Awsome hardware specs, poor results

[mamaral]

Hello everyone,

I've recently upgraded my Editing PC hoping to have better results in preview, rendering time, etc...

The hardware specs of my new editing PC is as it follows:
- Intel Xeon X5675 - 3.07GHz / 6-core processor (12 cores with HT on)
- 12GB DDR3 with ECC (Windows 7 Pro 64-bit)
- 2 x 256GB SSD (no raid, 1 disk for system and 1 for files/scratch disk)
- 2.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia Quadro 5000 (one of the best cards around)

Editing softwares: Vegas Pro 11 / Premiere and After CS5 (all of them correctly configured with CUDA / GPU acceleration and using secondary SSD drive as scratch and temporary folders)

Bios is also correctly configured to get the most out of the system.

Problems:
Preview gets stuck from time to time even lowering quality and with little or no effects/transitions at all. Rendering time is sometimes even slower than on previous PCs I had with worst hardware.

Funny thing is that I also own a laptop (i7, 8GB ram, 256GB SSD and 2GB Quadro 2000 graphics card) and when I edit on it the performance is excellent, a lot better than on the desktop, and don't get the same issues, even rendering on the same disk as the OS is installed/running.

Does anyone know what am I getting wrong? Thought it could have something to do with using Xeon processors or SSD instead of regular HDs, but doesn't make sense at all.

Any help is welcome cause eversince I purchased this new PC it has been a big disapointment.

tks!

[SWADE23]

Hey, your issues sound similar to what I'm experiencing... I just had a new pc built AMD 3.6 quad, good video card and all... I'm also getting freezing up and studder using Vegas and Premiere... I'm also searching this forum for answers.

[mamaral]

In part I know that since lately I've been mainly working with DSLR videos the H.264 codec actually does that and compromises workflow and preview while editing. A fair solution that improves workflow is to convert to another format and edit from there.

Thing is that editing smaller projects even with the camera's native footage I didn't get as much problem as on this new PC. Even converting the file to a new format takes longer than on my laptop or older system. I'm guessing 3 possibilities:

1 - SSD are definately not the choice for a editing PC (eventhough my laptop does have and I can work just fine with it)

2 - My SSDs drives are damaged or compromised somehow

3 - There is something wrong with my hardware/software configuration, though running windows and all programs, multitasking works just fine, editing bideos is the issue!

[TimAndrews]

I know nothing, so please feel free to ignore my following suggestions:
1) Use Windows (control panel/system) to test and determine the PC's "Windows Experience Index". This *might* indentify if Windows itself thinks the PC's speeds are unusally low.
2) Download an independent 'video speed' tester. Perhaps the manufacturer has a similar diagnostics program to determine whether the card has a problem.
3) Check whether the card and model is 'approved' by Adobe and Sony. That may affect how well those apps can make use of the Video card.
4) Use Task Manager and it's associated 'Resource Monitor' to find out more about the conditions when the slowdown occurs. In particular which area is busy (e.g. cpu/disk/network/ or memory').

[Bpotter908]

Alright, Are you 100% certain that the upgraded system has been upgraded correctly?
Did you build it yourself or did someone else do it? That system is double the power of mine easily, Yet I have no issues editing multitrack HD content, Clearly there is a system issue somewhere.

Why did you decide for a 256GB SSD? You know that is the same price as a mini raid array but vastly reduced performance in comparison?
1TB drives on a raid 1+0 mode will give you reliable data storage and performance for raw HD editing. The ideal should be =

OS Drive ( One SSD will do )
Capture Scratch drive
Media Cache drive
Export bin drive

@SWADE23
His is a £2000 - £3000 system, I promise you it's very different.

[mamaral]

Thanks! Actually it seems that everything is fine and working properly, drivers installed correctly and every component recognized by windows and editing softwares.
Haven't tried to run any video speed tester, do you have a suggestion of a good/free one?

tks!

[mamaral]

Bpotter908 Thanks for your input!

Well, in my case it's a whole new machine not an upgraded one. It was not built, it's DELL branded and came with everything configured and installed from factory. Actually I just changed some BIOS settings enabling hyper threading and some other things, but nothing is overclocked or off standard configuration.

It came with 2 x 256GB SSD drives on RAID 0 for OS. Since I didn't want to have everything on the same disk I formatted and configured them as non RAID disks. I did want to have them as RAID 0 but eventhough I have extra free SATA ports, there are no slots for internal HDs, big disapointment!

In your opinion could this work? Format system and go back to factory settings with the 2 x 256gb SSDs on RAID 0 for system and then add a 3rd external HDD with a docking solution that allows me to connect via e-Sata. I know that there might be good external RAID solutions but main issue is that I didn't want to spend a whole lot of extra money since I expected to have a great machine when I bought this one.

Like I said, I know that there's something wrong but I should be able to work just fine and have another HD or any solution as a complementary storage, scratch, etc... but not something mandatory in order to be able to work, mainly because my older system and my laptop perform better even with less hardware resources and non RAID disks.

Let me know what you think and thanks again!

[Bpotter908]

Hmmm....Dell, I don't suppose there is any way you can return the system?
The fact they sold you a raid-0 system speaks volumes to why they are bad....raid-0 is a time bomb waiting to happen for data loss.

These guys can get you an incredible system for your budget, and I'd trust them 100% as reliable system builders.
Computer Hardware - Scan.co.uk

That obviously may not be possible, So here is the following:

- Wipe all the drives, Do not use the factory restore disk they gave you, Install Windows 7 and only Windows 7, Don't use their "Dell utilities" rubbish, Just install the OS and the drivers needed for the system ( I.e, the Nvidia graphics driver, ect )
- Yes you can buy an external storage solution via E-sata, I've bought a few of these which I'm very happy with!
LaCie d2 Quadra USB 3.0 - Hard drive - 1 TB - external - FireWire 800 / SuperSpeed USB / eSATA-300 - 7200 rpm: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
The problem is, I spent £80 for mine, But with the disasters in Asia, price of hard disks has flown through the roof, It may be better to shop around, Find what you like, There are hundreds of products out there, Try using the above product as a base-line from a features point of view.

[mamaral]

I wish I could return, but I can't!

About the drives, I'm not that concerned with data storage cause I have over 3Tbs of external HDDs and also keep my final projects on DVDs or BluRay disks (everything is well backed-up). Thing is most of those drives are USB 2.0 and can't be used as scratch drives for example, so I would want to go for faster drives with better connections such as USB 3.0, Firewire or e-Sata. Have you tried or actually know if those WD Velociraptor 10K rpm are worth the investment or performance/reliability make no big difference over conventional disks?

Anyway, thanks and hopefully I'll get everything to work as expected in no time!

[Bpotter908]

Waste of time and money, don't bother with the 10K drives, Better economy to get a raid 1+0 solution, the performance will fly through the roof compared with a 10k drive.