.
Miscellaneous info: I am an amateur photographer looking to expand my horizons and venture into the video realm. I will be running Windows 7 64bit with Adobe CS5 Production Premium and Lightroom 3 on a singe solid state drive and everything else will be on a 3 drive RAID 0 config. Eventually I plan on purchasing a RAID card and a few more drives for a RAID 3 (or 5) config, but that won't be for a while.
Ok, here's my planned build...
Component
Description
Processor
Intel   Core i7 - 950 3.06GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard
ASUS   P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
Memory
Corsair   Dominator 12GB (6 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Memory
System Drive
Crucial   RealSSD C300 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
Data Drive(s)
3 - Western   Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal   Hard Drive (Configured in RAID 0 for now)
Optical Drive
Pioneer   BDR-205BKS Blu-ray Burner
Video Card
EVGA   GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16   HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Power Supply
Corsair   HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified   Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Case
LIAN   LI PC-A71F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Monitor
NEC   MultiSync PA271W-BK-SV 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor with SpectraViewII   Color Calibration Solution
So, what would you change and why?
I'm looking forward to your responses!

"I'll take your advice and go with Samsung F3s. With the money I save (by not getting the WD Caviar Blacks), I'll add a 4th drive and use the RAID5 on the mobo until I can afford to upgrade to a proper RAID controller."
I might be a bit late, but wanted to let you know about motherboard software RAID configs (at least mine):
I have an older system running an ASUS P5AD2-E Premium MB containing a Silicon Image 3114 RAID chip. I originally configured a RAID 10 array with four 74 G Raptors for speed and redundancy. Figured if I lost a disc, I could just rebuid the array. Come to find out, the Sil 3114 chip does not support rebuilding the RAID 10 array.
I had lost a disc (disc was okay, just power to the disc was interupted) so was running on three. Fixed my power problem, went to rebuild the array and couldn't. So I figured what is the point of having a RAID 10 that I couldn't rebuild. Went to a RAID 0 with a backup disk.
Never checked the documentation to see if software RAID 5 through the SIl 3114 was rebuildable.
Mind you, I am not a computer guru nor all knowledgable about software/harware based RAID configs. But after talking to others who are the guru's, I found that I should stay away from the motherboard software RAID arrays and they mirror what Harm said about hardware RAID boards. But on a budget, the RAID 0 with a backup drive works for me.
Just my 2 cents to help.
Tony

Considering dumping my iMac for a PC used for DSLR video editing on Premiere CS6. Help!

So I edit mostly 1080p DSLR footage taken from my canon T3i camera. I purchased a 2011 (the latest model) iMac a little over a year ago, upgraded the RAM to 12GB and it has worked reasonably well. I purchased the base model for $1200 which has a quad core i5 processor, 512mb of video ram, and a measly 500gb hard drive. The past couple of days I have come to the realization that I only use Adobe Programs for graphically intensive work (premiere, after effects, etc). I originally bought my iMac for final cut, but FCPX SUCKS and I switched to Premiere CS6 which works like a dream. Anyways, I'm a senior in high school and do lots of video editing (going to major in video production in college). I'm likely going to differ college for a year and continue my video production business (pretty informal) as well as video production internships at a couple companies (so don't suggest that I get a laptop for portability, not an issue). I just shot an entire wedding with 2 DSLR's and the footage takes up over 20% of my hard drive which is unacceptable. This is very troublesome for me and has been clogging up my computer considerably. I have realized it would make a lot of sense to sell my iMac and purchase a PC that's not only faster, but has much more space. I was ideally looking to sell my iMac for $1000, and from that get a better and faster PC setup for my video editing. $200 would be allocated for a 24" 1080p LED 5ms Asus monitor (from newegg) which would leave $800 remaining for the PC. Ideally it'd be nice to have a little cash left over. Some things that sound appealing to me are: an intel i7 quad core proccessor at least 3.0+ Ghz, 16 GB of ram (maybe 8 to start), 1 GB of video RAM (here is where I'm stuck, my Imac had a Radeon 512mb video card in it, but I've heard premiere runs especially well with nVidia CUDA cards? Don't really know too much about this stuff.) I have no idea what type of card to get, and if I would even see a performance upgrade from my iMac. For storage I'd like at least 2TB of space, should I get two seperate 1 TB drives? One for boot and software and another for video files? Anyways, I assume I can benefit from selling my 2011 i5 iMac to get a faster PC equivalent at a lower price since I mainly edit videos (which is pretty graphically intense) from an HD DSLR camera. I've noticed premiere rendering times on my mac are starting to get pretty slow these days. Ideally it'd be nice to buy a desktop (already assembled) maybe from HP for around $600 (not including the monitor). I'm not completely against building a PC from parts (since I know a friend who can do it for me) I just need help figuring out WHAT exactly it is that I need and would benefit from.

Buy a Desktop Video Editing PC
http://www.adkvideoediting.com/
-ADK Kudos http://forums.adobe.com/thread/877201
Build a Desktop Video Editing PC
-http://ppbm7.com/index.php/intro-part-1
-http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1098759
-http://forums.adobe.com/thread/878520?tstart=0
-http://forums.adobe.com/thread/815798
-http://www.shawnlam.ca/2012/premiere-pro-cs6-video-editing-computer-build/
-http://www.videoguys.com/Guide/E/Videoguys+DIY9+Its+Time+for+Sandy+Bridge+E/0xe9b142f408a2 b03ab88144a434e88de7.aspx

Thinking to buy a new 15inch macbook pro retina display. Aim to use it for video editing and compositing... Is ıt worth for it?

Hi... I am a freelance filmmaker. Now I have 2008 model mac pro and I am thinking to buy a new macbook pro 15 inch retina display. Do you think its worth for it? I aim to use the macbook mainly for video editing, video compositing (after effects) and photo editing. My current old mac pro has 12 GB and the graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB (Yes I still use it). My main question is, do you think its better to move to macbook pro or upgrading the old one? Making it 32 GB of RAM and buy a new NVIDIA cuda capable graphic card? I dont have enough budget to make it together... Want to hear your suggestions...

I'm not sure, I've seen pro animators use MBPs but usually with a large monitor. Especially doing video editing, compositing and editing it might make more sense to upgrade the Mac Pro to an SSD as the boot drive. What kind of CPU setup is in your Pro?
Check these out:
mac pro SSD upgrades?
SSD as system disk while users folder + data on HDD
Early 2008 8-Core Mac Pro GPU Upgrades
I deal exclusively with OWC. I'd call them and walk them through your system and see what they say.
What you do takes a lot of CPU, RAM, graphics and boot disk power.
I've upgraded my two computers to SSDs and the first thing I noticed was that Photoshop CS6 opens in 7 seconds vrs. 50 seconds when the application was on a HDD.

First video editing + server use build

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