April 2012 update - now with FOUR recommended builds! Thanks to the release of the Intel i7 3820 Quad Core processor, we now have a DIY9 budget build! You can mix & match components between the three DIY9 P9X79 builds (Hot Rod vs Videoguys' Choice vs Budget). For those on a tight budget our DIY8 Sandy Bridge system based on the P8Z68 and i7 2600K processor is still fine choice, but I recommend finding the extra bucks to build our DIY9 budget machine, which comes in at just over $1500! For our Videoguys' Choice DIY9 system we tried to get as close to $2K as possible for our system, but we went over.

• We are going with the Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard after getting some valuable feedback from one of our DIY followers. We'll pay $50 more, but the added stability will be worth it. We may still need FireWire for capturing our older legacy DV & HDV footage, so we may end up adding a cheap FireWire card later.   
• We're going to go with an SSD boot drive even though it adds almost $200 to the cost of the build.
• I'm still thinking we may go for the full 32GB of RAM. I think we may be a penny wise and pound foolish going with just 16GB.
• We're also going with a GTX570 to save costs, although for Avid you really want to go with a Quadro2000 or 4000.

Unfortunately we still have not had the chance to build our DIY9 machine. Some internal IT issues have taken the bulk of our tech teams time over the past few weeks. We are also finding the i7 3930K processor in very tight supply.

Over the past year Videoguys.com have taken some heat in some online tech forums and communities. We were very late to embrace the original Sandy Bridge processors and even when we did recommend one, it was with some caveats. (You can follow our DIY8 Sandy Bridge updates here).

We have always been big fans of Sandy Bridge CPUs and the performance value they deliver. For us, the issue has been the motherboards and chipsets. The initial Sandy Bridge X67 motherboard had some very serious PCIe bandwidth issues. These were addressed, but even when the improved X68 based motherboards shipped, we still had concerns. Sure they were okay for running NLE software, but add-in an I/O device like the Matrox MXO2 Mini and some RAID storage and you could very well run into bottlenecks. When I shared these concerns with my contacts at Avid, Adobe, Matrox and other vendors, they confirmed my suspicions and said they too would not be certifying X67 or X68 motherboards. We all agreed - we had to wait for an enthusiast level chipset from Intel, one that was a worthy successor to the X58 we used for years in our DIY8 builds.

Videoguys now recommends the Sandy Bridge-E processor with X79 chipset!

Once you have pulled together all the parts for your new workstation don't forget to make Videoguys.com your source for your video editing software and hardware. Shop online or call us at 800-323-2325 today.

Intel Delivers with X79 Chipset!

When I first read about the new Sandy Bridge-E chips and the X79 motherboards on Tom's hardware, I knew they would be a winner for video editing. The only question for me was when would they be shipping? Then I read a great review of the ASUS P9X79 Pro on Anandtech in November 2011 and I knew it was time for DIY9. Here are just a few of the highlights of the Asus P9X79 family of motherboards:

• 40 PCIe lanes and PCIe 3 support
• Quad-channel memory w 8 DIMM slots
• USB3, eSata 6 Gbps
• ASUS Graphical GUI for easy Overclocking

Unfortunately, with it being the busy holiday season and end of the year, we will not get started on this machine until at least January 2012. I realize that with the new Avid Media Composer 6, Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium, Sony Vegas Pro 11 and the Grass Valley Edius 6 at a special low crossgrade price, many of you want to get started now. So I'm going to but together our parts list, with the disclaimer that we have not built or tested any DIY9 machines yet. If you're one of the brave and decide to get started before us we welcome your feedback and suggestions!

Asus P9X79 Motherboard

There are several models of the Asus P9X79 motherboard and we are not sure if we will go with the base unit, the Pro or the WS. The Pro version looks the best, but it does not have Firewire, something many video editors still want or need. The advantage of the WS version is it will also accept the new XEON Sandy Bridge processors coming next year. Right now, I'm leaning towards the P9X79 base model, but I'll be monitoring the tech and support forums for more info before we have to actually make our purchase.

Intel Sandy Bridge-E i7 3930K Hex Core CPU

The Intel i7 3930K is an expensive CPU for our typical DIY machines at $599, but I feel strongly that you want to go with 6 cores. The 3960X is the extreme version and with it comes an extreme price. If you have the money - over $1,000 - go for it.

If you are on a tight budget, but looking to build a Sandy Bridge-E machine, Intel has just released the i7 3820 Quad Core CPU. The 3820 breaks smashes through the $500 barrier, coming in at under $300! That's about half the price of the 3930K and it allows you to put together a budget based Sandy Bridge-E system for a little over $1500!! We're going to keep the 3930K in our Videoguys Choice build, because I really want to stick with a Hex Core.

Tech Note: CPU Cooling
It has come to our attention that many of you wish to overclock and/or you just want to have some extra cooling for the CPU. This is always a good decision, and worth budgeting an extra $50-$100 for. We have heard really good things about the Noctua NH-D14 Processor cooler. For about $75 it's a very wise investment - especially if you are going to be overclocking - even if it's just a little bit.

Graphics Card –GPU

For us, the go to GPU for serious editors is the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 by PNY. Yes, I know you can find a GTX570/580 card for about half the price with what looks like the same specs on paper and it will work great and it will light up the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine (MPE) in Premiere Pro CS5.5. But, I'm sticking with Quadro card! (Note: If you are on a tight budget the GTC570/580 is an excellent choice, especially with Adobe CS5.x)

Avid only recommends Quadro cards, and their OpenGL gives you a nice boost in After Effects or when working with really big images in Photoshop. If you're primarily an Avid guy, you can save around $500 by going with the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 by PNY, but, for Adobe, the 2000 is not nearly as powerful and it won't give you the same results as the Quadro 4000 with the Adobe MPE.

RAM

I recommend a minimum of 2GB per core. With our hex core that comes to 12GB. Since we have Quad-channel memory, I'll go with 16GB (4x4GB). We really like the G.Skill RipjawsZ, and since that's what Anadtech went with in their review, it's a no brainer for us. You also can't beat the price - 16GB for $129.99 at Newegg!

Boot Drive - Hard Drive or SSD?

I would love to go with an SSD boot drive. I've got customers and friends who have gone this way and they love it. Their system boots in a few seconds and programs open almost instantly. Unfortunately for me, I just can't live with less then a 500GB boot drive, and that is just to darn expensive with SSD. Crucial has a 256 GB SSD drive that you can find for under $400 at Newegg. For me the sweet spot is when the 512GB falls under $500. Hopefully that will happen before we go to build DIY9 in January ;-)

Video Storage - Internal or External

If you want to save money, stripe a pair of identical 2TB or 3TB 7200RPM drives in a RAID 0 inside the machine. These will be fast enough to handle just about every flavor of compressed HD including AVCHD, XD CAM, DNxHD, ProRes, and DSLR footage. But be sure to get plenty of cooling and power in the machine.

Our top recommendation is to go with external storage, attached via eSATA. Either a G-Tech G-RAID or G-Speed Q. We recommend the G-Speed Q for redundancy. When configured in as RAID5 they give you the same performance as a G-RAID, with fail safe redundancy. if a drive fails, you keep editing. No data is lost and athough you'll loose a little throughput, who cares? Your data is safe. Get a replacement drive and you're back in no time, with minimal downtime.

Videoguys now also offers the Stardom external RAID enclosures. I really like the SOHORAIDs. The SR2 lets you stripe a pair of drives, the SR4 works with 4. Given the current hard drive shortages and crazy drive prices, you may find this is the way to go. Just make sure you can actually get the drives at the advertised price.

Power Supply

I'm going to recommend a minimum of 750 Watts. Go for 1,000 if you plan on running more then 3 hard drives internally in the case. Today's GPUs also draw a lot of juice, and I just like having some headroom here.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Operating System

We get asked all the time why we don't recommend Windows 7 Home. It's simple. None of our vendors do. The only specific reason I have heard is the ability to address more RAM. We've had great success with Windows 7 Professional and I don't see why we would change our recommendation here. if you want Ultimate, go for it. But we know of no benefits for video editing.

DIY9 - the X79 is divine!

There you have it, our DIY9 sneak peak. I am extremely confident that if you follow this guide today, you will get excellent results and a state of the art NLE workstation.

Once you have pulled together all the parts for your new workstation don't forget to make Videoguys.com your source for your video editing software and hardware. Shop online or call us at 800-323-2325 today.

This machine will run Avid Media Composer 6, Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium, Sony Vegas Pro 11 or Grass Valley EDIUS 6 great. Add in I/O hardware from Matrox, AJA, Motu, BMD or Bluefish444 without a worry. You can run any kind of storage you want, from a simple RAID-0 to one of our top of the line G-Speed eS Pro solutions with ATTO controller. This machine will rip through HD footage and render blazing fast.

I've been waiting a long time to have a Sandy Bridge-E solution that I can give our 100% recommendation. While we won't get around to building our DIY9 machine until January (unfortunatley it looks like March for DIY9 now) , there is no reason for you to wait. Unfortunately we have too - it's just too busy around here this time of year.

Videoguys DIY friend and resource Harm Millaard has posted an excellent article on recommended builds over on the Adobe Support Forums. You can also read this great article by Shawn Lam on his experiences building a DIY9 machine for Adobe CS6.