which processor for premiere cs6?

[Mike Dominic]

I am looking into buying a system to edit RED footage in CS6 and I have some questions I hope someone can help me with.

I will be probably be getting a PC with an nvdia quadro 4000 card and 32GB RAM, but my question is what processor is sufficient?. I have read that the Quadro card is more important for CS6 performance than having an amazing processor, so I was hoping I could get by with a high-end consumer PC with a fast quad core i7, instead of a much more expensive workstation PC with a 6-core (or 12 core) xeon. Has anyone tried this configuration that could weigh in?

I am more concerned with smooth playback during the edit than I am with final rendering and exporting times. I usually don't do a lot of heavy FX or layering of tracks.

As far as hard drives, what is recommended? Should I get 2 or 3 internal 7200rpm hard drives in a RAID array? Or is it better to get a smaller SSD for the operating system and programs, then use fast external storage for the video files?

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Jeremy Saville]

I have an i7 930 and a Quadro 4800 and I've just finished editing a feature. At 1/4 playback with the Mercury acceleration I had smooth playback. I also have an SSD for applications and system, and I have some 7200RPM drives for the media. I would recommend an array if possible RAID 5, but actually I don't seem to need it for playback, but I assume it would be a better way to go. All I can say, is it works. Hope that helps you. Good luck with your projects. All the best.

 

[chad vachter]

nice

 

[Greg Barley]

I've been in the same boat... I have a Quadro 4800, and I think the card is the key for performance. I can play back with no issues at 1/4 resolution, and I'm just using regular 7200rpm sata II drives! Oh, and I do have dual 5400 series Xeon's with 12 GB ram... so I don't even have that set up optimally.

If I have AE, Photoshop, and maybe another program or two running at the same time I sometimes have to drop to 1/8 resolution to get perfect playback... but I think thats more of my RAM + slower drives playing into it...

 

[Paul Toth]

I am running a 2008 Dell T7400 with 24gb ram, dual Xeon processors and a qudro fx 4800 connected to e-sata raid 5 drives. All of it can be improved with the newer hardware out there. My plan this year is to build a 12 or 16 core dual processor machine with as much ram as I can afford and a newer 4000 card. I feel that this iteration will last me for quite some time.

I currently run CS6 4k flawlessly at 1/4 res and not bad at half. Pretty good for an old machine. To me the secret is the Cuba card first, the ram and the raid setup second.