Video Editing Hackintosh.

[iluve2yo]

So I'm planning on building a hackintosh for video editing, photography, graphic design, and web development (though that is negligible, haha). I will be editing HD video in Final Cut Pro, Premiere, and After Effects. I will also heavily be using Photoshop with 21mp raw pictures. I also plan on upgrading to CS5 suite, and will be using most all of their programs, so CS5 compatibility is a must.

No needs for gaming.

Another need is fast data transfer. I juggle a lot of large video files, a lot. I have about 8TBs sitting next to me. I was thinking about upgrading my hard drives to SATA III 6.0gb/s at some point. I don't know much about SATA III. Thoughts?

Here is what I am thinking for parts:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P $170
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 2.8Ghz $290
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 $205 (I don't know much about graphics cards. Only know they are important for gaming, which I don't do. How much should I invest in (how important is it) a graphics card for what I do?)
CPU Fan: Scythe Mugen 2 $47
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1333 $215
I want start at 8GB and upgrade to 16GB later. Any suggestions for 2x4GB? Is the above good?
Power Supply: Corsair 650HX Modular 650W $100
Case: Not sure yet. Any suggestions? Functionality and low cost are first priority. Second priority, something that isn't so dang ugly, plain and simple design, no LED lights.
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s $100
- is SATA III 6.0 a good idea? If it isn't worth it, I'll just stick with the SATA II hard drives I normally get.
CD/DVD Drive: ASUS $19

Total: $1146 (My budget is about $1200)

What are your guy's thoughts on this set up? Is there any parts that will hold it back? Or anything that is a waste of money? Or anything you'd recommend instead of something? Let me know! Thanks!

[aberz]

 

 

So I'm planning on building a hackintosh for video editing, photography, graphic design, and web development (though that is negligible, haha). I will be editing HD video in Final Cut Pro, Premiere, and After Effects. I will also heavily be using Photoshop with 21mp raw pictures. I also plan on upgrading to CS5 suite, and will be using most all of their programs, so CS5 compatibility is a must.

No needs for gaming.

Another need is fast data transfer. I juggle a lot of large video files, a lot. I have about 8TBs sitting next to me. I was thinking about upgrading my hard drives to SATA III 6.0gb/s at some point. I don't know much about SATA III. Thoughts?

Here is what I am thinking for parts:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P $170
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 2.8Ghz $290
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 $205 (I don't know much about graphics cards. Only know they are important for gaming, which I don't do. How much should I invest in (how important is it) a graphics card for what I do?)
CPU Fan: Scythe Mugen 2 $47
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1333 $215
I want start at 8GB and upgrade to 16GB later. Any suggestions for 2x4GB? Is the above good?
Power Supply: Corsair 650HX Modular 650W $100
Case: Not sure yet. Any suggestions? Functionality and low cost are first priority. Second priority, something that isn't so dang ugly, plain and simple design, no LED lights.
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s $100
- is SATA III 6.0 a good idea? If it isn't worth it, I'll just stick with the SATA II hard drives I normally get.
CD/DVD Drive: ASUS $19

Total: $1146 (My budget is about $1200)

What are your guy's thoughts on this set up? Is there any parts that will hold it back? Or anything that is a waste of money? Or anything you'd recommend instead of something? Let me know! Thanks!

For the motherboard you may have to do some patch for your audio. Many guru out there recommend the p55M , if you dont need estate for future massive upgrade like raid.
I would go with the 58x UDR3, just my opinion. MB top concern is compatibility, since speed is decided by other parts.

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GA-P55M-Int...d/dp/B002MAPSBC

Graphic card: The GTX260 216 look great to me. I would get the OC version. it run as fast as the 280 , with less memory (vs 1gb) and 1 block of shader cluster. You can easily OC the card for the bang of your buck. Its also cheaper

http://www.amazon.com/BFG-GeForce-MAXCORE-...

Or
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0312750

Check the review here
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-gef...-896-mb-review/

Apple motion love GPU memory . so you may want to go for 1gb. 896MB look just fine for me , with a superior clock speed.
If you decide to do some gfx or vfx compositing with AE and 3d , a good graphic card is always nice. I used to think to cheap out on the GTS 250 1gb. But from what I heard GTX260 OC with mad speed is good for my gfx work with some 3d related.

your PSU is very very nice. but 650W is a little bit overkill if you dont plan for future massive upgrade (raid, KONA, HDD ... ) . Save some money and put elsewhere.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...1-016-_-Product

Im looking at the i7 930 . Same 2.8ghz. not sure how it compare with the 860. Price is 200+ tax
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0331303

RAM. I will go for at least 12gb of ram or maxout with 16gb. Final cut studio apps love RAM. CS5 is now also ram hungry. But be careful tho, go with the pro suggestion unless you know what you are doing. RAM is a bitchy hag if you dont have the right number.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...231350

For case. Im looking at
Antex 900 two
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129058

or lower price Cooler Master HAF 922 ( mid tower but very spacious, and you can get 30 discount for a nice looking mouse combo )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119197

Both Case look very professional , not too flashy. Air flow and noise are excellent in both. They have good review on newegg too. Id go with HAF 922 ,lower price and cooler master have pretty good support. I used to have the COSMO case from them, front panel went wrong, I requested a new part for free of charge.

For HDD, yours look good. I would go for 1 internal HDD since most of the time I use external Harddrive for mobility. I build this to work with other editing bay at my studio so yea, bouncing between with external HDD is more viable. And they dont generate heat and consume power from your rig. If you dont need to move around, go for internal HDD for cheaper price. I only keep raw footage in my internal, final project or backup go to external to keep organized.

My next hackintosh for video editing and gfx is similar to yours , just different mobo, 12gb ram, GTX260 OC, and 930 chip since I found $200 is a good deal for 2.8ghz. I would toss some money in to fan so I can do some mild OC for chip and GPU.

My rig would end up about 1300. Throw in 200+ for a 1080 HD with HDMI screen then Im good to kill some HD video with multi camera setting and some EA and 3ds max composting. a 1300 hackintosh that could out run a 3500 mac pro 4.1 , pretty sweet IMO. Hell, I would throw in extra bucks for 16gb Ram. I used to work for a TV station with 3gb Octa core and 32GB gig of RAM MacPro 4.1, never seem enough with there multi camera shows, and filters.

lemme know whats your final decision.

[Mackilroy]

A word of warning – the i7-930 will not work with a P55 motherboard. You'd need an X58 mobo for it to work. Other than that, it and the i7-860 are roughly comparable.

 

I think the 902 is flashier than he wants to go – and probably more expensive, too. The Antec 300 looks pretty nice, though – as far as I can tell no lights, and it has six internal drive bays. If you don't mind ordering from Canada you might want to check out the Fractal Design Refine R2 or the upcoming R3 – both very nice cases.

[aberz]

Yup. Thanks for the correction

i7 930 go with the X58, 860 go with P55. I forgot to mention that I want to go with 930+X58

[iluve2yo]

Thanks for the help guys! I've made a few changes on your suggestions. How's this look?

- $145 GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD4
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...rodlist=froogle
- $290 i7 860 2.8 CPU
- $215 8GB memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231311
- $170 GeForce® GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 55 896MB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0 Graphics Card
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0312750
Power Supply: Corsair 650HX Modular 650W $100
CPU Fan: Scythe Mugen 2 $47
CD/DVD Drive: ASUS $19
Case: Cooler Master RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119216
Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148531 $80x2

Total: $1236

[aberz]

Get this hard drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx..

it is highly recommended by folks in tonymac forum.
you may run into installing trouble with HDD larger than 1tb.

290 for an i7 860 ? Microcenter sell one for 229+ tax and shipping. Just saying that you can save some money here and there.

I would get i7 875k (unlocked ) for 299
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0337971

with you good CPU fan , you can OC this chip by a lot.

[TennisGeek]

What are your guy's thoughts on this set up? Is there any parts that will hold it back? Or anything that is a waste of money? Or anything you'd recommend instead of something? Let me know! Thanks!

 

High end video card is a waste.

 

I do edit video, and even editing HD, the picture moving on your screen is small unless you are viewing it full screen.

Even full screen, a puny Intel GMA can handle it.

I use nVidia 8500GT with 2 monitors, one with 1920x1200, other with 1680x1024, and works just fine.

Since my video card has no fan, it's quiet while editing.

You don't have to go that low, but you really don't need much.

Look at what the real MacPro uses. GT120 is good enough for multiple monitor setup.

This looks good to me.

 

4GB memory would be probably enough for most anything, and if it's triple channel 6GB would be fine.

 

You do need a lot of CPU power. Most money should go to CPU, or else you'd wait while rendering.

 

For the case, I use Antec Solo (because it's quiet). To monitor sound, you really don't want noise from the machine.

Antec P180 gives you a lot of cooling power without noise.

 

My quad Q9400 at full load eats 140W or so. I have a Kill-a-watt.

650W power supply is probably a waste.

Good quality / high efficiency / quiet PSU is what you look for. My PSU is a corsair 400W (lowest I can find, and was on sale) and I replaced the PSU fan because it was not quiet enough for me.

You should not need more than 400W total. With 80+ PSUs, with relatively low power graphics, even a machine with 120W TDP CPU would only need 200W total if you have a 20-30W class video card, I'd be surprised that you can tax the machine more than 250W total even with multiple drives.

 

Unless you are going to use it for something else, you should really look for low power consumption video card that gets the job done, and lower the power budget so that your PSU does not scream while editing. Spending 50+W on graphics is, A - waste of money for video editing, B - makes the whole machine noisy because of extra heat.

 

You should look for a good quality burner if you are going to burn DVDs. I use a Pioneer external firewire DVD burner for that. SATA based internal burners do work but it often gets finicky. External ones are much easier to deal with, and firewire burner works the best from my experience.

I also use esata/firewire 800/usb2 combo drive when I have to move media. esata is great.

 

If you are going for a noisy machine, you might as well invest on a Bose QC-15.

My machine makes virtually no noise, quad core, dirves 2 monitors, and a decent disk.

Seriously, if you don't have a good monitor speaker or a can, get one. I use a pair of Bose for sound monitor and it's great.

 

-- TG

[aberz]

High end video card is a waste.

 

I do edit video, and even editing HD, the picture moving on your screen is small unless you are viewing it full screen.

Even full screen, a puny Intel GMA can handle it.

I use nVidia 8500GT with 2 monitors, one with 1920x1200, other with 1680x1024, and works just fine.

Since my video card has no fan, it's quiet while editing.

You don't have to go that low, but you really don't need much.

Look at what the real MacPro uses. GT120 is good enough for multiple monitor setup.

This looks good to me.

 

4GB memory would be probably enough for most anything, and if it's triple channel 6GB would be fine.

 

You do need a lot of CPU power. Most money should go to CPU, or else you'd wait while rendering.

 

For the case, I use Antec Solo (because it's quiet). To monitor sound, you really don't want noise from the machine.

Antec P180 gives you a lot of cooling power without noise.

 

My quad Q9400 at full load eats 140W or so. I have a Kill-a-watt.

650W power supply is probably a waste.

Good quality / high efficiency / quiet PSU is what you look for. My PSU is a corsair 400W (lowest I can find, and was on sale) and I replaced the PSU fan because it was not quiet enough for me.

You should not need more than 400W total. With 80+ PSUs, with relatively low power graphics, even a machine with 120W TDP CPU would only need 200W total if you have a 20-30W class video card, I'd be surprised that you can tax the machine more than 250W total even with multiple drives.

 

Unless you are going to use it for something else, you should really look for low power consumption video card that gets the job done, and lower the power budget so that your PSU does not scream while editing. Spending 50+W on graphics is, A - waste of money for video editing, B - makes the whole machine noisy because of extra heat.

 

You should look for a good quality burner if you are going to burn DVDs. I use a Pioneer external firewire DVD burner for that. SATA based internal burners do work but it often gets finicky. External ones are much easier to deal with, and firewire burner works the best from my experience.

I also use esata/firewire 800/usb2 combo drive when I have to move media. esata is great.

 

If you are going for a noisy machine, you might as well invest on a Bose QC-15.

My machine makes virtually no noise, quad core, dirves 2 monitors, and a decent disk.

Seriously, if you don't have a good monitor speaker or a can, get one. I use a pair of Bose for sound monitor and it's great.

 

-- TG

 

 

High end video card ( $300+ card ) is a more than what he need, but good graphic card is not a waste. He mentioned "After effects" that mean he will use it to work with motion graphic and special effect. With a lol video card (GT120 ) , goodluck with Motion 4 and after effect CS5. Trust me on this. This commercial was done first time using the radeon HD card, 3 hours. Second time 7 hours on GT120.

 

Im not saying you cant, but yeah hauling a boat with your civic is not a good idea. What if he want to do some color correction (3 ways, or color ) or shake. Or that music show require 6 camera setting for the cut, all in 1080 HD. Even After Effect can do some crazy stuff if you have a good horse power.

 

Load up into ram. You can work with 4gb, be fine with 6 or 8. 12+ is decent. I used to work with 8 cores 32gb ram, and still hungry for more. Ram will cut down idle time and improve your work flow. Final cut studio love ram ( beside a powerful CPU ). Id rather spend the money going from i930 to i970 (or i860 unlocked) , for another 6gb of ram. Heck, even a SSD is a better upgrade than a monster CPU, power/buck wise.

 

His PSU is a over powered ( about 150% over head ) but corsair HX is a good line of PSU, if he willing to spend for it. and PSU is something you dont want to cheap out. Id go for something in 80 bucks range or 550W but yeah, if he got the money, why not. Its recommended by peeps on Tonymac site for a reason.

 

Noisy computer is ... annoying. Other than that its not affect your work "monitor the sound". A Good audio guy spend most of hist time watching the bar and the waveform cuz he know his ears can deceive him.

 

Maybe my experience is different than yours.

[TennisGeek]

I don't do effect heavy editing. So, that's probably the difference.

 

When I sit next to the machine long hours, I make sure my machine does not annoy me.

 

I absolutely dislike the idea of unnecessary PSU power rating when you don't need it. The good quality PSU with proper design can supply the power it rates.

All those large capacity PSUs is more or less to squeeze out money from you. It's a myth all those "overclocking sites" put it in your head.

CPU eats less than TDP. PCI express, unless you hook up aux power to graphics card, can use up to 75W. A disk eats 15W at most. With motherboard and memory, it definitely does not consume 400W. It's physically impossible.

 

I put my quad on a kill-a-watt, and even at full cpu load, it eats 120W or so. If I overclock q9400, it probably can go up to 160W range.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...70,1964-15.html

 

Even at full load, with HD4870, it eats less than 300W. At tom's the most a machine eat was 322W.

CPU is QX6850 which has TDP 130W. http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=30789

 

For the memory, more memory the better and that's no question.

Memory is something you can add later, so I'd buy better CPU first.

 

-- TG

 

High end video card ( $300+ card ) is a more than what he need, but good graphic card is not a waste. He mentioned "After effects" that mean he will use it to work with motion graphic and special effect. With a lol video card (GT120 ) , goodluck with Motion 4 and after effect CS5. Trust me on this. This commercial was done first time using the radeon HD card, 3 hours. Second time 7 hours on GT120.

 

Im not saying you cant, but yeah hauling a boat with your civic is not a good idea. What if he want to do some color correction (3 ways, or color ) or shake. Or that music show require 6 camera setting for the cut, all in 1080 HD. Even After Effect can do some crazy stuff if you have a good horse power.

 

Load up into ram. You can work with 4gb, be fine with 6 or 8. 12+ is decent. I used to work with 8 cores 32gb ram, and still hungry for more. Ram will cut down idle time and improve your work flow. Final cut studio love ram ( beside a powerful CPU ). Id rather spend the money going from i930 to i970 (or i860 unlocked) , for another 6gb of ram. Heck, even a SSD is a better upgrade than a monster CPU, power/buck wise.

 

His PSU is a over powered ( about 150% over head ) but corsair HX is a good line of PSU, if he willing to spend for it. and PSU is something you dont want to cheap out. Id go for something in 80 bucks range or 550W but yeah, if he got the money, why not. Its recommended by peeps on Tonymac site for a reason.

 

Noisy computer is ... annoying. Other than that its not affect your work "monitor the sound". A Good audio guy spend most of hist time watching the bar and the waveform cuz he know his ears can deceive him.

 

Maybe my experience is different than yours.

[aberz]

I don't do effect heavy editing. So, that's probably the difference.

 

When I sit next to the machine long hours, I make sure my machine does not annoy me.

 

I absolutely dislike the idea of unnecessary PSU power rating when you don't need it. The good quality PSU with proper design can supply the power it rates.

All those large capacity PSUs is more or less to squeeze out money from you. It's a myth all those "overclocking sites" put it in your head.

CPU eats less than TDP. PCI express, unless you hook up aux power to graphics card, can use up to 75W. A disk eats 15W at most. With motherboard and memory, it definitely does not consume 400W. It's physically impossible.

 

I put my quad on a kill-a-watt, and even at full cpu load, it eats 120W or so. If I overclock q9400, it probably can go up to 160W range.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...70,1964-15.html

 

Even at full load, with HD4870, it eats less than 300W. At tom's the most a machine eat was 322W.

CPU is QX6850 which has TDP 130W. http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=30789

 

For the memory, more memory the better and that's no question.

Memory is something you can add later, so I'd buy better CPU first.

 

-- TG

 

Fair points. And I agree with all of them.

 

You are probably know more than most of us in PSU department. As I said 650 W (about 150% overhead ) is a little over kill.

 

Memory is trickier than CPU or PSU. For CPU you just need to make sure you have the right socket for the motherboard, the rest is how much money you want to spend. Same for PSU, get a good 550-650W one with 80% efficiency then forget about it. Memory, however, will be a headache if you dont know what you are doing ( most of us dont ). Dual channel ? Tripple channel ? Hexa channel ? Cas ? Clock speed ? Timing ? It is not just as simple as buying 4 or 8 gig now and get more later. Should I buy 3x4b or 2x6gb ? Most people dont know 16gb may limit the bandwidth or your Ram set , so its better to stay 12 or go 24. Its even more complicated building a Hackintosh. So Id say go with wat the pro recommended , now or never.

 

Im going for the hexa channel 12gb (6x2gb) kit with no intention for future upgrade unless I want to completely replace the 6x2gb by 6x4gb kit. If you already got a powerful CPU , get a big Ram set the squeeze the most out of it.

 

In the end of the day, it depends on what the OP want this Hackintosh want to do, really. IMO if you go for graphic department, its better to buy an expensive gig to backup your future expansion of skill and graphic toolset. Id rather paying more for a powerful system that will run stable and only need little upgrade (hard drive or graphic card, maybe, not Ram or CPU ) than having eh lol one that limit my creativity and hold me hostage waiting stuff to render.

 

And be ready, you dont know when that thousand dollars big graphic gig come by, be sure to have a powerful system to back up the job

[TennisGeek]

Jinx - perhaps. I am learning After Effect CS5. I've got my first AE gig.

If the rendering is too painful, I may have to upgrade the video card...

 

-- TG

 

Fair points. And I agree with all of them.

 

You are probably know more than most of us in PSU department. As I said 650 W (about 150% overhead ) is a little over kill.

 

Memory is trickier than CPU or PSU. For CPU you just need to make sure you have the right socket for the motherboard, the rest is how much money you want to spend. Same for PSU, get a good 550-650W one with 80% efficiency then forget about it. Memory, however, will be a headache if you dont know what you are doing ( most of us dont ). Dual channel ? Tripple channel ? Hexa channel ? Cas ? Clock speed ? Timing ? It is not just as simple as buying 4 or 8 gig now and get more later. Should I buy 3x4b or 2x6gb ? Most people dont know 16gb may limit the bandwidth or your Ram set , so its better to stay 12 or go 24. Its even more complicated building a Hackintosh. So Id say go with wat the pro recommended , now or never.

 

Im going for the hexa channel 12gb (6x2gb) kit with no intention for future upgrade unless I want to completely replace the 6x2gb by 6x4gb kit. If you already got a powerful CPU , get a big Ram set the squeeze the most out of it.

 

In the end of the day, it depends on what the OP want this Hackintosh want to do, really. IMO if you go for graphic department, its better to buy an expensive gig to backup your future expansion of skill and graphic toolset. Id rather paying more for a powerful system that will run stable and only need little upgrade (hard drive or graphic card, maybe, not Ram or CPU ) than having eh lol one that limit my creativity and hold me hostage waiting stuff to render.

 

And be ready, you dont know when that thousand dollars big graphic gig come by, be sure to have a powerful system to back up the job