Building a new x264 encoding rig - advice welcome

[colinhunt]

Hello all,

my previous encoding rig died a horrible death when the watercooling system (never again) couldn't take the heat and sprung a leak at the CPU end. Innards of the PC were swimming in the coolant. The combined smell of short-circuited components and coolant was... well, something else.

Anyhoo, I'm putting together a shopping list for a new encoding rig for less than 1200EUR (no need to buy a new case, PSU or graphics card). The biggest question in my mind at the moment is whether to go single-CPU S1366 Core i7 and overclock it to ~4GHz -- or to opt for a dual-CPU mobo (like the Asus Z8NR-D12) and plonk two Xeon E5506 CPUs on it.

I have no idea whether x264 would benefit from dual-Xeons on Windows 7 64-bit. Perhaps someone here knows the answer to that one?

cheers,
-c-

[Sharktooth]

x264 will benefit from all the CPU power you can give it.
the problem could be your input. depending on the DECODER used it may choke.
i suggest you to spend few bucks for DGIndexNV and a compatible nvidia videocard. that will "offload" the decoding task to the videocard hardware so your CPU(s) will only be busy encoding.
otherwise ENSURE to use multithreaded decoders for your sources.
my advice, also is to go with a 12-core Opteron 6100 series (6176 SE is the faster one at 2.3 Ghz but it's very expensive) and a dual socket MB, so you can plug in a second CPU whenever you want and get a 24 cores system. You should be able to build your system for less than 1200 euros and have a huge computing power. keep in mind an opteron 6174 performs more or less like an intel xeon 5650 in x264 if all cores are in use.
the overclocked core i7 is also a valid choice coz having fewer cores may result in better CPU utilization, hence more efficiency and speed. just look around for the prices and then compare the systems.

[colinhunt]

Thank you, Sharktooth, for very good advice. I've already purchased DGIndexNV although benefiting from it is a bit of a hassle as I can only access the encoding PC over Remote Desktop or equivalent. I'll definitely look into Opteron 6100; 12 cores sounds like a blast :)

[Sharktooth]

There are configurations up to 48 cores (4x12)... but around 6000/7000$... LOL

[colinhunt]

There are configurations up to 48 cores (4x12)... but around 6000/7000$... LOL
Yeah, that's a bit steep. Also, over here in Europe it's not possible to build a 2x12 core Opteron system with a budget of 1200 Euros, unfortunately. A 6168 is 720EUR a pop and mobos start from 400EUR (if one can find any, that is). Although I guess you meant buying a single CPU at first and adding a second one later...? But man, a 2x12 core rig for x264 encoding would be soooo sweet :)

[Sharktooth]

yep i meant single CPU but a dual socked motherboard ;)

[Sharktooth]

Just a couple of updates: It seems x264 CBR mode is not so happy with a huge number of threads. Avoid using CBR with massive mulithreaded systems.
Also Intel pushed out the new I7 970 that is a 6 cores CPU with Hyperthreading (12 threads) and it is a bit less expensive than a 980X.

[mariush]

Yeah, that's a bit steep. Also, over here in Europe it's not possible to build a 2x12 core Opteron system with a budget of 1200 Euros, unfortunately. A 6168 is 720EUR a pop and mobos start from 400EUR (if one can find any, that is). Although I guess you meant buying a single CPU at first and adding a second one later...? But man, a 2x12 core rig for x264 encoding would be soooo sweet :)

Have a look at http://shop.elsaco.com
The pages are not really updated as they mostly do business to business sales but they do carry new components on order.

Contact them using the email addresses and request a quote for a system...

I did contact them with plans to buy about 5 servers with 2 processors and I was quoted this:


2 pcs - Opteron 6128
1 pc - Tyana 8230GM4NR/Asus KGPE-D16
Bundle Price: 1150 USD excluding VAT, delivery within ~ 30 days after firm order

2 pcs - Opteron 6134
1 pc - Tyana 8230GM4NR/Asus KGPE-D16
Bundle Price: 1830 USD excluding VAT, delivery within ~ 30 days after firm order

2 pcs - Opteron 6168
1 pc - Tyana 8230GM4NR/Asus KGPE-D16
Bundle Price: 2240 USD excluding VAT, delivery within ~ 30 days after firm order


For just one system, it would be more expensive and note that when I requested the quote it was just a couple of weeks after the motherboard was listed on Newegg.com, that's why delivery was 30 days...

Otherwise they do ship across Europe using DHL and I bought a server from them in the past so I can vouch for them.

[stax76]

Personally I would not spend more then 100-150€ for a CPU, the AMD CPUs you can get for this money are not bad 4 or even 6 cores I think, more cost effective then Intel CPUs. My current one is about 2 years old and I might keep it two more years, AMD dual core at 2,7 GHz. My HD encodes are 720p with medium preset, few filters and CRF 21-23 yielding to 1-3 GB files 6-12 hours encoding. I could use better settings I know but my CPU is slow and my HD that stores the movies is small too.

What's more important for me then a fast CPU is the PC is almost noiseless so I can sleep near the PC while it's encoding at night, that's why I choose a silent single platter hard drive and 65W TDP CPU, silent cooler/fan. Also very important for me is encoding and similar tasks don't slow down the PC much being still able to quickly start large applications like Visual Studio, moving around big files, making backups, demux video files etc. Just one normal hard drive would be slow here but two hard drives first being a fast SSD as system drive things run very smooth.

[prOnorama]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18581/12

Intel Core i7 980X Extreme 6 core seems to be the king of the hill like 50% faster than the rest, will cost you around 1000 euro I guess, no limits on overclocking though :)

[Sharktooth]

OP clearly stated the budget is around 1200 euros for the WHOLE machine...

[colinhunt]

Thank you all for your comments and advice. For a brief time I toyed with the idea of buying two PCs, each with a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, but eventually decided on a bog-standard 2 x Intel Xeon E5520 system. With 12GB of RAM and an Asus mobo it came in very close to the 1200EUR limit. Haven't received the gear yet, though.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Dual 5520s is a very good plan at any rate :) I was totally sold on those for a large volume (50+) encoding server deployment, but decided to go with 5660s instead, since Dell offers a fairly deep discount on these 6 core monsters.

Glad you were able to get your system ordered though! You'll be VERY happy with the performance!

Derek

[colinhunt]

Dual 5520s is a very good plan at any rate :)(...) Glad you were able to get your system ordered though! You'll be VERY happy with the performance!
That's great to hear, thanks! Looking forward to seeing what kind of fps I'll get with BD-RB at Highest quality and "--tune film"; I'm expecting somewhere between 15-20fps on 2nd pass. Any idea if E5520 can be overclocked at all?

[Blue_MiSfit]

It certainly can, but I almost guarantee your motherboard won't do it :)

Asus sells a few motherboards based on dual socket 1366 that CAN be overclocked, but apparently ppl have had bad luck with long term reliability.

Xeons and their chipsets are never meant for overclocking, so I'd stay away. It's a pitty too, we all know how well Nehalem scales, and how much headroom is there on desktop CPUs like the i7 920!!!

Derek

[colinhunt]

Xeons and their chipsets are never meant for overclocking, so I'd stay away.
Cheers. I'll go for stability over a few more cycles any day. Wish I could have afforded a 2x12-core Opteron rig... unemployment sucks.