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Building a new "Ultimate PC" for Adobe 5K editing! (circa Oct 2011)

Tom Lowe

Tom Lowe

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I wanted to post the specs of a new PC I am building to edit my debut film at 4K, online, before I pull the trigger and order it. What do you guys think?

The only major drawback is that I will have no room for Red Rocket (not enough PCI). It's either that, or switch to the EVGA motherboard and lose 48GB of RAM! BTW, I am hoping to edit this film without transcoding!

avaxu.jpg


WORKSTATION PC, Dual Six-Core Xeon® 5600 / 5500 SATA CrossFire™ Graphics Computer Workstation 1 $13188.66 $13188.66
SUPERMICRO, X8DAi, LGA1366 /2, Intel® 5520, 6.4 GT/s QPI, DDR3-1333MHz ECC/UECC 192GB/48GB /12, PCIe x16 CF /2, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, EATX, Retail

INTEL, 2 x Xeon® X5690 Six-Core Processor 3.46GHz, LGA1366, 6.4 GT/s QPI, 12MB L3 Cache, HT EIST EM64T TB VT-x XD, 32nm, 130W, Retail w/o Fan

NOCTUA, NH-U12DX 1366, Socket 1366 Active 4U CPU Cooler, 1300 RPM, Copper/Aluminum

NOCTUA, NH-U12DX 1366, Socket 1366 Active 4U CPU Cooler, 1300 RPM, Copper/Aluminum

INNOVATION COOLING, Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Compound

KINGSTON, 96GB (6 x 16GB) ValueRAM™ Quad-Rank PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz CL7 SDRAM DIMM, ECC Registered

EVGA, GeForce® GTX 580 772MHz, 3072MB GDDR5 4008MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, 2x DVI+mini-HDMI, Retail

OCZ, 480GB Vertex 3 SSD, MLC SandForce SF-2281, 530/450 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, Retail

HITACHI, 3TB Ultrastar™ 7K3000 (HUA723030ALA640), SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache, OEM

HITACHI, 3TB Ultrastar™ 7K3000 (HUA723030ALA640), SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache, OEM

HITACHI, 3TB Ultrastar™ 7K3000 (HUA723030ALA640), SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache, OEM

HITACHI, 3TB Ultrastar™ 7K3000 (HUA723030ALA640), SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache, OEM

HITACHI, 3TB Ultrastar™ 7K3000 (HUA723030ALA640), SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache, OEM

RAID, RAID 5 (fault tolerance), min 3 hard drives and RAID controller required

ARECA, ARC-1880i SAS/SATA RAID Controller, 12 ports (2 x SFF-8087), 6 Gb/s, Levels 0/1/3/10/5/6/10/30/50/60, DDR2 512MB cache, PCIe x8, Full-height/Low-profile, Retail

LG ELECTRONICS, WH12LS38 Black 12x/16x/48x BD/DVD/CD Blu-ray Disc™ Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, w/ Software, OEM

ROSEWILL, RCR-AK-IM5002 Black/Silver 72-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, USB 2.0

LIAN LI, Armorsuit PC-P80 Black Tower Case, EATX, 10 slots, No PSU, Aluminum

THERMALTAKE, TP-1500M Toughpower™ 1500W Power Supply w/ Modular Cables, 80 PLUS® Silver, 24-pin ATX12V v2.3 EPS12V v2.92, 8x 8/6-pin PCIe, Retail

MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM

APC, SUA3000 Smart-UPS 3000VA, 3000VA/2700W, 120V, USB, RS-232, Black

WARRANTY, Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, Life-Time Labor Warranty)
Click to expand...

Oops.. sorry the RAM is wrong here. It's 96GB Crucial 1333mhz DD3.
 
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I would really try to get a Red Rocket in there. Also I would upgrade the Areca card to one of their 1880ix. I have the 1880ix-12 with 4GB of cache and it's really nice. A Decklink would also be nice.
 
Looks like a really sweet system, definitely fast enough for a full project with no transcoding, the only thing you might consider is adding a second GTX 580, although I dunno if that'll entail changing the motherboard...of course it all depends on your monitor setup, I use one card for a dual-screen UI and the second card goes to a 46" LED.
You should get 1/2 res at 23.98 no problem, and I find a larger screen at a slightly longer viewing distance gives you a better feel for framing & shot length on the edit.
 
John, I talked to Adobe and they assured me that their software cannot take advantage of multiple CUDA cards in SLI, which includes the fact that the GTX 590 is apparently an "SLI" card, meaning that it uses SLI technology to link two onboard GPU cores.
 
Tom Lowe said:
John, I talked to Adobe and they assured me that their software cannot take advantage of multiple CUDA cards in SLI, which includes the fact that the GTX 590 is apparently an "SLI" card, meaning that it uses SLI technology to link two onboard GPU cores.
Click to expand...

Correct. Adobe does however support OpenGL that takes advantage of the GPU speed for some instructions so it can pay to have an approved OpenGL card. But Adobe current versions of software do not currently support muti/GPU's
 
Hey Tom, Great system you have built there! But I know for a fact you can do every thing you want and more for about half that price, if you are willing to put together the system your self, because why pay some one else to do some thing you can do for free easily (building a computer is alot easier then it sounds). There are some expensive items in your cart you could switch out! All items could be purchased from NewEgg, here is what I would build:
2x Intel Xeon X5675 Westmere-EP 3.06GHz LGA 1366 95W Six-Core Server Processor
1x SUPERMICRO MBD-X8DAH+-F-O Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5520 Enhanced Extended ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server Motherboard
2x Noctua NH-U9DX 1366 Dual Heat-pipe SSO Bearing Quiet CPU Cooler
4x Wintec 24GB (3 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) ECC Registered Server Memory ( 96 gigs total)
1xMSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5
2x Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR60GB-DX 2.5" 60GB SATA III Synchronous MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
4x Western Digital RE4-GP WD2002FYPS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive
The SSD's would be in raid 0, have a total compacity of 120Gigs (enough for OS and Adobe) and be alot faster then the one 480gig Vertex 3, The four 2 TB drives you could place in raid 10 because it is fast and reliable, giving you a total cap of just over 4TB.
Built in raid controller is fine......
1x LG Black Super Multi SATA WH12LS30 LightScribe Support - OEM
2x Sunbeam PL-AIO-BK All-in-one USB 2.0 3.5" Drive Bay Card Reader (they are free with the heatsinks)
1x LIAN LI PC-90 Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
1x Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200 1200W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
1x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM
(ultimate is no better at all....)
1x Any decent UPS you can get your hands on for a low price.
The total comes to $7,017.83!!!! And as for a warranty, most individual computer parts come with at least a two or 3 year warranty. As for hard drive space, fill up the 4TB, then go buy some more drives. Because computer parts like hard drives, memory and graphics processing units, prices halve every year so, what will cost you $800 this year will likely cost you about $400 next year. :) Feel free to ask about any of the changes I made and why I made them!
 
tom, i agree with daniel on putting your own together. hardest piece is deciding which parts you want and making sure they are all compatible, but that's not really that hard.
 
Well savings would be the biggest reason I would do it, $13188.66-7017.83 = $6170.83 (that's enough to buy to buy almost another system or a bunch of Redcessories!)
 
This is a great thread, my new Mac was priced in at just under $15k, which is is simply just not an option. I too am getting a PC custom built, so Tom when you finalize your future proof Godzilla (they name I gave my 2008 future proof mac.. yet here we are in the future) I'd love to know your specs :)
 
Guys, I'm not skilled enough to put it together. So far, the dudes at AVADirect have been pretty cool with me. Plus there is a warranty, etc.

Let me check with some friends to see if anyone can build it.
 
Tom, I'd be happy to spend an afternoon putting your PC together for you, if you're in Southern California. It's really not difficult and nothing to be concerned about.
 
If you can put together a camera system, you can put together a computer..... Plus you could just get NewEgg's warranty. You would still be saving like 5 grand....
 
Solid rig all around. 48GB 1600 MHz RAM will get you better performance, however, as 1066 MHz causes a bit of a memory bandwidth bottleneck and it is very unlikely you will use more than 48GB of RAM anyway. RAID 5 offers superb redundancy but write performance can be very erratic. Check out BAARF (battle against RAID Five [performance]) for more information for problems, solutions and options. Read performance also isn't good enough to handle low compression (i.e. 3:1 or os) 5K R3Ds and definitely not multiple streams. Writing 4K masters in whatever codec will be very high bitrate and could cause severe bottlenecks as well. My personal choice is RAID 10 w/ 4 HDDs.

As for RED Rocket, you will need 2 RED Rockets to deliver real-time performance at 5K whereas dropping to 1/2 res (or 2.5K or the resolution most displays top out at today anyway) will get you real-time performance from your CPU/GPU alone. So, in my opinion, Rockets are fairly useless today. If you are planning to work with 10-bit monitors, go for Quadro GPUs.

Lastly, as many have suggested, you will be able to get a more optimum blend of performance, price and flexibility by configuring and assembling yourself. See if you can get someone to do it for you. In case you do, you should also consider 16-core or 20-core Xeon E7 CPUs which will fit within $15k and get you 5K real-time performance (assuming no bottlenecks). Now that would make an "Ultimate PC".
 
Tom,

This is a great setup for sure.
But you're forgetting one very important thing:
GeForce cards do NOT support 10bit color due to driver limitation!!

I seriously suggest you stick a Quadro 5000 in there instead of of those GTX580s, and connect your monitors through its DP ports.
If you wanna go all out, then a Quadro 6000 is also available.
Then enable 10bit color (NVIDIA refers to it as 30bit Deep Color) in the driver interface.
Finally, enable GPU acceleration inside of Adobe's products, or any other professional software you use.

The bonus is, of course, you'll have room for a RED Rocket.
 
I would also suggest a PCIe-based SSD solution instead of 2.5" SATA drives.
Something like an OCZ Z-drive or fusionIO ioDrive.
Those are super speedy, giving you around 4 times the performance of a regular 2.5" SATA6 SSD.
Oh, and the OCZ Z-drive is even bootable, so you can install Windows on it.

I suggest you look at the new OCZ Z-Drive R4 RM88 800GB model.
It's got plenty of storage, it's bootable, it's powered only by the PCIe slot and it is the fastest storage solution available today.
And it costs roughly $7/GB, which means $5600. A bit expensive, yes, but nothing comes close.

Here are a couple of reviews of the 1.6TB model:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4879/ocz-zdrive-r4-cm88-16tb-pcie-ssd-review/1
http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_zdrive_r4_ssd_review
 
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Tom Lowe said:
Guys, I'm not skilled enough to put it together. So far, the dudes at AVADirect have been pretty cool with me. Plus there is a warranty, etc.

Let me check with some friends to see if anyone can build it.
Click to expand...

+1. Pay a friend that's done it before to build you one, and refer to

http://ppbm5.com/index.html

for other custom built machines.

You probably want a Quadro 4000 or above for 10 bit display,
but as you see on that benchmark, Quadro cards are not necessarily fast at all.
 
John Bellari said:
+1. Pay a friend that's done it before to build you one, and refer to

http://ppbm5.com/index.html

for other custom built machines.

You probably want a Quadro 4000 or above for 10 bit display,
but as you see on that benchmark, Quadro cards are not necessarily fast at all.
Click to expand...

Wow, what a test!, thanks for share.
 
Vico Martin said:
Wow, what a test!, thanks for share.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the guys that run the website are nice enough to give a standard benchmark that Adobe does not.
You would think by now Adobe would have a simple performance test for realtime 4K editing and certifying all
cuda cards.

The amazing thing was I was going to buy an HP Z800 workstation with Quadro 4000 until I saw those benchmark results.
Quite eye-opening the difference between what Adobe says and reality.
 
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