In July 2012 I built a new video editing workstation based on the VideoGuys DIY9 build. It’s an Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) 6 Core / 12 Threads, 16GB Memory, 14TB+ hard drives, and water cooled 😉
Here is the parts list:
| Case: | Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case |
| Power Supply: | CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified |
| Motherboard: | ASUS P9X79 PRO LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS |
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K |
| CPU Cooling: | CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler w/Noctua NF-P12-1300 120mm CPU Cooler Fan |
| Memory: | G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q-16GBZL |
| HardDrive1 (boot C:): | Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5″ 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) |
| HardDrive2 (media D:): | 3TB Western Digital SATA2 5400-7200 |
| HardDrive3 (video E:): | 2TB Western Digital WDC WD20 01FASS-00W2B0 |
| HardDrive4 (archive R:): | 9TB CineRAID CR-H458 RAID 5 (4 x Western Digital Red WD30EFRX 3TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s ) |
| Media Reader: | Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5″ Internal Card Reader w/ USB Port |
| Blu-ray/DVD: | Pioneer Blu-ray BD-RW BDR-207; LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM Model GGC-H20L |
| Graphics Card: | PNY NVIDIA Quadro 4000 |
| Video Monitors: | 2x ASUS ProArt PA246Q (1920×1200 Widescreen) |
| Video Capture: | Canopus ADVC-300 / ADS Tech Pyro A/V Link (Firewire) / Rosewill PCIE FireWire 1394a Card 2+1 Ports Model RC-504 |
| Sound: | M-Audio Firewire 410 |
| Speakers: | M-Audio Studiophile LX4 2.1 System + LX4 5.1 Expander System |
| Keyboard: | Logitech Illuminated Keyboard |
| Mouse: | Logitech MX510 Optical Mouse |
| Operating Sys: | Microsoft Windows 7 64 Home Premium |
So how fast is the Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E?
This new Intel Core i7 system is quite a bit faster than my Core 2 Quad. How fast? Here are some rendering times in Sony Vegas Pro 11.0:
| Convert 1 minute (01:00) From: | To: | Core 2 Quad (QX6700) | Core i7 3930K | Improvement |
| HDV 1080-60i | MPEG2 DV Widescreen video stream | 01:13 | 00:34 | 2.1x |
| HDV 1080-60i | AVI DV Widescreen | 01:17 | 00:57 | 1.3x |
| HDV 1080-60i | AVI Cineform intermediary | 01:23 | 00:43 | 2.0x |
| DV Widescreen AVI | MPEG2 DV Widescreen | 00:19 | 00:32 | 00:19 |
As you can see from the times, HDV renders to MPEG2 and CineForm are 2x improvement and for MPEG2 it was twice real-time. That is impressive.
I also used the rendertest-hdv and rendertest-2010 on both. Here are my stats:
| Test | Core 2 Quad (QX6700) | Core i7 3930K Sandy Bridge-E | Improvement |
| RenderTest-HDV | 01:52 (112 sec) | 00:19 (19 sec) | 5.8x |
| RenderTest-2010 | 07:03 (423 sec) | 01:01 (61 sec) | 6.9x |
All I can say is WOW!!! 6 ~ 7x improvement in Video rendering from my old system. WOW (I think I said that?) If I render to MP4 it only takes 33 seconds. The upgrade was well worth it.
Here’s the system I just had built in Oct. 2012:
Asus P9X79 DELUXE LGA2011 Intel X79 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard
Intel Core i7 Processor i7-3820 3.6GHz 10MB LGA2011 Quad-Core CPU
Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Cooler
2 Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 Non ECC Unbuffered DIMM (16GB TOTAL)
Nvidia GeForce GTX670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Video Card
Plextor 2.5 inch 256GB SATA3 Solid State Boot Drive
2 Western Digital 1TB SATA3 7200rpm Video Data Drive, Raid 0 (2TB TOTAL)
1 Pioneer BDR-207DBKS 12X BD-R SATA Internal BD/DVD/CD Writer
FireWire 800/400 PCIe Controller Card
Onboard USB 2.0 (6 ports) & USB 3.0 (4 ports)
Integrated 10/100/1000MBps Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Realtek ALC898 8 Channel HD Onboard Audio Controller
Antec Titan 650 Server Case w/650W PS
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI Video Capture Card
Logitech Desktop MK200 Mouse & Keyboard Combo Black
External USB 2.0 Card Reader
Cost was $3300.00 I purchased monitors separately.
My question is. What was the cost of your configuration?
Murph
Hey Murph, I didn’t purchase all of the parts this time because I took some from my existing system. I already had the PNY Quadro 4000 ($700), two ASUS ProArt PA246Q monitors ($900 @ $450 ea.), M-Audio FW-410 & Speakers (~$600), and the hard drives (~$300) so I only purchased the following parts from NewEgg.com for $1,796.78:
ASUS P9X79 PRO LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s – $319.99
Intel Core i73930K Sandy BridgeE 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) – $569.99
CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler – $109.99
Noctua NFP121300 120mm CPU Cooler and Case Fan – $46.58
Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – $139.99
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 850W – $199.99
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5″ 256GB SATA III MLC SSD – $209.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) – $109.99
Pioneer Black Internal BD/DVD/CD Writer – $89.99
Rosewill PCIE FireWire 1394a Card 2+1 Ports – $19.99
Rosewill RCRIC001 40in1 USB 2.0 3.5″ Internal Card Reader – $9.99
BYTECC Bracket525 3.5″ Drive/Device Bracket – $4.99
I added the CineRAID later which was $199 for the enclosure and $676 for the 4 x 3TB drives @ $169 ea for a total of $875.
~jr
John,
Building the same system, but with many headaches. NVIDIA Quadro 4000 drops and then restarts. Did you use an older driver or most current? Working with Sony…can’t even get pass splash screen (gpu acceleration). Dying to get this working right…any insight would be appreciated. Thanks for all the tutorials as well…life saving
I remember having to adjust my memory timings to get the system stable in general. Go into the BIOS and make sure that the memory is recognized correctly and if it’s not, manually enter the correct values. I didn’t have any problems with the Quadro 4000 but the system needs to be stable first.
John I am building your same system with a couple of diffrences I got the Intel 520 SSD for the OS. Question : Because I am taking from my exsisting system (Quadro 4000) I need to replace the video card in old system – what is a decent but not a 4000 price replacement. I have read about GTX 670/680/ and so on. Do not have enough tech knowlwege to know what would be best for editing as a back up system. Any recomendations? and did I read somewhere you use NAS WD Red drives? do you recomend those?
Don, the GTX 670 is a good card for video editing. It uses the new Kepler architecture so it should protect your investment for a while. As for WD Red drives, I use them in my CineRAID because they are designed for the duty cycle of RAID and NAS. If you are not using them in a NAS or RAID then get the WD Blacks.
Sir John do not want to be a pest this is the only way I knew to contact you. – I sent you an email to the vast email. Never heard back one way or the other. Wanted to verify you received it. It was about video illistraions of heavenly visions. Did you receive the email? if not what email is best to send the request? If you did receive and are not interested just let me know.
Thank You
Don
sorry to use this to reach you – forgive plz
Good evening Sir…
I am a fan of your posts 🙂 I use Sony Vegas for my videos and my current system is as follows:
i7 3770 + 16GB RAM + SSDs
I use Sony Vegas Pro 13 and my video card keeps failing and in the middle of rendering stops (not in the middle, but a different points) I know is the video card because I turned off the “GPU acceleration of Video Processing” and now it does not fail.
for me rendering time is super important since I pack 60 minutes of content at 30MBPS into a bluray and they come with heavy post, such as noise reduction and levels…
My current GTX660 (the failing card) take up to 5 hrs to render the 60 minutes of HD content.
anyways I have a budget of around $400 and I am hoping to start playing around with 4k soon is this a good choice:
PNY Quadro K2200 VCQK2200-PB 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133559&cm_re=NVIDIA_Quadro-_-14-133-559-_-Product
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE TIME!!
I have found that the NVIDIA Quadro series is underpowered and overpriced for video editing with Vegas Pro when compared to consumer cards. I would recommend an AMD Radeon R9 290x because Vegas Pro uses OpenCL for timeline playback and AMD provides the best OpenCL performance. This will also help with rendering times for everything except MainConcept AVC rendering.
I’m upgrading to Vegas pro 13 from 11 and building a new system. If I understood you correctly, you had suggested in earlier posts (much earlier)that Radeon cards after 6XXX were not working well ie GPU acceleration and that it appeared the codecs in the newer cards were not “playing nice” with Sony Vegas. Sony has been of no help in confirming or denying anything other than “Fermi based” cards will work . I see you have suggested the new R9 290 card as a good alternative to the Quadro. Does this mean that Vegas Pro 13 will work properly with a newer open CL card rather than the older 6xxx series card. I also considered going with a GTX 570-580-0r 590 so I can use one card for both cuda and open CL processing as needed. I,m building 6 core Haswell e system for this setup. Thanks..
I realize it’s a bit confusing so let me try and explain. Vegas Pro has two areas that use GPU acceleration: (1) Timeline playback and FX, (2) Encoding video. All modern cards that support OpenCL work with Timeline playback GPU acceleration. All encoders that support GPU acceleration also work with modern cards except for the MainConcept AVC encoder. This is the one used to make MP4 files so that’s why a lot of people are upset that it doesn’t support modern graphics cards. If you want a graphics card the supports the MainConcept AVC encoder, you must stick with a card circa 2010 which is the NVIDIA GTX 500 series or AMD Radeon HD 5000. I believe the Radeon HD 6000 series might also work but the Radeon HD 7000 series definitely doesn’t.
Personally, I would not compromise the performance of my entire systems just because of one encoder from Sony which is why I recommend getting an AMD Radeon R9 290x. It won’t work with the MainConcept AVC encoder but it will improve timeline playback significantly and since you must playback the timeline in order to encoder, it indirectly still helps all of the encoders. I spend far more time editing than rendering so I rather editing be faster. I do not recommend NVIDIA cards for Vegas Pro because NVIDIA’s OpenCL implementation is not as good as AMD’s.
Hey John…
So you mention that the R9 290x AMD works great with Vegas because of it’s Open CL performance…. for everything except Main Concept AVC renders.
What would be a good compromise to gain some performance with AVC… or will I get that by skipping Main Concept and using Sony AVC..?
cheers,
Nick
Yes, Nick. The Radeon R9 290x works great with Vegas because of it’s Open CL performance for everything except Main Concept AVC renders. I have not seen the Sony AVC encoder perform better with either my Quadro 4000 or Radeon HD 5870 so I don’t know what’s going on there. Maybe it does better with newer cards (which I don’t have).