CS5 PC setup/benchmark thread
 

Well last week i lost my workhorse Q6600 system due to a motherboard failure; so i figured it was time to upgrade. I was running a modified Gateway quad core with a RAID0 project drive, 8GB 1066 RAM, and a 9800GTX+ OC 1GB card. I bought a replacement motherboard that came with a case, so ill be rebuilding the old Q6600 system later for a media center PC.

Might as well post up our system specs and benchmark them; i recommend http://ppbm4.com/Benchmark.html

My components are headed in. I stuck with a MicroATX because i dont have a spare ATX shell and i dont want to waste the money.

Core i7 950 (to be overclocked to 4ish GhZ)
Asus Rampage III Gene (for overclocking)
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600, 12GB (will also be reclocked)
1TB seagate barracuda main drive
500GBx2 RAID0 project drive
9800GTX+ OC 1GB (reuse old card, buy a GTX 480 later)

I am considering going with one RAID1 and two RAID0 drives for faster workflow, and another RAID1 for storage.

Will benchmark when its assembled.

I'm just a blue collar man trying to break into hobby video. I wouldn't begin to comprehend that kind of computing power. I'd sure like to see some of these kinds of machines at work.

i used to build PC's a few years back, but ive been out of the loop and happy with the machines i had.

Its a LOT easier today with smarter technology versus even 6 years ago when the modding arena was much smaller and required a much deeper knowledge of what you were doing.

Today, you can build a system that is capable of overclocking itself safely, and yet provide a noticeable difference in performance (graphics cards and motherboards). I still prefer to customize all my builds, and everything. Heck, i customize my cars, my PC's, my phones, my house, everything i can.

Try and find a PC builder with your new system and ask about tweaking it for video editing; i do it for free for any PC we build for clients; doesnt take a whole lot of time.

My 2 cents on Raid: for source video (which can be re-loaded from backups), Raid 0 isn't a bad idea. However, for project files including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, etc... it is smart to use at least Raid 1. Imagine working on a project for 10hrs straight and having a drive die.

i only utilize the RAID0 configuration for the actual export; OS and CS5 install is on one disk, source material is on a RAID0, and project disk is a RAID0. everything is backed up externally and i save before i export. i usually erase and reconfigured my RAID0 drives every 2-3 weeks to keep them fresh.

In 2-3 months i will build an even faster, 4.2GhZ refridgerated and overclocked Core i7 980X six core with 24GB overclocked RAM, SSD boot disk, RAID10 project disk, RAID10 for the delivery drive, RAID10 for the cache disk, and a GTX480 as the primary export system. we will edit the project on one system, have all media files on BOTH systems, copy the project to the second export machine, and then export on BOTH systems simultaneously that way we have a failsafe export. This workflow will only be used for extremely high priority work (and the clients will pay for it).

I would have bought these parts and built it this week and got BOTH new systems tuned, but im waiting for the 980X to drop in price when the new Sandybridge chipsets comes out. I also just bought a 6 speed 370Z with the sport package and NISMO aero package... so my budget is a little stretched :)

Why do you recommend PPBM4 (for CS4) over PPBM5 (for CS5) to benchmark your CS5 system?

Actually, he was unaware that PPBM5 existed. PPBM5 was (officially) released some time in July - about three months after the release of CS5.

By the way, CS5 5.0.3 came out yesterday. Unfortunately, there still is no official GTX 480 or Quadro 6000 support for MPE in this release. However, the Quadro 5000M (the lower-power mobile version of the Quadro 5000) is now officially supported for MPE GPU acceleration (and for Mac OSX users, the Quadro 4000 is now officially supported in MPE).

The default CUDA Supported Cards file should now look like this if you are running Windows x64:

GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 470
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 3800
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro FX 5800
Quadro 4000
Quadro 5000
Quadro 5000M

If you are using Mac OSX, the supported cards should now be:

GeForce GTX 285
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro 4000

absolutely correct; i only found PPB5M yesterday through a link Harm Millard had posted over at adobe forums; though PPB4M does have results with MPE, which had confused me.

i DO recommend benchmarking with PPB5M rather than ver4.

I am on my 7 year old laptop (Dell Insprion 5150, XP Pro, 2GB RAM, 1600x1200 UXGA, 3.06 P4 w/HT, 4x DVD-RW, 802.11B, 100GB 7200RPM HDD and SB Audigy 2ZS Notebook; OLDSCHOOL lol!) building my new core i7 machine tonight and prepping for benchmarking. also looking to replace my 9800GTX+ OC 1GB DDR3 (CUDA/MPE hacked) with a GTS240 1GB DDR5 (CUDA/MPE hacked). Never had a problem with it. Still my favorite PC.

I could EASILY boot up and post from my dinosaur computer; an 800Mhz Dell Dimension XPS B800r with 512MB RAM and a whopping 30GB and 80GB HDDs, 128MB GeForce 4200Ti, SB Live soundcard, TV Tuner, 56k/100Mbps Ethernet, DVD player and 8x CD burner drives running Windows 98 SE from (1998? 1999? 2000? i dont remember!) Only swapped in more RAM and replaced the 32MB Geforce card with the 4200Ti.

I recall specifically a 800 ghz machine that was my dream machine. 'bout 100 years ago! I 3 years I'll be laughing about the machines we prize right now.

reconfigured my system. Asus Rampage III Gene. 2x USB 3.0 and 2x SATA III (6 Gb/sec)

Intel X25M 80GB SSD - OS/CS5 install disk
BRD-206 blu ray burner, SATA II
2x 80GB Hitachi 7200RPM 2.5" drives in RAID0 SATA II - cache
2x 80GB Hitachi 7200RPM 2.5" drives in RAID0 SATA II - render
Corsair C300 SATA III 128GB SSD - cache
Corsair C300 SATA III 128GB SSD - render
Seagate 1TB USB 3.0 7200 RPM external - storage
Seagate 1TB USB 3.0 7200 RPM external - storage

Going to test the RAID0 drives against the SATA III SSD's tonight.