Building a new system at DVinfo.net

Alex Barabas · June 12th, 2005, 12:12 AM

I currently have an Athlon 64 3200+, 2x80GB Raid 0, 6800GT, 1GB... premiere pro and after effects run sorta "eh" on it! Am I missing something other than a good real-time hardware accelerator?

Whatever the case, I work for a computer manufacturer and will soon get a new Athlon 64 X2 4800+ system w/ 2GB, dual SATA (non-raid)... what decent video and NLE hardware accelerator(s) should I look into for using PP and AE? What about a nice ASIO sound card? I used to have a Delta 44 for multitracking/midi but will not be doing any multitrack or midi audio recording on this system... would there be any benefit to having something w/ ASIO drivers on PP/AE? I haven't noticed anything out of sync or laggy w/ my integrated soundMAX, aside from the obvious mistakes of setting the proper frequencies and bitrates.

Also, are the 6800 series cards sufficient for AE's open GL, or would a quadro be much more effective?... answered that one myself, as I just turned my 6800GT into a quadro 4000! CRAZY! Definitely a difference in AE!

Glenn Chan · June 13th, 2005, 09:37 AM

I'm curious: how did you turn your 6800GT into a quadro 4000? A firmware/BIOS flash?

Alex Barabas · June 14th, 2005, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenn Chan

I'm curious: how did you turn your 6800GT into a quadro 4000? A firmware/BIOS flash?

Hardware wise it's the exact same thing... the 6800 has a different bios so the nvidia universal drivers load up the 6800 driver... you need this freeware tweaker called "RivaTuner" ...a quick search will let you find it. If you decide on doing it, hit me up for the exact procedures and what you should activate on it. The difference is that the quadro has all of the OpenGL features activated (about 40-50% jump in performance over the 6800GT)... however, there might be a slight decrease in gaming performance (5-10%) because the quadro drivers are built for accuracy and open gl, not d3d and speed... I'm not big into D3D and gaming, so this is the perfect mod for me!

Adam Kampia · June 14th, 2005, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Barabas

I currently have an Athlon 64 3200+, 2x80GB Raid 0, 6800GT, 1GB... premiere pro and after effects run sorta "eh" on it! Am I missing something other than a good real-time hardware accelerator?

Are you planning on running your OS & Applications on the Raid drive(s) as well as using them for media storage?

If so, I would rethink that and at least get a 40 gig HD decicated to your OS & apps (or for even better performance, make it a 10,000rpm Raptor). Then use the Raid 0 for video capture & storage. Premiere and AE render & export much more efficiantly that way. For ideal export efficiancy, get an additional 100gig HD dedicated to just export.
So the setup is like this:
C: Win XP, Premiere, AE, etc.
D: Exported movie files
E: Raid 0 Source video storage.

The rationale behind this is that during render/export, your C: drive is free to handle the application, which can then read from E: and write to D:. It definitely speeds things up and avoids errors or hangs due to "bottlenecks".

[Edit] Read your post wrong. You plan on getting 2 non Raid drives. The advice on configuring 2 or 3 drives still applies though.

Glenn Chan · June 14th, 2005, 04:19 PM

I don't think faster hard drives would make a meaningful difference for render performance. I ran some quasi-tests to benchmark things:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=18784

RAID does make a difference (and may be necessary) if you need to edit uncompressed, HD, etc.

RAID 0 does double your chance of losing data to HDD failure.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of RAID. ;)

As well, I think our money can be better spent than getting a WD Raptor. Most of the time you won't be waiting on the hard drive.

2- Alex:
I was just curious about turning your card into a workstation card. I might do it in the future if I find openGL performance is important to me. Newegg shows $1.4k for a quadro 4000... yikes!!

ASIO: As far as I know, low latency is useful when you want to monitor things with FX when you record. On playback, I don't think you need super low latency.
For video editing, it might make sense to get a decent sound card like the M-audio Revolution (which has low latency drivers for it anyways???). If you're just using consumer speakers then on-board sound would probably be fine.

For Premiere Pro, you might want to look into a Matrox RTX100 bundle. The Matrox seems to be the most popular recommendation for PPro, and the bundle may give you good pricing.

Adam Kampia · June 14th, 2005, 06:40 PM

Indeed, HD speed has nothing to do with rendering (multiple HD configuration does though).

But it doesn't hurt to have a 10,000RPM HD just for application performance.

Alex Barabas · June 14th, 2005, 10:46 PM

Wow, really great advice from all of you guys... thanks! If anyone needs specifics on using RivaTuner to quadro-up their 6x00 cards, hit me up on AIM... N618FT

It seems like I'm screwed for time right now... I'm in school (not so much over the summer) but I'm working my butt off to get a nice camera (XL2) and to keep my small business afloat... I've got positive cash flow but unless I can make it more worthwhile (spending too much time making too ittle) and fun, I'll need to scrap that. I'm doing a couple of last-ditch efforts to turn out some serious margin on some marketing services within the next month or two... I'd also like to be able to offer a service where I make a commercials for local companies... that will complete my marketing services with everything from web design, magazine ad placements, logo design, flyers, product packaging design, to radio ads and commercials... woot woot!

Dave Eanton · June 15th, 2005, 12:06 AM

I think the best bang for your buck will be to get the RTX100 hardware only, as you already have adobe software. The only caution is that the RTX is extremely sensitive to your computer compnenents, and making sure that everything is compatible will be the biggest challenge. This card will allow you to approach your commercial projects in real-time. If you can get it to work for you, there will be 'little' to 'no' render times and your project can be turned around quickly. Card compatibility can be found on the Matrox website.

The delta card you have is very good for audio and the A/D converters with the card are very clean. Unfortunately, the RTX does not support any of the M-Audio cards and you may have to resort to your built-in sound when using the RTX card - there is no way around that.

Regarding your Delta sound card, if you are not going with the RTX100, I can't think of anything that would do a better job than you already have unless you need multi tracking recording.

June 12th, 2005, 12:12 AM	#1
Alex Barabas Regular Crew Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 61	Building a new system I currently have an Athlon 64 3200+, 2x80GB Raid 0, 6800GT, 1GB... premiere pro and after effects run sorta "eh" on it! Am I missing something other than a good real-time hardware accelerator? Whatever the case, I work for a computer manufacturer and will soon get a new Athlon 64 X2 4800+ system w/ 2GB, dual SATA (non-raid)... what decent video and NLE hardware accelerator(s) should I look into for using PP and AE? What about a nice ASIO sound card? I used to have a Delta 44 for multitracking/midi but will not be doing any multitrack or midi audio recording on this system... would there be any benefit to having something w/ ASIO drivers on PP/AE? I haven't noticed anything out of sync or laggy w/ my integrated soundMAX, aside from the obvious mistakes of setting the proper frequencies and bitrates. Also, are the 6800 series cards sufficient for AE's open GL, or would a quadro be much more effective?... answered that one myself, as I just turned my 6800GT into a quadro 4000! CRAZY! Definitely a difference in AE! Last edited by Alex Barabas; June 12th, 2005 at 02:06 AM.

June 15th, 2005, 12:06 AM	#8
Dave Eanton Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: CANADA Posts: 56	I think the best bang for your buck will be to get the RTX100 hardware only, as you already have adobe software. The only caution is that the RTX is extremely sensitive to your computer compnenents, and making sure that everything is compatible will be the biggest challenge. This card will allow you to approach your commercial projects in real-time. If you can get it to work for you, there will be 'little' to 'no' render times and your project can be turned around quickly. Card compatibility can be found on the Matrox website. The delta card you have is very good for audio and the A/D converters with the card are very clean. Unfortunately, the RTX does not support any of the M-Audio cards and you may have to resort to your built-in sound when using the RTX card - there is no way around that. Regarding your Delta sound card, if you are not going with the RTX100, I can't think of anything that would do a better job than you already have unless you need multi tracking recording. __________________ XL1s, XL2, 3x Wide lens, Matrox RTX 100 pro, Premiere Pro 1.5, After Effects 6.5, Encore, Audition

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June 13th, 2005, 09:37 AM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	I'm curious: how did you turn your 6800GT into a quadro 4000? A firmware/BIOS flash?

June 14th, 2005, 04:19 PM	#5
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	I don't think faster hard drives would make a meaningful difference for render performance. I ran some quasi-tests to benchmark things: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=18784 RAID does make a difference (and may be necessary) if you need to edit uncompressed, HD, etc. RAID 0 does double your chance of losing data to HDD failure. As you can tell, I'm not a fan of RAID. ;) As well, I think our money can be better spent than getting a WD Raptor. Most of the time you won't be waiting on the hard drive. 2- Alex: I was just curious about turning your card into a workstation card. I might do it in the future if I find openGL performance is important to me. Newegg shows $1.4k for a quadro 4000... yikes!! ASIO: As far as I know, low latency is useful when you want to monitor things with FX when you record. On playback, I don't think you need super low latency. For video editing, it might make sense to get a decent sound card like the M-audio Revolution (which has low latency drivers for it anyways???). If you're just using consumer speakers then on-board sound would probably be fine. For Premiere Pro, you might want to look into a Matrox RTX100 bundle. The Matrox seems to be the most popular recommendation for PPro, and the bundle may give you good pricing.

June 14th, 2005, 06:40 PM	#6
Adam Kampia Regular Crew Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 58	Indeed, HD speed has nothing to do with rendering (multiple HD configuration does though). But it doesn't hurt to have a 10,000RPM HD just for application performance.

June 14th, 2005, 10:46 PM	#7
Alex Barabas Regular Crew Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 61	Wow, really great advice from all of you guys... thanks! If anyone needs specifics on using RivaTuner to quadro-up their 6x00 cards, hit me up on AIM... N618FT It seems like I'm screwed for time right now... I'm in school (not so much over the summer) but I'm working my butt off to get a nice camera (XL2) and to keep my small business afloat... I've got positive cash flow but unless I can make it more worthwhile (spending too much time making too ittle) and fun, I'll need to scrap that. I'm doing a couple of last-ditch efforts to turn out some serious margin on some marketing services within the next month or two... I'd also like to be able to offer a service where I make a commercials for local companies... that will complete my marketing services with everything from web design, magazine ad placements, logo design, flyers, product packaging design, to radio ads and commercials... woot woot!