building an axio LE / RTX2 system

[Norman Lafranchi]

It sounds really good… if you are buying the parts from an integrater, and they don’t charge too much, I would get them to put it together and test it for you.

Also, get a bigger system drive. For an extra $30 or so you could get a 250 GB drive instead of 80 GB.

[Aanarav Sareen]

Hi Mark,
Are you planning on building this yourself? If so, I would advice against it. We just put up an Axio system and tried to build it from scratch. There were too many hardware conflicts and we ended up getting a system from one of the Matrox dealers. Works perfectly!

Aanarav Sareen
premiere@asvideoproductions.com

[Andre Gagnon]

I would not buy a system to run the Matrox RT.X2 unless it has been fully tested and proven by somebody you trust.

Matrox is now testing diffferent systems to formulate their System Recommendations for the card. As you may check on their site here: https://www.matrox.com/video/support/rtx2/rec/home.cfm these recommendations have yet to come.

[Mark Palmos]

[Aanarav Sareen] “Are you planning on building this yourself? If so, I would advice against it. We just put up an Axio system and tried to build it from scratch. There were too many hardware conflicts and we ended up getting a system from one of the Matrox dealers. Works perfectly!”

Hi Aanarav,
Well yes and no, I was planning on buying the stuff from various online shops and then giving the bits to a local computer shop and have them build it. I will be using it as a DV only software based system for a month or so till the RTX2 comes out, then decide whether I want/can afford the Axio LE or use the RTX2. Why the caution? On Matrox site they list those components as most reliable/compatible.

I would have thought the motherboard was suitable for both LE and RTX2 matrox cards. I dont know if any of the Matrox dealers would put together a system like that from bits I bought, I am guessing they would want to put a mark up on each component and then charge for integration… at least that’s what I would do!

Thanks,
Mark.

[Mark Palmos]

Hi, yep a bigger system drive wouldnt hurt any!

I am thinking of using a local computer store to integrate it, but I will not buy the matrox card right now. I dont want to wait for the card because I am busy on a project using my laptop and am a bit anxious thatthe heat of my laptop may cause hardware failure, and this is a project I CANNOT mess up, so I want a well ventilated powerhouse.

I am wondering why the words of warning from so many people. I built my own Discreet Edit system way back when, and there were a LOT of gotchas there with windows NT4, IRQ’s etc etc… Have people been having horror stories? I certainly would like to avoid spending the better part of 2800 pounds ($5000) on this box only to find it does not do the job!

Till later
Mark.

[Norman Lafranchi]

These systems run pretty clean with firewire only, or a simple card like the Decklink Extreme PCI (which we have). We own the self-same motherboard that you are thinking of investing in (2 mere single core Opterons). This system has been running glitch free for 8 months with a Decklink card, and it was pretty much plug-and-play with the decklink.

However, I have no experience with the Matrox cards. Having had experience integrating discreet edit systems myself, my past experience, especially with Digisuite, was that you have to have a compatible system. But that’s probably all changed with their new solutions.

[Steve Spaw]

Hey Mark,
The system looks good and will work great with the X2.
I would make 3 changes:

1. I agree, buy a bigger system drive. (Cheap)
2. We have NOT been impressed with the performance on the Samsung drives. The Western Digital 400’s are awesome and a good bang for the buck right now. Go with 5 drives and Raid 5
3. Dump the Promise and get the new PCIe 3ware card. This thing rocks and will do uncompressed HD if you ever go to full AXIO. It is also full performance Raid5.

This bring the price up a bit, but will be a top of the line performer for a long time.

Good luck,
Steve

[Harm Millaard]

I do not completely agree with your statements.

For a system disk I would choose a WD Raptor 10.000 RPM disk, either the 74 or the 150 GB.

For storage I would go for an Areca SATA2 controller, either the 1120 PCI-X or the 1220 PCI-e and use 8 Hitachi SATA300 disks in a Raid 5 or even preferably a Raid 6. With 500 GB disks, you would still end up with 3 TB of effective storage, even when 1 or 2 disks die on you and you can rebuild easily. Areca is significantly faster than 3Ware or other Raid controllers. Supermicro has a nice case with 8 hot swappable bays that would meet these suggestions.

Harm Millaard

[Steve Spaw]

[Harm Millaard] “I do not completely agree with your statements.”

Well, hey buddy I didn’t know money was not an option!

Dump the Opteron 270’s put in the 275’s
Go for 4 gigs of RAM
Go for the new 3ware (which is faster than the Areca) with:
12 – Seagate 750GB in Raid 5 gives you over 8TB of useable storage.
Don’t forget a Blue Ray drive!
I still would not put that Raptor in there. I would go for best MTBF on the system drive. There is no performance advantage on a system for this use. (except boot time maybe)

I was talking about best bang for the buck options in a tight budget. Although we could build this system for a client today.

Steve

[Steve Spaw]

Whoops I forgot,

dump the ATI 1800
Go for the 1900 with 512MB

Steve