Dual Mobo for DV Editor
Linc
OwnerDetroit Icrontian
The media lab here on campus that I work with needs to replace the motherboards in their PC DV edit stations. We're currently using a Tyan S2466 (Tiger) in them and they're giving us a long list of problems, including incombatibility with Canopus and Creative hardware and software.
We already own four AMD Athlon MP 2600+ processors, so we'd like the new dual boards to work with them nicely. Each machine also has 2 gigs of Crucial DDR memory. We're also looking for onboard sound.
Above all... we really just want a configuration to WORK for once because we spend so much time troubleshooting these rigs
Thanks for any suggestions.
We already own four AMD Athlon MP 2600+ processors, so we'd like the new dual boards to work with them nicely. Each machine also has 2 gigs of Crucial DDR memory. We're also looking for onboard sound.
Above all... we really just want a configuration to WORK for once because we spend so much time troubleshooting these rigs
Thanks for any suggestions.
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Comments
EDIT UPDATE:
The twist to this is you are still running the MP 266 FSB processors and those motherboards aren't as plentiful as they once were. I remember the ASUS having the most reputable stability followed by MSI. TYAN is more for server situations and, as you have found out, can be quite tempermental.
Now here is food for thought. Be it Canopus or another product like the Matrox RTx10 or RTx100 the most important piece is the hardware transcoder assist for realtime effects such as dissolves, supers, etc. This PCI hardware I/O card is not a video card but hardware accelleration for the NLE software. I would not design an edit suite without it.
Also...dual processors may be wasted in a pure NLE environment if the NLE program is not SMP aware.
Yes dual processor will help in software only NLE systems to speed up rendering of transitions but, as you know, dual processors better aid in multitasking and SMP aware programs.
Therefore a single Socket 939 may be more cost effective in the performance equation.
Also...more RAM, beyond the 2 GB you already have, is overkill. NLE is mainly 2D thus not taking up a tremendous amount of ram. There is also that addressing barrier of 32-bit processing that makes more than 2 GB somewhat useless in this particular scenario.
Drive space: Well...this one is always a configurational preference. I, myself, use single Maxtor 10K U320 74 GB SCSI drives. A single drive works just great and I am loading on 40+ GB of video and data for a 1/2 hour television series. There are no hiccups...that is with the NLE hardware assist card though made by the now aging MEDIA 100.
But the lesson is there. No fancy RAIDs or SATA RAID from hell configurations are REALLY required. A 3rd party SCSI card (ADAPTEC U320) dual channel works well.
Look to this company. www.medea.com for external storage towers where you can put one tower on a single channel. The RAID occurs in the tower and you don't need multiple lines or dual or quad channel scsi cards.
I strongly recommend a separate OS/PROGRAM drive from the video drives.
Now...the NFORCE3 250 GB motherboards..the full versions and not the one I reviewed, allegedly have support for 2 independent raids or up to 6 drives. It's good value in that respect. Socket 939 of course.
I'd look to ASUS for stability on that front.
If they are edit stations then powerful video cards are definitely not required. Back way down on that area and go dual of course. Again...if you are tacking on extra software like Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and a DVD conversion program then dual processors will benefit for speed of completing a given task...such as rendering.
BUT....I bet the 3800+ Socket 939 will out-perform the dual MP 2600+ system in the benchmark race...in fact I know it does in programs like AEFX and PS. (MM looks sadly at his dual MP2800+ that was once the speedy demon.)
The SATA/SCSI/EIDE equation is one of price. SCSI is more expensive and be careful...buying an Adaptec SCSI card does not necessarily mean you get the required full RAID software. Careful of that expensive loophole.
I think, but don't quote me, that SATA 200 GB drives as single with a hardware assist transcoder I/O card will run fine. No RAID headaches. You can experiment but there's the ability to have a base system that works before going to RAID in SATA.
Digest this and ask more questions.
Dexter does work with Canopus and he may have some insight as well about what he does and doesn't like.
We went with an Intel board (more on that in a few moments...) We put in an Asus P4P800E Deluxe, and a 2.8 Ghz hyperthreading CPU. The system kicks butt, and it is folding for me in the background on both threads of the CPU
Our editor's work tends to be more After Effects / Photoshop / Illustrator based, so the DV Storm Edius software sees less use, but we do use it for final playback of AE projects, and also format conversion to MPEG2, QT, WMV, etc.
External drive arrays like Medea are great, I helped a client install one a couple of years back, they have had only one problem with it in almost 3 years - the power supply went. Medea shipped them a new one overnight, very little cost (it was out of warranty.) If you need a lot of storage, that is one way to go.
However, on our box, we did as MM said, separate OS drive and Media drives. We did a 10 GB IDE drive for OS (which I am probably going to have to port over to a 40 GB now.) For media, we did 2 x 250 GB SATA on the mobo's raid headers, striped for performance. For our purposes, this is more than enough data storage space.
We did 1 GB of RAM, which has been sufficient to our needs.
Now, back to the Intel choice. Our company mostly uses Intel based boards, but we do use some AMD as well. But before buying the Canopus gear, we talked to the tech guy at the AV dealer. He had a list of recommended mobos, and I don't recall that many of them were AMD. I don't know why that is, but I can tell you this: a lot of digital video hardware is very sensitive to chipset issues. My advice: Unless a certain chipset is approved or tested to work with your DV hardware, don't use it.
Here is something from their site on compatibilty with their DV Storm 2:
http://www.canopus.us/US/support2/compat_motherboards.asp
There are very few non-Intel chipsets posted there. What DV board are you using...? Maybe we can find that board's info. I don't know if that was a cause of your problems, but I definitely would talk to the Canopus dealer they got the gear from and see what they say. If you don't know, I can put you in touch with the tech guy at my dealer, he is pretty savvy.
Let me know if you need any more assistance. And let us know how it all turns out, I will be interested to follow this project
Dexter...
What is a hardware assist transcoder I/O card and why should we get one?
Knowing that we have a very tight budget right now, what's the quickest fix for the suites that will keep them stable? Should an ASUS dual mobo do it for us?
He says this one is recommeneded though by Canopus where as the current board was specifically not recommended.
That's gobbledygook for "the PCI card that comes with the editing package." So, you already have one
Basically, what he is saying is that the Canopus card is not a "video card" per se, but is an CODEC card (compressor/decompressor) for the Input/Output of the video you are editing, as well as a "transcoder" which gives a hardware boost to converting between different video formats, ie - avi to MPEG2, or WMV to Quicktime, etc.
Dexter...
MSI K7D Master-L all the way. Got one, love it. Stable, overclockable (not important in the environment it's being used in, I know), it'll take 2 sticks of regular DDR (which not all dual athlon boards will do), and it's a MSI board- reliable, user-friendly, etc. I have no complaints about mine at all, except for the position of the 64-bit PCI slots.
That board is on the list I linked above....should be ok
Dexter...