A guide to a PC's specifcation
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:14 pm
[Colin Lamb regularly updates the detailed specifications he recommends. Read this introduction then go to Colin's most recent update towards the end of this thread. - Editor]
UPDATED PC Specification posted in the mail dated 2nd July 2015.
INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL NOTES
CPU = computer processor, such as Intel i7 quad core (which means 4 CPU's inside one CPU)
GPU = Graphics card, like NVidia GTX 660 which has 960 CUDA cores
MOBO = motherboard, the electronic circuit board that all devices attach to
RAM = the memory used, 6Gb, 8Gb, 16Gb etc the more RAM the merrier
HD = hard drive, magnetic storage, typical 7200 revolution per minute with a capacity of 1Tb
SSD = solid state hard drive, blisteringly fast but more expensive per Gb than conventional HD's
With full HD AVCHD camcorders or HD video capable DSLRs you may find that the old PC is not up to scratch for editing, here is a guide to what to look for. Please note that the information is general, it all depends upon your choice of editing software as to the final configuration of the PC, to give an example Premiere now needs a serious CUDA graphics card and a slower CPU will work OK whereas Edius does not need the CUDA graphics card but as fast a CPU with as many cores as you can afford to get the best out of it.
Please do not ask or post wanting further information on a MAC, my knowledge of a MAC is none bordering on a little.
Lets talk about a system for AVCHD as there is not really much problem with editing SD or HDV. There have been a lot of posts on other forums recently about upgrading PC's and a lot of rubbish talked, especially by suppliers who want to sell PC's and software so tread wisely and spend cash well and with knowledge.
I have been building my own (and friends) editing PC's for fifteen years and so I am well used to the ins and outs of a PC. I built my editing PC just as the Sandy Bridge CPU was released and as such it was a mark one version and best avoided until systems are proven which they are now but I have no need to upgrade my PC, in fact as I am unlikely ever to get a 4k camcorder the only possible reason why I will upgrade in the future is if the Motherboard and/or CPU fails
My PC AVCHD video editing system was built with smooth native video playback with NO PRIOR RENDERING, but since I built my own times have changed and newer faster systems are now available and so it is with these current hardware configurations that I will concentrate upon.
The heart of the system and any system is the motherboard, not the CPU, not the RAM, not the graphics card but the motherboard. The one posted in the latest specification is the one favored one by system builders and is based upon Intel CPU's and chipsets. To handle AVCHD the correct motherboard is key, buying a £500 PC from PC World may not necessarily get the right PC for the task.
You do not necessarily need the hex core CPU I have, the i7 four core CPU's will do the job well enough. There are now a plethora of i7 processors, some may be OK others may not, so please seek advice if unsure.
RAM has to be compatible with the motherboard and Corsair have a system on their website called a configarator where you feed in the make and model of motherboard and they give you the part numbers for various speeds and sizes of RAM, go for the fastest speed. As a guide for each CPU core a minimum of 2Gb RAM is required
Choice of graphics card depends on you editing software, Premiere CS/CC uses its playback engine system to the full with top end graphics cards. it uses the CUDA cores with NVidia GPUs to full effect, the CC version of Premiere and other editing software make more use of the GPUs OpenGL features and these require the latest CPU and motherboard. The same as I have will give the great results but any nVideo GTX model from the 460 up will do. Premiere CS5+ uses the graphics card to process the timeline to give realtime playback therefore the more complex a timeline you generally use the better the graphics card should be, look for the number of CUDA cores, the more the better. For the enlightened ones among you who have Edius and Edius Neo a lesser card will do from the same nVidia family.
Premiere CS/CC users need Windows 7 installed via the 64 bit option/disc. Other software can manage on XP SP3. I have my system on Windows 7 64 bit which is overkill on Edius but it is rock stable, take care upgrading to Windows 8 if you are an Edius user as it may not install unless you have the version 7 release.
As most new motherboards CPC's and graphics cards have very high stable power requirements a new power supply may be needed, go for a well known brand of at least 750Watts.
A boot disc with only the operating system and programes is the best option, have a separate store disk which you keep just for files, documents, images etc. For storing the video a RAID disc array is best, two discs 1Tb each is ideal. Within the disc manager utility in Windows 7 you can specify a RAID disc array very easily. With a RAID two disc array you have the data written altrenatively to one disk at a time, that way you have a very fast read and write data transfer speed which is just the job for AVCHD video files. Also set up the editing software to use the RAID array as the scratch and project disk. Remember to regularly back up all the data on the RAID to a separate single hard drive just in case the RAID throws a Windows wobbler, I'd suggest that you try a system without RAID and see how it goes, if your do not get the playback performance you require set up a RAID and try again
An alternative hard drive setup is as follows, on the boot disk, keep this only for programmes, on the store drive make your "My Documents" folder and the sub folders on this disc and point Windows to use these locations by default, the cache drive is where you point the editing software to use for its preview and scratch files (use it for nothing else), the video drive is where your AVCHD/MOV/1080p video files reside in their own folders per project and this is where the editing software should use as the location of its main project files. Then you really should have a backup drive, a huge capacity disk that you can use as the location for backups of all the other drives.
With these hard drive arrangements you are spreading the system load over a number of drives which will increase overall performance.
Give the specification and part numbers to your system builder and do not accept anything else no matter how hard they argue that xxxxx is better motherboard for if they are not specifically NLE system builders they are not as knowledgable as they should be in our specialist market.
RULES applicable to all NLE PC's and software
1. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
2. Do not assume “It should be OK”, assume the opposite until until you can be sure it is OK
3. Manufacturers and most Suppliers are in business to sell products
4. Mark 1 versions of software and hardware will have major bugs
5. Major upgrades of software will contain bugs
6. Compatible hardware might not be, when you buy a newer version
7. Generally with manufacturers, Technical Support does not.
8. Wait until a product is tested and de-bugged by others before buying
9. Avoid the “starter” editing software systems
10. Always have a current “Image file” of your boot disk
Bonus tip - You get what you pay for!
I produced the above Rules in the late 1990's after years of problems, guess what ............... they are still valid today
Please post a response if you have any queries.
Job done.
Happy editing for years to come.
UPDATED PC Specification posted in the mail dated 2nd July 2015.
INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL NOTES
CPU = computer processor, such as Intel i7 quad core (which means 4 CPU's inside one CPU)
GPU = Graphics card, like NVidia GTX 660 which has 960 CUDA cores
MOBO = motherboard, the electronic circuit board that all devices attach to
RAM = the memory used, 6Gb, 8Gb, 16Gb etc the more RAM the merrier
HD = hard drive, magnetic storage, typical 7200 revolution per minute with a capacity of 1Tb
SSD = solid state hard drive, blisteringly fast but more expensive per Gb than conventional HD's
With full HD AVCHD camcorders or HD video capable DSLRs you may find that the old PC is not up to scratch for editing, here is a guide to what to look for. Please note that the information is general, it all depends upon your choice of editing software as to the final configuration of the PC, to give an example Premiere now needs a serious CUDA graphics card and a slower CPU will work OK whereas Edius does not need the CUDA graphics card but as fast a CPU with as many cores as you can afford to get the best out of it.
Please do not ask or post wanting further information on a MAC, my knowledge of a MAC is none bordering on a little.
Lets talk about a system for AVCHD as there is not really much problem with editing SD or HDV. There have been a lot of posts on other forums recently about upgrading PC's and a lot of rubbish talked, especially by suppliers who want to sell PC's and software so tread wisely and spend cash well and with knowledge.
I have been building my own (and friends) editing PC's for fifteen years and so I am well used to the ins and outs of a PC. I built my editing PC just as the Sandy Bridge CPU was released and as such it was a mark one version and best avoided until systems are proven which they are now but I have no need to upgrade my PC, in fact as I am unlikely ever to get a 4k camcorder the only possible reason why I will upgrade in the future is if the Motherboard and/or CPU fails
My PC AVCHD video editing system was built with smooth native video playback with NO PRIOR RENDERING, but since I built my own times have changed and newer faster systems are now available and so it is with these current hardware configurations that I will concentrate upon.
The heart of the system and any system is the motherboard, not the CPU, not the RAM, not the graphics card but the motherboard. The one posted in the latest specification is the one favored one by system builders and is based upon Intel CPU's and chipsets. To handle AVCHD the correct motherboard is key, buying a £500 PC from PC World may not necessarily get the right PC for the task.
You do not necessarily need the hex core CPU I have, the i7 four core CPU's will do the job well enough. There are now a plethora of i7 processors, some may be OK others may not, so please seek advice if unsure.
RAM has to be compatible with the motherboard and Corsair have a system on their website called a configarator where you feed in the make and model of motherboard and they give you the part numbers for various speeds and sizes of RAM, go for the fastest speed. As a guide for each CPU core a minimum of 2Gb RAM is required
Choice of graphics card depends on you editing software, Premiere CS/CC uses its playback engine system to the full with top end graphics cards. it uses the CUDA cores with NVidia GPUs to full effect, the CC version of Premiere and other editing software make more use of the GPUs OpenGL features and these require the latest CPU and motherboard. The same as I have will give the great results but any nVideo GTX model from the 460 up will do. Premiere CS5+ uses the graphics card to process the timeline to give realtime playback therefore the more complex a timeline you generally use the better the graphics card should be, look for the number of CUDA cores, the more the better. For the enlightened ones among you who have Edius and Edius Neo a lesser card will do from the same nVidia family.
Premiere CS/CC users need Windows 7 installed via the 64 bit option/disc. Other software can manage on XP SP3. I have my system on Windows 7 64 bit which is overkill on Edius but it is rock stable, take care upgrading to Windows 8 if you are an Edius user as it may not install unless you have the version 7 release.
As most new motherboards CPC's and graphics cards have very high stable power requirements a new power supply may be needed, go for a well known brand of at least 750Watts.
A boot disc with only the operating system and programes is the best option, have a separate store disk which you keep just for files, documents, images etc. For storing the video a RAID disc array is best, two discs 1Tb each is ideal. Within the disc manager utility in Windows 7 you can specify a RAID disc array very easily. With a RAID two disc array you have the data written altrenatively to one disk at a time, that way you have a very fast read and write data transfer speed which is just the job for AVCHD video files. Also set up the editing software to use the RAID array as the scratch and project disk. Remember to regularly back up all the data on the RAID to a separate single hard drive just in case the RAID throws a Windows wobbler, I'd suggest that you try a system without RAID and see how it goes, if your do not get the playback performance you require set up a RAID and try again
An alternative hard drive setup is as follows, on the boot disk, keep this only for programmes, on the store drive make your "My Documents" folder and the sub folders on this disc and point Windows to use these locations by default, the cache drive is where you point the editing software to use for its preview and scratch files (use it for nothing else), the video drive is where your AVCHD/MOV/1080p video files reside in their own folders per project and this is where the editing software should use as the location of its main project files. Then you really should have a backup drive, a huge capacity disk that you can use as the location for backups of all the other drives.
With these hard drive arrangements you are spreading the system load over a number of drives which will increase overall performance.
Give the specification and part numbers to your system builder and do not accept anything else no matter how hard they argue that xxxxx is better motherboard for if they are not specifically NLE system builders they are not as knowledgable as they should be in our specialist market.
RULES applicable to all NLE PC's and software
1. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
2. Do not assume “It should be OK”, assume the opposite until until you can be sure it is OK
3. Manufacturers and most Suppliers are in business to sell products
4. Mark 1 versions of software and hardware will have major bugs
5. Major upgrades of software will contain bugs
6. Compatible hardware might not be, when you buy a newer version
7. Generally with manufacturers, Technical Support does not.
8. Wait until a product is tested and de-bugged by others before buying
9. Avoid the “starter” editing software systems
10. Always have a current “Image file” of your boot disk
Bonus tip - You get what you pay for!
I produced the above Rules in the late 1990's after years of problems, guess what ............... they are still valid today
Please post a response if you have any queries.
Job done.
Happy editing for years to come.