Hi,

I am upgrading my PC hardware from a 2014 machine used for editing 1080i HDV footage to a PC to edit UHD 4k. I have a €4k (inc VAT) to spend, and the PC must be a Dell. My focus is obviously on the CPU and graphics card, but the range of these is bewildering. VideoGuys used to do a DIY guide that was a great help, but I can't find a recent blog of this.

I know that Avid have a recommended hardware list, but these specify a very broad range of hardware rather than a typical build for a specific cost. For example, I have a choice between a €600 graphics card and a €2,500 card - but will I see a significant difference bewteen the two? Realtime playback is more important to me than render times if that helps!

(The machine in the specs below is my "working from home" PC)

Thanks in advance,

Cian.

I recently bought a refurb HP Z840 here in the states and have been very happy. As for cards Avid tends to support Nvidia Quardo series cards. I was about to spend $2,500 on an awesome Quadro RTX5000 card when I heard about the GeForce RTX 20XX Super series, which technically is not supported but there's a well known integrator who sells a ton of RTX card based systems. I got a 2080 super before 3080s came out and have experienced no issues. I had removed a Quadro M4000 and found the RTX to be faster. www.userbenchmark.com is a handy site to virtually build a machine and there's another one for comparing cards that escapes me and I can't find. Of course the question is what processes does Avid take advantage of, which is different than Resolve, and PP.

Sorry, pretty boring times to buy workstations, don't know any of dell's particularities.

Intel (Dell) is currently slow as well as expensive, behind AMD and now even Apple.

and it's pretty impossible to get any kind of GPU right now (Covid, Cars, Bitcoin).

I've seen very cheap last gen on ebay recently, like a 6.000€ workstation for 1600.-

If you buy new, something xeon based, like a 16 core W-3245 would be the most reliable.

Next up would be consumer machine based on say a 16 core Intel Core i9-9960.

 

 

 

Fazz Powell:

Of course the question is what processes does Avid take advantage of, which is different than Resolve, and PP.

.... and that is one of the reasons behind my question. Watching the Resource monitor is surprising since the GPU never seems to be even slightly pushed when using media composer.

I'm trying to find the perfect cost/benefit balance between the GPU and CPU. At the moment I am leaning towards a Quadro RTX4000 and an Intel Core i9-10980XE (18 cores) based on the benchmark comparison with a bronze Xeon.

I'm also hoping that if I post something way off that someone will warn me here!

C.

cocarroll:

At the moment I am leaning towards a Quadro RTX4000 and an Intel Core i9-10980XE (18 cores) based on the benchmark comparison with a bronze Xeon.

I think that's a very good choice currently. Powerful gpu cards maybe difficult to gauge within Avid but they do come in very handy even essential for things like Resolve and despite the swing to consumer Geforce, there are still benfits in having enterprise class hardware.

Whilst AMD seems to have some very powerful cost/performance benefits compared to Intel, it is not true that Apple is faster than Intel PC. The much touted benefits of M1 are very misleading at this stage and current Apple Intel offerings are both more expensive pound for pound in desktops and impossible to match in laptops than their pc equivalents.

cocarroll:

it is not true that Apple is faster than Intel PC.

It's not true now while they're only making 15w CPUs.

It's gonna be very true once they set their minds on 100w CPUs

Intel's stock price kinda gets the writing on the wall right now

 

Warning regarding Intel Core i9-10980XE:

No warnings regarding the CPU, but warnings against the Ausus, Msi, etc boards that go with that type processor. The're usually unreliable.
If you can buy this CPU inside a Dell Workstation with a down to earth board w/o overclocking and without RGB-LED decoration reminiscent of an x-mas tree: you'll likely be fine.

 

 

Having to buy a Dell (college contract) means i don't have to think about the Apple/AMD/Motherboard choices - that would have made this even more difficult!

Dell Precision 5820 looks like the choice at the moment.

Yeah, looks solid: is not an X-mas tree

When configuring the ram, make sure you get big 8 or 16GB modules, so you can expand later.
From the pictures I'd guess it's 8 ram slots, 4 pci-e slots,
make sure the machine they're shipping doesn't have less than that.
You can just as well buy your own ram or pci-e ssd if it's more economical.
You can just as well buy no GPU now, continue using your current one,
buy an RTX 3070 that's way more powerful when market calms down.

Another thought: what are your storage requirements?
If it's 30TB+ you're better off with a cheaper system and a 4-8 drive hdd raid.

 

 

I assume you've looked at Avid's configuration docs about configuring RAM and a few other settings. (I sent those to the HP refurb HP vendor and they configured it accordingly.) In the past I would have gone with something like the RTX4000 but budget restraints led me to the GeForce RTXs like 3070, 3080 etc. In older systems like discreet edit* I would see how cards helped witb real time performance, but I'm not sure the more expensive cards provide much more in real time performance. (And I own Nvidia stock :) )  When I upgraded to the M4000 several years ago I really didn't see a boost in performance.

Good luck! 

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AMD released new Epyc server CPUs today, looking very good, now we can have
Cores and turbo and plenty pci-e and ECC and good price.

my approximations
the better 16 core epyc costs about a grand, is about 30% faster than 16 cores from intel while half the price of the Xeon.
Or the same price for server parts as intel charges for consumer grade, while using 30% less power.

And we can be 95% sure Avid will work great with them,
they have north and southbridge on the CPU now, 30w less power, less compatibility issues ahead.