DIY6: Quad Core System
 Last spring we updated our DIY5 article to reflect the then latest round of Dual Core processors. Almost as soon as the article came out, we found ourselves bombarded with questions about Quad core CPUs. Back then you paid a pretty hefty premium for them, so we didn't feel it was necessary to build a DIY machine for Quad core. That pricing model held true until the end of last year, when Intel dropped the prices on their Quad core processors and made them just a slight premium over a Core 2 Duo. We knew what we had to do, and the plans for DIY6 where set in motion.
We've now tested our DIY6 Quad core machine with the leading hardware and software (Avid Media Composer, Adobe CS3 Production Premium, Sony Vegas Pro 8, Avid/Pinnacle Liquid and Matrox RT.X2) and the results have been outstanding. If the sky is the limit you can go with an Octo-core machine (Dual Quad Cores), but we have had such outstanding success and performance that we can only recommend these configurations for the most demanding and professional editing needs. The reality is that with today's current state of technology (32 bit applications and hardware running on a 32 bit OS) you're only tapping into a fraction of the full capabilities of this rig.
Our hope is that later this summer Windows Vista 64 drivers and optimized software become available from our vendors. At that time we'll begin our efforts on our next DIY project - Building a multi-core 64 bit NLE Workstation. Until then, you are going to be hard pressed to find a better bang for your buck than our DIY6 Quad Core.
Click here to read the full DIY6: Quad Core Article |
DIY 5 Update (04/07)- Build your own Dual Core computer for Digital Video
As NAB2007 rolls around this April, we want to take the time and offer a DIY update article for you. Our DIY 4 and 5 machines are still an excellent recipe to follow. We still advise anyone planning on building a new machine (or having one built for them) to reference both these articles. We looked over the configs from those two articles and tweaked them a little, and then we re-priced them to reflect the most current pricing on the web. We ended up with 4 models all told.
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DIY4
Dual Core Face-Off
AMD Athlon 64 X2 vs
Intel Pentium D 900
Back in the end of 2005 we realized that our first two DIY projects had gotten pretty long in the tooth. While they were pretty cutting edge at the time, we were seeing some very new and exciting technologies breaking out. The most exciting was dual core processors.
The advantages of Dual Core processors for video editing are significant. The biggest is price / performance. Most video editing applications are written to take advantage of dual processors and hyperthreading, now with a single affordable chip, you can maximize this capability. Those of you who read our DIY3 article are aware of the troubles and tribulations we ran into building a dual Xeon workstation. With a Dual-Core processor the installation and set up of our DIY4 machines was very easy. As you will see from this article, you can build a killer dual core workstation for under $2,000 that will give you outstanding performance for all your editing and encoding needs.
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DIY – GPU
Picking the right graphics card for your NLE workstation
One of the most often asked questions we get asked on our tech support and sales lines (as well as in emails, online forums and user groups) is what is the best graphics card for NLE. The answer is actually pretty simple, once you understand why. It all depends on the NLE software you plan on running, what kind of video work you do and if you are also going to be using any additional hardware in your system.
Selecting the right graphics card for your NLE workstation is one of the most important decisions you will make. When in doubt, I suggest getting a little more GPU power than you need. It won’t hurt you today, and it will most likely save you money down the road, because you won’t have to upgrade your graphics card if additional OpenGL performance is needed.
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DIY5 Intel Core 2 Duo Strikes Back!
Intel regains the top spot for NLE workstations
This summer Intel began shipping their new Core 2 Dual CPUs (code name Conroe). I’d been watching and following the leaks and reports about the new Conroe chips for months. All my favorite hardware websites – Tom’s Hardware, ExtremeTech, Anandtech and many others where posting articles on the remarkable performance of these chips. I knew I had to have one. I would make my own personal dream machine, to use in my new home editing suite. I called my dream machine the Vaporizer, and I could not wait to get it built.
The Intel Empire is once again the best in the universe. Will the AMD rebels be able to come back? Quad Core chips have already been announced. Just how powerful and fast will computers become in the next years or two? We’ll have to see. For now, our DIY5 Core 2 Duo machine is the biggest and baddest single CPU machine in the universe. May the force be with you!
Click here for the complete article |
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Videoguy's hands on guide to building your own NLE computer We get asked all the time what is the best computer for Digital Video editing & DVD production. This is not an easy question to answer. We've had good success recommending Dell & HP workstations to our customers, but more and more we're getting asked a more specific question. Folks don't want to buy a computer, they want to build one themselves.
What is the Videoguys' Challenge? Simple. I asked our top tech support guy Jon to build me the best and fastest WinXP machine he could for $1,000. Then I had him install all of the latest Digital Video hardware and software on it. Once he was done I tested it for two weeks to see how it stacks up.
How did Jon do? Were we able to hit our budget? What components did we use? What did we learn along the way? The answers are all here in this article! Now you can follow along with what we did as a guide for Doing It Yourself!!
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Last year (Feb '04) we posted our first DIY article as a guidebook for digital videographers who wanted to build their own NLE computer on a tight budget. We set a $1,000 goal and while we got very close, there were a few areas we were not willing to cut back on and we ended up over $1,000. Six months later we revisited the challenge and re-configured our $1,000 NLE machine. This time we've doubled the budget, and our expectations.
This new machine has to be the ultimate digital everything computer. Most of all, it has to be the best video editing machine possible for the budget. Not just for DV, but for the new HDV format as well. We're going to be getting a new Sony HDV camcorder and start shooting and editing HDV footage. In order to handle the increased demands of HDV, my new computer is going to have to be tweaked out and configured to take full advantage of all the latest technologies: PCI Express graphics, DDR2 memory, SATA Raid, Oveclocking, Hyperthreading and more.
Big Blue is the NLE Hot Rod I'd been hoping for. I'm running Premiere Pro 1.5, Avid Xpress Pro with Mojo, Liquid Edition 6 and Vegas 5 on it. All with great performance and rock solid stability. I can't wait to get the new Sony HDV cam and start testing all these apps for their HDV editing capabilities.
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Our DIY3 project is finally complete. “Double Trouble” was our first Dual Processor system. Unlike the previous two projects, this one was far more difficult. It was very hard finding a motherboard that all our vendors liked and that also included the latest PCI Express technology. As you will recall from our DIY2 article, PCI Express (PCIe) is the new high-speed bus that removes the bottlenecks that would happen with the old PCI/AGP bus design.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, we have installed the Canopus Edius NX for HDV card in this machine for our HDV editing. We are also running Sony Vegas 6, Pinnacle Liquid Edition, Adobe Premeire Pro w/ Cineform Aspect HD and Avid Xpress Pro HD PowerPack w/ Mojo. All of the above mentioned software is running great and we are able to edit DV& HDV footage with ease, at 480i, 720p and 1080i resolutions.
I will be using this machine for my upcoming HDV editing shootout article. I'm really looking forward to working with and comparing all of the latest and greatest HDV solutions.
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