Optimum computer configuration for BD Rebuilder??

[blusky]

Just curious on what computer configurations Peeps are using , Processor type, Operating system , motherboards , blu-Ray burners, Memory etc.. that work well, to speed up the process.I have seen a post on this circa 2010 and thought it would be best to start a new thread to get more up to date info.

Reason , I am way overdue on building a computer. Still using a 2004 Old Dell demensions XPS computer and it took 28 hours to encode. Way to long. So I am looking on building a new computer, with BD Rebuilder in mind so that I can optimize the computers configuration so that it wil work well and speed up the process.

Any suggestions or Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advance.:)

[RobertM]

Most of your 28hr encode time will likely be the fault of a slow processor. Nothing will make more of a difference for you, IMO, than getting a better CPU. I built my i7 system more than 2 years ago, and it is still satisfyingly quick. I've always been an Intel guy, to the i7 was a natural choice for me. I understand that AMD makes good processors too ;) I overclock the processor by about 25%. I had tried 33% but there were some stability issues -- and these issues show up primarily during video encoding. After backing down to 25% I haven't had a single BSOD in over a year.

At least 6GB of RAM would be a good starting point. I'm not sure you'll see much of a speed boost with anything beyond that, and neither am I sure that you should invest in the fastest RAM out there. Buy a respectable brand name.

I can't see the MB making much of a difference to encode time.

Faster drives will have a noticeable effect during read/write operations. The most cost-effective way to do this is with multiple drives in RAID-0 configuration. What I would do is buy four 1Tb drives and set them up as two 2TB RAID0 drives. This doubles the drive speed and also allows you to read and write to different physical drives at the same time. The downside is that if you lose one drive then you lose the info on both drives in the RAID0 array, so you double the possibility of data loss. HDDs are pretty reliable, so I don't consider this to be a big problem, but it's something to keep in mind.

I don't imagine that the OS will make much of a difference to encode time. Win8 is still a little fresh, and some people have reported some trouble getting BD-RB configured correctly on that OS. I use Win7, and am in no big rush to upgrade.

I have always used LG drives. My first LG BD drive (WS10LH off the top of my head) failed a year after I purchased it (pretty heavy use, I must say) and they sent me a free replacement with no hassle. No complaints from me.

Media: Don't go cheap. At the start I had problems with several brands (Sony, ProData, RiData, etc.) where I would get occasional bad burns (ImgBurn wouldn't verify OK after burning). I switched to Verbatim and now use them exclusively for BD, DVD and CD. I haven't had a single bad burn since switching nearly 2 years ago and I have no regrets. The only other brand that seems to get that kind of loyalty is Falcon (SmartBlu) discs. I haven't used them, but some say that they are THE best.

With my setup I do movie-only encodes (2-pass, High-quality) in around 3 to 4 hours.

[blusky]

Most of your 28hr encode time will likely be the fault of a slow processor. Nothing will make more of a difference for you, IMO, than getting a better CPU. I built my i7 system more than 2 years ago, and it is still satisfyingly quick. I've always been an Intel guy, to the i7 was a natural choice for me. I understand that AMD makes good processors too ;) I overclock the processor by about 25%. I had tried 33% but there were some stability issues -- and these issues show up primarily during video encoding. After backing down to 25% I haven't had a single BSOD in over a year.

At least 6GB of RAM would be a good starting point. I'm not sure you'll see much of a speed boost with anything beyond that, and neither am I sure that you should invest in the fastest RAM out there. Buy a respectable brand name.

I can't see the MB making much of a difference to encode time.

Faster drives will have a noticeable effect during read/write operations. The most cost-effective way to do this is with multiple drives in RAID-0 configuration. What I would do is buy four 1Tb drives and set them up as two 2TB RAID0 drives. This doubles the drive speed and also allows you to read and write to different physical drives at the same time. The downside is that if you lose one drive then you lose the info on both drives in the RAID0 array, so you double the possibility of data loss. HDDs are pretty reliable, so I don't consider this to be a big problem, but it's something to keep in mind.

I don't imagine that the OS will make much of a difference to encode time. Win8 is still a little fresh, and some people have reported some trouble getting BD-RB configured correctly on that OS. I use Win7, and am in no big rush to upgrade.

I have always used LG drives. My first LG BD drive (WS10LH off the top of my head) failed a year after I purchased it (pretty heavy use, I must say) and they sent me a free replacement with no hassle. No complaints from me.

Media: Don't go cheap. At the start I had problems with several brands (Sony, ProData, RiData, etc.) where I would get occasional bad burns (ImgBurn wouldn't verify OK after burning). I switched to Verbatim and now use them exclusively for BD, DVD and CD. I haven't had a single bad burn since switching nearly 2 years ago and I have no regrets. The only other brand that seems to get that kind of loyalty is Falcon (SmartBlu) discs. I haven't used them, but some say that they are THE best.

With my setup I do movie-only encodes (2-pass, High-quality) in around 3 to 4 hours.

Great info RobertM. Thanks.
So the processor will make the most difference. I am also an Intel man but have read that AMD has come out with some pretty fast chips.

I currently have a raid0 configuration so I am familiar with that. Have had no issues with it. Will look into getting 4 1 terra bite drives and setting it up as 2 raid0 configurations. Is the speed of the drives important??
I was also thinking of using windows 7 as the operating system since there is more info on using Bd Rebuilder with Windows 7.

Don't know much about the latest Blu-ray burners . I have a pioneer BDR205 that I could pull from my old system. Don't know if it is worth buying a new one??

Wow, 2 to 3 hours in 2 pass, high quality is great!!

Appreciate the info.

[HWK]

I just want to add my system back up most disc in less than two hours. This includes everything which must be done. From prepare, encode and rebuild(Two Pass)

Here ary my specs

Intel Core i7 3770K (Six Core with hyperthreading) but I run at 4 ghz

32 GB ram at 1600 MHZ

Nvidia geforce gtx 580 (I use dgdecnv to serve frame to encoder)

4 harddrive in raid 10 which are use for bd-rebuilder only and my system boot from SSD.

I just want to say my cpu multiplyer is unlocked from factory.

[blusky]

I just want to add my system back up most disc in less than two hours. This includes everything which must be done. From prepare, encode and rebuild.

Here ary my specs

Intel Core i7 3770K (Six Core with hyperthreading) but I run at 4 ghz

32 GB ram at 1600 MHZ

Nvidia geforce gtx 580 (I use dgdecnv to serve frame to encoder)

4 harddrive in raid 10 which are use for bd-rebuilder only and my system boot from SSD.

I just want to say my cpu multiplyer is unlocked from factory.

Nice system HWK. Not familiar with the raid 10 configuration but I will look into it. Thanks for the the info.

[HWK]

RAID 10 is basically RAID 1 + RAID 0 in one package. Not only it provide speed but real time backup as well.

[RobertM]

I just want to add my system back up most disc in less than two hours. This includes everything which must be done. From prepare, encode and rebuild(Two Pass)

Here ary my specs

Intel Core i7 3770K (Six Core with hyperthreading) but I run at 4 ghz

32 GB ram at 1600 MHZ

Nvidia geforce gtx 580 (I use dgdecnv to serve frame to encoder)

4 harddrive in raid 10 which are use for bd-rebuilder only and my system boot from SSD.

I just want to say my cpu multiplyer is unlocked from factory.

That's a nice rig, but not cheap.

Your're running 6 cores to my 4 (i7 950) and your clock speed is 1/3 higher than mine, so it is not surprising that your encode times are noticeably faster.

I did try dgdecnv, but it didn't give much of a benefit with my video card.

The SSD boot drive is a good idea, and I do that on my machine. It makes boot-up and app loading quite snappy, which is nice, but it won't impact encode time.

RAID 10 is slower than RAID 0, but it does include redundancy so it is 'safer'. It requires more drives for the same amount of storage space, so it costs more (in money and space) to install. My encode drives are essentially temporary storage, where the rips and re-encodes reside for a while but get deleted after a matter of days to weeks. Any losses can be rebuilt by simply re-ripping the original disc, so I don't really need the redundancy.

[HWK]

Thank you, RobertM but you are right it is not cheap by any means I spend around 3K on system only. Not to mention I built it myself so it was quite fun :D

Display is another $ 600 and it is made of LED.

[blusky]

Thanks RobertM and HWK for the info. I now understand what Raid 10 is.

I'm glad you gave me a price on what its going to cost. I do not have unlimited funds so it looks like the money well spent would be for the processor. I have noticed that some motherboards allow two processors to be installed. What I am thinking is if it would be an advantage in speed to get use two processors , may be not the latest and the greatest , to save a little cash and get a performance bump??? Using two older processors that I can get a better deal on. Seeems the more cores you have the better??

[RobertM]

I'm glad you gave me a price on what its going to cost.

You don't need to spend near that much to get a decent encoding machine. If you want that kind of speed, then... by all means. My machine cost around 2K more than 2 years ago, and it's plenty quick enough for me still. I bet that now I could cut the cost by almost half and still have decent 4-core system with encode times in the 4 - 6 hr range.

For instance, you could look for a pre-built machine with a current i7 processor and 6 or 8 GB of RAM, maybe for around $800. Then put in a bluray burner and a couple of extra HDD for a total of a little over $1K. It would probably be almost as fast as mine.

[blusky]

You don't need to spend near that much to get a decent encoding machine. If you want that kind of speed, then... by all means. My machine cost around 2K more than 2 years ago, and it's plenty quick enough for me still. I bet that now I could cut the cost by almost half and still have decent 4-core system with encode times in the 4 - 6 hr range.

For instance, you could look for a pre-built machine with a current i7 processor and 6 or 8 GB of RAM, maybe for around $800. Then put in a bluray burner and a couple of extra HDD for a total of a little over $1K. It would probably be almost as fast as mine.

That sounds like a great idea RobertM. The limit for me on this computer is about 2000.00 dollars. I can go the prebuilt way and save some money. I did want to build this one myself but have to see what it will cost. 4 to 6 hour range is fine. Thanks

[jdobbs]

You can get an AMD 8 core (FX 8350) running at stock 4Ghz for under $200. A high-end motherboard is another $200 or so, and 8GB memory is about $50. I'm processor agnostic -- but I've been running this setup for a couple of months now.

The I7s are likely faster -- but for those of us who have to watch the budget it's not bad.

[blusky]

You can get an AMD 8 core (FX 8350) running at stock 4Ghz for under $200. A high-end motherboard is another $200 or so, and 8GB memory is about $50. I'm processor agnostic -- but I've been running this setup for a couple of months now.

The I7s are likely faster -- but for those of us who have to watch the budget it's not bad.

Thanks jdobbs for the info. I had not looked at the AMD 8 core (FX 8350) processor but that is an incredible deal for under $200.
I had been looking at the Intel Core i7-3930K Unlocked Processor - Six Core, 12MB L3 Cache, 1.5MB L2 Cache, 3.20 GHz (3.80 GHz Max Turbo), Socket R (LGA2011). This processor is about $560.

The AMD clearly is a better value. Have to research a little more. The Intel Core i7-3930K is still within my budget. I will most likely use this computer exclusivly for BD Rebuilder. Just looking to see wich processor would work best with BD Rebuilder.

Thanks again. I will look at them both carefully and decide.

[jdobbs]

Thanks jdobbs for the info. I had not looked at the AMD 8 core (FX 8350) processor but that is an incredible deal for under $200.
I had been looking at the Intel Core i7-3930K Unlocked Processor - Six Core, 12MB L3 Cache, 1.5MB L2 Cache, 3.20 GHz (3.80 GHz Max Turbo), Socket R (LGA2011). This processor is about $560.

The AMD clearly is a better value. Have to research a little more. The Intel Core i7-3930K is still within my budget. I will most likely use this computer exclusivly for BD Rebuilder. Just looking to see wich processor would work best with BD Rebuilder.

Thanks again. I will look at them both carefully and decide. I'd guess the i7 is quite a bit faster, especially at the same clock speed... but not 2.5x faster. The i7's get the marks for being the fastest -- but AMD always wins the "bang for you buck" contest. From cpubenchmark.net:

[blusky]

Thanks Jdobbs for the great info. Yep , just as you had said, the AMD is definitely the best bang for the buck. Thanks again.