An old question that is always new.

Noggle wrote on 1/18/2012, 9:20 AM
Hi All,

I was intending to eventually upgrade my computer but was wondering if I should wait until Windows 8 arrives. I'm currently still on XP with Vegas 10. It now appears my motherboard has 'died'. I will now need a new motherboard, cpu and RAM. I would like to just keep everything else the same and still build a completely new computer later when Windows 8 arrives.

Any suggestions as to what new mobo, cpu and RAM to get for now?

Thanks.

Regards,
Neil

Comments

TheRhino wrote on 1/18/2012, 11:12 AM
For video editing stability, it is generally better to stick with tried & true vs. a bleeding edge OS. When Windows 8 is first released there is no guarantee that Vegas will run stable. If you have any HD capture cards, etc. they also may not have mature Windows 8 drivers running 100% stable. Unlike Vista, Win 7 has been very stable so there is no need to rush-out and find an alternative right away.

Likewise on the hardware side it is not always good to choose bleeding edge. For instance, Intel recalled the first Sandy Bridge CPUs last year and this year I heard they are allowing early Socket 2011 CPUs to be traded-in for the latest batch with better stepping.

That said I would still choose a Socket 2011 platform for any new video editing workstation. (Just make certain you receive the new stepping) Videoguys_ has released a description of their "DIY9" component list based on the ASUS P9X79 Pro motherboard and 3930K processor. They do not sell computers, but rather video editing software & video hardware add-ons. They have the ability to test-out a lot more stuff than the average video editor, so the systems they recommend typically handle NLEs by AVID, Adobe, etc. as well.

If their high-end "DIY9" build is over your budget, you can choose their "Sandy Bridge" recommendation based on the 2600K processor & Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard. IMO the Z68 chipset is the best choice for Socket 1155.

I have no advice for video cards except to stay with Nvidia CUDA if you want other video editing applications to benefit as well as Vegas. Personally I am waiting for the new 600 series to be released. You could always use your old card for now as a modern CPU will give you a big boost.

If your old system was an Athlon 3500+, you will be very happy with either. You can expect HD projects to render at near real-time. (i.e. a two hour video takes 2 hours to render...)

Workstation C with $600 USD of upgrades in April, 2021
--$360 11700K @ 5.0ghz
--$200 ASRock W480 Creator (onboard 10G net, TB3, etc.)
Borrowed from my 9900K until prices drop:
--32GB of G.Skill DDR4 3200 ($100 on Black Friday...)
Reused from same Tower Case that housed the Xeon:
--Used VEGA 56 GPU ($200 on eBay before mining craze...)
--Noctua Cooler, 750W PSU, OS SSD, LSI RAID Controller, SATAs, etc.

Performs VERY close to my overclocked 9900K (below), but at stock settings with no tweaking...

Workstation D with $1,350 USD of upgrades in April, 2019
--$500 9900K @ 5.0ghz
--$140 Corsair H150i liquid cooling with 360mm radiator (3 fans)
--$200 open box Asus Z390 WS (PLX chip manages 4/5 PCIe slots)
--$160 32GB of G.Skill DDR4 3000 (added another 32GB later...)
--$350 refurbished, but like-new Radeon Vega 64 LQ (liquid cooled)

Renders Vegas11 "Red Car Test" (AMD VCE) in 13s when clocked at 4.9 ghz
(note: BOTH onboard Intel & Vega64 show utilization during QSV & VCE renders...)

Source Video1 = 4TB RAID0--(2) 2TB M.2 on motherboard in RAID0
Source Video2 = 4TB RAID0--(2) 2TB M.2 (1) via U.2 adapter & (1) on separate PCIe card
Target Video1 = 32TB RAID0--(4) 8TB SATA hot-swap drives on PCIe RAID card with backups elsewhere

10G Network using used $30 Mellanox2 Adapters & Qnap QSW-M408-2C 10G Switch
Copy of Work Files, Source & Output Video, OS Images on QNAP 653b NAS with (6) 14TB WD RED
Blackmagic Decklink PCie card for capturing from tape, etc.
(2) internal BR Burners connected via USB 3.0 to SATA adapters
Old Cooler Master CM Stacker ATX case with (13) 5.25" front drive-bays holds & cools everything.

Workstations A & B are the 2 remaining 6-core 4.0ghz Xeon 5660 or I7 980x on Asus P6T6 motherboards.

$999 Walmart Evoo 17 Laptop with I7-9750H 6-core CPU, RTX 2060, (2) M.2 bays & (1) SSD bay...

Rv6tc wrote on 1/18/2012, 11:37 AM
Quote: If their high-end "DIY9" build is over your budget, you can choose their "Sandy Bridge" recommendation based on the 2600K processor & Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard. IMO the Z68 chipset is the best choice for Socket 1155.


That's exactly the system I built and I couldn't be happier. It's a really nice blend of affordability (even a few months ago) with power.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/18/2012, 12:24 PM
Vegas 10 isn't officially supported on windows 8 so no reason to wait for it. I don't remember if it's officially supported by Windows 7 either (most likely yes).

There's always something new coming out tomorrow but if you don't buy today you won't have anything. Just get Win7.

I'd rather get what's new last year instead of what's new right now. It's cheaper and it already is know to work.
xberk wrote on 1/18/2012, 3:14 PM
>>Any suggestions as to what new mobo, cpu and RAM to get for now?

If you want to keep all else the same, I suggest an i5-2300 .. unless you can get an i5-750 or even an old Quad Core 6600 ..

i5-2300 Chip at Newegg

Once you decide which chip is a value for short term .. you can pick a MoBo and Ram to go with .. Should all fit into your old case .. but power supply may need to be upgraded too ... it'll be problematic trying to preserve your old hard drive with XP on it with the new hardware .. Better to re-install XP on a new drive and bring over the data from the old drive. This is why you want to keep that boot drive small with no data on it.

Paul B .. PCI Express Video Card: EVGA VCX 10G-P5-3885-KL GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA ,,  Intel Core i9-11900K Desktop Processor ,,  MSI Z590-A PRO Desktop Motherboard LGA-1200 ,, 64GB (2X32GB) XPG GAMMIX D45 DDR4 3200MHz 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-25600 Memory .. Seasonic Power Supply SSR-1000FX Focus Plus 1000W ,, Arctic Liquid Freezer II – 360MM .. Fractal Design case ,, Samsung Solid State Drive MZ-V8P1T0B/AM 980 PRO 1TB PCI Express 4 NVMe M.2 ,, Wundiws 10 .. Vegas Pro 19 Edit

TheRhino wrote on 1/18/2012, 5:32 PM
Aack! Dont' go all the way back to a Q6600. We are phasing our last one out this year, it's a real dog for editing HD...

Stick with at least a value LGA 1155 motherboard (ASrock P67 $140) and at least an I7 2500K ($200). Anything lower is not giving you the best bang/buck. Memory is cheap & you can re-use your HD, DVD-R & Video Card until you can spend more.

It is a good idea to get a NEW PSU with any new build even if you use your old case. Power supplies lose their tolerances over time and unless you recently replaced yours, getting new will solve future headaches. The Corsair TX650 as the smallest I would go and it can be had for around $70. If you plan to install a high end video card or multi-drive RAID, then I would go with at least 850W.

Workstation C with $600 USD of upgrades in April, 2021
--$360 11700K @ 5.0ghz
--$200 ASRock W480 Creator (onboard 10G net, TB3, etc.)
Borrowed from my 9900K until prices drop:
--32GB of G.Skill DDR4 3200 ($100 on Black Friday...)
Reused from same Tower Case that housed the Xeon:
--Used VEGA 56 GPU ($200 on eBay before mining craze...)
--Noctua Cooler, 750W PSU, OS SSD, LSI RAID Controller, SATAs, etc.

Performs VERY close to my overclocked 9900K (below), but at stock settings with no tweaking...

Workstation D with $1,350 USD of upgrades in April, 2019
--$500 9900K @ 5.0ghz
--$140 Corsair H150i liquid cooling with 360mm radiator (3 fans)
--$200 open box Asus Z390 WS (PLX chip manages 4/5 PCIe slots)
--$160 32GB of G.Skill DDR4 3000 (added another 32GB later...)
--$350 refurbished, but like-new Radeon Vega 64 LQ (liquid cooled)

Renders Vegas11 "Red Car Test" (AMD VCE) in 13s when clocked at 4.9 ghz
(note: BOTH onboard Intel & Vega64 show utilization during QSV & VCE renders...)

Source Video1 = 4TB RAID0--(2) 2TB M.2 on motherboard in RAID0
Source Video2 = 4TB RAID0--(2) 2TB M.2 (1) via U.2 adapter & (1) on separate PCIe card
Target Video1 = 32TB RAID0--(4) 8TB SATA hot-swap drives on PCIe RAID card with backups elsewhere

10G Network using used $30 Mellanox2 Adapters & Qnap QSW-M408-2C 10G Switch
Copy of Work Files, Source & Output Video, OS Images on QNAP 653b NAS with (6) 14TB WD RED
Blackmagic Decklink PCie card for capturing from tape, etc.
(2) internal BR Burners connected via USB 3.0 to SATA adapters
Old Cooler Master CM Stacker ATX case with (13) 5.25" front drive-bays holds & cools everything.

Workstations A & B are the 2 remaining 6-core 4.0ghz Xeon 5660 or I7 980x on Asus P6T6 motherboards.

$999 Walmart Evoo 17 Laptop with I7-9750H 6-core CPU, RTX 2060, (2) M.2 bays & (1) SSD bay...

Noggle wrote on 1/18/2012, 7:11 PM
Thanks to all. Much appreciated. Now, where's my wallet? :-D
Rv6tc wrote on 1/19/2012, 10:12 AM
Neil,

Do NOT forget to add in an SSD. You simply will not believe how fast Vegas (and Windows) load.

Keith
Steve Mann wrote on 1/19/2012, 12:25 PM
From everything I have read, and tried on their pre-release beta of Windows 8, I am predicting a disaster that will make Windows Vista look good. Windows 8 is a major rewrite of the core code to support tablet devices and I am certain that many of the necessary device drivers that we rely on simply won't be ported to Win 8.
Rv6tc wrote on 1/19/2012, 9:48 PM
Have not read that much about Windows 8 yet, Steve, but I know that's the way M$ wants to go (one consistent OS for PC, tablets and phone). Win 7 has worked so well for me that I'll be a very late adopter to Win8, if at all.

For building a nice editing system in the foreseeable future, there are a lot of great choices to be made between the MB, chip and video card..... OS however, is not a choice I'd have to make.
Noggle wrote on 1/21/2012, 5:29 AM
This has been an interesting adventure for me so far. My current (broken) system was built (by me) in either late 2005 or 2006 - too long ago to recall properly. I always research thoroughly and read reviews. It was like being in a parallel dimension this time around. Although I do read about new computing releases it is mostly of little import until I'm ready to re-buy, which is now. Much of the new stuff was like a foreign language to me.

Anyway, I'm mostly now up to date with all the latest progressions in all components and ..... have decided to go the whole hog and build a completely new machine. This will have Windows 7 Pro, and SSD and several of the above recommendations.

So .... what PSU? What case? What fan(s)? What graphics card? What CPU cooler (if any)? Anything I've missed? Any favorites? I'm not able to afford the really high-end graphics cards recommended for v11 by Sony.

Thanks.

Regards,
Neil Porter
xberk wrote on 1/21/2012, 6:58 PM
I'd start with the i5-2300 and compare everything to that for value.
I'm still running an i5-750 on Win7 64 bit with V11 and have no problems.
Naturally, an i7 is faster -- but is it faster where it counts? Check the tests.

Speed tests

Lots to research. I know the drill. i5 chip stills looks like the value to me.

I'm using an Antec case and a $30 video card bought at Fry's.

What I'd like to build -- if the price drops -- is dual quad core XEON with CUDA graphic card. I'm tired of waiting for renders. I want 8 cores !!


Paul B .. PCI Express Video Card: EVGA VCX 10G-P5-3885-KL GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA ,,  Intel Core i9-11900K Desktop Processor ,,  MSI Z590-A PRO Desktop Motherboard LGA-1200 ,, 64GB (2X32GB) XPG GAMMIX D45 DDR4 3200MHz 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-25600 Memory .. Seasonic Power Supply SSR-1000FX Focus Plus 1000W ,, Arctic Liquid Freezer II – 360MM .. Fractal Design case ,, Samsung Solid State Drive MZ-V8P1T0B/AM 980 PRO 1TB PCI Express 4 NVMe M.2 ,, Wundiws 10 .. Vegas Pro 19 Edit

Rv6tc wrote on 1/22/2012, 12:15 PM
Neil,

This is just my opinion. I just built a system late last year. I did the i7-2600K chip, but there are arguments for the i5.

Coolers: I bought an Antec Kuler 630. It's a self-contained water cooler. There are better air coolers out there for the same price. I just liked the design and the fact it's silent, but unless you are overclocking (I have mine dialed up almost 30%) you probably don't need anything other than stock. Today's CPUs run very cool. Maximum PC's cooler test:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/turn_down_heat_cpu_cooler_showdown

Vid Cards: There is no way that I would go cheap now on a video card, since Vegas is starting to support GPU acceleration. I have a GeForce GTX 560 (from EVGA) and it changes the game. I can play 1080 .MOV and .AVCHD at Best/Full at 29.97, even with Color correction. It will slow down if using difficult transitions and gaussian, but it's still amazing playback. I know that there have been some problems in V11, but you have to believe that Sony will get them ironed out and GPU accel is here to stay. I would buy at least a 570 card (I know very little about manufacturers, but EVGA came pretty highly recommended from several separate, independent sources).


Anyway, this is just my opinion. But the difference in playback rates and render times are worth taking a serious look at a stout GPU.

Good luck and have fun.

Keith