Opinions wanted - DIT Workstation Components

[Jim Woo]

Hi everyone,

A new newbie here. I'm about to put together a windows workstation for DIT work. I selected components
for max bandwidth throughput and overall system speed for 4K/5K. Please check my Newegg.com wishlist and
voice your opinions and recommendations. Thank you!

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=23353527

PS: I'm also considering tossing all components minus the internal RAID, inside this lunchbox pc enclosure.
I travel a lot, and that thingy fits nice in the overhead compartment :-)

http://sterlingportable.com/store/Apollo_Series/Portable PC, portable laptop, desktop portable, portable computer

PPS: A Red Rocket card is to be included of course.

Thank you again!

Jim

[Jon Jones]

I just switched to MAC, so you know where I would take this convo, lol. I noticed you put the RED ROCKET card at the bottom of the list, as a PS, but I would def. put it at the top of the list. It is probably the single most important piece of equipment, when your dealing with r3d's. I would build your system around that if you want to render r3d's with any kind of speed. Otherwise your looking at tons of wasted time, and heartache trying to work with 4k files in a Windows system. There are people on the Internets...and... this forum that will tell you that you can use whatever crappy machine you want to render out "quality" material. Just don't pay attention, lol. Better just start digging deep because it's an expensive industry. Anyway that's my humble opinion.

[Richard Tran]

If you're traveling a bit, be careful of those heavy video cards. They can be jarred from the mother board, and cause all sorts of havok.

[Benjamin Kantor]

I actually don't see the RedRocket on this list, but like Jon said above, it's the most important piece. I actually think the $4k graphics card on this list is overkill... the RedRocket is doing all the work anyway, so there isn't really a point in paying a premium for a bleeding-edge graphics card.

Don't forget an ABS to protect your investment.

[Subhadip Sen]

Yes, go for the GTX 580 3GB. It is faster than Quadro 6000 unless you are dabbling in vector graphics or dual precision operations. Not sure what software you are planning to use or what your system/workflow is - that will dictate what hardware you should choose. Overall, looks like a good setup.

[Andrew clemson]

I wouldnt kill yourself getting that rocket to start out unless youre 100% sure youll only be working RED gigs. Remember its not much use with other cameras ;)

[Jim Woo]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Now I notice the arrangement in my posting left the Red Rocket card as a low priority of sort but is not. The Quadro 6000 is to be used with Resolve and Adobe SpeedGrade CS6, hopefully...

[Stivan Widick]

My understanding is that Resolve does not use the graphics card used for the interface to perform its color work. You will need a GPU for the interface, and another for Resolve's heavy lifting. Adobe uses the interface card for both. You'll be much better off with 2 GTX 580s and the RED Rocket than with a quadro. If you need the 10-bit output that a Quadro provides, I suggest the Quadro 4000, a GTX 580, and the RR.

[MichaelP]

If going PC, then why not consider one all built and ready to go?
http://www.1beyond.com/products/mobilehexdflex.asp?search=mobiles

Michael

[Subhadip Sen]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Now I notice the arrangement in my posting left the Red Rocket card as a low priority of sort but is not. The Quadro 6000 is to be used with Resolve and Adobe SpeedGrade CS6, hopefully...

I don't know what might work with the hypothetical Speedgrade CS6, but for Resolve you are much better off with a Quadro 600 for GUI and a GTX 580 3 GB or two for processing. GTX 580 3 GB is faster than Quadro 6000 (source: Blackmagic Design's official config guide) and also a fraction the price. Or if you wait 4 weeks, you can go for a GTX 670 Ti, which should be faster, cheaper and use significantly less power than GTX 580. Another great advantage is 670 Ti will be PCIe 3.0, which offers double bandwidth. So you can get PCIe 2.0 16x equivalent bandwidth off a 8x slot. This is greatly advantageous on the long run - you will not run into any bottlenecks even after using 3 different GPUs, 1 Rocket and a RAID card. Such a config will be impossible with PCIe 2.0 cards.

[Jim Woo]

I don't know what might work with the hypothetical Speedgrade CS6, but for Resolve you are much better off with a Quadro 600 for GUI and a GTX 580 3 GB or two for processing. GTX 580 3 GB is faster than Quadro 6000 (source: Blackmagic Design's official config guide) and also a fraction the price. Or if you wait 4 weeks, you can go for a GTX 670 Ti, which should be faster, cheaper and use significantly less power than GTX 580. Another great advantage is 670 Ti will be PCIe 3.0, which offers double bandwidth. So you can get PCIe 2.0 16x equivalent bandwidth off a 8x slot. This is greatly advantageous on the long run - you will not run into any bottlenecks even after using 3 different GPUs, 1 Rocket and a RAID card. Such a config will be impossible with PCIe 2.0 cards.

Hey Subhadip, thank you for all that feedback. And now, without further ado:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/no-stupid-questions-with-colin-smith/introduction-to-speedgrade

Ta da...

[Matthew Conrad]

If youre going to be doing transcodes on set I wouldnt spend the money on a pc unless you were going to run osx on it. I realize there are other formats other than prores but I'd say 75% of the work I do asks for it. For the price of used macpros you could get something setup without spending too much.

[Jules D.]

If youre going to be doing transcodes on set I wouldnt spend the money on a pc unless you were going to run osx on it. I realize there are other formats other than prores but I'd say 75% of the work I do asks for it. For the price of used macpros you could get something setup without spending too much.
there is also this,
http://www.telestream.net/episode/overview.htm
i haven't used any of their products but they seem to have a lot of format support.

also ffmpeg (which is free) has and encoder and decoder for prores which works on win and linux.
http://www.ffmpeg.org/

there is no need to be tied to the fruit any more

[Matthew Conrad]

Only Episode engine from telestream does prores encoding on pc and its 4000 bucks. I haven't tried ffmpeg but if it's not integrated into software for transcoding I rather not have to create an intermediate to then retranscode.

If you are really building this computer to do onset work and to be able to meet all clients needs, it'd be in your best interest to be running os x in some form. Doing it right from the start is better than being 80% there, botching 1 job and hurting your reputation on future work.

[Subhadip Sen]

Only Episode engine from telestream does prores encoding on pc and its 4000 bucks. I haven't tried ffmpeg but if it's not integrated into software for transcoding I rather not have to create an intermediate to then retranscode.

If you are really building this computer to do onset work and to be able to meet all clients needs, it'd be in your best interest to be running os x in some form. Doing it right from the start is better than being 80% there, botching 1 job and hurting your reputation on future work.

You can integrate it with any software with VFW, i.e. Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, Avid MC, etc. Use Debugmode Frameserver to serve frames to ffmpeg, which then renders ProRes. No intermediates necessary. But yes, if ProRes accounts for the bulk of your work, you are better off in OS X for now.