Hardware Requirements For Encoder PC

[Minimoke]

Hi everyone,
Me and some friends have started up a company, which will have a website and a live video podcast every week. As all of you will know, encoding live content is a very stressful process for computers, and I would like some opinions on how powerful the computer will need to be. I will be using a program called DV Mixer Pro, which is a video mixer and enoder all in one. I already have a motherboard that supports AM2+, and was thinking about an AMD phenom 9850. In my experience with using encoders, I have always found they don't need alot of RAM, so I think 2-3GB should be plenty. I will be using PCI input cards for the video sources, such as the camcorders and other video devices, and the sound desk I will use has a USB connection. After reading many reviews on the current processors, it seems that Intel are faster across the whole board. My question is, should I go ahead and get an AMD Phenom, or get an Intel Dual Core, and save a bit of money whilst gaining performance. All help is greatly appreciated Cheers,
Chris.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Difficult choice - budget versus performance.

It's true the current range of Intel processors will outperform their AMD equivalents but you're looking to save up to £100.00 on not purchasing a motherboard.

The bare minimum processor speed for video processing is 1.6Ghz.

The AMD phenom 9850 or, say, an intel core 2 Q6600 coupled with a minimum of 2Gb memory will cope easily.

Just out of interest, which motherboard do you have for the AMD CPU?

And me? If this machine is to be used regularly for video processing, I'd go Intel, but that's just me. Like I said - difficult choice.

 

[Minimoke]

Hi Floppy,

I have the Asus mx-020, really good motherboard, but I need some more expansion cards for other video sources, and my motherboard only has 2 PCI lots and a PCI-E x1. If need any more inpus I am going to have to use USB video input cards, which is going to be hard, since I am going to put all of the hardware into a rack. I am a keen customer of microdirect.co.uk, and they have some decent Intel motherboards with 4 PCi slots, which I am inclined to go for. As far as money is concerned, I already have the hard drives, the operating system and the RAM, so I am thinking £200 - £250? I only need the motherboard and the Processor, so I think that should cut it, especially if I get the parts from microdirect. I'm pretty certain I want an Intel procesor, but am not sure what one to go for. Core 2 Duo or full quad? I've heard that even Intel's dual cores can beat AMD's quads. Cheers, Chris.

 

[Minimoke]

Hi all,
Sorry, got the motherboard model wrong, its a M2A-MX. Cheers, Chris.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Micro Direct?

I don't favour them personally, this rather long thread goes some way to explaining why >> Here

Here's your motherboard, bit of a cheapie and it appears it's no longer manufactured, though I'm not certain of that.

So no contest - go Intel for this machine.

It's awkward finding a board with more than 3 PCI slots but here's one with three slots.

A nice X48 chipset board with three pci slots

If you budget £100 for the board and £150.00 for the CPU, most Asus, DFI & Gigabyte boards will suit you fine.

You may also want to consider third party cooling for the CPU as well as video encoding is a very CPU-intensive process.

 

[Minimoke]

Hello,
I agree with you when you say the the motherboard is a cheapie, it was actually given to me by a computer shop who I worked for. As for the pocessor, I'm stuck on Intel, just because they are proven to be faster and are quite cheap at the moment. I have been looking at the Q6600, wich fits my budget quite nicely and should definatley be powerful enough. As for the motherboard, £100 should get a nice board, but I have noticed that the higher spec boards lack built in graphics. If this is the case, I will get a reasonably good PCI-E, as I wont be using it for gaming or editing. One thing I must make sure of is that the board is DDR2, as I don't really se the point of upgrading to DDR3 until it is more widely used and cheaper. This motherboard looks nice, 3 PCI slots and built in wireless, which would save me from getting a USB adapter. Please tell me what you think. Cheers, Chris.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Good board, good specs, good price, doubtful supplier

Much the same board as I've been using in my main setup since Nov '06, only mines not wireless (se my sig).

 

[Minimoke]

Hi Floppy,

Thanks for all of your help, what outlet would you reccommend? I'm pretty happy with the spec of the build, should be a very good computer. I'm starting up the website soon, got all of the plans ready, just got to take the jump and subscribe to the virtual server etc. Once again thanks for all of your help. Cheers, Chris.

 

[floppybootstomp]

If you're happy with Microdirect, go with them, it's just that I've heard a lot of horror stories relating to them.

I've mostly used overclockers.uk (linked to in a post above) but have to say that this year I've enjoyed good service from both e-buyer and aria.

I've had rma's with both of those suppliers which have been quick and painless.

Only company in my bad books atm is Scan, 6 weeks to rma a product and fobbing me off was not good.

Good luck with your build, let us know how you get on and how it copes with it's workload.

And btw, generally speaking motherboards with onboard graphics are low quality, much better to get a board with a graphics card slot.

 

[Minimoke]

Hello,
I've never really had any problems with Microdirect, and their prices are pretty good, so fingers crossed! I see what you mean about getting a GPU instead of using onboard graphics, faster and less load on the CPU. Thanks for all of your help, should be built soon, I will post my progress. Cheers, Chris.