Building a DAW/Video Editing Workstation

I am working and planning to do a new PC build for video editing and a DAW as well. However, I want to see if its possible to do this with one PC instead of having to build two separate PC's for each. I was also wondering if anyone else has done such a build like this?

As for budget, I am putting one together so I will be saving up for the new workstation over the next couple of months so there is no emergency right now. This will give me time to research and look into getting the correct components for this build.

I have read about the SB (Sandy Bridge) chipset which is kind of an issue right now until Intel fixes the problem. I can consider the X58 based MB, but can wait until the SB boards has been properly fixed.

Already bought a new case several months ago, the CoolerMaster HAF 922 mid-tower case. I don't care as far as whether its a gamer case because no one else will see it but me anyway hehe. But I got it mostly for space and adequate airflow and to ensure I can fit the large GPU cards.

Now for processing for sure will be the i7 processor, and though there's the Extreme Edition which is $1K, I have to decide whether its worth the cost for that or not. Video card I need to get one to utilize the Mercury Playback Engine in Adobe Premeire Pro CS5.

Plus I may consider using RAID for Premeire Pro to use for HD based video content but I am still unsure at this time. As cheap as hard drives are nowadays there's no reason that I couldn't venture into that realm.

I may consider setting up a dual-boot system (though not sure as of yet) since I know Sonar and alot of the plugins work best on a 32-bit system, I can do the DAW installation on a 32-bit OS and my video editing installation on a 64-bit system. I have been looking up and reading articles on tweaking systems for optimum performance (both for DAW use and Video work) so I am definitely not afraid of digging into the nuts and bolts of the OS.

As for audio interface, I still have the EMU 1616-M which uses the Cardbus interface (for laptop) but I have the Cardbus PCI adapter so I can make use of it in a desktop system. So picking the proper MB will be quite important. Firewire to me will pretty much be used to do DV transfers but I can ensure to get one with the TI chipset.

So, if anyone here can give me some ideas and suggestions on whether its a good idea to combine two workstations into one (video and DAW) or whether it should be done as separate systems that will be much appreciated. I do have an older Chieftec full-tower case (currently housing a P4 system) that I could make use of if necessary.  

jcschild


HI,

1) the new sandy bridge boards are back.
the 980x is the only thing that beats the sandy bridge for audio and not really for video.

for adobe and audio you drives should look like this

1) OS drive programs
2) record drive/video work drive (media etc)
3) samples/ video export (final renders)

2 and 3 should be raid only if working with AVCHD/XDcam?p2 etc  for DV/HDV raid is pointless

if it were me i would do the 2600k overclocked to 4.5GHz and forget the 980x/990x

only other thing to consider is the 970 as it dropped in price last monday. (about $300 more than sandy)
and i would not do it myself unless i needed an 8 drive raid array.

Hi Scott,


Good points regarding DV vs. AVCHD editing.....I know that DV is at a fixed rate so a good 7200RPM SATA drive will be able to keep up with no problem. As for AVCHD, I have read its still a pain editing in that format so I am waiting on that until that's improved.


Glad to hear the SB boards are back...i'll have a look at those and check the specs on them. Already got an SB based processor in the wishlist. Unfortunately I don't know much about overclocking since I have never done that, but learned that the 2600K series processor (with the K) has the unlocked multiplier so it makes overclocking easy.


However to get that benefit I will have to look into getting the P67 type board which will allow overclocking (the H67 does not).


Thanks for the info Scott, I will note your suggestion!