proposed spec for pc

[kevc]

Hi,

I'm going to be getting a pc for editing with premiere cs5 and this is the spec I was thinking of. I was just wondering if I could get some advice as to whether this set up would be good or if it required beefing up or could I get away with lower spec? I'm intending on editing footage from a canon 60d and also a legria hfg10

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-960 (3.20GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI

Memory (RAM)
12GB KINGSTON HYPER-X TRI-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (3 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision
Ready

Memory
1st Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
RAID RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£89)
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

USB Options 2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI EXPRESS CARD

Firewire & Video Editing 3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

[kevc]

anyone got an opinion?

[TimStannard]

Are you intending to have just the two hard drives, in a RAID 0 combination? You'd do better to keep the system/programs on one and your footage/media on the other.
Better still, add a smaller fast hard drive for teh system/programs and keep the RAID Array.

I abandoned the RAID 0 when I rebuilt my system. I was always worrying that if ever the motherboard failed , I wouldn't be able to get the same RAID controller and efectively the data on the disks would be lost. Probably unfounded fear, but I sleep better at night now (Yes, of course I back up, but never as often as I should)

I'm also interested as to why you went for an i7 series 1 rather than Sandy Bridge. I've got an i7 2600K o/c at 4.7GHz (bought as an overclocked CPU/Mobo/RAM bundle. This is quite a step up, and, I believe, less power-hungry.

[kevc]

cheers for the response.

Thats great advice regards the hard drive configuration, thanks. I went for the i7 mainly because it was quad core (I think) I don't know much about processors really but any higher than this one really made the price jump whats the benefits of sandy bridge?

[TimStannard]

Checking the prices on Scan.co.uk the i7-960 is roughly the same price as the i7-2600 (3.4GHz) with the 2600K (which can be overclocked) only a little higher.

However the equivalent motherboards for the Sandy Bridge processors are £30-50 cheaper.

Sandy Bridge also uses memory in pairs rather than in threes, which means you could have 8GB RAM or 16GB if you feel you need it. On that issue, I asked here and elsewhere whether I was better off getting 8GB RAM with an overclocked system at 4.7GHz, or 16GB RAM at the standard 3.4GHz. The response was that the the overclocking was likely to give better performance. (Overclocking draws more voltage from the board which decreases the amount of RAM that can be supported)

Clock for clock Sandy bridge is supposed to be up to 17% better performance (though I've no idea how Wikipedia measures that)

The other advantage, as mentioned in my other post is an i7-960 draws 130 Watts whereas the i7-2600x draws 95W