Building an HDTV video editing machine

[j a beagle]

Hi,       I'm j a beagle, dog lover and computer builder.  I live in the frozen tundra called Minnesota and in the 20 days between winters, it's not bad.  I am a retired video producer and in the years I struggled with analog editing I dreamed of a full digital system that was less than half the work of old fashioned pre rolls, and paste edits.  It never got here during my carrier, but now I can have it for a fraction of the price of the old systems.  My computer is built in an Antec P180B tower with the liquid cooling system radiator mounted on top of the case, along with top of the reservoir tank.  Inside the case is a fish tank pump (ceramic bearings that should go forever)  The CPU and VGA cooling blocks, and the guts of the system.  An Antec 550W power supply provides just enough power to the system which in toto draws 513 watts.  The Motherboard is ASUS P5W DH Deluxe.  It's not the best choice for SATA based video editing, but it does work.  The SATA connectors are hung off of three controllers (an Intel, a Silicon Image, and a JMicron.  This makes for confusing hook up, and difficult software support.  The CPU is a Q6600 Core 2 Quad with a 1066 Mhz FSB.  65W it really needs the water cooling.  The ram is OCZ 8 gb DDR 800.  For 1080p resolution I took two ATI 1950 Pro VGA cards and hooked them up in Crossfire.  The Audio is Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum full 7.1 sound editing that's THX to boot.  Video input is handled by an ATI HDTV Wonder card for the analog and a fire wire 1394 for the digital.  I have three DVD drives:  A CD/R for inputting and exporting music, at 52X, a DVD/RW for the standard stuff and a Blu Ray drive.  Several microphones and a Fostex 8X4 mixer round out the system.  The OS is Windows XP x64, The Editing Suite is Sony Vegas 9 Pro.  That's the system and if I can get the OS to see the JMicron Controller, I'll be delighted.

[patio]

in the 20 days between winters, it's not bad.

              

I got a kick outta that one...

Sounds like quite a build and Welcome Aboard !

Have you tried swapping the JMicron controller with a different one to see if it's hardware related ? ?

[j a beagle]

Thanks for the post. Yeah.  I tried using the Silicone Image controller same results.  I have discovered that windows thinks the microsoft driver is controlling things, but the Device Manager has the JMicron doing its thing.  Very intersting, but dumb.

[patio]

How many SATA connections do you require ? ?

[j a beagle]

five    2 RAID 0,  1 Music, 1 Photos, and 1 Blu Ray DVD.

[patio]

I asked because i have an ASUS P5 board also...it supports 6 SATA devices with one external also...

[Quantos]

Hi,       I'm j a beagle, dog lover and computer builder.  I live in the frozen tundra called Minnesota and in the 20 days between winters, it's not bad.  I am a retired video producer and in the years I struggled with analog editing I dreamed of a full digital system that was less than half the work of old fashioned pre rolls, and paste edits.  It never got here during my carrier, but now I can have it for a fraction of the price of the old systems.  My computer is built in an Antec P180B tower with the liquid cooling system radiator mounted on top of the case, along with top of the reservoir tank.  Inside the case is a fish tank pump (ceramic bearings that should go forever)  The CPU and VGA cooling blocks, and the guts of the system.  An Antec 550W power supply provides just enough power to the system which in toto draws 513 watts.  The Motherboard is ASUS P5W DH Deluxe.  It's not the best choice for SATA based video editing, but it does work.  The SATA connectors are hung off of three controllers (an Intel, a Silicon Image, and a JMicron.  This makes for confusing hook up, and difficult software support.  The CPU is a Q6600 Core 2 Quad with a 1066 Mhz FSB.  65W it really needs the water cooling.  The ram is OCZ 8 gb DDR 800.  For 1080p resolution I took two ATI 1950 Pro VGA cards and hooked them up in Crossfire.  The Audio is Creative Labs X-Fi Platinum full 7.1 sound editing that's THX to boot.  Video input is handled by an ATI HDTV Wonder card for the analog and a fire wire 1394 for the digital.  I have three DVD drives:  A CD/R for inputting and exporting music, at 52X, a DVD/RW for the standard stuff and a Blu Ray drive.  Several microphones and a Fostex 8X4 mixer round out the system.  The OS is Windows XP x64, The Editing Suite is Sony Vegas 9 Pro.  That's the system and if I can get the OS to see the JMicron Controller, I'll be delighted.

I would love to see what you have done, I also come out of professional AV PM me.

[j a beagle]

Thanks for the post.  Do you want to see my computer design or some of the commercials I made.  I owned a business called "Ads On Cable".  We had local insert rights for several Twin Cities cable companies.  Two years ago all my major companies were sold to big corporations and my contracts evaporated.  It was a good time to retire so I did.  May Ads On Cable rest in peace.