Help me pick one

[Prabhat]

Need to make use of T2i footage in CS4 suite (Premiere Pro & After Effects).

These are pre-built systems, and I have to pick the best fit for my purpose from these 5 systems without changing the specifications.

(1) Processor & Memory:
AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six-Core Processor at 2.7GHz
12GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM memory
Drives:
1.5TB (7,200RPM) SATA 3Gb/s hard drive


(2) Intel Quad-Core Processor Q8400S (2.66 GHz)
1333MHz FSB
4MB L3 Cache
8GB 800MHz DDR2
Drives:
1TB SATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive

(3) Intel® Core ™ i7-930 Processor 2.8GHz
1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache
12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM memory
Drives:
1.5TB (7,200RPM) SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
LightScribe 16x max DVD±R/RW SuperMulti drive


(4) Intel® Core™ i7-870 Processor at 2.93GHz
8MB Cache
12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 x 2GB)(2 x 4GB)
Drives:
1TB 7200RPM SATA II Hard Drive
16X DVD±RW Drive


(5) Intel® Core™ i7-950 Processor (3.06GHz)
Intel® X58 / Intel® ICH10R Chipset
12GB DDR3 Memory
1.5TB SATA II Hard Drive
22x DVD±RW Drive
Front Panel 19-in-1 digital multimedia card reader


Thx
Prabhat

 

[Anson Fogel]

Prabhat -

This would be a better DVXUser post, or Creative Cow, etc - folks here focus more on red post production. Just a suggestion.

 

[Prabhat]

Thanks for your suggestion Anson. But as a R1 enthusiast and near future purchaser of R1, not even Scarlet, I consider myself to belong to this group.
And this is a very simple question which does not take much time or threads to answer for the experienced ones. I was expecting a quick suggestion to make a quick exit.

 

[Richard Foster]

Eliminate 2 and 3 due to slower ram, 5's ram speed is unspecified. Speed of ram is as important as the processor, IMO. Also what are the price comparisons? The difference in speed between the 1 and 4 is minimal but the intel is quad core and the AMD is 6, so a slight advantage to AMD. All the SATA drives are probably equal in speed.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

A simple question perhaps, but an extremely vague one. 4 sounds like the best deal. If you have the extra cash, go for 5. I'm not sure how much of an effect SSE4.1/2 instructions have on CS4. If it's anywhere near as much as CS5, the Intels have the edge. If not, AMD has the edge. The safest bet sounds like 4.

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I'd look at the fastest Intel system. That is the Core i7 870

The AMD might be a touch faster if you intend to run a lot more programs at once... but none of the transcoding applications for the Canon h.264 files can use more than 4 cores effectively. So fewer faster cores will get you better results.

The Core i7 950 is the absolute fastest CPU... but the memory bandwidth is reduced ~25% compared to the i7 870 while trading only 4% processor speed.

The best available single processor is probably the Core i7 880, but it costs almost twice as much as the 950 and 870.

So system 4 is my choice, with the caveat that my estimation is based solely on these specifications.

The big one that is missing is the video card.

I would also urge you to consider build quality of the key components as well. If you are doing video, these systems will be abused- so you want to make sure you are getting a quality MB, RAM and other construction.

 

[Prabhat]

Richard, Subhadip, Alex, Thank you very much for your replies. I tried to be as concise as possible in describing my requirement and options so as not to take too much space and time. My requirement is just to make use of the T2i video footage and edit it using CS4 in the best system available to me. And I have to choose from these 6 systems. Would help me if you can pick at least 3 just in case there is unavailability of the best choice.

Appreciate your help! You guys are wonderful!
Thx Again.


(1) $1300
Processor & Memory:
• AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six-Core Processor at 2.7GHz
• 12GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM memory
Drives:
• 1.5TB (7,200RPM) SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
• Blu-Ray ROM / LightScribe SuperMulti DVD burner
Graphics & Video:
• HP 25" diagonal widescreen flat panel monitor
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5570 Graphics



(2) $1600
Processor & Memory:
• Intel Quad-Core Processor Q8400S (2.66 GHz)
• 1333MHz FSB
• 4MB L3 Cache
• 8GB 800MHz DDR2
Drives:
• 1TB SATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
• Blu-Ray Disc / DVDRW Combo Drive
Graphics & Video:
• 24 Wide (1920x1080) Touchscreen Display
• 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT330M Graphics


(3) $1500
Processor & Memory:
• Intel® Core ™ i7-930 Processor 2.8GHz
• 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache
• 12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM memory
Drives:
• 1.5TB (7,200RPM) SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
• LightScribe 16x max DVD±R/RW SuperMulti drive
Graphics & Video:
• HP 25" diagonal widescreen flat panel monitor
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 Graphics


(4) $1700--2 monitors
Processor & Memory:
• Intel® Core™ i7-870 Processor at 2.93GHz
• 8MB Cache
• 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 x 2GB)(2 x 4GB)
Drives:
• 1TB 7200RPM SATA II Hard Drive
• 16X DVD±RW Drive
Graphics & Video:
• Dual Dell ST2410 24" Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitors
• 1GB ATI Radeon 5450 Graphic

(5) $1100 -- no monitor
Processor & Memory:
• Intel® Core™ i7-950 Processor (3.06GHz)
• Intel® X58 / Intel® ICH10R Chipset
• 12GB DDR3 Memory
Drives:
• 1.5TB SATA II Hard Drive
• 22x DVD±RW Drive
• Front Panel 19-in-1 digital multimedia card reader
Graphics:
• ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 Video Card w/ 1GB VRAM, Supports dual display operation, DX11 Support

(6) $1600
Processor & Memory:
• Studio AMD Phenom II X6 1035T Processor at 2.6GHz
• 16GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (4 x 4GB)
Drives:
• 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA II Hard Drive
• 16X DVD±RW Drive
Graphics & Video:
• Dell ST2410 24" Full HD Widescreen LCD
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD5450 Graphics

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

I'd recommend using the CS5 suite, and getting a video card supported by Mercury.

It will really improve your performance without transcoding.

I think that is a GTX285 and GTX470 or a bunch of Quadro models.

See this Adobe page for more.

 

[Prabhat]

Alex,
Sorry for the delay to get back. I know the best way is to upgrade to CS5, but I am supposed to make a selection from mentioned computer systems only and they do not have any of the mandated video cards for CS5.
I have not been able to find info about CS4 compatible video cards, so I am just hoping that one of these systems are good enough for CS4.

Please advise, with regard to any of these systems vis-a-vis CS4.

 

[Uli Plank]

Any card is good for CS4, but CS4 ain't good for RED…

 

[Rudi Herbert]

Alexander,

Go for option 5, seems the best value for the buck. Cs4 benefits from the fastest processor, which this one is, and the DDR3 memory, which this one has, and for $1100, that is an excellent value. Now, once you're ready to update to Cs5, which will still bring the total cost to around the cost of option 6, you can then add a very cheap nvidia card that does accelerate CS5, even for RED. Adobe recommends some of the pricier Quadro cards because those are undoubtedly the best, but with a very simple hack (which is adding the name of the new card to the Adobe file that contains the list of accepted cards) you can make Cs5 recognize and use other cards that are much cheaper. the other day, just for fun, I tried an old 9500GT card, which costs $50, and was working with RED 4K footage with 2 layers of color correction real time still! This system should still be fine for CS5.

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Alexander,

Go for ...

I'm not shopping for a Windows system, Prabhat is.

People keep replying about RED acceleration... Prabhat asked for help in dealing with h.264 footage from a Canon T2i (which is very similar to a Canon 7D)

Prabhat... I'd make getting CS5 a priority.

I would also try to enable support for Mercury using one of the approved video cards. I'd aim for a GTX 285.

I am not a fan of hacking to enable support for hardware. It works... but it isn't stable most of the time. If you are going to hack... then make sure and do so with a higher performance card than the official ones. Cheap video cards are cheap for a reason!

The most important feature of CS5 and Mercury for h.264 DSLR workflow is the ability to accelerate h.264 playback and rendering. Its pretty major.

 

[Prabhat]

Thanks for your suggestions Uli, Rudi, Alex.
I am sorry, looks like I was not clear enough, I will send a PM...