HD video editing - advice neededPost Date: 2007-10-27 |
Post Reply 
|
| Author | |
mgrmgr 
Newbie 
Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13 |
 Quote Reply
 Topic: HD video editing - advice neededPosted: 27 Oct 2007 at 7:17pm |
|
I'm looking for help configuring a high end HD video editing system. Cost is not a consideration except that I have little interest in spending money on things that won't make a difference. I'm a long time Photoshop user who is just getting into HD video with a Sony SR1 shooting to AVCHD.
While I will paste my interim configuration below and would like comments on it, I am most concerned about three areas where I have little or no knowledge: SSD drives, Liquid vs air cooling, and 64bit vs 32 bit Windows. What advice do you have on the likes of the new solid state "hard disks" like Fusion io's "ioDrive" that is supposed to release in December with read and write times more than 10 faster than a WD Raptor for Drive c:. Yes, $2400 for an 80Gb drive is steep, but not if it pays off in time saving in HD editing...but I could really use some input on this. If I get an overclocked QX6850 (or Penryn QX9650 releasing Nov 12), do I need to spend money for liquid cooling instead of a stage-3 air alternative for HD editing? If I understand correctly, the 32bit Windows OSs cannot access more than 2.7Gb of RAM. Does that mean a 4Gb system is throwing away the top 1.3Gb? What little I know suggests that I do NOT want to go with a 64bit Windows OS because most if not all of my applications are 32bit. What are my practical choices if I want to go with more than 2Gb of RAM? Finally, do I want Vista or should I stay with XP? And what else should I consider in such a system? Thanks for all thoughts, Michael Copy of interim Specifications: Case: Digital Storm Twister ULTRA (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish) Power Supply: 850W Thermaltake (8800 GTX SLI Compatible) (Silent Toughpower Edition) Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad (TwisterBoost Enhanced) QX6800 Extreme 3.33GHz (1333MHz FSB) Motherboard: nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 680i SLI) (A1 Revision) Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance) Floppy / Media: Sony 1.44MB Floppy (Black Edition) Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed) Hard Drive 2: 1TB (Western Digital / Seagate) (Raid 0 Setup) (7200 RPM) (SATA) (Extreme Speed) Raid Option: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x) Optical Drive 2: BLU-RAY/DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (BLU-RAY / DVD Writer 18x / CD-Writer 48x) Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Modem: - No Thanks Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (By: eVGA / Asus) (PCI-Express) TV Tuner: - No Thanks Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer (Up to 7.1 Channel) (Recommended) Physics Card: - No Thanks Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 (Silent Artic Cooling (TwisterBoost Overclocked) Case Lighting: - No Thanks Round Cables: Enhanced Interior Air Flow (Optical Drive & Floppy Cables (Black Edition) User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals) Windows OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home (Includes Service Pack 2) Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks LCD Display: Samsung 24 inch (Widescreen) (Black) (High-Performance Gaming Display) Surge Shield: APC SurgeArrest Personal PER7 (7 Outlet) 120V Surge Protector Speakers: Logitech 5.1 System (Black Edition) (Model X540) (Includes Subwoofer) Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Desktop 2.0 (Multimedia Keyboard + Optical Wheel Mouse) Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty Support: Lifetime Toll-Free Platinum Care Technical Support |
|
 |
|
|
Monstromo
Groupie 
Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 214 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Oct 2007 at 7:53pm |
|
I'm speechless.
|
|
|
|
|
skyR
Newbie
Digital Storm Apprentice 
Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2220 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Oct 2007 at 8:28pm |
|
32 bit operating systems can only address up to 4GB of memory. The more devices you have (video cards, sound cards, ...), the less memory you get. You would see about 3GB with your setup.
With proper ventilation and enough fans, air can get the job done just as good as liquid. Liquid cooling is just a matter of preference. If you going to put the system in a spot with poor airflow or concerned about noise, than go with liquid cooling. XP and Vista is also preference. But if you are going 64bit, better do it with Vista. You should consider a video capture card from Matrox also. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
mgrmgr
Newbie
Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 28 Oct 2007 at 1:04pm |
|
skyR, you say, "
32 bit operating systems can only address up to 4GB of memory," but...Kelly Wilkins of DS said, "your system will benefit from 4GB of ram, but your os will only recognize
2.7GB." So, what exactly happens with 4Gb under 32bit Windows? (The spec I presented for DS comment was an XP system; is there perhaps a difference between how XP and Vista use 4GB?)
Are you saying a liquid cooling option is substantially quieter that air in an OC system? Doesn't the liquid require a fan to cool it...or does it just use a passive radiator? You also say, "You should consider a video capture card from Matrox also." Why will I need that in an HD video editing system? Not sure what it would do. If it is just for something like taking images off TV, that's not something I'd be doing? Much appreciate the input, Michael |
|
|
|
|
skyR
Newbie
Digital Storm Apprentice
Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2220 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 28 Oct 2007 at 1:46pm |
|
Think of it like water being the ram, objects being devices, container being 32bit os, and a tub being a 64bit os.
You have a container completely filled with water. If you decide to put like soap, brick, or whatever in the container. The container will get rid of some water (overflow) because it needed space for the object. But with a tub, it wouldn't overflow because there is a lot more space... It's exactly how all 32 bit system operates. It get rids of ram if there is no where else to take memory from. sorry if that was a bad explanation =\ Thought you would be capturing videos for video editing, it's why I suggested a video capture card. And yes a liquid cooled system is usually quieter than an air cooled system. As it only has 1-2 fans while the air can have up to 9 or more fans. Edited by skyR - 28 Oct 2007 at 2:00pm |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
mgrmgr
Newbie
Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 28 Oct 2007 at 3:15pm |
|
Not clear on your memory analogies, and still not clear if a 32bit OS just throws away the top 1.3Gb as unseen on a system with 4Gb.
The quietness of a liquid system does sound nice (oops...belated accidental pun alert), aside from your comment in another thread about daily checking for leaks and draining and refilling the system quarterly. As for video capture, no I will only be taking video from an HD video camera, editing it, and making Blu-ray and/or standard def DVDs from it. So no capture card should be necessary, but I appreciate the heads-up. Thanks again, Michael |
|
|
|
|
Tyler Lowe
Newbie
Joined: 14 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 28 Oct 2007 at 3:50pm |
|
The OS doesn't throw it away really...
I'll repost my response in the thread on RAM and OS choices:
"It's not that the system is setting aside physical RAM for the graphics cards, it's setting aside adresses. The physical RAM on the motherboard needs to be adressable in order for the CPU to be able to make use of it, but by the same token, memory onboard any expansion slot device must also have an adress.
Because the 32bit structure of most OS, they can only generate about 4GB worth of adresses to use to find everything in the system, because of the limited number of combinations of numbers using 32 places. The physical RAM past that point isn't being "used" at all, the computer simply can't see that it's there.
Memory is like a set of yes/no registers to keep track of what the CPU is doing. Every clock cycle, the cpu sends out a sequence of voltage levels (basically just a high or low value, which is read as "1" or "0" level voltage), which change the values on those registers. The trick is that it needs to know *where* to send them, and it has to be able to find that value later.
Think of it like a post office that can only keep track of so many houses to deliver to and pickup mail from. You build another house, and it's there, but as far as the post office is concerned, you don't exist.
So the problem with 64 bit OS, isn't that you won't be able to use 4GB of RAM, it's that many drivers are not compatible with the OS." |
|
|
|
|
jimbo
Groupie
Joined: 30 Aug 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 162 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 28 Oct 2007 at 4:44pm |
|
Read in MaxPC that the quad core is the main issue for video editing. It
seems that at least the high end programs, for video editing, really know how to use multiple cores. Another interseting point is that some actually use the video cards for processing. Seems the GPU floating point handling is better then the CPU?
|
|
|
Life's too short
|
|
|
|
|
mgrmgr
Newbie
Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 13 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 01 Nov 2007 at 1:56am |
|
Thanks Tyler. Those details of how memory works help a lot. Still scratching my head about whether I will dual boot XP and Vista64 with perhaps 8Gb RAM, but I'm at least a little clearer about the choice.
Edited by mgrmgr - 01 Nov 2007 at 1:56am |
|
|
|
|
Post Reply
|
| Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You can vote in polls in this forum |
About Digital Storm
Contact Information
Facility Tour
Financing
Buy Now, Pay Later
Downloads
GSA Schedule
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Request Help
Call: 1-866-817-8676
(Hours 9AM-5PM PST)
Topic Options