I tried a Mac for video editing...

[Zad]

Good luck getting a Raspy to run YouTube's upload software. It would be interesting to measure the power consumption on various pieces of equipment doing an upload. I have an old Compaq Deskpro SFF that I use on equipment that needs "real" parallel and serial ports, and that takes <50W with the hard drive spun down and doing some lightweight FTP duties. I can also run remote desktop on it, so I can check the status of it and power it down remotely.

I have to say, most people that know me really wouldn't say I was an Intel fanboy! 

I just believe in horses for courses that's all, and on this particular race course I don't see any major users on AMD powered steeds.

[richcj10]

I have spent 6 years in video for several jobs.
I have tried: Avid - FCP - Speed Edit - Pinnical - Sony Vegas
I can assure you that they all suck at something.
But, FCP sucks to worst in the fact that it hangs, crashes,  locks up and is very picky.
It wasn't just the computer I used. I have coworkers have issues where they would have to just stop and reboot to make anything work again.
iMAC's are also not built the best. I have several accounts of hardware failure on them.
I think Speed Edit is the best. It doesn't care what file you drag onto the timeline.
It will work with it. It will also render out ANY (yes, any) video file format you would ever need.

[EEVblog]

I have spent 6 years in video for several jobs.
I have tried: Avid - FCP - Speed Edit - Pinnical - Sony Vegas

I've tried them all too, and it takes me about 5 minuets of using any package to give it the thumbs or thumbs down for my use.
Yes, they all have something that sucks, but I've settled on Sony because I found it the fastest, and the one that let me do most of what I want without fuss.
I actually found the free NCH VideoPad pretty good, but had an annoying video import bug, and it hasn't been updated in two years.

[EEVblog]

Ok, I think I've made up my mind 
Intel i7 3770K
ASROCK - Z77-EXTREME4
2 x 8GB Corsair DDR3 memory
Seagate 2TB 7200 HD (+ the 128MB boot SSD I already have)
CoolerMaster Silencio 550 case ($60 cheaper than the Fractal, but still has good "silent" reviews)
Third party CPU cooler, probably a CoolerMaster or Thermaltake, maybe $80 tops.
Thermaltake Litepower 600W PSU (says it has silent fan, good enough)

Because that's 7 items instead of 6, scorptec want $105 assembly, and also $71 postage.
$1147 total, I assume that includes GST.

My local JW computer store seem to come in just over $1K even with some parts more expensive as they don't seem to charge for assembly and I can pickup down the road.
http://www.jw.com.au/order_form.php
They don't have the case I want though so will have to ask.

or I could just order all the parts separate on ebay and assemble myself, would be interesting to see if it's any cheaper with all the postage.

[peter.mitchell]

IMHO, eBay is a terrible idea, at least with a real store you have someone you can abuse if something breaks, also, the price doesn't match most dedicated computer retailers, because of ebay fees.

Scorptec is more expensive but their service is second to none, and they pack stuff appropriately.
With that said, it would be stupid to buy a computer from Melbourne when you live in Sydney

[GeoffS]

My local JW computer store seem to come in just over $1K even with some parts more expensive as they don't seem to charge for assembly and I can pickup down the road.
http://www.jw.com.au/order_form.php
They don't have the case I want though so will have to ask.

or I could just order all the parts separate on ebay and assemble myself, would be interesting to see if it's any cheaper with all the postage.

If going the BYO route, check out the prices from EYO. I've used them for many years and never had any problem with delivery or service. Next day delivery in Sydney (they're in Padstow)

[EEVblog]

With that said, it would be stupid to buy a computer from Melbourne when you live in Sydney

Yeah, I'll just wander down the road and see what JW can do. I'm sure it's more than just their online form allows, can likely order anything I want.
DCA computers are just down the road too, they do custom machines.
http://dcacomputers.com.au/

[M. András]

make sure you repaste the die and the metal cover :D:D you will get 10c cooler processor
btw performance wise its still cheaper the amd and a decent board for it, as for power consumption its goes to low power state when not used from 4ghz to 1.4ghz and 0.9volts and god knows the current so i cant say a power consumption number

[EEVblog]

Dave, last I checked Intel CPU's come with a heatsink and fan. Why buy another one? Sure, buy one later if you can't overclock it enough and maintain a decent temp. My standard Intel fan isn't noisy.

Most people seem to think the stock cooler is noisy.

Unless you intend to put something noisy inside the box then what is the benefit in acoustic padding? Is this audiofoolery rearing its ugly head 

Not at all.
I'll have a hard drive or two, plus a video card presumably with GPU fan, plus the fans on the case (badly designed ducting noises can contribute), plus the CPU fan that will presumably scream for 30min-60min while all 8 cores are rendering at 100%. Badly designed PC cases and fans can be really noisy, as can hard.

So I presume you aren't intending to burn 600W.

No, but buying a bigger PSU than you need can mean more headroom, less heat, and hence less fan noise.

You might shave another $40-50 with the basic Asrock Z77M MB if you only intend using 2 DIMMs.

Saving $40-$50 is neither here nor there.
But I just noticed the Z77 extreme 4 does not have PCI-E 3.0 slots, only 2.0.

[M. András]

nah stock coolers are shit performance wise, when an aftermarket cooler can do even 30celsius difference i think the chip will thank this for you .
i bougth an arctic a30 for my 8350, this one goes up to max 50, stock cooler 75+, and i f**** up most like the paste application too so it would be even lower

[EEVblog]

Dave. The EXTREME-4 does support PCI-E 3.0.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4-M/

That's the Extreme 4-M, I was looking at the plain Extreme-4
So many bloody options!
JW computers only have the 4 listed in their dropdown box, not the 4-M.

[EEVblog]

Dave. The EXTREME-4 does support PCI-E 3.0.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4-M/

That's the Extreme 4-M, I was looking at the plain Extreme-4
So many bloody options!
JW computers only have the 4 listed in their dropdown box, not the 4-M.

They have this ASUS P8Z77V-LX for $150 though.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_LX/
The ASUS P8H77 board is $50 cheaper.
I think the difference is that the Z88 chipset allows overclocking and some faster video interface cards.

[SparkysWidgets]

Just a couple points, I recently built a box using the p8z77-V pro mb, I went with the z77 chipset because I also dual boot into Mountain Lion and all the peripherals work out of the box on OSX with z77 MBs. thought, the z77 does have some disadvantages to the z88 chipset. You can still also overclock like hell on the z77s too, I have had my i7 3770K to just under 5ghz stable. I did tone it down some so that my radiator fans only run about 1/3rd speed and are fairly quite.

While you are considering a build I would throw all 32gigs of ram in, the stuff is pretty cheap and I have been rather impressed with performance since. You will be surprised how quickly that 16gigs gets used, I am at 9.8 right now with 3 chrome windows(and a ton of tabs), RubyMine, Eagle and steam open. Geekbench showed massive improvements over the existing 12 I had originally planned on. With the all the video editing you do, you will especially make use of all the ram.

[SteigsdB]

Dave, have you considered just recording straight to the computer and skipping the conversion process?

[hans]

I haven't seen any Z88 motherboards.

Z77 are the most feature packed boards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1155#Ivy_Bridge_chipsets
Z75/Z77 allow OC'ing. It also has the most amount of PCI-express configurations.  Some other chipsets are 'business' users only, though.
In your case, a H77 may be sufficient if you don't plan to OC/build extensive PCI-e configs. Moreover, if that's the case, a plain 3770 may be sufficient too.. (only the i5 have the GPU difference I believe)

The coolermaster case seems a reasonable choice. It has a very similar style and approach, but is cheaper. Personally I didn't like the big logo sticker on the front screaming "Look at me, I am a cooler master PC".

The problem with aftermarket coolers they often are a bit fiddly to install. The boxed cooler can be installed from the front with some clips, but for example my Mugen 2 has a backplate. Fortunately this Fractal case has a removable side panel + cutout in the motherboard tray. But even then, I find it easier to install coolers outside a case.

Ah well, generally a cooler with heatpipes + large lumps of aluminium plates is good. Some coolers can be gigantic, but feature 120mm fans that can cool the CPU at reasonable temperatures (without OC) at low-mid speeds.
On my previous Q6600 the boxed cooler was pretty horrid. It ran full speed at full load from day 1. After 2-3 years the paste dried out, which is pretty remarkable in itself.
I don't have experience with the boxed cooler on Ivy Bridge CPU's. Of course it will work, it's not essential or something.

About RAM: yes some apps use more RAM when you got it. On my old laptop I use 2GB out of 3GB with some programs open (Visual Studio, some chrome tabs, Skype, etc.). Same setup on this system runs 4GB + 2GB RAM disk (total 6GB)

[EEVblog]

While you are considering a build I would throw all 32gigs of ram in, the stuff is pretty cheap and I have been rather impressed with performance since. You will be surprised how quickly that 16gigs gets used, I am at 9.8 right now with 3 chrome windows(and a ton of tabs), RubyMine, Eagle and steam open. Geekbench showed massive improvements over the existing 12 I had originally planned on. With the all the video editing you do, you will especially make use of all the ram.

Actually, I've never gotten close to my 16GB with Sony MS and a dozen Chrome windows open, and Handbrake running etc.

[EEVblog]

Dave, have you considered just recording straight to the computer and skipping the conversion process?

Yes, and it's simply not viable for many reasons. Mostly logistics of moving the camera around the lab for every shot.
Then I'd be in the exact same position anyway in terms of editing and rendering. The only thing that solution would save me is the minute or two to copy the files from the camera to the machine.
Fine if you are doing single take live shows all the time, but useless for a proper edited video blog .

[EEVblog]

The coolermaster case seems a reasonable choice. It has a very similar style and approach, but is cheaper. Personally I didn't like the big logo sticker on the front screaming "Look at me, I am a cooler master PC".

What I like is the top mounted SD card slot. Given that I use SD card every day, that's just a nice touch. One less cable, or I don't have to bend down to a front mounted slot.
But I'd be happy with the Fractal R4 and an added media card interface in one of the 5 1/4 trays.

[ddavidebor]

Dave, have you considered just recording straight to the computer and skipping the conversion process?

Yes, and it's simply not viable for many reasons. Mostly logistics of moving the camera around the lab for every shot.
Then I'd be in the exact same position anyway in terms of editing and rendering. The only thing that solution would save me is the minute or two to copy the files from the camera to the machine.
Fine if you are doing single take live shows all the time, but useless for a proper edited video blog .

Well, is problably possible to encode the files when you are writing it (aka shooting the video)

[peter.mitchell]

people always forget about how useful card readers are and how much of a pain in the ass they are too; you need to have one at every computer you use, plus one in your camera bag, if you try to get by with one card reader you inevitably will forget to put it int he camera bag or won't be able to find an open usb slot.

erm... the encoding takes place after the editing usually so unless he is shooting and editing simultaneously, this isn't very useful, and if he is, he needs to be paid more!

[EEVblog]

Well, is problably possible to encode the files when you are writing it (aka shooting the video)

Yes, but there is no point doing that, it saves you nothing.
You still have to use a video editor to cut the dead space at the start and end of each clip.
Then you still have to transcode using Handbrake to get your correct size/quality ratio.
The exact same workflow that takes 99% of my time.
As I said, all that saves if the few minutes to copy the files.

[JDubU]

When evaluating possible CPU's, memory, video cards, and hard drives (conventional or SSD), I usually start with the PassMark web site:
http://www.passmark.com/index.html

It has apples-to-apples benchmark scores for seemingly every component made in the past ten or fifteen years. 

CPU's:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Memory:
http://www.memorybenchmark.net/

Video Cards:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

Drives:
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/


The CPU benchmark scores do reflect multi-threading performance on multiple core chips.

[dimlow]

Ok, I think I've made up my mind 
Intel i7 3770K
ASROCK - Z77-EXTREME4
2 x 8GB Corsair DDR3 memory
Seagate 2TB 7200 HD (+ the 128MB boot SSD I already have)
CoolerMaster Silencio 550 case ($60 cheaper than the Fractal, but still has good "silent" reviews)
Third party CPU cooler, probably a CoolerMaster or Thermaltake, maybe $80 tops.
Thermaltake Litepower 600W PSU (says it has silent fan, good enough)

Because that's 7 items instead of 6, scorptec want $105 assembly, and also $71 postage.
$1147 total, I assume that includes GST.

My local JW computer store seem to come in just over $1K even with some parts more expensive as they don't seem to charge for assembly and I can pickup down the road.
http://www.jw.com.au/order_form.php
They don't have the case I want though so will have to ask.

or I could just order all the parts separate on ebay and assemble myself, would be interesting to see if it's any cheaper with all the postage.

Dave thats not a bad system. I doubt you will use all that RAM but as its cheap you may as well get it. You should see a good improvement in speed over your current system. But i know if i went this route i would always be regretting that i had not spent $400 or so more and got a 3970k and quad channel memory for a much faster system even if i had to hold out buying it for a few more weeks for the money to come in.

[EEVblog]

Dave thats not a bad system. I doubt you will use all that RAM but as its cheap you may as well get it. You should see a good improvement in speed over your current system. But i know if i went this route i would always be regretting that i had not spent $400 or so more and got a 3970k and quad channel memory for a much faster system even if i had to hold out buying it for a few more weeks for the money to come in.

Is the 3970K really worth the extra?

[BravoV]

Is the 3970K really worth the extra?

Looking at that chart ? I say its not worth it, think about Sagan's fund, every cents count, IMHO.