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Is it better for video encoding

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Wyno

Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2001
Location
Durand MI
I do a fair amount of video encoding and was wondering if duals is the way to go. I currently have a Tbred 1800+ and 768 of ram and had thought of getting more ram, but I like the idea of maybe duals.
 
Yes, it is better for video encoding, if your video encoding program is SMP capable, which many are.

It won't be 100% improvement, but it will be good improvement.

Also, the system won't grind to a halt, while you're encoding. You'll actually be able to use the system, instead of watching it;)
 
That pretty much sums itup. Dual it will be. What programs are you all using to edit and encode video?
 
Video encoding is the number #1 reason I went dullie as well. Couple of tips, make sure you use SMP aware software, most are.

For fast de-multiplexing I recommend a RAID array..

more ram dosen't really help video encoding its mostly a CPU/memory bandwidth problem. I have 512megs and don't push that with mpeg2-divx encoding. But more ram never hurts.

BTW I saw nearly a cut in half of my encoding time when I went dullie.
 
I agree with rottenspam...I have 512 and I plan to go with 1 gig of ram but as far as video work I never see much past 200-250 meg total usage with internet explorer, two video apps at the same time, two seti's at the same time, ati tv, and other apps in the background.
 
Thanks for the help guys. Where can I get the MSI Master board?
Also what type of ram do you guys reccomend?
 
I got mine from newegg.com. They are good and there are other good places to source that mobo as well. buyMstar also sells that mobo but they SUCK!

Samsung PC2700 works nicely with the msi mobo and many others imo :)
 
I got mine refurbed from new egg. I got the originally greenie and it was problematic sent it back and got myself a red K7D-L been happy with it ever since.

Only thing I wish truly is that it had a modern memory contoller games sometimes run kinda pokey on the mobo's
 
I have three of these motherboards and all three have been great. Samsung PC2700 is great stuff. I have two machines running Samsung PC2700 (one machine uses unbuffered and the other uses Registered) @ 150FSB. The best memory timings on this motherboard are:

16,16,6,2,2,2,3

Almost any stick of PC2100 can run these settings @ 133 and Samsung PC2700 can run these settings up to 150 FSB.
 
Since he's talking about video work may I suggest 16,16,6,3,3,2,3

Those settings worked better for me on video work. He could try both for himself.
 
Duals is the way to go, with out a question, here are some hard numbers for ya

machine 1
p4 2.0 eng smp @ 2.8ghz
512 pc2100 ddr ecc ram
4 wd 7200 2meg cache 40 gigs hd in raid 0 for speed and storage
gf4 TI 4200 agp 128 meg ddr card

machine 2
dual p3 1.4 tullys
512 pc2100 ddr ecc ram
4 wd 7200 2meg cache 40 gigs hd in raid 0 for speed and storage
gf4 TI 4200 agp 128 meg ddr card

machine 3
Dual MP 2100 +
512 pc2100 ddr ecc ram
4 wd 7200 2meg cache 40 gigs hd in raid 0 for speed and storage
gf4 TI 4200 agp 128 meg ddr card

machine 4
Dual Xeon 2.6 400 fsb
512 pc2100 ddr ecc ram
4 wd 7200 2meg cache 40 gigs hd in raid 0 for speed and storage
gf4 TI 4200 agp 128 meg ddr card


all machine with winxp pro with sp1 and HT enabled on the xeon
all divix encoeding with Vidomi (with multi procs enabled) and the same version of Divix codex.
all working from the same 1 hour PVR file from my Hauppagge 250 PVR, enterprise episode i think ~ 950 megs in size, all using the source file localy, and writing locally.

machine 1
28 fps
machine 2
38 fps
machine 3
65 fps
machine 4
81 FPS

so you can see that the dullys stomp down hard on the single proc machine, and it is just no contest in favor of the DP machines :D
 
I also record all the enterprise episodes :)
Mpeg1 at 352x240 and edit out the commercials with tmpgenc then encode to divx/mp3 with virtualdub. I get 125 to 135 fps with two 1700's OC'd past mp2400 speed. Now to get started on the new episode I just recorded :D
 
Wyno said:
That is impressive. How much does a dual set of xeons run with motherboard?

An ungodly amount of money;)

$260 for one P4 Xeon 2.6 ($520/pair or $352 for a pair of 1.8's)
$369 for the cheapest Xeon motherboard that Newegg sells.

For that money, you could get TWO dual AMD boards with CPU's.

~$200 for the MSI K7D Master dual AMD board
~$100 for a XP2100 ($200/pair) (these can be easily modded for SMP and will generally overclock to 2000-2200 MHz.
 
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i recored the enterpise shows at dvd standard play quality, 720*480 with mp3 128 bit audio , what version of the codex are you encoding with?
 
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