Build from scratch - advice needed!

[JF Sebastian]

Hi all
I am about to build a dedicated workhorse for encoding, and have been reading some of the detailed posts herein. My usual process for DVD-9 down to DVD-5 is: Decrypter Rip > DVD2AVI > TMPG > Maestro > Decrypter Burn. Using 2 pass VBR in TMPG for maximum quality really crushes my old PC - we're talking a world record of 27 hours for one particular 2h 16m project!! :angry:

I am leaning toward AMD route for value for money, and was considering this:
Athlon XP2400+ cpu
Asus A7V8X (KT400) mobo
512MB PC3200 (DDR400) RAM
2 x 80GB WD 7200rpm HD in RAID
(I already have a CD-RW, DVD+RW, FDD and AGP Card I can use)

But would I be better with a dual Athlon 2200 setup such as the Asus A7M, which uses slower ram, and the fastest MP Athlons are only 2200+?
Or perhaps forget going for a "400" setup and just piling in loadsa RAM into a 333 setup like the A7V333 mobo?

What else have I overlooked in trying to construct an optimised system for video chomping? My current OS is Win 2kPro - should I switch to XP?

Hope this is not too basic for you all. Cheers.

JF

[omol]

Originally posted by JF Sebastian

I am leaning toward AMD route for value for money, and was considering this:
Athlon XP2400+ cpu
Asus A7V8X (KT400) mobo
512MB PC3200 (DDR400) RAM
2 x 80GB WD 7200rpm HD in RAID


sed s/A7V8X/A7N8X/g.....:)


But would I be better with a dual Athlon 2200 setup such as the Asus A7M, which uses slower ram, and the fastest MP Athlons are only 2200+?

sed s/"Asus A7M"/" Tiger MPX (S2466)"/g. You got 1 more 32bit PCI slot and onboard LAN.

Since TMPGenc is SMP aware, I would say a SMP box will surely beat a UP box with roughly the same speed grade cpu.

regards,
omol

[JF Sebastian]

Thanks omol, I'll look into dual MP motherboards.

Anyone else got an opinion?

TIA

JF

[Milkman Dan]

Originally posted by JF Sebastian
Hi all
I am about to build a dedicated workhorse for encoding, and have been reading some of the detailed posts herein. My usual process for DVD-9 down to DVD-5 is: Decrypter Rip > DVD2AVI > TMPG > Maestro > Decrypter Burn. Using 2 pass VBR in TMPG for maximum quality really crushes my old PC - we're talking a world record of 27 hours for one particular 2h 16m project!! :angry:

I am leaning toward AMD route for value for money, and was considering this:
Athlon XP2400+ cpu
Asus A7V8X (KT400) mobo
512MB PC3200 (DDR400) RAM
2 x 80GB WD 7200rpm HD in RAID
(I already have a CD-RW, DVD+RW, FDD and AGP Card I can use)

But would I be better with a dual Athlon 2200 setup such as the Asus A7M, which uses slower ram, and the fastest MP Athlons are only 2200+?
Or perhaps forget going for a "400" setup and just piling in loadsa RAM into a 333 setup like the A7V333 mobo?

What else have I overlooked in trying to construct an optimised system for video chomping? My current OS is Win 2kPro - should I switch to XP?

Hope this is not too basic for you all. Cheers.

JF


I can't believe I'm writing this...but if you machine is going to be used only for encoding MPEG2/Divx....then you're better off with a PIV.

I know, I know. Don't kill me. :rolleyes:

However, you should be able to scale up to a ~3.5GHz chip before Prescott comes out. Right now, you should be able to get 2.5Ghz out of a 1.8A chip if you feel like overclocking.

I would also recommend you ditch Tsunami and use Cinema Craft Encoder. I used to think that Tsunami outputted better video, and then I did some intensive testing, and CCE really is ridiculously better. If nothing else, being able to tweak the multipass VBR at the GOP level should win CCE onto everyone's harddisk.

If you're steadfast on using the Athlon, then I strongly advise you to wait until the nForce2 boards come out. They blow the KT400 boards out of the water. Besides, there's a KT400A rumored to be in the works, which would make buying a KT400 board a bad idea.

$.02

[phamilton]

I have been using a dual Pentium III system that I put together for about a year. Pentium III rather than Pentium IV because at that time, if not now as well, available Pentium IVs couldn't be put together in multi-processor systems. In any event a Pentium III at 1.3 GHz is about the same in performance as a Pentium IV at 2GHz. The motherboard is a Gigabyte 6VTXD, which uses the VIA chipset. The version of TMPGenc that costs money runs well on this system, and the Windows performance monitor shows that both CPUs are flat-out most of the time. I have 1 GB of RAM (ECC - don't use non-error-correcting RAM when you have more than a few hundred MB) but that is for other reasons than video stuff. I use a Promise FastTrak 100 TX2 IDE Raid controller with two 80 GB disks forming a fast 160GB logical disk - just the job for video.

I switched to XP some time ago, and have been very pleased with the result. You do have to stop a lot of the processes that XP starts up by default if you want the absolute maximum performance, but the final result is a great system.

[theReal]

I can't believe I'm writing this...but if you machine is going to be used only for encoding MPEG2/Divx....then you're better off with a PIV. It's also a matter of cost... If money plays no role, then I'd probably buy a dual P4 Xeon machine for encoding :D