Video Editing rig?

[FeelRealGood]

Hey all, nice forum you got here. I'd appreciate your help with trying to come up with medium-high end rig for video editing. I just graduated from film school and I've worked on FCP, Premiere, and Avid. I think I liked Avid above all, but I think I'm going to go with Premiere for a number of reasons. The main reason is that I will have a few editors working on this machine and I think Avid's learning curve is a little more difficult. Also, I am trying to specialize in After Effects, so I'll be working with Illustrator/Photoshop/AE so I might as well go with one of the new CS5 package deals with Premiere.

My problem is that I haven't built a computer in a few years and when I did it was for gaming. I'm kind of out of the loop in processor speeds, HD video cards, motherboard specs. I know my basic needs- 64 bit, lots of RAM, lots of space but the different specs are throwing me for a loop. I really want something for heavy duty video and effects editing. The only thing more important than speed is the ability to upgrade further down the line.

So what do you forum friends think? Your dream editing machine?

EDIT: I guess I should add a price, especially when asking for a "dream machine." I would like to say price isn't an option, but in truth, it always is. Excluding monitor/keyboard/mouse/case I want to spend about 2k-3k. I bring this up as I see the new intel i7 range anywhere from $200-$1000 and obviously a 1k processor will cause bottlenecking if I don't spend the same range on all the other products.

[glc]

Check this thread out.

Editing videos and photos

Does what he wound up with in the end about what you are looking for? I'd change the processor to an i7-930 and the motherboard to a P6X58D-E to get SATA 6.0 and USB 3.0. You could also go with a socket 1156 build - with an i7-860, P7P55D-E, and 8gb ram.

[FeelRealGood]

Thanks, glc! I've worked out this rudimentary list after doing some more research. Any opinions would be helpful!

Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
Is there a noticeable difference between the premium and just the "E"? I can only really find the premium on the Asus website. Is it just some extra unnecessary software or something?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131641

Processor: I'm up in the air about whether I should spend a little extra and go for the 950 or spend that money on a decent water cooling system and overclocking. I've done some minor oc'ing in the past, but not w/ a water cooling system. Not sure what the advantages of going with a 950 is instead?
Intel i7-930 2.80GHz LGA1366 (if I invest in water cooling system)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038JE9MU/

or
Intel i7-950 3.06GHz LGA1366

Videocard: This is the card you suggested in the linked thread. I should mention that while this is primarily for graphical editing, I will be doing the occasional gaming and would like it to be ready for the coming years of games as well as run smoothly. Should I get an additional card or switch this one out for one that can handle both gaming/video editing?
ATI 100-505553 FirePro V5700 512MB PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814195074

RAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145271

HDD: I'm not sure how I should have my drives set up. Is the motherboard either two 6.0Gb/s or up to six 3.0Gb/s or can you mix it up? I ask because ideally, I'd like to have 3 drives - OS/general computing/gaming, video storage, scratch disk. I'd still like the speed of SATA 6.0, so I will likely just merge storage and OS onto one disk. So here are my options-
WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136533

or
WD Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136514

Blu-Ray/DVD/CD: Just to be sure, this is reads/writes blu-ray/cd/dvd?
Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827129051

I already have a nice LCD monitor, sounds system, and an old Antec full sized tower. The PSU will need to be replaced, any suggestion on wattage size?

Hopefully I didn't bombard you with too many question. Again, I appreciate your response. I see you post in about every thread I searched through, so I can't thank you enough.

[glc]

1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...131%2D614%2DTS

The only obvious difference I see is the Premium has dual LAN adapters.

2. I wouldn't pay twice the price to get another 0.26 GHz of clock speed, and I wouldn't even think about overclocking or water cooling a PRODUCTION machine. Let the Intel Turbo Boost do its thing, and if the stock cooler proves to be inadequate, you can always upgrade it later. My philosophy is to buy at the "sweet spot" and leave the high end stuff for people with more money than brains.

3. If you are gaming and $300 is your price point, get a Radeon 5850. If you can go another $100, get a Radeon 5870.

4. The board has two SATA 6.0 ports. I would use a SATA 6.0 primary drive - either a WD Black or Crucial SSD (Expensive!!!) - and don't sweat the speed of the storage and scratch drives. If you want a SATA 6.0 storage drive, go for it.

5. Yes, that reads and burns CD/DVD/BD.

6. For a 5850 or 5870, I'd be looking around 650 watts or so. I'd probably get a Corsair modular for easy cable management.

[FeelRealGood]

Thanks, glc. I've changed my list around and added a 650w Corsaid Modular PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139012).

I thought the water cooling was a bit much. The excitement musta got away from me.

Still been researching video cards. I've been looking at CS5 and Adobe has been pushing this new CUDA technology w/ NVIDIA. They claim it makes rendering a breeze ("up to 10x faster"). I don't know how much I buy that.

They only have the Quadro series and the gtx 285 series listed as supporting the Mercury Playback Engine. Quadro are definitely out of my range. I was thinking of replacing the ATi for the gtx 470 though Adobe haven't stated if they'll support the gtx 400 series. It stands to reason that they would, but you never know. I won't be buying parts until the beginning of next month. Hopefully there will be more word from Adobe as to what will be supported.

Would the 470 or 480 (if I free up cash) need a larger PSU?

[glc]

You should be okay. Nvidia recommends 550 for a 470 and 600 for a 480.