Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM Hard Drive (System Drive Left Over from another computer)
THERMALTAKE Toughpower W0156RU 1200W Power Supply
WESTERN DIGITAL WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB x2 (RAID0 fro Video)
SONY BDUX10S SATA Blu-Ray 2-Tone Drive (to Archive)
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Black1 TB, 3 Gb/s, WD10001FALS 1TB SATA (this is a maybe... I might need to keep some files handy for quick reference but off the video array and this would give me quick access)
Blackmagic Design Decklink HD Extreme Video Capture Card
Adobe Premiere CS3
I'm mainly planning to edit 30 second commercials shooting on a Canon XL-H1a.
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Dave Evans on Aug 11, 2008 at 9:48:50 pm
Just a few thoughts, you have not mentioned a RAID controler in your list of components I think you really need hardware RAID from somwone like CALDIGIT or 3Ware etc.
Asus have some very good Workstation Motherboards that may be more suited to your needs, have a look at P5E64 WS & others.
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Matt Morrison on Aug 12, 2008 at 12:05:44 pm
Well that motherboard actually has 2 onboard RAID controllers, an Intel ICH9R and a JMicroJMB362... are you saying that the onboard controllers are not up to the job or that a third party controller just works better?
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Dave Evans on Aug 13, 2008 at 5:18:13 am
Hi Matt
Those onboard controllers are software RAID solutions meaning for one they use the CPU for RAID management etc.
It really depends I guess on your workflow, but perhaps if you work out the data requirements of the HD media you are intending to work with add some overhead & then look for a solution that suits the media & the budget & allows for some expansion.
We have used ICHR RAID in the past but they perform poorly & erratically, from a performance point of view in my opinion.
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Matt Morrison on Aug 13, 2008 at 5:28:28 pm
Well I got a little nervous after reading your first post because my budget was tight and I had not allowed for a third part RAID controller so I asked the BM tech support team their opinion and they told me that they would rather use onboard RAID controllers. Of course I'm more apt to trust an everyday user...
One thing though... I always thought that onboard RAID controllers were more of a hybrid, utilizing an onboard chipset with hardware assist and had a relatively low cpu overhead (around 1-2%)
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Dave Evans on Aug 14, 2008 at 5:42:36 am
Hi Matt
Well thats the first time I have ever heard of anyone recommending on board RAID over dedicated hardware RAID card.
Check out this link it is from the BM website on Disk Arrays.
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail.asp?techID=62 If you are just working with mjpeg/hdv & not many layers or FX, on board will probably get you through, you will see much more than 1 or 2% cpu usage though, along with inconsistent performance.
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Matt Morrison on Aug 14, 2008 at 3:36:14 pm
Well I was also asking for advice in rec.video.production and they're telling me that I don't even need a RAID for HDV footage and I would be insane to even use one. According to them...
The WD Caviar Black will do 6-7 streams of DVCProHD 50i and 23+ Streams of DV according to the AJA Kona discwacker. Even with HDV's increased processor overhead your looking at at least 4 streams and more if you use an intermediate codec. As long as you don't fill the drive up you'll have plenty of bandwidth.
Re: Do these Specs look OK for a new Edit Suite? by Dave Evans on Aug 15, 2008 at 9:29:01 pm
Hi Matt
Just offering my opinion.
If you are working compressed formats you should be fine, a single SATA2 drive will as you say handle these formats. Just dont expect the onboard ICHR to perform consistantly above a single SATA2 drive performance wise.
Just back to your motherboard, make sure it will allow you to expand to a RAID solution should you find you need one down the track, hence the mention of the Asus WS type boards.
