Best Settings / Hardware Setup Config for my Workstations? (Plus Nucleo Pro 3)

[Walter Soyka]

In general, I’ll second Dave’s recommendation to get as much RAM as possible.

I’ll also point out that those calibrators are intended for print work. If you want accurate monitoring of video, you should invest in an AJA or BMD card and a broadcast monitor.

You might consider adding another drive to both machines for renders. In some cases, this will give you a speed boost since one drive is not doing all the reading and writing.

Finally, I’ll point out a couple resources you may not have seen:

Improve performance in After Effects
Video Cards for Adobe Premiere CS5 (haven’t tried this)

[Eric Richner] “1) Which drives should I run my projects off of? OS Drive or Scratch Disk?”

I don’t think this matters as much in 2010 as it did in 2000. History suggests running your projects off the OS drive, but I run projects and media off a fast RAID without any trouble.

[Eric Richner] “2) Should I have my Media Cache set to my internal Scratch Disk?”

No. Treat the cache like footage.

[Eric Richner] “3) Would having the Projects and the Cache on the same drive affect the performance (if it was all on the OS drive or the Scratch Disk)”

Your disks spend a lot more time accessing media than they do the project files. I don’t think this will have a noticeable impact on performance.

[Eric Richner] “4) Amount of RAM to allocate to the programs?”

See Dave’s response — as much as possible. AE is 64-bit in CS5, and it can use however much memory you can cram into your system.

[Eric Richner] “For PC #2:
1)Should I use the internal Scratch Disk or just use my 8TB USB 3.0 (up to 5.0gb/s connection) External RAID5 as the Media Cache + Scratch Disk location?”

I use my RAID. I’d suggest you do the same.

[Eric Richner] “Regarding Nucleo Pro 3:
Depending on the best settings recommended for the questions above, should I have the following:
1) Root cache directory for Spec Preview, Render, Precomp Proxy set on the OS drive or Scratch Disk?
2) Should I “Enable cache creation for Spec Preview”?
3) Which is the fastest/highest quality option for: (a) Render Options (b) Fast Preview Options
3) Any other settings to look in to?”

I used to use Nucleo Pro specifically for its spec render feature. Regular multiprocessing in AE is pretty good, so I’ve stopped using NP.

If you do choose to use it, treat the cache files like footage.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Eric Richner]

Yea, thats the one bottleneck I can tell off the back. Unfortunately there are no AMD motherboards that can support 24gb of RAM with USB3 and SATA 6gb/s built-in right now, the only ones with that technology available support a maximum of 16GB of RAM.

I am about to upgrade my motherboard with one that does have SATA 6gb/s and USB 3.0 built-in ($109), add 2x 4GB (8GB) 1600 RAM ($239), and get an all-in-one water cooler CORSAIR H70 ($107).

That’ll set me back around $470ish with tax and shipping. Currently have only $500 left in my budget of $7,000 for all the new equipment I’ve purchased to start up my own production company.

PS If anyone is interested in buying a Quad-Core 2.6ghz AMD CPU + Aftermarket Cooler/Fan, Motherboard, and 4GB performance ram; let me know 🙂

[Eric Richner]

Thank you for the advice regarding the RAM and which disks to utilize.

My biggest issue is staying within my budget, but if planned right, I will be able to get them most out of it.

Here are some links regarding using Graphics Cards in the new CS5 Premiere:

GTX 480 performance in Adobe Premeire Pro CS5

You can essentially use any GTX 240 and up card with more than 768mb Video RAM; all you have to do is apply this simple hack:

Premiere CS5 – Mercury GPU Acceleration on the cheap

Which works these cards:

GeForce GT 240
GeForce GTS 240
GeForce GTX 260
GeForce GTX 275
GeForce GTX 285m
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 480

So for $229 I got myself a 1GB GTX 460 and used the hack and BAM the Mercury Engine works like a charm.

[Bob Gilman]

Hello from sunny Seattle….right.

I just had a new system built by a pro. He suggested a GeForce GTX 460 768 for my graphics card. What is the opinion on the forum for this product in relation to AE? Has anybody had a problem with this card?

Thanks,
Bob

[Walter Soyka]

[bob gilman] “I just had a new system built by a pro. He suggested a GeForce GTX 460 768 for my graphics card. What is the opinion on the forum for this product in relation to AE?”

Relative to AE, it doesn’t matter. After Effects renders on the CPU, not the GPU. AE doesn’t care which graphics card you have.

Premiere Pro CS5, on the other hand, features the new Mercury Playback Engine which does use qualified NVIDIA graphics cards. Version 5.0.2 adds support for the NVIDIA GTX 470, so that’s the card I’d go for. The GTX 460 is not supported.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events