$5,000 Video Editing Rig - First Build - Suggestions and Advice

Hello Everyone,

This is my first ever build, I will be editing a lot of footage on Adobe Premiere and After Effects. I will eventually get quadro cards for this system and my main priority is to future proof as much as possible.

Please comment on the build, I will be air cooling for now then moving onto water cooling in the future. Also when I hit the big one I will make a real workstation PC with dual Xeons and make this my gaming PC, but for now this will do.

Title: Super Kickass Air Cooling Machine? What? Air cooling?

Budget: $5,000...No need for monitor, mouse, keyboard, sound card, router.

Case: LIAN LI PC-P80 Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD9 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 XL ATX Intel Motherboard

GPU: EVGA 015-P3-1482-AR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI

PSU: SILVERSTONE ST1500 1500W ATX 12V 2.3 & EPS 12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Active PFC Power Supply

CPU: Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor Model BX80613I7980X

Heatsink: Lapped Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste: IC-7 Diamond

SSD OS/APPS: Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

RAM: 2 Sets of G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)

HDD: 4 HDD's in Raid 5 for Scratch Disk when editing: Samsung Spinpoint F3

Blu-ray:Pioneer Black Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer SATA Model

DVD Lightscribe: PLEXTOR 24X DVD/CD Writer Black SATA Model PX-880SA LightScribe Support

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders

Random: Kingston FCR-HS219/1 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader

Cords: Nippon Labs Premium 6 ft. HDMI to mini HDMI cable with metal hood & gold-plated connectors Model MHDMI-6

Thermal Remover: Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier

SSD Mount: LIAN LI HD-321 Internal 2.5" HDD / SSD Mounting Kit

Accessories: COOLMAX ThumbScrew SILV 10PK Thumb Screw (10 screws in a bag), SILVER Anodized

Fans: Antec SpotCool 0761345-75018-9 Blue LED Case Fan

Accessories 2: LIAN LI PT-CL01 Cable-management Kit

Fan Controller: Scythe KQ01-BK-3.5 "KAZE Q" Fan Controller


Questions:

1. How is the support on the Gigabyte UD9?

2. Does the UD9 NB overheat?

3. I am really worried about the Noctua colliding with the ram or the optional Gigabyte heatsink for the NB....

4. I can't find any info on where I can add more fans to my Lian Li...

5. If I were to find fans, which 120mm and 140mm fans do you suggest?

6. Another Question on RAM:

If I am loading up all 6 dimms with ripjaws, with they be clocked at 1600 Mhz not 2,000 mhz? If this is the case, should I go with 1600 mhz memory with lower cas like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820226124

Thanks for your posts.

Remember, just b/c something cost a ton doesn't mean it's the best option.

- I would ditch the UD9 altogether, it's a HUGE waste of money for your use.
- The GTX480 is overkill, but if you insist just the the non-SC version. I'm assuming you want nVidia for the CUDA use of some Adobe products?
- The 1500W PSU is overkill as well.

As for your RAM speed, you will probably have to go into the BIOS and change the multiplier to get them to 2000MHz.

Well that leads me to one question and that's going with eventually two quadro's in SLI to edit on (next year). But if I ever put in a raid card it won't down clock my SLI while on say the Rampage Extreme III it would?

That was one thing I was confused about, if adding a raid card onto a sli configuration would downclock your gpu's because it's over 32 Pipelines.

Also the GTX 480 is great for video rendering when you hack the drivers to make it think like a quadro 4800 FX.

If your budget is 5k now, why dont you get quadro cards now?

I heard some new line of quadro's are around the corner. The Quadro 4800 FX is around 1,500 retail from PNY, on eBay your taking a risk however you can probably get one for 700 dollars.

Right now it's not a large priority since my feature film I am working on I will edit next year, which I can get two quadros in SLI, and probably a raid card.

Holy shiza...

If you have that much money to spend and you are getting a space heater of a rig, why not go with water cooling? That will get rid or your space issue and give you much better temps as well as being much quieter.

Well eventually I would as a side project but for right now in the mean time I am going with air..

Also I am thinking about using this Indigo Xtreme sticker application for my thermal paste.

Do as you wish. The thermal paste is honestly a lot less important than what is dissipating the heat. Sure, you can get a whole 2 degrees cooler using indigo extreme over Arctic Silver 5. Congrats.

To be honest, I think that if you are going to be dumping this much money into a system, you'd better do it right the first time. I understand that you want to have a rig running soon, but if you get all, and I mean all the parts (including quadro and water cooling) as soon as possible, you can put the rig together and see if everything works together and if you kill anything or receive something DOA, then you can get it taken care of swiftly.