Core i5-2500k or i7-2600k ?

[JimmyS]

If you happen to live near one of the Micro Center retail stores, they have some great in-store only prices. You can purchase a 2600K for $280 and get $80 off the price one of a number of 1155 MB's. In your case the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO would go for $130 ($210 - $80), when purchased with the proc. The only problem is there are only 23 locations throughout the U.S.

Here is the page from their retail flyer
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/d472a0fd#/d472a0fd/27


You can use 2 sticks of memory. Put one in each channel. For video work, two hard drive would be much better. Optimally, use three. 1 for system & programs, 1 for capture/source material and 1 for encoding to.

[sdsumike619]

Na, I'm in las vegas, nv.. We have a Fry's but I hate buying stuff in that store.

[jagabo]

I like Fry's. I buy lots of stuff when it's on sale there.

[elmuz]

What I willing to say is consider well hard disk space...
When you talk about video (edit / encoding / NLE stuff / capture) you need more space than the one you have...
I know it's gonna be expensive, but I suggest 2*2/3TB har disk in mirroring. Backup is important, specially if you will work with that machine.
So once you have your raid1 configuration do partitions: let's say 100GB for the OS and the rest for video data...

Video card: in case you can take advantage from CUDA go to Nvidia, otherwise just take an entry level video card wich can support 2x full hd monitor and that's it.

This is just my opinion.

[jagabo]

The OP has already said the 320 GB drive is just his boot drive and he will have other drives in the system for encoding.

Mirroring is an "uptime" solution, not a replacement for backups. If you accidentally delete (or overwrite) a file it will be gone from both drives. If Windows goes bonkers and scribbles all over the drive both will be corrupt.

If you use a big drive with two partitions (boot and data) use the second partition for "offline" storage -- stuff you don't need to access often. Don't use it for the editor's or encoder's temp files. That's even worse (in terms of access speed) than using the drive as a single partition and using it for both boot and temp files. Because it guarantees the temp files and OS will be farther apart on the drive, leading to longer seek times.

[elmuz]

Mirroring is an "uptime" solution, not a replacement for backups. If you accidentally delete (or overwrite) a file it will be gone from both drives. If Windows goes bonkers and scribbles all over the drive both will be corrupt.

You're right, no one is saying he should avoid other forms of saving data... But that is a good solution in case of hardware problems. He can then do an incremental backup on the other disk.

If you use a big drive with two partitions (boot and data) use the second partition for "offline" storage -- stuff you don't need to access often. Don't use it for the editor's or encoder's temp files. That's even worse (in terms of access speed) than using the drive as a single partition and using it for both boot and temp files. Because it guarantees the temp files and OS will be farther apart on the drive, leading to longer seek times.

That's terribly true. In fact in here we have RAID 1+0, then partitioning for dividing OS from data, and weekly backed up. But it's out of budget probably...

Do you agree about video card? Anyone knows if Vegas got a good CUDA support?

[jagabo]

Vegas has CUDA support. But Nvidia's CUDA h.264 encoder is pretty low quality and buggy.

[deadrats]

Vegas 11 will have OCL support, which works with both nvidia and amd/ati cards (and presumably Intel's integrated gpu); another thing to think about is that intel is all set to crap on amd's bulldozer parade with a "new" cpu called the i7 2700k, rumored to have a base clock of 3.5ghz, a turbo clock of 3.9ghz and a price of $277, due out in less than a month.

that's way cheaper and faster than a 2600k, just something to think about.

[sdsumike619]

What is CUDA? I'm not doing any major complex editing, I'm just trying to figure out which video card will be best for compatibility with the other parts on the list... Once I have that, then I'll have a decent system for my needs.

What about this card:

HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161315

[jagabo]

What is CUDA?

Nvidia's MPEG2 and h.264 encoder that uses the graphics card to do the encoding, not the CPU. With the CPU you're getting you're better off using the CPU and x264. You'll get better quality and nearly the same speed.

[sdsumike619]

Ok, I think the only thing I am missing is a power supply!!!! Is this good?:
$55.00 Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016


$314.00 - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K

$199.00 ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

$70.00 HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

$51.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRLDual Channel

$49.99 Western Digital Caviar Blue WDBAAX3200ENC-NRSN 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

$30.00 COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7

[deadrats]

What is CUDA?

CUDA is the proprietary nvidia framework for developing gpgpu applications, i.e. apps that would normally run solely on the cpu but use nvidia gpu's for all or part of hardware acceleration.

in video editing, assuming you use a sufficiently powerful video card and properly coded apps, you can see significant speed increases.