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Budget computer build questions for Sony Vegas 11
Hello, haven’t built a computer in over 5 years so I’m rusty. I’ve been researching the past few days on a possible budget build mainly for Vegas 11 and I have a few questions. I will NOT be using the rig for gaming. Thanks in advance.
GTX 460 vs GTX 550
Which is the better of two? They are both similar in price.SSD
I will buy 1 SSD for Windows 7 64 and 1 large HDD for other files. Would it be best to install Vegas to the SSD and keep project files on the HDD? Or should everything be on the same SSD for this setup?2500K vs 2600K cpu
The difference is about $100 but will Vegas 11 benefit and is the performance gain worth it to go with the 2600K? Overclock in the future is an option, but I will leave it stock for now.THE BUILD LIST SO FAR
$225 – Intel Core i5-2500K
$140 – EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1GB
$122 – ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
$70 – Antec BP550 550W
$60 – Rosewill CHALLENGER U3
$34 – COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
$tbd – SSD
Free 1.5tb HDD
Free 2x4gb Kingston 1600 ram
Free Bluray burner
Free Multi-card readerWhat would be the biggest bottleneck in the above setup?
I can go $900 max but under $800 is preferred. I’ll be sure to shop around for the best prices once I pull the trigger. I’d love to see your build suggestions. Thanks again.
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8 Replies
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You can keep your project files on the system drive. I keep a Vegas folder in My Documents and back it up regularly to other drive or flash drive.
I would try to get the GTX570 if you can afford it – so much more power. If not I would grab the i7 2600 cpu or newer for a few more dollars you’ll get a substantial horsepower boost and multi-threading.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California -
Thanks for the reply! I checked the gtx570 but it’s about another 200 dollars more, so then I looked at the 2600k again. To my surprise, I saw the 2700k and it was actually 10 dollars cheaper than the 2600 with an instant rebate code so I fired on it. Now that, I have the processor out of the way, does that change anything? Would it still be wise to get a better video card than the 550 or 460?
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[fred williamson] “What would be the biggest bottleneck in the above setup?”
Believe it or not – the power supply. 550-watts is simply inadequate for the load you propose. Get a 750-Watt or 1KW PSU.
[fred williamson] “GTX 460 vs GTX 550
Which is the better of two? They are both similar in price.”The jury is still out whether GPU clock speed or CUDA core count offers more bang for the buck.
[fred williamson] “SSD
I will buy 1 SSD for Windows 7 64 and 1 large HDD for other files. Would it be best to install Vegas to the SSD and keep project files on the HDD? Or should everything be on the same SSD for this setup?”SSD – Why? All it gives you is faster boot. Performance improvement is really questionable. Buy two hard-disk drives (or three). Get a 500Gb drive for the O/S and programs. Put your documents folder on the second drive as well as your project files. DO NOT buy “green” drives. They really don’t play well with video editing.
[fred williamson] “Overclock in the future is an option, but I will leave it stock for now.”
Overclocking is overrated. It’s also a source of instability. Many people overclock without problems, but for the relatively minor improvement in editing performance, it’s just not worth it.
[fred williamson] “$225 – Intel Core i5-2500K”
Take the money you save by not buying the SSD and buy an i7. A faster processor gives Vegas more bang for your buck.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Congrats on the CPU! How about the GTX560? Probably not much more than the 460? The only reason I mentioned the 570 is that it is substantially faster and approved for Premiere Pro Mercury Engine if you use that at all but Vegas is able to use lesser GPU for real-time playback.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California -
[fred williamson] “GTX 460 vs GTX 550
Which is the better of two? They are both similar in price.”On paper and video games, the GTX 460 will have the edge. Not sure precisely how this translated to OpenCL/CUDA performance, but you could probably look that up somewhere.
[fred williamson] “SSD
I will buy 1 SSD for Windows 7 64 and 1 large HDD for other files. Would it be best to install Vegas to the SSD and keep project files on the HDD? Or should everything be on the same SSD for this setup?”It’s fine to use the SSD as your system drive. Point your swap space at the HDD to minimize wear on the SSD, and use the HDD for large files… most of the time. You’ll find, if you get to large projects, that too many files on a single drive will slow down rendering. SSDs are fairly immune to this (seek delays… no actual seeking, though there’s still overhead jumping from file to file), but you’re not going to get a video-PC-sized-SSD and still claim “Budget PC” (I built a PC from spare parts (memory, HDD) and $200 in new parts (MB, CPU, case, flash drive, SATA cartridge bays, etc) a month ago… that’s a “Budget” PC.. and for the lab, not video per se).
[fred williamson] “2500K vs 2600K cpu
The difference is about $100 but will Vegas 11 benefit and is the performance gain worth it to go with the 2600K? Overclock in the future is an option, but I will leave it stock for now.
“I don’t recommend overclocking. It can lead to unreliability and shorter CPU life (due to increased electromigration at temperature) unless you also spend big on a proper cooling system. I don’t usually buy past the “commodity curve” (eg, when you get twice the performance for twice the money, you’re buying “commodity”)… Intel’s $1000 processor today will be $200 in six months (well, it can happen… I paid $200 one winter for a CPU that had been $1000 the previous summer). With that said, Vegas loves CPU, and the best investment in Vegas performance is still a better CPU, at least until you get to the crazy price level. There’s some evidence, too, that a faster CPU will need a faster GPU to really make GPU use worthwhile.
[fred williamson] “What would be the biggest bottleneck in the above setup? “
So, I ran this through a power consumption estimator.. you should too. I got a total of 440W for the stuff you have in there now, which is fine on a well designed 550W supply. Standard practice is for a supply to be 20% over spec — I never accepted an OEM supply for any of my Amigas that didn’t meet that in testing. But you’ll find plenty of cheap-ass supplies that don’t hold up. Antec has been a good company, at least in my experience.
But basically, you don’t have room to grow with that supply. A modern supply will also usually hit peak efficiency at 50-60% load, so you don’t want to go too crazy. You’re not going to add another GPU right away (your MB seems to support several, but Vegas only uses one at a time right now), but you did mention overclocking. That 108W TPU for your i5 will jump up as you overclock; power consumption rises geometrically with frequency; it’s also going up with voltage increases you typically apply to get the faster clocking functional.
I do believe it’s more important to chose a quality PSU vendor than an overkill supply.
-Dave
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Thanks Stephen. Yesterday I went ahead and bought the i7. I was shooting for the 2600k but saw that the 2700k was actually cheaper with instant rebate so I couldn’t pass that up. I went with the “k” in case I wanted to tinker with overclocking. You’re right though, it’s best I leave it alone. I’ll be sure to tinker with it after the next upgrade. 🙂 Since I did spend a little more for the i7 I’ll probably pass on SSD and go with large “greenless” HDDs.
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Thank you for the reply Dave. I’m pretty much set on picking up the GTX 460 after going through a number of comparisons, although advantages were aimed at gaming and not specifically Vegas. I didn’t rule out gaming completely which is why I’m going with this motherboard. I do have another rig(free parts) which I may mess with in the future only after I go through a second upgrade on this Vegas build later in the year.
Great info on HDD management. Now if I went with an all HDD setup (3 drives) would it also be best to render the project to a drive separate of the OS and project folders?
SSD is not really an option now since I picked up the i7 2700k, but I’m happy I went with a better cpu. Anyways, if I did go SSD/HDD combo I was thinking of keeping the project folder on the SSD until I was completed with the project. Assuming this is the better approach. Afterwards, transferring those files over to the HDD since the SSD would be about a measly 120gb. My projects don’t often go over 50gb for now at least. 🙂
Regarding PSU, I will step it up to be safe and go with quality.
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[fred williamson] ” I was thinking of keeping the project folder on the SSD until I was completed with the project.”
Really big mistake. SSD’s read fast, but they write at near floppy-disk speeds.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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