[Gerry Jones]

Belay that last SSD order. OCZ drives are running in the high teens for 1 star reviews on Newegg. Many, many DOA’s and BSOD’s. Not good.

Crucial M4’s are down at 6% for the 128G and only 3% 1 star reviews for the 64G on Newegg. Much more reliable!

My data is crucial, maybe I should BUY Crucial! (ya think?) 😉

Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

Hmmmm… What about swap files?

I’m torn between getting the 128GB OCZ Agility($130 MIR) or the 240GB OCZ ($270 MIR). True, I could get a 60GB for $76 MIR, but I’m trying to future proof the box and be ready to run as much as possible off the SSD.

Thanks again for your astute feedback!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

I’m going to split the difference between the GTX 570 and the 550ti and get a superclocked 560 from EVGA. $190 after the MIR.

How big an SSD is needed so I can run Win7 64, Vegas, Acid, Photoshop off it?

Will a 120 or 128GB SSD do? A 128GB OCZ is $150. A 160GB is $235. A Sandisk 120GB is $140.

Thanks!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

How is a super hot video card necessary? It seems that the usual bottleneck for Vegas is CPU and RAM power which I’ve addressed with my design changes.

How does a GTX 570 make itself worth spending almost $200 more than the 550 Ti? I’m not a gamer. I just want to mix some sound and cut some video.

Thanks!
Ben

[Gerry Jones]

So Joe, what are we talking about… maybe scale back to a GTX 550 TI on video and add a 128GB SSD to use for system and programs? That makes sense and actually cuts about $50 off the system price.

Thanks!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

The Antec 300 is a good case and I seriously considered it.

In the end, I think I’m going to go with the Cooler Master HAF 922 because of the great airflow and the completely tool-less design. I have great big bass player’s hands; me with a screwdriver near fragile electronics is a bad thing! 😉

My attempts at cost containment have failed miserably, but I think my final design is a far more capable edit droid due to your excellent and thoughtful suggestions. Thank you!

This is what I’m planning on ordering from Newegg tomorrow after final review:
What changed:

OLD CASE— Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $99.99
NEW CASE— COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $104.99

OLD CPU— Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) $229.99
NEW CPU— Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) $319.99

OLD VID— EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1461-KR GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $199.99
NEW VID— EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1573-AR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $329.99

NEW ITEM— Arctic Silver AA-1.75G Thermal Compound $5.98

OLD RAM— G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL $46.99
NEW RAM— G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL $88.99

What stayed the same:

CPU Cooler— Rosewill RCX-ZAIO-92 92mm Sleeve Bearing Fan CPU Cooler $17.99

PSU— SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $69.99

MOBO— GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $129.99

HD (2)— Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s (2)@$124.99 = $249.98

READER— Rosewill RDCR-11002 All-in-one USB 3.0 Card Reader $19.99

BURNER— ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner – Bulk – OEM $19.99

OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit $139.99

OLD TOTAL $1225
NEW TOTAL $1498 (+$273)

My old goal of a capable edit droid for around $1K is totally shredded.
My new goal is to totally enjoy working on a much faster machine, do more work in less time, and make this puppy earn its place in my studio!

Thanks again for all of your suggestions!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

The 560 I chose is not a Mercury Playback Engine approved card.

However, there are ways to unlock my 560 to use it with MPE:
https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

I’m already over budget and switching from a 2500K to a 2600K just screwed my budget further. A 570 would add another $130 I’m really not prepared to spend.

I got good news when a geek friend from Boeing recommended I get the Cooler Master RC-690 instead of the Antec 900. Better air flow and easier component access he says and the reviews back him up. So I’ll save $20 on the RC-690 vs the 900 (post-rebate).

The only place I’m still considering biting the bullet is going with 16G of RAM to take full advantage of all 8 threads on the 2600K. Hmmmm….

Thanks for all your feedbacks everybody!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

Jeff said, “All Sandy Bridge Core i5 processors have hyper-threading disabled. Vegas is a very multi-threaded application.”

Great point, Jeff!

Looks like I get to go a little farther over budget and get the 2600K instead of the 2500K.

Thanks!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

The GPU is an NVidia GeForce GTX 560

Thanks for the feedback!
Gerry

[Gerry Jones]

Faster? I think the 2500K is faster for $95 less.

Processor—–Speed——–Price——-Passmark*—Price/Performance!
i7 960———-3.20 GHz—–$325——–6,672——-(Not in Top 50)
i5 2500K——3.30 GHz—–$230——–7,483 ——-32.54 (#29)

Sources:
* https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+960+%40+3.20GHz
! https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

If I was going to go i7, I’d go with a 2600K:
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288

Since the improvements are incremental, not incredible, the 2500K fits better into my budget than the 2600K.

From reading the reports of numerous Vegas power users on many threads, I’m unaware of any major performance improvements of budgeting more than 2GB per core.

Correct me with links if I’m wrong!

Thanks for the feedback!
Gerry