Final spec for new DV Editing Machine...

[schmosef]

Let me know what you guys think. It's for a friend.

Case: Antec Titan 550 (plus two additional case fans)
Motherboard: Intel D955XBK (recommended by Matrox)
CPU: Intel 670 (P4 3.8 2MB cache 800MHz)
RAM: 4x Kingston 1GB DDR2 667Mhz non-ECC
Video Card: Matrox Parhelia APVe PCI-E (slot 1)
RAID Controller: Promise SuperTrak EX8350 PCI-E 4x (slot 2)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Audigy ZS (slot 3)
NLE Accelerator: Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme Pro HW (he already owns the Adobe software)

We're going to put 1 Western Digital Raptor 150GB drive on the onboard SATA controller for the OS and we're going to use the Promise card to build a 5x250 GB RAID 5 array with Western Digital SATA II drives.

We're also going to attach two Liteon DVD-RW drives to the EIDE bus.

The OS drive is going to be partitioned into two OS installations, one for Video Editing and one for everything else.

[Dr Mordrid]

Tip: use a separate drive for exports.....preferrably one on the MB controller and not a PCI slot. I have great results on primary slave, which is one of Matrox's "approved" positions;

http://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtx100xtremepro/rec/storage.cfm#storage

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

Thanks Doc.

I had read that before.

Especially this:

Unless you're using a Serial ATA (SATA) drive, you'll need an additional drive dedicated to perform realtime exports to disk. Due to the advanced transfer rates of Serial ATA (SATA) drives, a single SATA drive can be used for both the A/V and export drives.

The 1TB RAID 5 array we are going to build is going to be made of 5 SATA II drives running on a PCI-E 4x controller.

Based on that matrox page, I figured that we'd be ok for speed.

Your opinion means a great deal to me on this issue. Do you still think that I should setup a separate export drive on one of the motherboard's unused SATA Channels?

[Claymonkey]

If you don't mind my asking what does a beast like that run? That looks like it will be a very fun system to work on.

[Mikele]

CPU: Intel 670 (P4 3.8 2MB cache 800MHz)

This CPU is a stove (for cooking and for heating).
If you want Intel CPU, consider dual core, like new Pentium D 900 series. Low speed will be better, like 3.0 or 3.2.
Or Pentium D 820 at 2.8 if you can't wait (don't get 3.0 or 3.2 because heat dissipation).

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/28/intels_65_nm_process_breathes_fire_into_double_core_extreme_edition/page19.html

AMD is quite good in dual core world.

New apps will use dual cpus or dual cores more and more.

[schmosef]

If you don't mind my asking what does a beast like that run? That looks like it will be a very fun system to work on.

About $6,500 CDN before tax.

No monitor, no keyboard/mouse, no speakers. He already owns the adobe software.

[schmosef]

CPU: Intel 670 (P4 3.8 2MB cache 800MHz)

This CPU is a stove (for cooking and for heating).
If you want Intel CPU, consider dual core, like new Pentium D 900 series. Low speed will be better, like 3.0 or 3.2.
Or Pentium D 820 at 2.8 if you can't wait (don't get 3.0 or 3.2 because heat dissipation).

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/28/intels_65_nm_process_breathes_fire_into_double_core_extreme_edition/page19.html

AMD is quite good in dual core world.

New apps will use dual cpus or dual cores more and more.

Yeah, I just don't think that a dual core CPU would work too well with the Matrox RT.X100 card.

Doc, any thoughts?

We can always upgrade to dual core in the future when the price comes down and the adobe software gets more optimized.

[Mikele]

Intel 820 is cheaper than your CPU.
And Matrox cards works with Premiere Pro, and this apps detects more than one CPU and use it.
Another question is if the matrox hardware works with dual cores or dual cpus. I don't know.

[schmosef]

Intel 820 is cheaper than your CPU.
And Matrox cards works with Premiere Pro, and this apps detects more than one CPU and use it.
Another question is if the matrox hardware works with dual cores or dual cpus. I don't know.

From what I gather one has to be very careful with making assumptions about what will and what won't work for the RT.X100 hardware.

I agree that I'd prefer a dual core cpu and the motherboard supports it.

None of the "Matrox Certified" OEM DV system listed on the Matrox website have a dual core P4 though. Some have dual Xeon, but that's another story.

Doc hasn't weighed in on this yet. I hope he can shed some light on the issue.

It just occured to me that I should see if Matrox's DV forums are up. Someone there might know something.

[Dr Mordrid]

RT.X100 will work with dualies and dual cores, but you have to have the "right" chipset.

90% of Intels work fine but some are horrid (check Matrox's site for those that don't).

AFAIK only the SiS 755 (AGP) and SiS 756 (PCIe) chipsets have the potential to work to work with the RT.X100 and AMD Athlon 64 X2's because of their high PCI and memory bandwidth, but I haven't tried 'em....yet

As far as dual AMD AthlonXP's go (not that they're in production anymore) the AMD 760MPX is the only one that works.

VIA, ATI, NFORCE and ULI are definitely out under any and all conditions.

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

Hmm... Well the Pentium D 840 is cheaper than the 670 I'd planned to use.

I've done some research and haven't found any complaints about the heat issue Mikele mentioned. And the benchmarks seem encouraging.

Mabye I'll have to make the swap...

[Fluff]

Have you got a quote off Dell? I would personally try go for maybe a Precision 380. You can specify matrox cards on build if you use the phone. Plus they have that fancy new dual core at 3.73 ghz.

[schmosef]

Dell? You would trust a config like this to Dell? I wouldn't dream of it. Just explaining the config to the polite but clueless Indian sales agent would be a nightmare.

Besides, there's no way Dell could touch me on price.

Btw, the P4 EE 3.73GHz isn't dual core. The fastest dual core is the 840 or the EE 840. The EE 840 has HT enabled.

I've checked the benchmarks and for single theaded apps the higher the CPU speed the better but for multitasking and for apps that can take advantage of it, the dual core CPUs reign supreme.

[Fluff]

I forget that my only experience is with dell corporate.

I'm gonna get flamed for this but have you checked out the Xena-LS card from AJA? it does component i/o + sdi

http://www.digitalproducer.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=35716

Not sure about hardware accelleration / realtime etc.

[schmosef]

I'm gonna get flamed for this...

As you deserve to be.