Build Advice for Audio/Video editing machine

R

RevMen

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 22, 2004
Messages
460
I have a Barton build that's more than 5 years old and needs to have its guts swapped out. Need motherboard, CPU, memory, video. Preferences are:

  • Prefer Intel over AMD, though both are acceptable
  • Need to be able to edit/encode/decode HD video
  • No need for gaming now, but might want to add high power graphics in the future if the urge strikes
  • On-board video is fine, maybe even preferable
  • Noise is an issue, so fan-less components are good, if practical
  • Want to be able to use RAID 5
  • Must have on-board firewire for my MOTU 828 mkII
  • Needs to work with Antec Sonata Plus 550 case (can't imagine that's a problem)
  • I'd like to stay under $400
 
Last edited:
I upgraded from a Athlon X2 6000 to a Intel i7 920. The render speeds on Sony Vegas Pro 9 are phenominally faster. Im rendering at 1280x720 MP4 and its about the same render speed as the contents running time, so 1 minute video takes 1 minute to render, 10 minute takes 10 minutes, etc. On my Athlon X2 it was about double the render time compared to the running time.

If you have a Microcenter near you they are selling the i7 920 for $200 and the Intel DX58SO mobo for $200 (it has onboard video and FIrewire...really nice board really), and DDR3 would probably run you $50 to get like 2GB (maybe 4)....so its at the upper end of your budget, but I dont think you'll get any where near the performance from anything else.
 
This is what I went with:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P - No onboard video, but that wasn't really important. I dig the dual rear firewire ports because I sometimes track to an external firewire drive.
E6300 Wolfdale 2.8GHz
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
MSI N9400GT-MD512H GeForce 9400 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 - Fanless and able to play 1080p effortlessly. Plus it was $35 for an open-box unit.
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit

Order Total: $344.54, which includes shipping. Everything on the list was a sale or combo item. I'll have no video fan or chipset fan. My power supply is already very quiet, as is my case fan. Should be a very quiet system.
 
I think you should look for a 120mm CPU Heatsink. Not that 92mm is that noisy, but bigger fan means slower speeds with equal amount of airflow.

You can see some reviews of quiet heatsinks w/ good cooling performance here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks

The ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm was reviewed there too, but the performance doesn't seem to be too good at lower fan speeds. There should be some 120mm heatsinks that are around the price you paid for that AC Freezer 7 Pro. The one in my signature is only like a couple dollars more than yours on NewEgg, plus after rebate it's actually cheaper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top