Understanding threading, Lanes, x8 / x16 and stuff

[brandirawks]

I am trying to understand how to set up, configure, optimize a new build for video editing.

I am doing my first build and not sure how to:
1) allocate the threads properly for use of all cores
2) do pci lanes need set up or configed to prevent bottlenecking
3) How do I ensure my harware / system is set up to run my software the best it is able to

I normally buy pre-built Dells and they always run as I need, this build however DELL does not offer as I want ...

any direction to resources to read or step to setting up is appreciated

 

[brandirawks]

if it helps, or improves work flow and access ...... If im understanding it would be better than the 2 ssd sata

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, faster and depending on the TYPE of array you configure or that the device supports (TYPE of RAID array must be supported by the device AND the motherboard.) it might also offer much faster speeds and redundant copies of data so that in the even one drive fails the data is still intact on one of the mirrored drives.

I don't know about that specific product though. Looking at the user manual and FAQ for that product, there is basically zero information offered as to how to setup and configure anything on it. There are also no drivers or software available for it on the ASUS website that I could see. I'd recommend looking closely at that to make certain it will work for you.

The other issue would be, since it's intended for RAID arrays, you're likely going to lose some storage capacity. Generally RAID mirrors drives to increase speed and ensure redundancy, but that means that for two 500gb drives, you get only 500gb of storage space as both drives will contain the exact same information. If you actually need 1TB (For example) then you are better off with a non-RAID option or just using a single 1TB SSD.

For storage purposes, I can't really see the need for NVME speeds unless you are often transferring extremely large files from one drive to another on a regular basis. Even then, if you're OS drive is going to be M.2 nvme and you are using a standard SSD like the Samsung 850 EVO, those speeds are already going to be incredibly fast anyway. Less expensive too.

Four 500GB Samsung M.2 drives plus the cost of that PCI card is about $1250.00.

Two 1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSDs only comes to about 600 bucks. True, the M.2 drives are faster, and in RAID would be even faster than that, but the tradeoff for a drive meant primarily for storage probably isn't really worth it. But maybe it is for you. I do some work, probably nowhere near what you do though, with video and 3D graphics, and for me it seems like the data is almost instantaneous even with regular SSDs and I don't even have an M.2 drive in use for the operating system yet. With that factored in, everything gets even faster.

I really think you'd be fine with an M.2 OS drive and normal SSD's for storage/working files, but of course that's up to you. Your needs, and wallet, are likely different from mine.

Also, regular SSDs can be configured in RAID as well, increasing their speed and redundancy. Without the need for an add in card.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Also, if speed is a big concern, Puget Systems has released test results showing that exporting to 1080p in Premier Pro (IF that is something you do regularly) nets about a 20-50% gain in performance when using dual cards vs a single card with a core i7 or dual Xeon setup.

The good thing to note is that if you compare these raw results to the results from our single GPU test, it becomes clear that utilizing two video cards when exporting to 1080p can result in great performance gains. On average, we saw about a 20% jump in performance on the Dual Xeon system, and almost a 50% increase in performance on the Core i7 system. So while the difference between the pairs of cards we tested isn't much in many situations, simply having two cards in the first place works nicely when exporting to 1080p.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/GTX-1070-and-GTX-1080-Premiere-Pro-Performance-810/

So based on those results and the rest of the article, having TWO GTX 1070's would offer more performance, by a large measure, than having any single card, regardless of it's tier.

 

[USAFRet]

RAID 0 (striped) with SSD's is generally a wash over individual drives.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

RAID 0 with NVMe drives can in fact be slower than individual drives.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-950-pro-256gb-raid-report,4449.html

RAID 1 (mirror) is only if you actually need 24/7 ops. Like if you were running a webstore, and need the system to limp along on the remaining drive until you can 'fix it'. In the unlikely event of a physical drive fail
It does nothing for the far more common ways to lose your data.

There are other, better, ways to protect your data.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, I think the conclusion on the RAID 0 review you linked, pretty much tells the story on that subject. Thanks for the input on that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, I think the conclusion on the RAID 0 review you linked, pretty much tells the story on that subject. Thanks for the input on that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html

Yeah...RAID 0 with HDD's shows a definite performance boost.
SSD's, not so much. They are their own internal "RAID 0".

Even though those tests are a couple of years old, I've not seen anything else to refute those results.
We'd all love it to be 'better/faster', but it isn't.