|
|
Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 9, 2009 23:51:18 GMT
Ok, folks..... I know there are a lot of computechs at PBPF, it's time to do another challenge - build a dream stills/HD video/sound processing machine using locally available components (or at least obtainable within the region - SG, HK, BKK or KL).
Some design parameters:
1. PC or Mac, with OS
2. Budget, excluding non-OS software = PHP 200K.
3. Dual 24" IPS or VA display (1920x1200)
4. 6 TB minimum storage
5. 8 GB RAM
6. 1 GB Vcard
This exercise can be a helpful guide to those who are thinking of a good Xmas gift to themselves. ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 10, 2009 0:03:41 GMT
My current wish system:
1. Intel Core i7 920 processor, 2.66 GHz, quadcore-8 threads
2. Vista 64 bit OS
3. 8 GB RAM + 1 GB VCard
4. MOBO + various cards to handle wifi, bluetooth, TV tuner, IR, HDMI, DVI, firewire, tons of USB
5. Blu-ray + DVD optical drive
6. 1-SSD system disk + 1-SSD scratch disk ( each at 80 GB minimum)
7. 6 - 1 TB external HDDs, USB connectivity
8. 2 units - Philips 240PW9EB or HP LP2475W (this could eat up 40% of the PHP 200K budget)
9. i1 display 2 or Spyder 3 calibrator
10. Casing, fan system, power supply, keyboard, mouse, speakers, webcam, mic, etc.
I'm pretty confident I can get all these at under PHP 200K. ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by Toto Gamboa on Jul 10, 2009 2:02:54 GMT
My dream machine:
1. dual fastest XEON processor capable, quadcore supported intel board (8 core total)
2. Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS
3. 32GB of RAM
4. 4GB Highend Video Card (Dual Monitor Capable)
5. 6x1TB internal hotswappable SAS 15,000 RPM disks
6. RAID 10 capability for optimum performance and data protection
7. 2 High end LCD monitors (at least 24 inch)
8. the usual accessories
Could probably fetch not more than 1M. waheheh. I am allowed to dream right? hehe.
My rationale:
Item #3 and #5 are the most costly items. Would run probably around 500k for both. but disks are the performance bottlenecks when RAM shrinks considerably. Without Video, I'd probably settle for the usual SATA disks but with HD video 32GB wont be that big so I better dream big hehe.
I picked RAID 10 coz this will be the fastest disk system I could ever configure. Disk bound load/throughput will be spread across several controller channels and disk.
I could probably start out bare with key components so I would start at around 200k suggested budget. Probably start out @ 8gb RAM, single monitor, and a single 1TB 15kRPM disk. Then I would expand as the funds come in til I'd be able to reach the max.
Other than the highend monitor, everything is available here.
|
|
|
|
Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 10, 2009 2:35:37 GMT
Hehe..... that dream machine of yours will crunch 1080p video like a rock crusher being fed potato chips, Toto! Actually, even a consumer 2-core 2.4 GHz machine with 4 GB RAM and 256 MB Vcard is powerful enough to process 21 MP still captures very fast. It is video rendering that separates the slowpokes from the race computers. Toto, any idea on what machines local video production houses use? Perhaps a lot of ultra-loaded MacPros? My dream machine: 1. dual fastest XEON processor capable, quadcore supported intel board (8 core total) 2. Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS 3. 32GB of RAM 4. 4GB Highend Video Card (Dual Monitor Capable) 5. 6x1TB internal hotswappable SAS 15,000 RPM disks 6. RAID 10 capability for optimum performance and data protection 7. 2 High end LCD monitors (at least 24 inch) 8. the usual accessories Could probably fetch not more than 1M. waheheh. I am allowed to dream right? hehe. My rationale: Item #3 and #5 are the most costly items. Would run probably around 500k for both. but disks are the performance bottlenecks when RAM shrinks considerably. Without Video, I'd probably settle for the usual SATA disks but with HD video 32GB wont be that big so I better dream big hehe. I picked RAID 10 coz this will be the fastest disk system I could ever configure. Disk bound load/throughput will be spread across several controller channels and disk. I could probably start out bare with key components so I would start at around 200k suggested budget. Probably start out @ 8gb RAM, single monitor, and a single 1TB 15kRPM disk. Then I would expand as the funds come in til I'd be able to reach the max. Other than the highend monitor, everything is available here. |
|
|
|
Post by Toto Gamboa on Jul 10, 2009 4:42:47 GMT
Hehe..... that dream machine of yours will crunch 1080p video like a rock crusher being fed potato chips, Toto! Actually, even a consumer 2-core 2.4 GHz machine with 4 GB RAM and 256 MB Vcard is powerful enough to process 21 MP still captures very fast. It is video rendering that separates the slowpokes from the race computers. Toto, any idea on what machines local video production houses use? Perhaps a lot of ultra-loaded MacPros? My dream machine: 1. dual fastest XEON processor capable, quadcore supported intel board (8 core total) 2. Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS 3. 32GB of RAM 4. 4GB Highend Video Card (Dual Monitor Capable) 5. 6x1TB internal hotswappable SAS 15,000 RPM disks 6. RAID 10 capability for optimum performance and data protection 7. 2 High end LCD monitors (at least 24 inch) 8. the usual accessories Could probably fetch not more than 1M. waheheh. I am allowed to dream right? hehe. My rationale: Item #3 and #5 are the most costly items. Would run probably around 500k for both. but disks are the performance bottlenecks when RAM shrinks considerably. Without Video, I'd probably settle for the usual SATA disks but with HD video 32GB wont be that big so I better dream big hehe. I picked RAID 10 coz this will be the fastest disk system I could ever configure. Disk bound load/throughput will be spread across several controller channels and disk. I could probably start out bare with key components so I would start at around 200k suggested budget. Probably start out @ 8gb RAM, single monitor, and a single 1TB 15kRPM disk. Then I would expand as the funds come in til I'd be able to reach the max. Other than the highend monitor, everything is available here. Opps I just woke up ... must be dreaming really good earlier haha. Actually that dream machine I am planning is for use with another purpose. And I really wanted to have one owned by the company but should be deployed at home hahaha. My bread and butter are databases and data analysis so I really need those data crunching machines. I have processes that I ran for days on typical machines. So having that setup would really really help me a lot. But something in my mind tells me not to sign the purchase orders hahah. I dont have actual knowledge of what is being used in the local video/music industry but i suspect what they use is to farm video servers to split the huge processing load. it would probably take eons to process a huge HD video file on a single even powerful machines. It could be in any platfrom, I am not so sure. I actually attempted to crunch videos from my Nikon D90 against my current rig, an 8GB RAM dual core machine and it is awful. took like almost an hour to just render it to another smaller format. I must have done it the wrong way though. Guess I am not ready yet for video both in skills and gears hehe. I'll just be contented watching the Mastah's videos for the time being  |
|
|
|
Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 10, 2009 4:57:01 GMT
Thanks for the info, Toto. I actually attempted to crunch videos from my Nikon D90 against my current rig, an 8GB RAM dual core machine and it is awful. took like almost an hour to just render it to another smaller format. I must have done it the wrong way though. FWIW, my rendering speed (Q6600, 4 GB RAM, XP, 512 MB Vcard) is about 9-10 minutes processing per minute of finished footage. I feed 1080p *.mov (H.264) + music + stills + grading/cutting/sharpening/etc. + Sound edit to the editor and the output is normally 1280x720 *.wmv for web upload (output bit rate is typically 15-19 kbps). If you're getting a slower rendering speed on an 8 GB RAM dual-core machine when crunching smaller 720p video from the D90, perhaps a part of your workflow is not yet optimized. I always have fun watching the 4 individual cores crunch the footage at a steady 95-100% CPU usage (seen via Windows Task Manager).... it makes me feel I got my money's worth for the Q6600. BTW, I try to disable/terminate all processes/applications that aren't involved in rendering to free as much CPU resources/RAM as possible when crunching HDV. ;D |
|
|
|
Post by ppaaoolloo on Jul 10, 2009 20:17:05 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Toto Gamboa on Jul 11, 2009 6:37:26 GMT
Thanks for the info, Toto. I actually attempted to crunch videos from my Nikon D90 against my current rig, an 8GB RAM dual core machine and it is awful. took like almost an hour to just render it to another smaller format. I must have done it the wrong way though. FWIW, my rendering speed (Q6600, 4 GB RAM, XP, 512 MB Vcard) is about 9-10 minutes processing per minute of finished footage. I feed 1080p *.mov (H.264) + music + stills + grading/cutting/sharpening/etc. + Sound edit to the editor and the output is normally 1280x720 *.wmv for web upload (output bit rate is typically 15-19 kbps). If you're getting a slower rendering speed on an 8 GB RAM dual-core machine when crunching smaller 720p video from the D90, perhaps a part of your workflow is not yet optimized. I always have fun watching the 4 individual cores crunch the footage at a steady 95-100% CPU usage (seen via Windows Task Manager).... it makes me feel I got my money's worth for the Q6600. BTW, I try to disable/terminate all processes/applications that aren't involved in rendering to free as much CPU resources/RAM as possible when crunching HDV. ;D I guess you are rightmastah. I suspect too that it is not my machine's fault coz I was just trying to experiment and had not really established a clear workflow yet. I am sure I could probably improve on that CPU crunching. I have not really put much effort on videos other than occassional test shots. Everytime I see birds, I always forget that I have a video capable rig hehe. I guess, I still have my hands full trying to add more lifers in my photo gallery. |
|
|
|
Post by Romy Ocon on Jul 11, 2009 11:35:25 GMT
Hehe.... looks like the first "upgrade" that I clicked has already exceeded PHP 200K, way before reaching halfway down the list of choices. ;D |
|
|
|
Post by Edu Lorenzo Jr on Jul 11, 2009 11:59:48 GMT
I have completely forgotten the model code but I saw on Sony Lifestyle TV a new Sony laptop with Quad Cores, 4Gig ram, two 500Gig Hard Drives, and the promise that it's monitor can display ALL the colors that an Alpha 900 can produce. I used to do some video editing on an old laptop but now, I need to borrow it..  |
|
|
|
Post by ppaaoolloo on Jul 11, 2009 14:29:58 GMT
Hehe.... looks like the first "upgrade" that I clicked has already exceeded PHP 200K, way before reaching halfway down the list of choices. ;D hi hi hi hi... mac users know to DIY upgrades instead of having the supermodels at the apple factory do it for them. like the HDD, GPU, RAM, etc. and you can get a % from local retailers. so if i were to go about it order a stock Mac Pro and just buy 3rd party upgrades. also as a parent take advantage of junior. he obviously needs a educational discounted "mac pro" for his elemetary school lessons.  |
|
|
|
Post by Ronnie Dominguez on Jul 14, 2009 13:38:30 GMT
anyone for Sun Workstation?
|
|
|
|
Post by Elvin Sansona on Jul 15, 2009 7:34:21 GMT
I dream of a PC with:
1. 3.0 GHz processor speed
2. 8 GB RAM
3. 500 Internal HDD
4. 100 TB external HDD (much bigger than Mastah's)
5. 1 GB Video Card
6. 18" LCD Display and Sony Bravia output (hah!)
|
|
