Video editing build, £750

[jpdykes]

All, as always thanks for your help with new builds. I'm looking to address the following for a new video / image editing build, I don't have a lot of experience in this area:

- What is the balance CPU threads vs clock speed?
- What is the balance CPU vs RAM vs GPU?
- Is the GPU selected 550 Ti worth it? Overkill?
- AMD Bulldozer - what is the likely affect of this release, is it worth waiting for?
- ATI 7xxx series - as above

Thanks for your help.

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Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple of weeks

Budget Range: £750 GBP

System Usage from Most to Least Important: CS5.5 Adobe Production Premium, Image editing and Office 2011. Not gaming.

Parts Not Required: Speakers, Win 7

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Ebuyer used as a baseline, SCAN, Dabs, Overclockers, etc considered

Country of Origin: UK

Parts Preferences: Please see below.

Overclocking: Probably not

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: As high as possible. 22" minimum, 24" preferred.

Additional Comments:
This is about image editing not gaming:


Components:
CPU - AMD Phenom X4 965 3.4GHz, £93, http://www.ebuyer.com/186428-amd-phenom-ii-x4-965-black-edition-3-4ghz-socket-am3-6mb-l3-hdz965fbgmbox

MB - Asus M4A88TD-V EVO, £82, http://www.ebuyer.com/206153-asus-m4a88td-v-evo-usb3-880g-socket-am3-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-m4a88td-v-evo-usb3

RAM - 2x4Gb G-skill, £35, http://www.ebuyer.com/240498-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1333mhz-ripjaws-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-10666cl9d-8gbrl

GPU – GTX 550Ti, £110, http://www.ebuyer.com/260567-gigabyte-gtx-550-ti-oc-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-mini-hdmi-pci-e-gv-n550oc-1gi

PSU – Antec 450W, £38, http://www.ebuyer.com/245675-antec-450w-psu-120mm-fan-vp450-4x-sata-1x-pci-e-0761345-06451-4

HD – Hitachi 2Tb 6Gb/s, £100, http://www.ebuyer.com/247271-hitachi-2tb-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-hard-drive-7200rpm-64mb-cache-0f12115

Blu ray – LG Blu Ray RW, £68 http://www.ebuyer.com/195146-lg-bh10ls30-10x-bd-re-with-dvd-rw-lightscribe-sata-blu-ray-drive-bh10ls30-auau

Case – Coolermaster 330, £30, http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&store=2&cat=23&filtersubcat=418

Mouse / keys – Microsoft wireless, £30

Card reader – Ebuyer reader, £6.50, http://www.ebuyer.com/108453-all-in-1-internal-card-reader-plus-one-usb2-0-port-black-cardreader-int-23

Wireless – Linksys wireless-n, £35, http://www.ebuyer.com/166269-cisco-linksys-wireless-n-dual-band-pci-adapter-wmp600n-eu

Firewire card – Belkin 3port, £15, http://www.ebuyer.com/47028-belkin-ieee-1394-firewire-3-port-pci-card-f5u502ea

Screen – tbc - suggestions welcome (24” assumed £150)


Total: £762

 

[ncc74656]

the ram is low for video editing. i use CS5.5 and routinely end up using a good 12GB of my 16 gigs of ram while rendering. the CPU is a bit low as well, i would recommend buying a 6 core as that would greatly increase the speed of your encodings. also you can get 1600mhz ram at the same timings as your 1333 so i would recommend doing this, ram is cheap. when i do video editing i am using 6 screens, having 3+ screens in line with each other makes stretching out the time line of a project so much easier... i would highly highly highly recommend considering this.

the 550ti should be fine, good cuda card. i find that ATI cards are less compatible with editing programs so i prefer to stick with nvidia for such jobs.

 

[jpdykes]

Ncc, thanks for the reply.

The suggestions are good but we're on a budget!! Can you suggest the priority order of the upgrades?

Any additional spend is going to have to be funded from somewhere else in the build. It's a bit of a balancing act.

Thanks again.

 

[jpdykes]

Double post apologies.

 

[jpdykes]

Apologies for the double post. I'm doing this from a mobile this evening.

 

[ncc74656]

screens are last as they are a luxery, the ram is high prioity to have at least 8GB. if your fine with watching your comp usage while working with HD video then 8GB should squeeze you by. the CPU would be a huge boost in power as cs5 will take advantage of the extra 2 cores. keep in mind that AMD is releasing there bulldozer very soon so yo may want to wait to see how that performs and the price drop for current tech.

 

[jpdykes]

Ok, thanks. So is the balance of power towards CPU rather than GPU? I'm wondering whether squeezing the gpu to head for i5 is worthwhile - though I'm not sure if I can get it in on this budget.

I understand that Bulldozer is due shortly but I'd like to have a baseline to compare.

 

[jpdykes]

Argh... Tom's and mobiles!!

 

[ncc74656]

for video editing the CPU has always done more but now with cuda and ati stream and cs5 supporting both... the GPU is a much more efficient processor for such work. if the programs you plan to use support it then the GPU will be a huge advantage. that said if you get a 550ti thats a very strong GPU for such work. given your build i would buy a 6 core amd before i got a higher end gpu.

 

[jpdykes]

Thanks again NCC - just to summarise:

- What is the balance CPU threads vs clock speed?
Threads more important than clock speed

- What is the balance CPU vs RAM vs GPU?
Need at least 8Gb of RAM, then CPU threads, then GPU power

- Is the GPU selected 550 Ti worth it? Overkill?
Probably over powerful for the application in relation to the CPU. Question is whether significantly reducing the GPU to squeezed in an i5 is worth it.
AMD X6 +£20 for 2.8GHz, +£40 for 3.2GHz; i5 2500k +£70. Differences will probably need to come from GPU / screen

- AMD Bulldozer - what is the likely affect of this release, is it worth waiting for?
Worth waiting to see what happens

- ATI 7xxx series - as above
Not worth waiting for as NVidia CUDA is better

Thoughts appreciated.