A lot of people will settle for whatever system they can buy off the shelf at the local big box store, or from one of the many manufacturers (Dell, Gateway, HP, etc) -- OR buy a Mac -- to handle their editing/post production needs. I figure this is due to a few reasons:
Ultimately it's really not that difficult to build a computer, you need a handful of components to make it work, and then add on other pieces to achieve the functionality you're after. This how-to will document the hardware build of my new machine which has specs capable of handling 2-4k RED footage.
I ordered all of my parts from newegg.com on the evening of Friday 2/13/2009. They arrived this afternoon (2/19/2009). Shipping is generally quicker, but there was a weekend and a 'holiday' involved that slowed things down a bit, so the parts didn't ship out until Tuesday the 17th. I order all of my parts from newegg because they always have quick shipping, a lot of items ship free, and their customer service is top notch. I've never had a problem with anything I've ordered, but all the reviews that I have read with people having to return or exchange parts are always glowing with regard to how newegg handled them.
Ok, on with it...
The parts list:
(Before shipping it squeaked in JUST under $1500, 14 cents under to be exact...)
There is $55 in mail rebates. Doesn't "feel" like much, but when you do the math it's 3.7% of the TOTAL purchase, which ideally isn't bad.
To be fair, I haven't actually priced things out amongst the manufacturers, but I'm quite certain you would spend ~2x this to get a comparable Dell or HP or whatever.. a comparable mac is also likely to run your somewhere in the neighborhood of twice this price.
Ok. Before we get ahead of ourselves here, I should point out that this price does not include the monitor, mouse or keyboard as I'll be reusing my existing 22" LCD, mouse and keyboard. Nor does it include any software costs as I already have all of that as well. So you would have to figure in those amounts as well if you don't already have those things available. Either way, we're in pretty good shape when it comes to a Computing Power/Dollar figure.
I will be assembling this machine sometime either later tonight, tomorrow, or over the weekend and will be documenting the entire process to share here so if you were so inclined you could build a similar system.
The Plan:
The quad core processor is capable of handling a 64bit operating system, so I will use XP64 because it is stable, less bloated than vista, and well supported for all the components. This will not only make it a faster system in general, but will let me address all of the available ram.
The two 500gig hard drives will be configured in a RAID 0 array, as the motherboard has an onboard RAID controller. RAID 0 combines all of the drives in the array into a single usable drive. The end result is that you have a larger capacity drive with a higher data rate because the reads & writes are spread over multiple disks. This is important when you are working with large video projects because read/write speeds become much more important.
One last note for now... artic silver is some of the best thermal paste you can get. If you build a computer, you would be silly not to use it and a good cpu cooler (the stock coolers are ok, but not the best option). As for how to apply thermal paste, the less the better basically.. arctic silver has good instructions available for proper application on their website. AND the anti-static wristband really is a must. You just spent a bunch of money on high quality parts, an extra couple dollars for a wristband that will prevent static discharge would be plain STUPID not to invest in. Static discharge can destroy computer parts, and often times the damage done isn't immediately noticable, only to rear it's head when the warranty has expired. So, get and use the anti-static wristband.
More to come...
- They are not aware of other options
- They just want it to work, and are willing to pay whatever cost necessary for that
- They've heard of building a computer, but don't know how
Ultimately it's really not that difficult to build a computer, you need a handful of components to make it work, and then add on other pieces to achieve the functionality you're after. This how-to will document the hardware build of my new machine which has specs capable of handling 2-4k RED footage.
I ordered all of my parts from newegg.com on the evening of Friday 2/13/2009. They arrived this afternoon (2/19/2009). Shipping is generally quicker, but there was a weekend and a 'holiday' involved that slowed things down a bit, so the parts didn't ship out until Tuesday the 17th. I order all of my parts from newegg because they always have quick shipping, a lot of items ship free, and their customer service is top notch. I've never had a problem with anything I've ordered, but all the reviews that I have read with people having to return or exchange parts are always glowing with regard to how newegg handled them.
Ok, on with it...
The parts list:
- 12 gig Supertalent 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM (Link)
- Nvidia 9800gtx video card (Link)
- Asus p6t mother board (Link)
- Corsair 850w power supply (Link)
- Coolermaster v8 heatsink (Link)
- i7 920 2.66Ghz quad core cpu (Link)
- 2x 500 gig 7200 rpm sata drives (Link)
- 1x 640 gig 7200 rpm sata drive (Link)
- LG super multi 22x sata dvd burner (Link)
- Rosewill case (Link)
- Arctic silver thermal paste (Link)
- And an anti-static wrist strap (Link)
(Before shipping it squeaked in JUST under $1500, 14 cents under to be exact...)
There is $55 in mail rebates. Doesn't "feel" like much, but when you do the math it's 3.7% of the TOTAL purchase, which ideally isn't bad.
To be fair, I haven't actually priced things out amongst the manufacturers, but I'm quite certain you would spend ~2x this to get a comparable Dell or HP or whatever.. a comparable mac is also likely to run your somewhere in the neighborhood of twice this price.
Ok. Before we get ahead of ourselves here, I should point out that this price does not include the monitor, mouse or keyboard as I'll be reusing my existing 22" LCD, mouse and keyboard. Nor does it include any software costs as I already have all of that as well. So you would have to figure in those amounts as well if you don't already have those things available. Either way, we're in pretty good shape when it comes to a Computing Power/Dollar figure.
I will be assembling this machine sometime either later tonight, tomorrow, or over the weekend and will be documenting the entire process to share here so if you were so inclined you could build a similar system.
The Plan:
The quad core processor is capable of handling a 64bit operating system, so I will use XP64 because it is stable, less bloated than vista, and well supported for all the components. This will not only make it a faster system in general, but will let me address all of the available ram.
The two 500gig hard drives will be configured in a RAID 0 array, as the motherboard has an onboard RAID controller. RAID 0 combines all of the drives in the array into a single usable drive. The end result is that you have a larger capacity drive with a higher data rate because the reads & writes are spread over multiple disks. This is important when you are working with large video projects because read/write speeds become much more important.
One last note for now... artic silver is some of the best thermal paste you can get. If you build a computer, you would be silly not to use it and a good cpu cooler (the stock coolers are ok, but not the best option). As for how to apply thermal paste, the less the better basically.. arctic silver has good instructions available for proper application on their website. AND the anti-static wristband really is a must. You just spent a bunch of money on high quality parts, an extra couple dollars for a wristband that will prevent static discharge would be plain STUPID not to invest in. Static discharge can destroy computer parts, and often times the damage done isn't immediately noticable, only to rear it's head when the warranty has expired. So, get and use the anti-static wristband.
More to come...
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