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Thanks for the reply. I’m very new at this and, compared to what I’ve seen in some tutorials, my current ambitions are extremely light. That said, I’m looking to make sure I incrementally purchase items that I can use when I eventually buy/build a new computer. I know that in the PD tests I’ve seen, the CPU/GPU are the main bottlenecks, with >= 7200 RPM storage not a major one; however, didn’t see any tests that used 5400 RPM HDDs for the drive for direct media input or the drive for production which is why I was wondering if, for my current use of PD, whether I could go with 5400 RPM HDDs for direct media input during a project’s production/rendering.
DETAILS AND MORE INFO (cut here):
Although the improvements in production speed seem minimal when comparing HDDs >= 7200 RPM or SSDs even for SVRT (one guy saw only a 5% improvement) it appears from recommendations that a high-end approach for improving speed in the storage area would be to have: 1) the OS and PD on a fast boot drive (SSD) - won’t improve production speed but will make for fast PD bootup; 2) my project’s media files on a separate drive (not boot drive); 3) separate fast drive for the results of producing. For #2 and #3, I’ve seen different recs – e.g. using SSD, using 7200 RPM is fine, others say use 10000 RPM. It looks like most say that a 7200 RPM is sufficient; I saw some say not to use 5400 RPM. Given the latter, I was intending to buy a 5400 RPM HDD for video storage and then, should I upgrade in the future to a ‘dream machine’, temporarily copy the media files to a faster drive when I create my PD project (PD support for re-locating media files is important).
In the interest of saving space, I was going to always just have a single copy of my video files (notwithstanding the temporary copy of them on the ‘fast media input’ drive when I’m working on a project). If I needed them in more than one project, I’d bring them in from the single location. I do see issues with this – e.g. working on more than one project at a time and, for good reason, this violates the good project management practices specified in here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAOnn8g0C_o&feature=youtu.be
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Thanks very much, Tony -- i started watching part 1 of PD Proj Mgmt tutorial and it's some great stuff.
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Rec for external hard drive 1-4 TB for video storage where the input media files will be used by a video editor? I saw a rec to get faster than 7200 RPM w/ usb3.0 and esata and saw glyph and lacie and gtech that fit but i dont know. Any thoughts on which is best? Im also thinking of a seagate backup plus 5400 rpm and then just copying rhe needed input media files from that to a faster internal drive w/ less capacity but fast (e.g. ssd or 10000 rpm hdd). Im using powerdirector 11 in a non-pro way (titles, transitions, render/produce to different targets -- DVD, youtube, bluray). Thanks - Bill
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With power director, can I change the orginal location of the media files? Meaning, if I create a new project and drag 3 MPEG files into it, create clips from them, trim them, etc. and then save the project file, can I move those media files to a different drive and folder and open the same project? Do the file names have to be the same? The reason I ask this is because I'm looking to store media files on slower external hard drives and then copying them to faster internal drives when I want to produce/render the project that uses them for faster production. Thanks - Bill
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Thanks - I read your scenario ... it was helpful.
BTW, 2 of those links in the GPU area show some strong improvement w/ h/w - e.g. BeFe was able to cut his rendering time to what looks like about 35% of his original, benchmarked time before his tweaks (e.g. went from 7 minutes to 2.5 minutes). However, his and JL's testing make a case to not have the extra GPU (rely on HD4000 only). Note that I've read that Sony Vegas doesn't leverage the GPU either (its 'parallelized' code leverages the processing part as opposed to the video). As an aside, I don't know if the s/w has to be specifically written to leverage SLI/CrossFire (or whether that parallel activity occurs independent of how the code is structured).
I was looking at RAID0 (don't care about RAID1 for data redundancy) b/c of speed of the HDs b/c these will contain the source video for the project (therefore, during rendering, the project reads these sources, applies codecs, etc. and outputs results to export drive). From my limited understanding, what goes against the idea of a fast export drive would be what someone said about the CPU and GPU being the primary bottlenecks during rendering. That even w/ smart rendering (like PD's SVRT) that results in less rendering and less load on CPU and GPU, there's still not a big load on the export storage drive. I don't know...
What I'll do is:
Download a trial of PD Ultra 11 and another NLE onto my laptop and get a feeling of what I need - see where the bottlenecks are.
Buy a system w/ my specs but only the CPU's HD4000 (no extra GPU - will upgrade to another GPU and determine if SLI/CrossFire is needed).
Get just the 1TB WD 7200 RPM and hold off on RAID0 (but i did read an article that said a BIOS variable ('Intel SATA') needs to be set for ASUS mobo before installing Windows (!) -
Click here - BIOS for RAID on ASUS mobo
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Approximate Purchase Date: by mid jan 2013
Budget Range: <= $2500
System Usage: Video editing - Enthusiast (not pro; maybe prosumer), adding transitions, captions, and some special effects from multiple video sources that will currently be captured from Canon HV20 (HDV) and then copied from Hard Drive / Flash camcorder as Full HD (AVCHD, 1080i) and then exported/rendered in original source ( H.264 1920 x 1080/60i 24 Mbps). I plan on saving the original footage (before editing) on DVDs, etc. and bringing in source files for editing onto external hard drives. Intended NLE: Cyberlink PowerDirector 11 Ultra but I want to make sure the computer can handle it if I switch to a different prosumer / enthusiast NLE (I know that the NLE has to be specifically written to leverage CPU cores/multiple CPUs and Multiple GPUs/CUDA cores).
Note: Storage configuration was distributed into 3 drives using following recs:Click - Video Guys Storage FAQ and Click - 2010 post showing storage distribution (w/o RAID)
SPECS:
OS: Win-7 Pro Should I get Win 8?
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro; (Click - ASUS Specs) Cons: only 4 SATA III, no firewire, expansion not as good as Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
CPU: Core i7-3770K w/ HD4000; Reasons: fast (Click - Current CPU benchmarks/ratings), has integrated HD4000 graphics controller that performed well in testing with PowerDirector (see GPU)
Power Supply: CORSAIR Pro Gold (CMPSU-850AX) 850W (Click - CORSAIR Pro Gold Details)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32 GB (8x4GB) DDR3 1600; (Click - G.SKILL Memory) Reasons: G.SKILL recommended; above 1600 MHz not needed?
CPU Cooling (all-in-one - cools only the CPU): Which one? All-in-one Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Click - H100) or Noctua NH-D14 Processor cooler (Click - Noctua) or Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo RR-212E-20PK-R2 (Click - Hyper 212);
Boot drive (OS and programs): Which one? Internal SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SSD (Click - 840 Pro 256GB) or Mushkin MKNSSDCR240GB-DX: 240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s (Click - Mushkin 240GB); Reasons: fast OS and NLE bootup (won’t speed rendering/editing); 256GB b/c PD needs 100 GB of free space (WinOS + PD size < 100 GB); Connection: SATA III. Reasons: 6 Gb/s for SSD
Export/Render Drive: Internal SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 128GB SSD (Click - 840 Pro 128 GB); Reasons: Faster video rendering/exporting; Connection : SATA III Reasons: 6 Gb/s for SSD
Video Storage (including source files for editing): One or two 2TB external 7200 RPM WD RE4 WD2003FYYS 2000 drives (CLick - WD RE4) Reasons: SSD and 10000 RPM HDDs too expensive, >=7200 RPM HD for higher video formats, >= 32MB cache; fast: (Click - Internal HD Tests) If I don't put them into RAID0, I should just get one for now or two and have write/read on separate drives?
Case: Which one? COOLER MASTER, HAF 932 Advanced (RC-932-KKN5-GP) (Click - HAF 932) or Cooler Master Storm Enforcer SGC-1000-KWN1 (Click - Storm Enforcer); Reasons: HAF 932 has recommended fan locations: front, back, and on top; fits at least 4 HDs and SSDs, good cable management
GPU: Which one? 2 x MSI R7970-2PMD3GD5/OC: Radeon HD 7970 3 GB (Click - Radeon HD 7970) In CrossFire (Toms Hardware - see below) or GTX 580 (Click - GTX580). Do I need to use SLI/Crossfire? Do I even need an extra GPU given the HD4000 on the CPU? 2 tests w/ PowerDirector Ultra 11 show HD4000 is sufficient: Click - PowerDirector test with AMD HD 7750 GPU and HD4000 and Click - PowerDirector testing with HD4000 and EVGA GTX470 PDF )
Display: ASUS, VW246H Black LCD Monitor, 24" TFT Full HD, 1920x1080, w/ Speakers (Click - ASUS Display)
Blu-Ray: Pioneer BDR-207 (Click - BDR-207)
Additional Questions:
1) Should I instead just go for Toms Hardware configuration: Click - System Builder Marathon, Q4 2012: $2,000 Performance PC
2) Is this system overkill for what I explained my usage is?
3) Use RAID0 for speed? One site recommended configuring the two 7200 RPMs in RAID0 for speed - if I use a h/w RAID controller (to avoid load on CPU for RAID), should I or is this overkill?
4) Should I overclock the cpu? If so, should I wait until the next stepping of Ivy Bridge in hopes that the heat issue will be resolved? Click - Ivy Bridge runs hotter when overclocked
5) Are the fans sufficient to cool the other components (not the CPU)? Should I use a fan controller?
Thanks -
Bill
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Thanks very much for both replies -- I really appreciate it. To be honest, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed in the analysis area ... I want to build my own PC (but never have) and I want to make sure that I don't mess it up and have a PC that doesn't give me what I need for faster video editing but ... I'm also a real newbie with this, looking to only do home video stuff, and I'd like to incrementally add as I need. From your responses, it seems like it would be sufficient to just get a 10000 or 7500 rpm HD w/o SSDs, right? I am thinking to get two internal HDs -- I'll have them either 7500 or 10000 rpms.
I was going to go w/ the intel i7-3770 w/ the built-in HD4000 graphics and not get the extra GPU (based on analysis I read at Click here - Test1 and at Click here - Test2).
I was then going to use the Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE for a motherboard but now I'm wondering b/c I saw that your GIGABYTE board has more SATA ports at 6 gb/s. The Asus has 2 SATAs that are 6g/s and 4 that are 3 gb/s ... plus there looks like an additional eSata at 6gb/s (the latter is not shown on the specs - Click here - Specs for ASUS but it's shown here in a diagram Click here - ASUS Diagram). Given that if I have SATA and eSATA at 6gb/s, it shouldn't matter if I have internal or external, right? Should I look for a motherboard with more SATA / eSATA 6gb/sec ports?
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I’m looking to see what’s the best storage setup for Video Editing (I'm in the process of researching what I need to build a video editing PC -- I have a decent idea on CPU, GPU, PSU, MB, RAM, etc.). When video editing, different source files will be read in and then cut-and-pasted and then a new file will be rendered. I’ll be rendering as the original source footage quality.
Questions:
1. Is the storage a bottleneck during rendering?
2. Where do you render the new file (which requires a codec)? Should it go to an SSD and then the rendered file is copied to your HD later (after rendering)? Or should it go directly to its final storage place – e.g.. 10000 RPM HD? Should the ‘rendering’ area be at least 100GB of free space with 60GB contiguous?
2a. What ports to external storage (HDs) - 6 Gb/sec SATA port?
2b. When an SSD is connected, what is the port that's used?
3. What is the best setup – where should Win 7, CyberDirector, your ‘source’ video files, and the rendering area be in terms of a setup with SSDs and/or HDs?
4. Should RAID configuration be used?
5. Should the audio and video sources (and rendered results) be separated into separate files and put onto different HDs?
6. What do you usually store the raw footage on to ensure that it’s around for a while (e.g. hard drive failures, etc.) – do you put MTS files onto DVDs?
7. How often do you defrag source files?
Thanks,
Bill
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Thanks for the info - really appreciate it
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Bernhard -- sorry, forgot to ask you which one of the ASUS Z77V-Pro MBs you have -- Which ASUS Z77V-Pro mother board do you have: Click here
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@Adrian - thanks very much - I especially found the PDF (multiGPGPU.pdf) helpful ( http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/25826.page#140632.
@Bernhard - thanks very much as well. I looked at Jeff's analysis (tested PD 11 using GPU=GTX 580 and CPU=i7-3770 (w/ HD4000 GPU) to determine results w/ discrete GPU only, onboard GPU only, and both [multiGPGPU] on times) and it looks like it's not even worth it getting the discrete card. Note that he made no mention of needing to use Lucidlogix Virtu MVP; I'm a newbie at this so ... do you think it has anything to do with your using the AMD HD 7750 as opposed to an nVidia GPU?
Also, from your analysis, the only way to get the time down to 2.5 minutes was to have both GPUs utilized w/ PD11 added to Virtu MVP. I was wondering what your first scenario [the one that took 5 minutes)] would result in if you added the PD11 to Virtu MVP (or does that even make sense?)? Meaning, display attached to HD4000, 0% usage of HD7750, PD11 added to Virtu MVP, see PD11 switch to 'Intel Quick Sync' (does that even make sense in this scenario?) and then see what the time would be (in order to determine if a fast rendering time can be done only w/ the HD4000.
Would you mind sharing your config? I know the GPU, CPU, and MB; what RAM, case, PSU, Cooling and Storage setup (e.g. SSD? HDs in RAID?). I only take this info as input as opposed to rushing out and buying so no need to worry about giving me any advice that would result in an impulse buying decision 
Again, thanks for the info --
Bill
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1. I'm looking to buy PowerDirector Ultra 11 and am building a computer for it. I'm trying to determine what CPU and GPU I should put in. Is the parallelism on the GPU or the CPU more important? The PD ad shows a computer w/ Intel Core i5-3570 CPU (w/ integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 – note that the ad said the Intel Core i5-3550 but that must be wrong because that has the Intel HD Graphics 2500 GPU). It has a 2nd GPU, the nVidia GeForce GTX 680, which has CUDA blocks for additional parallelism.
a. How much parallelism for video rendering is PD Ultra 11 written for – does it distribute across the 2 GPUs and then across the CUDA blocks?
b. How much parallelism for CPU processing is the s/w written for – I think most s/w is written to not take advantage of more than 4 cores on a CPU so … would going for a CPU with 6 cores (and Hyperthreading) give much of a gain for PD Ultra 11?
c. Bottom line: which of the following would result in better video editing performance:
• Configuration 1: Better GPU
=> CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Processor (8M Cache, 3.5-3.90 GHz, 4 cores, Intel HD Graphics 4000)
=> GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 680
• Configuration 2: Better CPU
=> CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K Processor (12M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz, 6 cores; no integrated graphics card)
=> GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 570
d. So … would the second configuration be better, with a faster/better CPU but with no second (integrated) graphics card but using an nVidia card that has multiple CUDA blocks for video-rendering parallelism or would the first one be better with a CPU that’s probably 25% slower, only 4 cores, but uses 2 GPUs (and the second one has CUDA blocks for additional parallelism
2. I read that CyberLink PowerDirector supports hardware acceleration on the nVidia cards; is that the same as taking advantage of parallel video rendering using CUDA blocks?
3. One site recommended nVidia Quadro 4000 for the GPU for Video Editing. Is it much of a performance gain over the above GPUs?
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Thanks for the reply. I will take a look at the videos once I download and install it. I was wondering what the best video editing s/w is (Adobe PE, Sony Vegas, etc.) and it looks like PD is well-reviewed so ...
A couple of clarifications:
1) If I burn a DVD or a Blu-Ray (separately, of course) using the appropriate burner (DVD or Blu-Ray, respectively) attached to my computer and using PD, the DVD or Blu-Ray should be able to run on a stand-alone DVD or Blu-Ray, respectively?
2) I'm trying to determine what GPU hardware would be leveraged by PD to "maximize performance from multi-graphic cards installed". I don't know if that means a single GPU with CUDA cores or multiple GPUs or a specific type of GPU, etc.
Thanks,
Bill
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I have a Canon HV20 camcorder w/ miniDVs. I'm going to transfer the video to a computer. I'll use firewire. It looks like PowerDirector 11 Ultra is what I’m going to use.
1. HV20's video is MPEG-2 25 Mbps; what does PowerDirector capture it as (container format, video codec)? I want to capture it in the least-lossy way – how do I do this for PowerDirector?
2. I’m in the process of spec’ing out a computer for video editing; what kind of GPU (or GPUs) should I get to support ‘multi-GPGPU’ in order for me to ‘maximize performance from multi-graphic cards installed and optimize editing, rendering and effect processing speeds’? Do I install multiple GPUs or do I install one with multiple CUDA cores?
3. Once the video and audio are on the computer after capture, do I then use the software to put it into a different format (using the software’s codecs) for editing? Again, I want to do this with least loss.
4. If I burn to both DVD and Blu-Ray, will they be able to run on stand-along DVD and Blu-Ray Players?
5. I was going to put the s/w on my laptop and then on the new stand-alone computer. If I download the software, can I move it to another machine easily? Can I have it on 2 machines or do I need to purchase another license?
Thanks,
Bill
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Thanks everyone -- I'll look. After I posted, I found a few custom builders online -- not 100% custom but close. The ones I looked at were: Falcon-nw, PugetSystems, and CyberPowerPC. I'll check out local places to see what they say. Thanks, again.
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I looked at the video and cpu sites and picked the following (in my budget):
CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K @ 3.20GHz
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 - The Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 graphics card has 1,280 MB of GDDR 5 RAM.
I then looked to see if I could have these added by a major computer mfr (e.g. Dell) but it doesn't look like it. I thought about building my own computer (I checked out the tutorials and guides on tom's hardware site) but don't want to get into that.
Does anyone know how I could get the computer built w/ an appropriate motherboard, the above items, DDR3 or DDR5 RAM, etc. without my having to build it by myself?
Thanks,
Bill
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Thanks VERY much - this is the kind of stuff I was looking for -- really helped.
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Thanks for the replies -- appreciate it.
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At the following, it says that Blu-Ray and 'Web' aren't supported? Is this true?
http://video-editing.findthebest.com/compare/33-41/CyberLink-PowerDirector-10-vs-Adobe-Premiere-Elements
It says that 'Hi Definition' is supported but ... what does that mean?
Also, I don't understand what it means by 'web' not supported -- the various video-sharing web sites (you tube, Flickr, DailyMotion, etc.)?
BTW, I'm in the process of determining which video editing s/w to use -- PD 10, Adobe PE, Sony Vegas, etc. Wondering what the user base is in all of these (I read the reviews on PC Mag so... am leaning towards PD 10 and will use their free trial soon -- used Adobe PE's free trial over the weekend). I like the idea of faster capturing, rendering, etc. w/ PD but am wondering about PD's future, user base, and the above items (Blu-Ray and 'web' export support) over Adobe PE.
Thanks,
Bill
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I'm looking to buy a desktop from Dell or some other mfr w/ components that will ensure I can take advantage of PD 10's hardware acceleration / performance features. I've looked at some recs but want to make sure I'm clear.
OS: Win 7
RAM: Speed and Amount: DDR5 8-16 GB
CPU: ???
Motherboard: ???
Hard drive: ???
Video card: ATI or NVIDIA w/ 1GB w/ latest drivers (which card? which memory type?)
DVD Burner: recommended?
Blu-Ray Burner: recommended?
Ports: USB 3.0, Firewire, e-sata, ???
Monitor: ?
Thanks,
Bill
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