Hardware recommendation for a DeckLink SDI

[Paolo Castellano]

Hello Oliver,
I suggest you to build up a system by yourself (or buy it from an OEM) using as Motherboard an Asus P9X79 (or P9X79 PRO if you think you won’t need a PCI32bit slot). (here is mine https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.255716374511968.62992.114033645346909&type=3 )
Best Regards,

Paolo.Castellano@ivs.it
http://www.ivsEdits.com
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“Post Fata Resurgo”

[Oliver De morassé]

Thanks for the tip Paolo. Is an Asus board better than Intel? Also, what would you suggest as a minimum of RAM and HDD-type?

[Paolo Castellano]

Hello Oliver,
I’d not think that Asus Motherboards are better than Intel ones, but whatever video I/O device usually works on Asus, so if you don’t want problems with BMD cards (PCI-E or USB 3.0) choose Asus.

Currently DDR3 pricing is low but has a raising trend due to Elpida problems ( https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/27/us-elpida-idUSTRE81Q0OQ20120227 )
I’d go for 16GB (4 or 8 modules due to Quad Channel architecture); if you don’t think you will make overclock, Corsair XMS3 or Kingston HyperX 1600MHz XMP will be OK. To achieve better results you may think to 2133MHz or faster modules ( I found 1866 and 2000MHz as money waste only).

Be careful to choose the right VGA for your application. Some require Nvidia (e.g. Premiere and Resolve), other ones ATI. I’m waiting for the new Nvdia Kepler since 4xx and 5xx are slower than 2xx series under many circumstancies; moreover the Asus P9X79 has PCI-E 3.0 slots and only ATI 7xxx and Kepler are PCI-E 3.0.

About Hard Drives I found peace with Hitachi 7K1000.C; whatever my needs (RAID 0 or RAID 6) they are always compatible, very low failure rate, average pricing. The number of the drives in the RAID must be determined by the data rate you will work on. On my workstation I usually use 3 drives in RAID0 (for medium data rate requirement) or 8 drives in RAID 6 (with high end Promise or 3ware/LSI HBAs).

Hope it helps you to build a wonderful system,

Paolo.Castellano@ivs.it
http://www.ivsEdits.com
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“Post Fata Resurgo”

[Oliver De morassé]

Thanks Paolo for your recommendation. Is this machine not ‘overkill’ for simply being used to capture the video stream using the Blackmagic DeckLink SDI? I will be using a different machine for the post work using AE.

[Paolo Castellano]

Hello Oliver,
if the system will be used for capture only, you can go on a cheaper solution.
On other systems I’m using the Decklinks on the Asus P8H67-M EVO with Core i5-2500K.
This mainboard/CPU combination features “all that you may need” integrated devices (Firewire, USB 3.0, E-Sata, a good VGA Intel HD3000) and works well with the PCI-E Decklinks.
BlackMagic Design USB 3.0 won’t work on it.

Another way to reduce the workstation budget would be using on the P9X79 a quad core processor instead of the Ci7-3930K (here price gap is around 250,00Euro=325.00USD)

Best Regards,

Paolo.Castellano@ivs.it
http://www.ivsEdits.com
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“Post Fata Resurgo”

[Oliver De morassé]

Thanks for all your help Paolo

[Paolo Castellano]

🙂 You’re welcome!

Paolo.Castellano@ivs.it
http://www.ivsEdits.com
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“Post Fata Resurgo”