System Config for AE CS3/4

[Andy Joseph]

Hey Walter, Thank you so much. You really helped me on improving my knowledge base.

I’ve pushed my budget keeping in mind that i cannot upgrade to DUAL XEON if i require them later, so i chose to go with workstation motherboard and decided to go for SINGLE X5650 instead of i7-920 or rather Xtreme i7-980X.

Intel® Core™ i7-980X Extreme Edition – 6 Cores
(12M Cache, 3.33 GHz, 6.40 GT/s – Benchmark Score 10,148

Intel® Xeon® Processor X5650 – 6 Cores
– (12M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 6.40 GT/s) – Benchmark Score ??

– Do you think X5650 having 670 Mhz lesser clock speed will make lot of difference in rendering & scrubbing previews.?

What do you think of this config:
M/BO: S5520SC + Intel Chassis
Processor: SINGLE X5650 2.66Ghz (6 Cores), 12M Cache, 6.4GT/s QPI
RAM: ECC DDR3 1333 – 12GB (2GB per core)
HDD: Intel X-25 Xtreme SDD, 32GB
HDD 2: Barracuda 7200 RPM
Graphics: Confused between Quadro FX 1800 ELEM & Quadro Fx 3800. Note: Quadro1800 doesn’t support ‘Adobe Mercury Playback Engine’
19″ Display

– Do you recommend Quadro FX1800 or should i use this money to buy more 4 GB RAM & get some cheaper Geforece card ?

Thanks again for all your valuable time.
Regards
Andy

[Walter Soyka]

[Andy Joseph] “Do you think X5650 having 670 Mhz lesser clock speed will make lot of difference in rendering & scrubbing previews.? “

Personally, I’d rather have the Xeon and the option of installing a second processor than the Core i7 with the higher clock speed. Either processor will be a huge improvement over your current Core 2 Duo.

[Andy Joseph] “HDD: Intel X-25 Xtreme SDD, 32GB”

I see that you’re looking for a speedy boot disk, but will 32 GB be enough for your system and apps? Maybe it will, but I’d recommend you take a quick inventory on your system now to make sure you’ll have enough space.

[Andy Joseph] “Do you recommend Quadro FX1800 or should i use this money to buy more 4 GB RAM & get some cheaper Geforece card ?”

Depends what else you need to do with this workstation. If it’s mainly AE, I’d go for the GTX 285 and more RAM, but perhaps you have other needs outside of AE that would benefit from a Quadro.

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

[Andy Joseph]

Thank you so much ‘Walter Soyka’ for all you support & time. You really helped me in deciding the paraphernalia thats worth my money.

Thanks
Andy