System for editing HD in Adobe Premiere

[Guest]

Hi Specialk90,

I really appreciate all your knowledge/input on this thread! I have a similar question regarding buying/building a new system to edit HD footage on.

I'm going to be taking on a lot of new projects, editing HD footage so it's time to get myself a new system!! So, I'd like to know what the minimum requirements would be to edit HD in Adobe Premiere smoothly. (Maybe Avid Media Composer one day...)

But to be honest, I'd also like to know what the ideal set-up would be, not just the 'minimum requirements'. I want this system to fly. Well, I want it to at least not take me 20 hours longer than it should to edit something!

I'm considering a quad-core/i7 with 4GB ram (expandable to 16 or 24) and I'm just wondering what other specs I should be concerned with before I make my purchase. Adobe recommends a Raid 0 drive for HD editing. Do you think that's necessary? Do I have to have a HD monitor at this point?

I also use Pro Tools 8 which is NOT supported by Windows 7 right now so I'm considering a Dual Boot w/ Windows 7 & XP Pro. Is this a bad idea? Could this adversely affect stability/performance of HD editing in Premiere?

Anyhow, I've been going back and forth between buying a Dell, a Mac or building my own. Obviously price is always a bit of a factor, so I'm definitely shying away from the Mac... If I can keep it around $1300, that would be great.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,

Brent

 

[jbakerlent]

New. Thread.

 

[geobrick]

Hi there.

RAID: this is another great way of improving performance and another great reason for using Intel. Premiere has a "media cache" where it stores video and audio from projects. While editing in Premiere, you want to see how your video looks and you hit play. Premiere renders the video and stores it in the media cache. Where the media cache is located is very important to the performance and speed of that rendering. Because Premiere must read the original video and then render it, you want to use 2 separate drives, 1 for the source and 1 for the render/media cache. This is where Raid comes into play. I am going to give a brief overview of what I recommend and why it helps performance.
1) Using 4 drives, lets say 2-250GB drives and 2-1TB drives. The 2-250GB drives split into 2 different Raid arrays: a Raid 1 array for the OS+Apps and a Raid 0 array for page file and media cache.

@specialk90

All your advice here seems well researched and based on personal experience as well.

I have a similar setup and found this thread while looking for information on how to set up scratch disks for best performance in premiere pro. The information was never definitive because of all the variations allowed.

My only question/comment about your recommended RAID set up is how you are using the Intel matrix manager to set up both a RAID 1 and RAID 0 on the same pair of Hard Drives. When you do this, you are still using the same physical drives for your scratch files as you are for the OS and apps. Don't you think this could limit the performance of the RAID 0 portion? Unless your thought is that once the OS is loaded and the application is running, there's not a lot of hard drive activity in the mirrored portion of the pair of disks.

 

[jbakerlent]

READ THE DATE!!! Start your OWN thread!

 

[tomyboy2]

Hi

I am new at this and I use only one drive...... I know now, really bad idea.
Can someone exactly tell how to set up my machine and how many drives should I use ?
I learned now scratch,media and OS should be on different drives. I more confused about, where to put project files and original video from camera, third Drive ?
So, how many drives shold I use 2 or 3, I am not going to use raid, only disk that I have laying around at home. Max nuber is 3.

Option 1:
Disk 1 Veliciraptor 10.000 rpm for OS Win 7 x64, plus all installed programs, including CS4
Disk 2 Veliciraptor 10.000 rpm for Scratch disk (all options capture video-audio,video-audio previous) and for media cache
Should I put also my project file, original video on this drive, or the system drive ?

Option 1:
Disk 1 Veliciraptor 10.000 rpm for OS Win 7 x64, plus all instalted programs icluding CS4
Disk 2 Veliciraptor 10.000 rpm for Scratch disk (all options capture video-audio,video-audio previous) and for media cache
Disk 3 WD Black 7200 rpm for my project files and original video files

On which drive should I encode final video ?

I am usnig 6 GB DDR3, I7 all overclocked. Should i upgrade to maybe 3x 4Gb DDR3, will this significantly increase performance in After Effect in Premier Pro ?

Thanks for any help
Thomas

 

[i7-980X]

Hello @Specialk90,

I am VERY impressed with your extensive knowledge! I am working to build a dream PC exclusively for video/photo editing. Recently retired, I plan to edit many years of home videos, so this is a good excuse to build this dedicated PC 🙂.

If you can give your expert comments on this build. I do not plan to build another one for a few years, so I am fine spending extra to make it an exceptionally good machine for video/photo editing with Adobe CS4 suite.

CPU: i7-980X (Pre-ordered, shipping in a couple of weeks) 6-Cores/12-Threads
MB: Asus P6X58D Premium (Or your suggestion): I liked USB 3 and Sata 6 GB/Sec for future use
Case: Liam Li PC-A77F / AZZA Solano 1000 / Cooler Master 1000 RC-1000-GP (Or your suggestion)
Gfx: Nvidia GT 260 (I already have one) (Or your suggestion)
Mem: DDR3-2000 triple channel CL8 Kingston KHX2000C8D3T1K3/6GX (2 packs – Total 12GB) (Or your suggestion)
(The board supports 24GB, but I could not find any 4GB chips, so settling for 12GB.)

Storage Configuration as below (Or your suggestion)
(I already have purchased 4 Intel X25-160GB SSD’s)
2x 160GB SSD RAID 1: OS + Apps + Video to be edited (Original)
2x 160GB SSD RAID 0: Scratchpad + Media Cache
2x 2TB HD Raid 1: Video Archive: WDC Caviar Black

Blu-ray writer: TBD
Power Supply: 750W or 100W
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
App: Adobe CS4

MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE!

-PR

 

[tomyboy2]

I am to building yet another machine. Yours is awsom but grafic card is way to slow. Why ?
Well, new CS5 is just a month away. You can check all about new Mercury engine using GPU and CPU power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De5N9IjUkNo
I don't know if 260 will be supported. I will go for new GTX 480 (Fermi G100) Nvidia Card. For the price, I think will be better choice, over let say, Quadro FX3800.Computing power will be enormous in new G100 chip, which is used differently in Premier Pro than, than let say CAD, which Quadro is the best..
I think Raid SSD is owerkil,especially for scratch. I use regular disk and Velociraptor no major difference

This is my new configuration:

Power Supply: Corsair HX750W
Display: 3x monitors Samsung P23700
CPU: i7-980X
MB: Asus we will see ??
Case: Cooler Master Cosmic S
Gfx: Nvidia GTX480
Mem: DDR3-RAM KIT 12 GB, 1600 MHz, CL9, KINGSTON HyperX XMP Kit (3x4GB)
or DDR3-RAM KIT 12 GB, 1333 MHz, CL9, CORSAIR XMS3 Kit (6x2GB)
Storage Configuration:
1x Intel X25-M G2 Postville 80GB and Apps
1x Intel X25-M G2 Postville 80GB Video files and project files
1x Velociraptor for scratch disk and arhive files.
I have two other computers ofr Multimedia and Games with large disks for backup, so no problems there.
You can ask on this blog questions regarding new CS5 and its new Mercury engine.
SLI will not be suported !
http://blogs.adobe.com/genesisproject/2009/11/technology_sneek_peek_adobe_me.html
This Machine is still way over budget, so I will build this slowly.

Regard
Thomas

 

[i7-980X]

Hi @tomboy2,

1. Graphics card: I do not do any 3D games, so 3D performance is not a factor. With such poerful CPU, it is not clear to me how much additional benefit a faster graphics card can provide. I plan to use the PC just for video/graphics editing, so CPU utilization can be as high as the app needs it to be. (From what I understand, the faster GPU helps offload CPU. But since CPU is way powerful, do I still need a faster GPU?). BTW I picked the 260 card as I already have one available.

2. Nvidia GTX480: I read several reviews in the last couple of days, and they all seem to indicate that the performance increase over the ATI 5870 are very minor. Assuming different understanding of the GPU benefit for a very powerful CPU from the point #1, I many still wait for the dust to settle. I like NVidia over ATI, as if I later decide to make a Hackintosh for this setup, Nvidia is much easier to do.

3. RAID 0: In my current video editing PC (QX9650 quad core extreme edition 3.2GHz), even with 2 WDC Caviar black drives in RAID 0, disk writes are the main bottlenecks for performance. In the new setup with the i7-980X 6 CPU/12 threads along with 12 or 24GB of fast DDR3 RAM, I would think the disk writeback will be even more of an issue. I have not tried this with an SSD yet, so that is an experiment to try on the current setup. I will try with a single SSD, 2 SSD's and even 3 SSD's in RAID 0 stripes and see the performance difference. I will post the results here in a couple of weeks.

4. I could not find anything in DDR3-2000 for 24GB solution. Maybe in a few weeks by the time I get the CPU and teh rest of the parts, things may change.

 

[tomyboy2]

I am working 70% in after effect where you really need some computing power, RAM, GPU, CPU.
If you will use this machine only in Premier Pro, there is no difference 12gb or 24gb of ram.
I tested 2-4-6GB, only 5-10% difference in final editing
DID you watch the video on Mercury ? Nobody is talking using this card for GAMES.
Even if you use fastest CPU, adding fast GPU will cut edditing times, that is pure logic.
Using 260 nvidia will help, but if you invested 2-3.000 EUR in SSD drives, it just make no sense not to get the fastest gpu for only 700 EUR. I have 260 in my server computer and definitly will not use that card for my editing machine.
For example (short project), if in future CS5 final editing is done in 30 minutes using only the fast CPU, CUDA not enabeld, what would you get if you enabeld CUDA and adding fast GPU ? What if you get 15 minutes ??
I only bought new case and will definitely waiting for CS5, so that I could test it first on my "old" i7 ind 260 card., then I will buy new components.
This is the worst time to buy new computer if you are using Adobe. We will just have to wait for CS5 to see what is what.

 

[i7-980X]

I did see the video, and it does look good. There was no info on the CPU load in the comparison, so it is not clear how big the benefits will be when CPU has plenty of horsepower available. Interestingly, I asked this question on the Genesis project blog at the link above, and the author beat around the bush - twice. He never gave an answer what kind of performance improvement the new technology can give with plenty of CPU power. Both time he dodged the direct question, answering instead that the technology will offload the CPU.

(Search for i7-980x to see the above exchange at http://blogs.adobe.com/genesisproject/2009/11/technology_sneek_peek_adobe_me.html ).

I will definitely get a faster GPU, and possibly even 480, but I may wait a little to see the independent benchmarks. (See an interesting, dark view of early Nvidia reviews at http://semiaccurate.com/2010/02/20/semiaccurate-gets-some-gtx480-scores/ ).

BTW you are absolutely right about the timing: I had not even looked for CS5 until you mentioned (Thanks!), so I will definitely wait for another ~6 weeks before buying any more components.

 

[golferchin76]

Hi there.

As someone who uses Premiere Pro & After Effects CS4, I can provide you with what works best. I will need to know some things first.

1) What video format does your camera use? If AVCHD, you will need the i7. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz and it cannot handle AVCHD very well. The i7 920 at its stock 2.66GHz is about 15% faster than my Q6600 at 3.0GHz.

2) Do you use Premiere Pro CS4 or an earlier version? If CS4, you want 12GB of Ram. Premiere CS4 is now able to use more than 4GB of ram when run on Vista x64. A great article over at DigitalContentProducer.com tests the performance of Premiere with 4GB vs 8GB+ and Premiere's performance was 50-600% faster with 8GB+.

3) What is your budget?

RAID: this is another great way of improving performance and another great reason for using Intel. Premiere has a "media cache" where it stores video and audio from projects. While editing in Premiere, you want to see how your video looks and you hit play. Premiere renders the video and stores it in the media cache. Where the media cache is located is very important to the performance and speed of that rendering. Because Premiere must read the original video and then render it, you want to use 2 separate drives, 1 for the source and 1 for the render/media cache. This is where Raid comes into play. I am going to give a brief overview of what I recommend and why it helps performance.
1) Using 4 drives, lets say 2-250GB drives and 2-1TB drives. The 2-250GB drives split into 2 different Raid arrays: a Raid 1 array for the OS+Apps and a Raid 0 array for page file and media cache. Raid 1 mirrors the data across 2 drives; so, if one drive dies, the other drive still has the data and you lose no data and no downtime resintalling/restoring the OS & Apps. Raid 0 "stripes" data across the 2 drives; thus, about doubling the read/write speed. However, if one drive dies, all the data is gone. The page file & media cache are not important data. In fact, the media cache should be deleted every 2-3 months. Creating 2 different Raid arrays can only be done on Intel motherboards; this is why I said to use Intel.
2) The 2-1TB drives will be used for storage and run in a Raid 1 array to protect your data. The original footage will be stored here. Also, Raid 1 provides slightly better performance when data is being read. Its a process called "Split Seeks" where the OS is able to read from both drives at the same time. Its rather technical, but it does help.

If you don't mind the risk and want better speed with booting up and opening programs, you can just use Raid 0 for the OS, Apps, page file and media cache. If you do this, you will definitely need to create a separate partition for the OS+Apps as C and a D partition for page file and an E partition for media cache. I can help you with the exact sizes of those partitions once we know the amount of ram and which Raid 0 or 1 for the OS+Apps.

I can also provide you with step-by-step instructions for setting up Raid on an Intel board as I have done so for several others.

You don't want onboard video for editing HD video within Premiere. Preferably, an Nvidia video card, such as the GTS 250. When applying Effects, some can use the video card(which must have OpenGL 2.0 support) to render these effects in real-time. More power equals less time rendering. And when you want to see what different effects look like, quicker rendering times help a lot. I like the GTS 250 because it it a dual slot and heat is blown out of the case and it is only $120-30. And the possible CUDA support in future Adobe releases is 99.9% guaranteed because CS4 already supports it but only with Nvidia's $1500 CX Quadro video card.

Back to hard drives: you do not need or want Raid 0 for video storage. The fastest AVCHD can go is a whopping 3 MB per second, which equates to 24megabit. Even Panasonic's $10,000+ cameras only go up to 12.5 MB/s(100 megabit).

I hope I haven't confused you. I have a tendency to do that, which is why I would not be a great teacher.

Hello there specialtalk90,
Thanks for the information you posted. I too am in the process of learning movie editing from HD files. I found your above information very useful. I, as a newbie, have more questions for you, unfortunately.

Firstly my desktop set up is E8600 Core 2 Duo stock clock speed at 3ghz overclocked to 4ghz, graphic card is GTX280, 2GB of DDR3, and one hard disk only, partitioned to C, D, E. This has been my game machine since GTX280 came out. I didn't imagine one day I was going to do any movie editing at all. Youtube changed all that. Operating system is Vista home but will change to 7 very soon.

1. I have 2 sources of video files. 1st is from GoPro HD race cam which outputs MPEG-4. 2nd is from my Sony HD cam which outputs AVCHD files. Both I discovered, very heavy on PCs.

2. I am in the trial use period of Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum version (I started to think this is for amateurs, because it degrades source quality, even though it's price at 119 dollars). I had that installed on my laptop (2.4core 2 duo, 2GB ram), and it can't even preview the movie smoothly (at the size of half of a poker card), even at the lowest resolution setting. I know my business laptop is not equipped for such job, but I am traveling, so I am stuck with the laptop. (I am surprised by the slowness of preview window. Then again I tried saving source file at drive D and it sped up) When I go home next week I will try my desktop and see how it goes.

What do you think of my desktop set up?

3. I realized that movie quality changed when rendered from Sony Vegas Platinum ver. Even if source file was MPEG-4 and rendered at MPEG-4 with highest quality available, the quality of the render was lower than source (less sharpness, contrast, etc). Is this software dependent? Are there more powerful software that will not degrade the quality of source file? Do I have to go to the real professional studio softwares, which could cost hundreds of dollars easily (like Sony Vegas Pro at 599 dollars). But then I can't tolerate less than perfect from my productions Does Premiere Pro CS4 (Adobe?) maintain source quality after rendering?

4. Do I absolutely need 4GB of RAMs to use professional level studio software (well I guess yes)? You recommended 12GB.

5. Budget is not that of a problem. I spent close to 2.5k dollars for that rig, even got a water cooler so I can overclock the graphic card and CPU for gaming. I am not much of a PC gamer anymore but that thing is going to be converted to movie maker now.
That being said, you recommended RAID 1. 1st, for OS and applications, and 2nd, for media files. I understood from somewhere that it is best to have a hard drive for source file, and another for rendered file, also one for program file (the usual drive C). I have to talk to the local shop (I reside in Thailand) and see if they can do RAID 1 properly.

6. OK, so 2x250GB in RAID 1 for OS & Applications, and 2xTB in RAID for storage. I hope that my CPU, which I think at 4ghz is quite fast (can go to 4.2 but unstable), does not need to upgrade to i7. That would probably mean a motherboard change along with other parts all together, and that costs money.

7. What do you think of Windows 7 for movie editing? I've had enough of Vista. A set of no-solution problems with my desktop, and another different set for my laptop. And my laptop lasts 1 hr if unplugged when I work heavy. Sometimes I just want to go for Mac. Is it a myth or truth that Mac computers are better for graphics, movie editing? I suppose at HD level, even the best Macbook pro laptops will have to kneel at the amount of data.

A lot of questions from me today. And that's me. I have a tendency to flood others with this and that, ha.
Look forward to hear from you, appreciate in advance any comments you have.
Best regards,
Sam

 

[golferchin76]

For ECC, take another read of that article because I don't think it supports ECC. i7 CPUs cannot support ECC as far as I know. What I think they were talking about is the fact that Intel hasn't released any single-CPU Xeon Nehalem WS motherboards and processors so Supremicro had to use a X58 + i7 system.

For rendering, do you know how long it takes using the i7 or similar quad-core? The i7 overclocked to 3.4GHz shouldn't take more than overnight to render. I have been using an older Q6600 OC'd to 3.0GHz(which is slower than i7 @ 2.66GHz) and have had no problems with 12-14hr render/encode jobs.

For Scratch disk and drive setup: what about getting some Raptors and/or Velociraptors? To be honest, if you are worried about bit errors, then SAS drives are what you need as they have a far lower error rate than Sata. You can get a good 4port SAS hardware Raid controller for $250 US and use it just for important data & rendering. With 4 ports, I would say to use either A) 2 74GB 10k or 15k rpm SAS drives in Raid 0 for scratch disk and 2 1TB+ drives in Raid 1 for storage or B) 4 1TB SAS drives in Raid 10 for scratch disk and storage. For SAS drives, you can't beat Seagate's 10k.7 & 15k.6 models or even their Savvio 10k.3 or Savvio 15k.1 which are 2.5" drives. However, the Savvio drives are more expensive due to being 2.5". For 7200rpm SAS, Seagate's ES.2 and soon to be released Constellation drives are great.
page file & scratch disk
4 in Raid 10 for faster speeds and more redundancy/data protection.

Hi Specialtalk90,
I am full of ??? right now. I am really good at car & truck engines, gaming rigs, home theaters, but when it comes to video production and the related computer set-up for this type of job I am simply like a newborn trying to stand up.

Please do waste your time by answering this post...I have to starting doing some (actually, many) hardcore research now.

for the 1st paragraph quoted from your post. I didn't even realize Xeons' are used for video production. I thought they are there for business servers. I suppose if a machine is built from Xeon with Quadro graphic cards then it is purely for a single or few purpose only . software we use daily for work or games won't run on it then.

What kind of video rendering will take overnight, or 12-14hrs to complete? How long is your video length in terms of time? resolution? How big is your file before and after render? I read that it takes a day (if memory serves me right) to render 'one' frame of current CG movies! Is that what you do?

And I was simply lost in third paragraph. It's like reading a book written in foreign language. It's ok though, curiosity will drive me to work it out.
hahaha, 4 in RAID 10! I don't even understand anything that is more than RAID 1, which was explained by you earlier in this thread.

 

[golferchin76]

I forgot to respond to your codec question. I am also in the market for a prosumer HD camera. I suspect the output will be AVCHD. I am new to this and can only surmise that AVCHD is highly compressed. Don't you have to transcode to edit anyway? I worked for a company named miro Computer Products 12 years ago who was then sold to Pinnacle. That is where my limited video editing started and ended.

On a side note, sharing your extensive knowledge is appreciated. Thanks again!

Don

Hi Don
I am new to video editing. Started months ago with Windows movie maker when I wanted to make movies out from my road circuit race cam, and upload to youtube. Nevermind youtube limits fps or downgrades good quality vids, I simply got hooked. I just want my production nice so I can watch them from time to time on a nice Mac screen/hooked to pc, or projector output by PC.

Now, what do you mean by 'prosumer' HD camera. I know prosumer DSLR cameras like EOS 50D, 7D, or the nearly pro 5D MKII. I have a 5D and am getting a 7D for the fast shooting capability (racing scene, and I can't justify the cost of 1D since for me shooting is a hobby not a job).

I bought a Sony HDR-CX550 2 months ago while I was skiing in Japan. Paid a huge price for it. Is this type of HD camcorder a prosumer camera you are talking about?

And the pro cameras are the ones with handle on top and as long as a suitcase then?

Have a good day
Sam

 

[chemmanchuck]

So DavidEvans (etc) I have reciently built the machine that follows and it is becoming a good machine for Primere. It is still a work in progress. I shoot video with Sony's EX1 and a Canon HV20.

So have put this together so far:

Zalman Z-machine liquid cooled case
Gigabyte X58-UD7 MB
6 gig OZC 1333 ram (3 soon to be 6 sticks and 12 gig)
i7-920 (soon to be 980x)
2 170gig raid0 drives (boot)
2 1T USB 2.0 storage drives
Sapphire 5750 1gig video (soon ATI 5970 in crossfire)
Samsung USB bluray burner
1280X1024 display (soon add 2560X1600)
Samsung 32C5000 1920X1080 monitor
Zalman silent 760w PS (will probably go to 1200w)
Windows 7 64


I want to change out the boot drives for a raid0 on the SATA 6Gb/s channel but am having an issue finding an affordable drive set to come up to speed of the SATA. Will probably have to go with 2 Crucial RealSSD C300 drives, but am open to suggestions. Just have to spend the money to upgrade each bit.

The machine runs great now! It will render 10 minutes of 1920X1080 MPG4 from the card of my EX1 to Blueray in about 15 minutes, without overclocking. I could probably overclock the 920 to 3.6 gHz and get 1-1 (once I upgrade to the 980x it should scream).

All in all it was an easy and fun build. The machine is as much for my enjoyment as it is for crunching video.

It is no pro editing machine but should do a good job with AVCHD or HDV.

 

[ezasif]

Hi there.

As someone who uses Premiere Pro & After Effects CS4, I can provide you with what works best. I will need to know some things first.

1) What video format does your camera use? If AVCHD, you will need the i7. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz and it cannot handle AVCHD very well. The i7 920 at its stock 2.66GHz is about 15% faster than my Q6600 at 3.0GHz.

2) Do you use Premiere Pro CS4 or an earlier version? If CS4, you want 12GB of Ram. Premiere CS4 is now able to use more than 4GB of ram when run on Vista x64. A great article over at DigitalContentProducer.com tests the performance of Premiere with 4GB vs 8GB+ and Premiere's performance was 50-600% faster with 8GB+.

3) What is your budget?

RAID: this is another great way of improving performance and another great reason for using Intel. Premiere has a "media cache" where it stores video and audio from projects. While editing in Premiere, you want to see how your video looks and you hit play. Premiere renders the video and stores it in the media cache. Where the media cache is located is very important to the performance and speed of that rendering. Because Premiere must read the original video and then render it, you want to use 2 separate drives, 1 for the source and 1 for the render/media cache. This is where Raid comes into play. I am going to give a brief overview of what I recommend and why it helps performance.
1) Using 4 drives, lets say 2-250GB drives and 2-1TB drives. The 2-250GB drives split into 2 different Raid arrays: a Raid 1 array for the OS+Apps and a Raid 0 array for page file and media cache. Raid 1 mirrors the data across 2 drives; so, if one drive dies, the other drive still has the data and you lose no data and no downtime resintalling/restoring the OS & Apps. Raid 0 "stripes" data across the 2 drives; thus, about doubling the read/write speed. However, if one drive dies, all the data is gone. The page file & media cache are not important data. In fact, the media cache should be deleted every 2-3 months. Creating 2 different Raid arrays can only be done on Intel motherboards; this is why I said to use Intel.
2) The 2-1TB drives will be used for storage and run in a Raid 1 array to protect your data. The original footage will be stored here. Also, Raid 1 provides slightly better performance when data is being read. Its a process called "Split Seeks" where the OS is able to read from both drives at the same time. Its rather technical, but it does help.

If you don't mind the risk and want better speed with booting up and opening programs, you can just use Raid 0 for the OS, Apps, page file and media cache. If you do this, you will definitely need to create a separate partition for the OS+Apps as C and a D partition for page file and an E partition for media cache. I can help you with the exact sizes of those partitions once we know the amount of ram and which Raid 0 or 1 for the OS+Apps.

I can also provide you with step-by-step instructions for setting up Raid on an Intel board as I have done so for several others.

You don't want onboard video for editing HD video within Premiere. Preferably, an Nvidia video card, such as the GTS 250. When applying Effects, some can use the video card(which must have OpenGL 2.0 support) to render these effects in real-time. More power equals less time rendering. And when you want to see what different effects look like, quicker rendering times help a lot. I like the GTS 250 because it it a dual slot and heat is blown out of the case and it is only $120-30. And the possible CUDA support in future Adobe releases is 99.9% guaranteed because CS4 already supports it but only with Nvidia's $1500 CX Quadro video card.

Back to hard drives: you do not need or want Raid 0 for video storage. The fastest AVCHD can go is a whopping 3 MB per second, which equates to 24megabit. Even Panasonic's $10,000+ cameras only go up to 12.5 MB/s(100 megabit).

I hope I haven't confused you. I have a tendency to do that, which is why I would not be a great teacher.

Hi specialk90,

You seem to have pretty solid knowledge in computers, video editing and photography. I have been researching for several days to buy a computer that can do the job of video editing, encoding and I should also be able to play high res pc game. I also want to back up my 500+ dvd and bluray collection and store them in mkv file with H.264 on my media center pc.

I tried to search on google but could get right system configuration. my budget for this pc including monitor is 3k-3.5k. I don't know if you could help me on this buddy.

Thanks

 

[johnsonmaje]

Hi Specialk90,
I am setting up my premier files now what should the settings be for the amount of ram I allocate to Premier pro and after effects? What goes on the RAID 0 and on the RAID 1.
I have 12 GB ram
IE Processor
5 1.5 TB Seagate barracuda 7500 rpm
ASUS PT6 mother board

 

[GWC]

Hi there.
Are you using Pr CS5 now? Have you worked with the Sony Z1u? I have been having some capture issues with that camera. I am using Pr CS5.
Win7 pro 64
Q8300 2.5ghz
8gb ram
ATI radeon 4600 1gb
1tb sata 7200
2tb external via usb 3.0
currently running dual display

looking to actually build i7 raid system with 3 or 4 display

As someone who uses Premiere Pro & After Effects CS4, I can provide you with what works best. I will need to know some things first.

1) What video format does your camera use? If AVCHD, you will need the i7. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz and it cannot handle AVCHD very well. The i7 920 at its stock 2.66GHz is about 15% faster than my Q6600 at 3.0GHz.

2) Do you use Premiere Pro CS4 or an earlier version? If CS4, you want 12GB of Ram. Premiere CS4 is now able to use more than 4GB of ram when run on Vista x64. A great article over at DigitalContentProducer.com tests the performance of Premiere with 4GB vs 8GB+ and Premiere's performance was 50-600% faster with 8GB+.

3) What is your budget?

RAID: this is another great way of improving performance and another great reason for using Intel. Premiere has a "media cache" where it stores video and audio from projects. While editing in Premiere, you want to see how your video looks and you hit play. Premiere renders the video and stores it in the media cache. Where the media cache is located is very important to the performance and speed of that rendering. Because Premiere must read the original video and then render it, you want to use 2 separate drives, 1 for the source and 1 for the render/media cache. This is where Raid comes into play. I am going to give a brief overview of what I recommend and why it helps performance.
1) Using 4 drives, lets say 2-250GB drives and 2-1TB drives. The 2-250GB drives split into 2 different Raid arrays: a Raid 1 array for the OS+Apps and a Raid 0 array for page file and media cache. Raid 1 mirrors the data across 2 drives; so, if one drive dies, the other drive still has the data and you lose no data and no downtime resintalling/restoring the OS & Apps. Raid 0 "stripes" data across the 2 drives; thus, about doubling the read/write speed. However, if one drive dies, all the data is gone. The page file & media cache are not important data. In fact, the media cache should be deleted every 2-3 months. Creating 2 different Raid arrays can only be done on Intel motherboards; this is why I said to use Intel.
2) The 2-1TB drives will be used for storage and run in a Raid 1 array to protect your data. The original footage will be stored here. Also, Raid 1 provides slightly better performance when data is being read. Its a process called "Split Seeks" where the OS is able to read from both drives at the same time. Its rather technical, but it does help.

If you don't mind the risk and want better speed with booting up and opening programs, you can just use Raid 0 for the OS, Apps, page file and media cache. If you do this, you will definitely need to create a separate partition for the OS+Apps as C and a D partition for page file and an E partition for media cache. I can help you with the exact sizes of those partitions once we know the amount of ram and which Raid 0 or 1 for the OS+Apps.

I can also provide you with step-by-step instructions for setting up Raid on an Intel board as I have done so for several others.

You don't want onboard video for editing HD video within Premiere. Preferably, an Nvidia video card, such as the GTS 250. When applying Effects, some can use the video card(which must have OpenGL 2.0 support) to render these effects in real-time. More power equals less time rendering. And when you want to see what different effects look like, quicker rendering times help a lot. I like the GTS 250 because it it a dual slot and heat is blown out of the case and it is only $120-30. And the possible CUDA support in future Adobe releases is 99.9% guaranteed because CS4 already supports it but only with Nvidia's $1500 CX Quadro video card.

Back to hard drives: you do not need or want Raid 0 for video storage. The fastest AVCHD can go is a whopping 3 MB per second, which equates to 24megabit. Even Panasonic's $10,000+ cameras only go up to 12.5 MB/s(100 megabit).

I hope I haven't confused you. I have a tendency to do that, which is why I would not be a great teacher.

 

[dave-uk]

Hi there.

As someone who uses Premiere Pro & After Effects CS4, I can provide you with what works best. I will need to know some things first.

1) What video format does your camera use? If AVCHD, you will need the i7. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.0GHz and it cannot handle AVCHD very well. The i7 920 at its stock 2.66GHz is about 15% faster than my Q6600 at 3.0GHz.

2) Do you use Premiere Pro CS4 or an earlier version? If CS4, you want 12GB of Ram. Premiere CS4 is now able to use more than 4GB of ram when run on Vista x64. A great article over at DigitalContentProducer.com tests the performance of Premiere with 4GB vs 8GB+ and Premiere's performance was 50-600% faster with 8GB+.

3) What is your budget?

RAID: this is another great way of improving performance and another great reason for using Intel. Premiere has a "media cache" where it stores video and audio from projects. While editing in Premiere, you want to see how your video looks and you hit play. Premiere renders the video and stores it in the media cache. Where the media cache is located is very important to the performance and speed of that rendering. Because Premiere must read the original video and then render it, you want to use 2 separate drives, 1 for the source and 1 for the render/media cache. This is where Raid comes into play. I am going to give a brief overview of what I recommend and why it helps performance.
1) Using 4 drives, lets say 2-250GB drives and 2-1TB drives. The 2-250GB drives split into 2 different Raid arrays: a Raid 1 array for the OS+Apps and a Raid 0 array for page file and media cache. Raid 1 mirrors the data across 2 drives; so, if one drive dies, the other drive still has the data and you lose no data and no downtime resintalling/restoring the OS & Apps. Raid 0 "stripes" data across the 2 drives; thus, about doubling the read/write speed. However, if one drive dies, all the data is gone. The page file & media cache are not important data. In fact, the media cache should be deleted every 2-3 months. Creating 2 different Raid arrays can only be done on Intel motherboards; this is why I said to use Intel.
2) The 2-1TB drives will be used for storage and run in a Raid 1 array to protect your data. The original footage will be stored here. Also, Raid 1 provides slightly better performance when data is being read. Its a process called "Split Seeks" where the OS is able to read from both drives at the same time. Its rather technical, but it does help.

If you don't mind the risk and want better speed with booting up and opening programs, you can just use Raid 0 for the OS, Apps, page file and media cache. If you do this, you will definitely need to create a separate partition for the OS+Apps as C and a D partition for page file and an E partition for media cache. I can help you with the exact sizes of those partitions once we know the amount of ram and which Raid 0 or 1 for the OS+Apps.

I can also provide you with step-by-step instructions for setting up Raid on an Intel board as I have done so for several others.

You don't want onboard video for editing HD video within Premiere. Preferably, an Nvidia video card, such as the GTS 250. When applying Effects, some can use the video card(which must have OpenGL 2.0 support) to render these effects in real-time. More power equals less time rendering. And when you want to see what different effects look like, quicker rendering times help a lot. I like the GTS 250 because it it a dual slot and heat is blown out of the case and it is only $120-30. And the possible CUDA support in future Adobe releases is 99.9% guaranteed because CS4 already supports it but only with Nvidia's $1500 CX Quadro video card.

Back to hard drives: you do not need or want Raid 0 for video storage. The fastest AVCHD can go is a whopping 3 MB per second, which equates to 24megabit. Even Panasonic's $10,000+ cameras only go up to 12.5 MB/s(100 megabit).

I hope I haven't confused you. I have a tendency to do that, which is why I would not be a great teacher.

I read this information with great interest, many thanks.

I notice that your message was sent in 2009. Would you update your comments following the changes in 2011 technology?

Thanks

 

[bobbyusb]

What you are thinking of is Raid 0 where it "Stripes"/splits data between the drives which does increase Throughput(Read/Write speed) but makes you more vulnerable to data loss. All it takes is one drive to have a problem and ALL data is lost.

With Raid 1, the 2 drives are miirored but the OS only sees 500GB of space. When you format it and create partitions, you only have access to 500GB.

Raid 1 does increase Read speed a little but lowers Random Access a decent amount( a recent test I read about had it go from 12ms to 10ms).

The reason to use Raid 1 is to protect your data because it can handle a drive failing without losing ANY data.

Dear specialk90 ,

I enjoyed reading your posts, but I am novice in hardware and short in time.

Would you please help me to assemble a good system for my purpose?

I need a system to help me edit my videos, I am an English teacher who is producing some Video Tutorial for his class, I just need to edit the videos, cut them, add effects and maybe some logo to each frame.

I want to use Adobe Preimer for this purpose, I will buy the newest version.

My budge is about 1000$ (excluding monitor, keyboard, mouse, speaker)

In my country Asus mainboards are very popular, but there is no Intel mainboard, but there are asus mainboards with Intel chip set and of course Intel CPU core i7 k 2600 is available.


Thank you for your help in advance

Bobby