Dual Xeon 5520 vs i7 920
 

After dealing with footage from my Canon 7D for a few weeks now, I have realized that a powerful editing system is not a luxury, but a necessity. I am looking at a couple different options and was wondering if anyone had any input.

Tools at my disposal
====================
Cineform NeoScene or NeoHD (I can upgrade to HD if needed)
Adobe Production Premium CS4

Primary goal
====================
Real time performance on Premiere CS4 1080P timeline in a Matrox preset, 1 or 2 layers of video the majority of the time, with effects such as Matrox color correction (MXO2 Mini being used) and/or Magic Bullet Looks. External monitoring via MXO2 Mini.

My dilemma
====================
Can an i7 920 machine with 12GB Ram and a decent video card get this done? Would a dual Xeon 5520 machine be better suited for it? If overclocking is factored, is one better than the other? Oh, and for the Xeon solution, is it possible to load a dual socket motherboard with only one proc and then upgrade to a second later?

I am very proficient at building machines, I just haven't had much experience with the Xeon route. I've built one CAD system with a dual 5140 setup a couple years back, but it wasn't for me so I didn't get to utilize it. I've built two i7 machines, but both were for Edius editors so I never saw how Premiere performed on them.

In the end, I really would like a machine that has enough horsepower to get the job done now and hopefully still be able to tackle CS5 when it comes out.

I don't have any experience with Matrox, but it is my understanding from some posting here that Cineform and Matrox don't always work together:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/cineform...o-support.html
If that's in error, I'm sure someone with experience will chime in.

I'm very interested in the answers to your questions about the new Xeons. I'm trying to make myself hold off building a new box until the 6-core Gulftowns are released next spring/summer, and if it turns out that Dual Processor workstations will substantially outperform any single chip box for Adobe CS, I might go "whole hog" and build my first dual processor workstation.

Harm, or anyone else on the bleeding edge of computers, do you have any wisdom to share on the value and "gotcha's" of dual processor workstations? Use of only one processor while waiting for the latest, greatest chips to come out?

A dual Xeon 55xx system is way more costly than a single i7-920. Not only the CPU's, but also the motherboard and the memory because of ECC. Additionally, dual CPU boards are very difficult to overclock if at all.

OTOH, the i7-920 is very easy to overclock and gives you the best-bang-for-the-buck.

Have a look at these Premiere Pro CS4 Benchmark results and you will see what I mean. My system is nearly 30% faster than a dual W5590 with 36 GB memory and far more economical. So a system with dual 5520's would be even slower, I would expect somewhere around 60-70 seconds total time and a RPI of around 180-210. Basically you get around half the performance for more than double the price.

Thanks for the quick reply, Harm. Not to diverge too far from Craig's original line of questions, but before we entirely dismiss high end Xeons, there are a couple of caveats to their PPBM4 results vs your Beast computer:
- all three PPBM4 tests are render-to-disk tests and you have a monster RAID system (costing as much as some people's who computer) and
- both the top Xeons in the result table don't have RAID at all -- they're below Adobe minimum requirements in that regard.

Regardless of cost, I wonder how the Xeons would do if they had an optimized disk subsystem? It just seems that 8 cores at 3.2 or 3.3 ought to do better than 4 cores at 3.6 or 3.7 for processor-intensive tasks when using multi-processor aware software like PPro and AE to run a timeline full of effects smoothly, as long as the disk subsystem doesn't bottleneck the render.

And I guess that points out my own priorities -- smooth NLE editing and AE performance are much more important to me than PPro final render speed.

Craig, are we on the same wavelength, or are my questions and comments not moving in your direction? (BTW, you can check out PPBM4 here).

Pete,

You are correct that in CPU intensive tests like the MPEG one, you see the power of dual W5590's in that it outperforms my overclocked i7, 24.0 versus 24.6 seconds. And yes, I have a massive raid configuration that certainly contributes heavily to my current top scores, but OTOH the Dell dual W5580 with two Cheetah 15K.7 disks that attain a sustainable transfer rate of around 180-200 MB/s are not slow either. Those single disks are very well comparable to 2 SATA disks in raid0. The same applies to the SSD boot disk in the W5590 system.

Keep in mind that the raid configuration that Adobe recommends does not apply to DV editing, it is only for HD and the PPBM4 tests are all DV based.

BTW, I have asked Adobe to run this test on their own HP Z800 with dual W5590's, with a nVidia Quadro 4800 with CS5 and the Mercury Playback Engine and they would try to do that before Christmas. I'm looking forward to seeing those results.

This is another source of comparison, although it is not directly oriented towards NLE, but more generic: PassMark Software - PerformanceTest System Benchmarks - Fastest Performing PCs

In that test my top score is still rank 3, but that is highly overclocked and not advisable for editing, but even with a much lower overclock speed at 3.4 GHz my system scores 4623 and this is still good enough for rank 12, thereby kicking the only W5580 in the list out of the 20-th position.

Wow, you know you got pull if you can ask Adobe to do that..and they do! Sure hope they allow the results to be public.

Anyway, it seems difficult to believe, but to restate the bottom line for guys like Craig (and me): don't bother with a dual processor machine for PPro; you'll get as least as much editing performance out of an overclocked i920. Amazing.

I wonder if the same holds true for AE and Dynamic Link?

Another thought regarding Craig's buying decision -- when CS5 arrives with true 64 bit software, the more RAM the better when using AE and/or having multiple apps running. Most consumer motherboards are generally limited to 12GB of RAM. Would there be a case for getting a SINGLE processor workstation MB in order to install more RAM, or are those not necessarily worthwhile for video editing (ECC RAM, overclockability, etc)?

BTW, Harm brings a wealth of knowledge here, but any other experts please do chime in. There must be others with workstation experience. The more the merrier.

Pete,

I don't have any figures to substantiate it, but especially with AE and dynamic link you never have enough memory and the more you have, the better the performance.

However, with the i7-980X expected to be introduced at Cebit in March (@ 3.33 GHz and an introduction price of around $ 999) and the new nVidia GTX-380 video card, preferably with 2 GB video memory and MPE to support CS5-64, I do not think you would be pressed for memory space. The slowest component in the chain may then again turn to disks, since both CPU and GPU have made giant leaps but disks are lagging behind and SSD's are still too small and too costly for most of us.

Can you imagine a system with:

1. i7-980X hexacore, possibly overclocked to around 4.0 GHz
2. 12 GB DDR3-1600+ 7-7-7-18 memory
3. nVidia GTX-380 with 2 GB video memory
4. 4 x SSD-80 in raid10 for boot disk
5. 4 x SSD-160 in raid0 for pagefile, scratch and media cache
6. 18 x Cheetah 600 GB in raid30 for media with 2 hot-spares, effective net 8.4 TB
7. Areca ARC-1680iX-24 with 4 GB cache and BBM

For around $15-16K you would be hard pressed to find anything better IMO.

Thanks for the responses so far. I don't think this topic gets discussed enough, and there really isn't much data available online as far as direct comparisons for video purposes. I don't really care much to read about gamers trying to go dual Xeon =p

Pete, you are dead on when saying that rendering out/transcoding/anything of that nature is second to actual realtime editing speed. I want to edit with a few effects thrown on clips without having to render my timeline each time I make a change. It slows down the editing process too much and is a main reason a lot of event videographers are looking to Edius instead of Premiere. Edius does realtime timeline very well.

As far as Matrox and Cineform goes, Videoguys' writeup was what sold me on this setup. Here is a press release from Cineform regarding this:

http://www.cineform.com/pdfs/Press%2...ni%20FINAL.pdf

Harm, I believe that many dual socket 1366 motherboards now will run ECC or non-ECC ram. Am I not correct in that? I am looking in particular at the Asus Z8NA right now. It is dual socket 1366 and states that it supports 24 GB of unregistered memory or 48 GB of registered. It is also in the same price range as the P6T mobo for i7. So I would think the only extra cost would be the higher price of the 5520 proc compared to the 920 (times two). Roughly about $500 difference between the two systems I would presume given current prices over at Newegg.

As far as never having enough memory, Asus also makes the Z8PE-D12X and Z8PE-D18, which can hold 12 and 18 sticks of RAM (RDIMM or UDIMM). That would allow 48 GB unregistered. Would one of those boards work? I don't have much experience with the server boards so maybe I'm overlooking something.

In the end, I'd actually prefer the i7 route if it can keep up with the Xeons for what we are using them for. I just want to figure out which path makes more sense in the video editing world.

Craig,

Initial looks at the mobo you mentioned is that it only has 6 memory slots, same as nearly all other 1366 boards and only half of other dual 1366 socket boards, that have 12 or 18 slots. It has a completely useless integrated graphics controller, it has no firewire connectors, it misses on board audio. This shows you get what you pay for. I would not recommend it.

Instead I would look at Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Products | Motherboards | Xeon Boards | X8DAi

Do not forget that with MPE around the corner, rendering previews may be a thing of the past.

Craig,

Do you honestly think it is wise to invest around € 1700 for 24 G instead of € 350 for 12 G faster memory for each 6 memory slots? Where do you get even larger memory sticks? I haven't seen them.

If I read you correctly, you prefer € 5100 on 72 G of memory over € 350 on 12 G memory, which would have gotten you a marvelous disk setup and more noticeable performance improvements?

Harm,

I was just throwing those options out there to see what you thought of them. I wouldn't be doing anything close to what is available due to price restrictions as of now, but who knows what a year or so down the road holds as far as prices go. I know a couple years ago we probably would have laughed at anyone who told us that 12 GB of RAM would only be a little over $300 USD.

I was just exploring an option, that's all. I know it isn't feasible to stick 4GB sticks in each slot right now, it's too expensive. If a motherboard with 12 slots could hold 12 2GB sticks at roughly $700 USD giving you 24 GB of RAM, would that be a good investment? Would one see noted improvement using 24 instead of 12? I'm just throwing ideas around.

I trust your opinion completely and am very satisfied with your analysis of the 920's perfomance capabilities. I will probably do a 920 build for myself. However, I do build machines for others sometimes that have a LOT more editing experience than I have. They, however, don't have as much I.T. experience and so they trust my opinions. I have to explore these options for them so I have accurate answers for them when they ask "why not Xeon?".

Graig,

With any system one builds, there are a number of unavoidable expenses, especially with CS5 and MPE around the corner.

You need a large case that allows the use of eATX motherboards, has lots of space for disks, preferably hot-swappable and two Blu-ray burners and of course a good power supply. In addition you need a good nVidia CUDA capable video card with lots of video memory and a good raid controller plus a number of reliable hard disks.

Before choosing the CPU and motherboard and memory, this implies that there is already a sizable dent in the available budget. Let me give you an example:

Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77B Newegg.com - LIAN LI PC-A77B Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
PSU: Corsair-1000HX Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies
Blu-ray burners: 2 x Sony Newegg.com - SONY Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 8X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 6X BD-ROM 4.5 Mbyte Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner Model BD-5730S-01 - Blu-Ray Burners
Drive cage: 2 x Supermicro M35T cage Newegg.com - SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure - Server Accessories
Video: nVidia GTX-295 Newegg.com - ZOTAC ZT-295E3MB-FSP GeForce GTX 295 1792MB 896 (448 x 2)-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Boot disk: WD Velociraptor Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Raid controller: Areca ARC-160iX-12 Newegg.com - areca ARC-1680IX-12-4G PCI-Express x8 SAS RAID Card - Controllers / RAID Cards
Areca BBM: Battery backup Newegg.com - areca ARC-6120 Full Height Battery Backup Unit - Server Accessories
Storage: 8 x WD RE3 Newegg.com - Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Now we haven't even started choosing the CPU('s), motherboard or memory but already we have a dent in the budget of $ 4350. Sure, there may be other components at more attractive prices so you can shave off a bit, but IMO this is quite reasonable for a very good system. Nothing overdone like a nVidia Quadro 4800 or excessive storage or expensive SSD's. Now with these 8 storage disks in raid3 with 1 hot-spare you have 6 TB storage. That should be enough for most people and sufficiently safe. There is no provision for a raid1 for the boot disk, so that may need to be added, bringing the intermediate cost to $ 4560.

If we now add the most economical CPU, cooler, mobo and 12 GB of memory

ASUS P6T WS Pro: Newegg.com - Open Box: ASUS P6T WS PRO LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Core i7 / Xeon Intel Motherboard
i7-920: Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
2 x 6 GB memory: Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C7 G - Desktop Memory
Cooler: Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

the total price comes out to $ 4350 + $ 1045 = around $ 5400

If the option is to use dual Xeon's and 24 GB of memory, it may look like this:

Dual W5590: Newegg.com - Intel Xeon W5590 Nehalem-EP 3.33GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Server Processor - Processors - Servers
Supermicro X8DAi: Newegg.com - SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DAi-O Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5520 Extended ATX Dual Intel Xeon Processor 5500 sequence (Nehalem-EP processor) Server Motherboard - Server Motherboards
4 x 6 GB memory: Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C7 G - Desktop Memory
2 x Cooler: Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

and the total cost rises to $ 4350 + $ 4870 = around $ 9200

An intermediate approach might be to opt for the i7-980X hexacore for $ 1000 instead of the i7-920. This brings the investment up to $ 6100 but likely will give a 40-50% performance gain over the quad core.

I think that with the new hexacores and MPE the bottleneck will be in disk performance and looking at various setups, too many people do not enough to improve disk performance and that is where gains can be made.

Thanks Harm. I will be reusing everything in my current system other than the MB, CPU, video card, and RAM. The rest will stay the same. I currently am using a 4U rackmount system with a Highpoint RocketRaid with dual external infiniband connectors connecting to a 12 bay (only 8 usable due to RAID card only having 8 ports) external hot-swappable rackmount chassis.

You mention using a CUDA capable video card... does that help at all with timeline playback or is it just accelerating exports?

Craig,

Have a look here: DAVTechTable - Sneak Peek at the New Adobe Mercury Playback Engine Technology | Adobe TV

This is the machine I asked Adobe to run CS5 + MPE for the PPBM4 benchmark.

I'm wondering how soon AMD will have a workstation version of Magny Cours out, and how well it will perform.

At the current time Adobe has no plans to port MPE to ATI cards, only nVidia CUDA and the rumored entry level card is the GTX-285.

Not that I'm not impressed with the Mercury stuff, but I thought it interesting that they had 16 cores and 24GB of RAM, too.

Is there any rough estimate as to when CS5 will be available? I just purchased CS4 last month.

Craig, have you used the Matrox Mini with Premiere yet? I have a Mini that was used all of two days because of the Mini's lag when switching from Source to Program and vice versa. The Matrox software also ruined a one month old Vista x64 install even though I uninstalled the software after only a few days. Another problem I encountered was the Matrox presets. If the Mini was not plugged in, AE would crash upon starting the app and Premiere would crash upon opening a project with a Matrox preset. This last issue led me to try opening pproj files on other computers without the matrox software and they all crashed. So, opening a pproj file down the road without the correct matrox software installed could cause issues. If you read Matrox's support forum, you will see many other possible problems. I am led to believe that Matrox is geared for Macs and only has PC support as an afterthought.

And the Mini doesn't support 24p.

If your goal is to monitor your video, Premiere has a built in playback setting which mimics what the Mini and others basically do - but with NO lag. Also, recent nvidia cards have adjustments for just about everything the Mini does except Blue only (which is easily solved). Nvidia cards even can display bars.

Now, for a PC with lots of ram: you can get the i7 Xeon version - W3520 for $310 (newegg) and 24GB of DDR3-1333 ECC Registered ram for $813 and you can still overclock the Xeon. Most likely due to demand, the desktop non-ECC 4GB ram sticks are still over $200 each ($1200 total)
Newegg.com - Intel Xeon W3520 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Server Processor - Processors - Servers
Newegg.com - Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1333 Server Memory Model KVR1333D3D4R9SK2/8G - Server Memory

However, I don't have much of a recommendation to speed up AE because its a poorly optimized program. I love AE and use it more than Premiere but most effects are horribly slow even on my PC with i7 920 & 12GB ram. Actually, I just remembered that Mac Pro users with dual quads have to enable only 6 of 8 cores in AE due to some problem.

I am about ready to upgrade now. I have to wait until the 6th for a check to clear and then I'm good to go. I have a few questions though.

I am going to go with the i7 920 overclocked system. I was wondering the following:

1. P6T base model, or is there any performance gain/desirable features that makes the upgraded P6T models worth the extra money?

2. Corsair XMS3 1600 DDR3 or Corsair Dominator? Does the Dominator line give much performance/stability difference?

3. GTX 285 or 295? Will Premiere CS4 be able to utilize all of the 295? I was wondering if the 295 shows up as an SLI card or a single card, based on it's architecture.

4. SSD or stick with WD Raptor 74gb?

I think I need to play with it with an i7 system before I can fully judge the Mini. So far it's been quirky for me, and I have had an issue with the Matrox HDMI calibration losing it's settings. I have to recalibrate each time after rebooting, which is a pain in the butt.

Re 1: There is no performance gain, but there are features that may make the difference, number of PCIe slots, IDE or not, the location of the various slots, an extra Marvell chip with SAS ports, etc.

Re 2: Keep in mind the CPU cooler you intend to use. My personal favorite is the Noctua NH-D14. The space for the memory sticks may be limited when you install certain coolers. I have seen this happen with the heat sinks on Kingston Hyper-X modules. For the rest get modules with the lowest timings you can find. 6-6-6-18 is much preferred over 9-9-9-30.

Re 3: For CS4 it makes no difference at all. For CS5 we are all eagerly awaiting further info, but one Adobe employee has alluded to the possibility that the GTX285 is about entry level for MPE. The GTX295 is more expensive, but with its stream processors may take more advantage of MPE/CUDA than the 285.

Re 4: I would stick with the Raptor for the time being. Loading times are not really relevant for editing and it may be more beneficial to invest the money in the rest of your disk setup.

1) P6T SE (base model) vs P6T($20-30 more) - the SE has inferior capacitors, which is why I got the P6T for myself. Better capacitors are good for overclocking stability and longer life.

Consider whether you want 12GB or 24GB of ram. The cost of 4GB DDR3 "NON-ECC" ram is still $200+ whereas 4GB DDR3 ECC is only $125-130 a piece. The Non-ECC is used with the i7 and the ECC is used with the Xeon. The extra cost of the ram for the i7 is nearly the same as the extra cost of the dual-Xeon setup. If you use After Effects and/or Dynamic Link(I think Encore can be used via DL also) in addition to Photoshop while working, 24GB really HELPS.

And remember that Premiere and AE CS5 will be 64bit native apps so they will love ram.

2) There is no real performance gain from more expensive ram. For i7 920, at least DDR3-1333 so the i7 can be overclocked to 3.4-3.6GHz. I'm fairly certain that ram will only run at 1066 and you must overclock the CPU in order to run the ram faster.

3)Get the 285 because the 295 won't be supported in CS5/MPE (at least not upon release).

4) If you have a Raptor, then you can keep using it. If you are buying a new drive for the OS then a SSD is the way to go because it is only slightly more money but WAYYYYY faster. I had 4 Raptors in Raid for the OS & Apps and went to a single Intel X25 80GB SSD, and the SSD makes those Raptors feel 10yrs old. I also like SSDs because of no moving parts and higher reliability.

I have tried Cineform files on the Matrox Mini with mixed results. The 4:4:4 ones worked fine, and the 4:2:2 ones did not, which seemed counter intuitive. The I/O Express or Xena line is probably a much better choice for Cineform timeline monitoring. Let me know if you get Cineform files working well on a Matrox Mini timeline.

So should I consider waiting and purchasing a higher end video card when CS5 arrives? Or get the 285 now? Right now I have a ATI Radeon x1950 Pro with 512mb RAM. Is there something in the $100 and under range that would give me decent performance now, while allowing me to save money for a better card when CS5 comes?

"Alluding to"...actually, Adobe personnel have already stated that the 285 is the base for support. Here is the best info on the subject direct from Adobe:
The Genesis Project: Technology Sneek Peek: Adobe® Mercury Playback Engine

Steve,

Dennis gave his personal opinion and he is not part of the inner circle on these developments. He has often stated a preference for the Quadro 4800, since Dave, his colleague, uses it. But this is not an official stance from Adobe's side. We will just has to wait and see.

So do you guys think that by the time that CS5 comes out there will either be a better model in the "entry level" price range than the GTX 285?

Likely that will be the GTX380.

I ordered the parts, minus the video card. I'll wait for CS5 to come out before buying one, unless my system is being bottlenecked by my current card. I was thinking about buying something simple like a GeForce 9800GT for the interim, but decided to do more research.

On a side note, I'm occupying my time waiting for this stuff by building a wireless video transmitter that fits in my Sony HCC underwater housing (HDR-HC7 cam fits in it). I just got a successful test above water running the wireless off of 4 AA batteries, now for the underwater test! I plan on running the signal to a pair of video glasses. This will allow me to use that housing that has the stupid flip out mirror. To see the mirror, you have to have your face level with the mirror, which means being all the way in the water. When the water is often below 50 degrees F, that kind of sucks! So this is my solution.

Oh, and I ordered the 80gb Intel X25-M SSD drive. My Raptor is more than a few years old, and I don't want to chance losing my OS drive with a deadline looming (a big shoot in Feb for me!).

I'm second guessing my decision to wait on the video card. Now I'm thinking of ordering it. However, I have a question:

The GTX 285 comes in 2 different memory sizes; 1 GB and 2 GB. The 2GB card is around $40 or so more, and at the moment out of stock pretty much everywhere. Is it worth it to wait for that version to come back in stock, or is that extra 1GB not going to be much use? I'm assuming having the extra RAM is better.

Next, which brand would be best? I'm seeing a lot of EVGA, XFX, and BFG TECH reviewed on the popular computer retailer's site, but only by gamers.

With MPE around the corner, I would get the 2 GB version. There is no hurry yet, since CS5 is not expected before NAB or even IBC 2010. But the extra memory available for MPE can only be beneficial and the cost difference is negligent.

I decided to go with the 2GB version, but it was out of stock pretty much everywhere. I found an Ebay shop that is in California (where I am) and I got the EVGA 2GB 285 for $40 less than from the 'egg, and I should receive it tomorrow even with standard UPS ground.

OK, here's what I found: Monitoring with the Nvidia GTX 285 was not good. The card does not have an HDMI port, but comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter. I am using a Samsung 30" CRT HDTV (1080p) and I couldn't find a driver for it, so it detected as a generic monitor. It seemed as if using this method through the video card taxed the system more, and what WAS smooth realtime playback turned into jerky motion and a very unusable timeline playback without rendering. I then installed the Mini, and it's buttery smooth. I will stick with it for now.

As far as lag, I don't notice any.

Harm, what info have you been told as to the release date of CS5?

Craig, the jerkiness most likely is due to the Project settings and the preview settings.

Steve,

As always Adobe is very close mouthed about releases. All I can do is look at their past introductions and extrapolate to the future.

There are two events where it would be logical to introduce CS5: NAB or IBC.

In the past the introduction of new versions were around 18 months apart. CS4 was introduced at IBC 2008, so the logical next step would be at NAB 2010, but...

Adobe announced that CS5 will be 64 bit only, a major undertaking, and

Sneek previews of MPE mean another major step forward and thus time.

From the comments here and there, the optimists are betting for NAB 2010, but I feel (just a gut feeling, nothing tangible) that IBC 2010 is more realistic. Announcements at NAB may still be looks at what CS5 has to offer, but personally I think it will only be available at IBC.

Harm,

Is there any issue with running at 4.2ghz if my temps seem fine? I am running idle in the upper 30's C and under Prime95 in the mid 70's max. I finally got to overclock, as I was waiting on a replacement set of bolts from Noctua. My D14 kit had one of the four bolts not threaded (they forgot to machine the threads), so I couldn't fully tighten the cooler down. I got the replacement and it makes a huge difference now.

I am running the memory at stock settings (1600 mhz latency at 8). I got a few BSOD's after rebooting but they were IRQ issues I believe created by moving expansion boards around to better optimize airflow (I had to remove the motherboard to change that Noctua bolt). So far I am up and running at 4.2ghz though. Should I worry about anything? Also, I have my vcore and QPI/uncore at 1.35. I was getting random BSOD with them at 1.30 so I bumped them up and seem stable in Prime95 now. Is there much benefit in tinkering and trying to drop those down a notch or two to maximize? Or is it safe to just leave it where it is?

Update:
I just finished running PPBM4 again. My Total Benchmark Time @ stock 2.66ghz was 60.1 seconds. Overclocked to 4.2 I ended up at 36.7 seconds! =) BIG improvement.