A guide to a PC's specifcation

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col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

The dark nights and club season is approaching so now is the time for that new PC, so here are the base specifications for two editing PC's

High Performance
ASUS P9X79 motherboard
Intel i7 3960X CPU
16Gb RAM
NVidia GTX660 GPU for Premiere users or a lesser spec for non CUDA editing software

Budget
ASUS P9X79 Motherboard
Intel i7 3930k CPU
8Gb RAM
NVidia GTX640 GPU for Premiere users or a lesser spec for non CUDA editing software

FOR BOTH SYSTEMS
1 hard drive for operating system
2 hard drives for RAID (or for video use only)
1 large hard drive for storage and backup
LG or Pioneer Bluray burner
Case to suit, do not scrimp buy quality of about £100 to £130
Power supply, at least 750W
Last edited by col lamb on Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Col Lamb
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Dave Watterson
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by Dave Watterson »

Thanks, Col.

Your regular updates of good specs is very valuable.
col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

It is four months since I last updated the specification and surprise, surprise there is no real change

There is talk of some hardware releases in a few months time but they will probably be at a premium costs for a few months after release

High Performance
ASUS P9X79 motherboard
Intel i7 3970X hex core CPU
16Gb RAM
NVidia GTX660 GPU for Premiere users or a lesser spec for non CUDA editing software

Budget
ASUS P9X79 Motherboard
Intel i7 3930k hex core CPU
8Gb RAM
NVidia GTX640 GPU for Premiere users or a lesser spec for non CUDA editing software

FOR BOTH SYSTEMS
1 hard drive for operating system
2 hard drives for video RAID system (or 1 drive for video use only)
1 large hard drive for storage and backup
LG or Pioneer Bluray burner
Case to suit, do not scrimp, buy quality of about £100 to £130 suggest LianLi
Power supply, at least 750W, suggest Coolermaster, Corsair
Col Lamb
Preston, Lancashire.
FCPX, Edius6.02, and Premiere CS 5.5 user.
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col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

Its now May and the next generation Intel Heswell cpu's should find its way into motherboards shortly, like all new products it will be best to wait a while before getting one of these cpu's since we want others to test them first.

On a different note is anyone is in the market for a laptop on which to edit i can reccomend the Asus N56 range but only with the i7 CPU, I have had one of these for a few weeks and despite a slow 5400rpm hard drive it handles and edits AVCHD video files very easily using Premiere 5.5 alas as it has Windows 8 the version of Edius I have does not work but Edius Neo installed just fine.
Col Lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

COMING SOON (by end of January 2014)

A completely new PC specification so if you are thinking about updating your system you may like to hold off for now.
Col Lamb
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TimStannard
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by TimStannard »

col lamb wrote: A completely new PC specification so if you are thinking about updating your system you may like to hold off for now.
I'd be interested in the potential benefits (or otherwise) of a large (eg 500GB) SSD as a drive for media for "current" projects. And possibly another for renders.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

Its early February 2014 and things have changed a little, but not by much!!!!!!

8)

MY NEW PC SPECIFICATION

Motherboard ASUS Z87-Expert

Processor Intel Core i7 4770k

16GB RAM (2x8GB) DDR3 1600

Graphics {GPU ASUS} GTX660 2GB

Boot Drive Crucial M500 120GB or similar solid state drive

Video drive and store dives at least 1Tb each, 7200rpm, not WD Green drives.

Power Supply CORSAIR HX750 or similar

Blu-ray Burner Pioneer BDR-209 or LG equivalent

Case to suit, please do not scrimp buy a good quality aluminium case such as Lian Li or Coolermaster, with plenty of space inside and masses of cooling

OS Win 7 Pro 64-bit

:?

OK so why the change in my PC specification?

Well more and more of the latest versions of editing software are making use of the graphics OpenGL features and so Premiere's use of CUDA cores in the GPU are still there but OpenGL is an alternative.

At the end of the day I now believe that Adobe Premiere is rapidly becoming a dead duck as far as users within the IAC are concerned. It is the new Creative Cloud version and it being subscription on that will not help with Premiere CC costing £17.58 per month in subscription, now £210 per year, every year soon mounts up, stop subscribing and you quickly lose access to Premiere and your projects.

Other editing software is every bit as good as Premiere and it is less reliant on a powerful graphics card, it is better suited to as fast a Processor and hard disk setup as you can afford. So if you do not use Premiere then keep the same motherboard and processor, go down a model number or two with the graphics card and increase the RAM to 24Gb

The February 2013 system is still valid for the vast majority of NLErs so consider this as not the ultimate but a viable one for consideration if you want a fast system.

If you are on a budget and do not undertake complex edits or after effects works then a laptop can be a cost effective alternative, my Asus N56 is still editing AVCHD and 1080p video with ease and so its replacement the N550 at £825 in PC World should be OK, but do test out how it plays back your SD card video first.

OK so that is all for now, please if you are unsure about PC's please read the first post in this thread for advice and also it has been updated
Col Lamb
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Dave Watterson
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by Dave Watterson »

In this post and the amendments to the first one in the thread - there is a mass of information to take in. Thank you Col, for simplifying so much as possible. Your view is always so practical that it is a relief for all of us who don't want to be computer whizzes with the fastest machine ever ... but do want to edit our footage as easily as possible.

We are in your debt again, Col.
col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

Tongue in cheek time..........or maybe not.

Get an iPad, one with a mass of memory (mine is a mini and has 128Gb).

With it you can shoot HD video.

You can put the music on it that you want in your movie or make your own with the garage band app.

You can use it to record commentary.

You download and use the iMovie and/or Pinnacle Studio Apps to edit, with either you can edit the movie but I find Pinnacle is much better than Apple's own iMovie.

Job done, all in one small unit you can take anywhere, did I say you can also use it as a media centre, a book library (aka a Kindle) a games centre........the list goes on.
Col Lamb
Preston, Lancashire.
FCPX, Edius6.02, and Premiere CS 5.5 user.
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col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

2nd July 2015 and an update on the specification for a PC: -

NOTE this specification is primarily intended for Adobe Premiere, you will need to ensure that your chosen editing software's specification matches that which follows.

ASUS Z97 Pro motherboard
Intel i7 CPU 4790k
16 Gb RAM (give your system builder this spec with the instruction for them to source a fit campatable RAM)
nVidia GTX970 GPU
750W power supply minimum
Optical drive of your choice
At least four hard drives with each used for, (1) Boot, (2) video media store, and project files (3) cache, exports, previews (4) backup drive of discs 1 and 2
Include for a good quality modular case preferably aluminium and it will last for year and your system can grow or change easily

Please note that this is for HD editing and not 4k.

For 4k I recommend contacting a system builder such as DVC, Planet, Siren Technology etc.
Last edited by col lamb on Mon Jul 06, 2015 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Col Lamb
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TimStannard
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by TimStannard »

Sony Vegas specific: There is little point getting any nVidia card beyond the 500 (Fermi) series (eg GTX580) as Sony ceased to support nVidia's proprietary acceleration after that. Get an AMD card (which supports Open CL) best bet at the moment is apparently the R9 290X (from extensive discussion on the Sony Creative Software forums)
Tim
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col lamb
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by col lamb »

Thanks Tim.

I have modified the post to include a reference to Adobe Premiere as it is that software which is primarily intended to be used.
Col Lamb
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Cathy Poole
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by Cathy Poole »

Thank you so much for letting me know the specifications required for editing HD footage on a desktop computer.

Could you please help me, and let me know what desktop computer I can buy, off the shelf, that will edit HD footage smoothly. It must be a PC and not an Apple.

If it helps, I use Adobe Premiere Elements. I am very happy with it and do not intend changing that software, but my computer is now struggling with HD.

What do you recommend?

Cathy
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by Cathy Poole »

Dear Col,

I don't understand specifications all that well.
I assume that i7 is faster than i5, but that's all I know.

Please can you specify a make and model number of a desktop computer that will edit HD smoothly and won't take 60 minutes to render 12 minutes of film on my timeline?

Thank you
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TimStannard
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Re: A guide to a PC's specifcation

Post by TimStannard »

Yes, it's reasonable to put that caveat in, but I think graphics card aside, most is extremely relevant for any NLE.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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