Proper Rig

[Eric Edwards]

Hey guys,

In the future I plan on upgrading my current setup to be able to start editing Uncompressed HD, 2k, even possibly 4k footage.

Right now I have this setup for HDV:

Intel Core2Duo E6400
Asus P5B Deluxe
2 Gig DDR2 PC6400
1 x HD 80GB WD Sata-2 (Windows XP Pro/Adobe Premiere Pro)
2 x HD 250x250GB WD Sata-2 16mb Buffer (Hold HDV Files)
1 x HD 120GB WD (EIDE) Hold project files, etc
1 x HD 80GB WD For music, Scores, etc
Nvidia 7300GT
Blackmagic Intensity HD Card
Pioneer DVR-111D
2x19" LCD Monitors and 1 HDTV 27" - Editing

I know this most likely wouldn't be able to handle a setup for uncompressed, but I was wondering what would be the most ideal setup for something like that. If possible, please specify CPU, Hard Drives, Ram, Video Editing Cards, Etc. Thanks, I very much appreciate it.

BTW, another question, can Premiere handle 2k and 4k footage? or would I have to use another method of editing?

[Harm Millaard]

Get out your wallet or start saving massively for the investment required....

First, Adobe does not support 2K, 4K and even uncompressed HD. Get something like Autodesk Smoke2007 Extension 1, around $ 100 K.

Second, prepare for a 2K or 4K camera, like the Dalsa Origin: http://www.dalsa.com/dc/4K_products/origin_main.asp
and augment that with the necessary primes.

Third, look into blades running Linux for Smoke2007 with at least 16 cores, but preferably a multitude of that. For storage have a look at HP Storageworks EVA Enterprise arrays.

You are looking at a serious investment, multiple $100K amounts at least.

From where you are coming, it may be that your ambitions may be quite understandable, but you may not have overseen the consequences. This is serious pro areas you are contemplating and in that aspect, you must realize that prices multiply excessively with each improvement, just like the prices of sailing yachts seem to double with every 3 foot increase of length.

[Eric Edwards]

Ya I figured that the whole system would cost over 100k. Ive been looking around at cameras and lenses and have put myself around the 150k mark, so I definitely understand where this is coming from. I very much appreciate the information regarding the setup!

Eric.

[Lars Siden]

The ASUS board is okey, it has ICH8R(as in RAID).

I'd definitively go for a more powerful CPU, probably Quadcore(Q6600 or better).

I have the WD Raptor disks myself, but if I were to build a system today I would build it with dual stripe arrays using Samsung t166 500gb disks or the hitachi variant. When using stripe you have no need for Raptors. One array for apps/OS and one array for Video.

Check the cpu charts at toms hardware, they have a video encoding benchmark that shows clearly the benefit of a Quad:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

Good luck!

//Lazze

ps. Don't forget a good PSU ds.