PDA

View Full Version : Workstation recommendation

dododo
10-21-2009, 10:25 PM
Hi all.

I'm building a workstation spec sheet for work. Costs efficient system would be ideal.

Currently we use quad core CPUs and that doesn't cut it. We need faster system.

We deal with very little 3D information but hugh amount of geo referenced 2D information. Sometimes an image is about 3 to 5GB in size. Also we process HD videos.

First thing came to my mind was CPU. Since quad core can't cut it, would Xenon or i7 would do the job? Would the platform(Xenon, i7, quad core, dual core etc.) become more significant factor against pure speed (GHZ) of the cpu? or where should I place the priority?

Also we need very sturdy but fast HDD. SCSI is out of question. No one agrees to the platform. We are basicly stuck with SATA drives. How about raptor drives? Are they reliable enough? Or for the money, Seagate HDD would have upper hand?

Thanks all.
aglick
10-21-2009, 10:37 PM
what software apps are you using?

Where are the biggest bottlenecks and when do they manifest themselves most painfully?

Are you running out of free memory on your current machine(s)?

You're running in native 64bit for all your app,s yes?

What is the exact file format, CODEC and compression ratio of the HD footage you are processing?

What is the target format/CODEC/compression ratio of the processed footage and what process are you usiong to accomplish this?
dododo
10-21-2009, 10:51 PM
We use Avid for video and Remote View for 2D works.
Biggest complaint is rendering hugh geo referenced images. Simple task as pane the image or zoom in and out takes as short as 10sec or as long as 3hours to reload. There are a lot of calculation and reloading involved on the process. Also rendering times on Avid for video processing.

Codec is Mpeg2. We don't compress them. But we convert them to different format. It's same Mpeg2 but other information embeded on to them. I don't know about these embedded details unfortunately. I'm not quite sure on ratio.

We are not using 64bit system OS due to the limitations of other software package we use but we are considering it although it may cost us to replace all our existing softwares.

I don't know we ever ran out of memory. Maybe it did. We have 4GB on each of our system.

What we are trying to find out first is where to place the priority. Would that be a RAM, CPU, GFX or HDD? Then we are trying to build around it with good balance between the components.

Would this help any?

Thanks for your help.
Jettatore
10-22-2009, 01:35 AM
From what your saying, RAM and especially HDD speeds are going to be right up there for you along with the processor. To move that large data your talking about just think, it's gotta be to and from the HDD, handled by the processor and loaded into memory so you can't have bottlenecks anywhere or it will slow to a crawl. Lack of 64 bit hurts you too, because your limiting your processing power and your max memory amount. Possibly try experimenting with Windows 7's new compatibility features on a 64bit machine (think pro and ultimate have that feature but I've never used it).

Other than that, sounds like you need to test first, get a bunch of parts, build a few configurations with them and once your happy, then go buy a bunch that are identical machines after you have something that works.
CGTalk Moderation
10-22-2009, 01:35 AM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.