Kendall Scott
Active member
two months ago me and my cousin decided to build a custom editing system. because we shoot with a bunch of different cameras like handy cams, dslrs, sony, arri & red we figured we would need a system that could handle all different codecs on a single timeline with ease. We ended up adding stuff to our ebay cart and before we knew it we spent $8K but it was worth it!!! Here are the specs for the machine we built. We ended up disassembling it & selling it barbecue we didn't get heavy duty work that required a system like this but while we had it heres all what we did/observed.
64GB Ram @2400mhz $600
500GB SSD $350
Tesla C2075 $1400
Quadro K5000 $1400
(2) 3TB 7200RPM Drives $250
1000W Power Supply $100
Asus Z9PE-D8 WS Motherboard $600
(2) Intel Xeon E5-2690 $1500
Water Cooling Kit $800
Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard $500
NZXT Phantom Case (White) $120
Bunch of other small bits in pieces
THIS MACHINE IS A BEAST... We Installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit & Premiere Pro CS6 and a bunch of trial plugins. We installed BCC8, New Blue FX, Red Giant(Magic Buller & Keying Suites), Genarts Monster & Sapphire, twixtor, & neat video. Then we started to do some tests. Here is a list of tests we did.
1. Multicam Test (One with effects and one without) - without effects we could play 2 full res 4K files and get real time playback. With anything more it would skip frames but it wasnt that bad. With effects we could play 2 files but it would skip frames worse than without but not that bad. at 1/2 the resolution wth & w/o effects it played back in real time.
2. Basic Editing Test (with & w/o effects) - we color graded files and then imported them into PP and we were able to get real-time playback of 4K files at full resolution. We then added about 3 or 4 effects and it still was able to give us real-time playback
3. Audio Test - When doing any task we found that it was better to have an external sound card simply because it takes alot of stress off the cpu plus you get better options for sound playback.
4. Dynamic Link Test - When we worked back and forth between premiere and after effects some of the things we did were motion tracking, image stabilalization, some flares, and im not sure what else. Worked fine but it sometimes skipped frames. Im guessin it was because premiere was still using more ram or something.
5. Render Test - Usually I work in a 4K Timeline and when I export I usally click "match sequence settings" and I get a 1920 x 1080 file. It doenst take long to export even with effects added in most cases its about the same time it takes to play the footage.
Upgrade Notes:
1. Because the motherboard uses PCI Express 3.0 x16 this gives you twice the bandwidth that PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots which means more data for the K5000 card
2. Because the motherboard has 7 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots you could easily add a Red Rocket Card and get even better performance(havent tested so not sure if it would work
3. You can also swap the E5-2690 processors with the E5-2687W(same processor found in "The Visonary" Z820)
4. Also since the quadro K5000 & 6000 are around the same price you could easily pick either one but based on benchmarks the K5000 gives you better performance.
5. You can also upgrade the tesla C2075 to the Tesla K20 for about $1200 more
Heres a video of a similar build sorry its in chinese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YudCqpsoONA
Bottom Line is that you can have a Tesla K20, Quadro K5000, 2x E5-2690 Processors, 64Gb Ram, 500gb SSD, and 6TB of extra space for $13.5K. Which is right in the same price range as the Z820. Im not sure how much the Z820 costs or how well it performs but I know its starting at 10K and up.
If you split the cost with someone it would be the ulitmate buy and definitely make post production alot easier.
64GB Ram @2400mhz $600
500GB SSD $350
Tesla C2075 $1400
Quadro K5000 $1400
(2) 3TB 7200RPM Drives $250
1000W Power Supply $100
Asus Z9PE-D8 WS Motherboard $600
(2) Intel Xeon E5-2690 $1500
Water Cooling Kit $800
Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard $500
NZXT Phantom Case (White) $120
Bunch of other small bits in pieces
THIS MACHINE IS A BEAST... We Installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit & Premiere Pro CS6 and a bunch of trial plugins. We installed BCC8, New Blue FX, Red Giant(Magic Buller & Keying Suites), Genarts Monster & Sapphire, twixtor, & neat video. Then we started to do some tests. Here is a list of tests we did.
1. Multicam Test (One with effects and one without) - without effects we could play 2 full res 4K files and get real time playback. With anything more it would skip frames but it wasnt that bad. With effects we could play 2 files but it would skip frames worse than without but not that bad. at 1/2 the resolution wth & w/o effects it played back in real time.
2. Basic Editing Test (with & w/o effects) - we color graded files and then imported them into PP and we were able to get real-time playback of 4K files at full resolution. We then added about 3 or 4 effects and it still was able to give us real-time playback
3. Audio Test - When doing any task we found that it was better to have an external sound card simply because it takes alot of stress off the cpu plus you get better options for sound playback.
4. Dynamic Link Test - When we worked back and forth between premiere and after effects some of the things we did were motion tracking, image stabilalization, some flares, and im not sure what else. Worked fine but it sometimes skipped frames. Im guessin it was because premiere was still using more ram or something.
5. Render Test - Usually I work in a 4K Timeline and when I export I usally click "match sequence settings" and I get a 1920 x 1080 file. It doenst take long to export even with effects added in most cases its about the same time it takes to play the footage.
Upgrade Notes:
1. Because the motherboard uses PCI Express 3.0 x16 this gives you twice the bandwidth that PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots which means more data for the K5000 card
2. Because the motherboard has 7 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots you could easily add a Red Rocket Card and get even better performance(havent tested so not sure if it would work
3. You can also swap the E5-2690 processors with the E5-2687W(same processor found in "The Visonary" Z820)
4. Also since the quadro K5000 & 6000 are around the same price you could easily pick either one but based on benchmarks the K5000 gives you better performance.
5. You can also upgrade the tesla C2075 to the Tesla K20 for about $1200 more
Heres a video of a similar build sorry its in chinese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YudCqpsoONA
Bottom Line is that you can have a Tesla K20, Quadro K5000, 2x E5-2690 Processors, 64Gb Ram, 500gb SSD, and 6TB of extra space for $13.5K. Which is right in the same price range as the Z820. Im not sure how much the Z820 costs or how well it performs but I know its starting at 10K and up.
If you split the cost with someone it would be the ulitmate buy and definitely make post production alot easier.