Hi,

 

Ok I’ve defined my setup for AE Performance, based on taking into account the various recommendations from the helpful people on the AE Mail List

This is the configuration I’ve saved as a quote (It’s overclocked to 4.6GHz max on delivery):

Case FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE

Overclocked CPU Overclocked Intel® Six Core i7-3930K (3.2GHz @ max 4.6GHz)

Motherboard ASUS® P9X79 PRO: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011

Memory (RAM) 32GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST QUAD-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (4 x 8GB KIT)

Graphics Card NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk 240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

3rd Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

RAID RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply 650W FSP RAIDER SERIES RA-650 80 PLUS® BRONZE (£59)

Processor Cooling Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£59)

Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)

USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT

PORTS

Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Power Cable 1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£109)

 

I was thinking I could buy the graphics card myself or use my current one.

 

Any changes you would make to this setup?

 

(the total price above is £1,700 (GBP) incl VAT and delivery), so it’s a lot more expensive than my initial budget of $1500.

Thanks
Anders

 

 

 

From: Anders Sundstedt

Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 6:36 PM

To: After Effects Mail List

Subject: Re: [AE] The currently fastest PC config possible for After Effects work for a budget of $1500?

 

Hi Teddy,

 

If one can afford it, is there a faster CPU that overclocks faster and outperforms the Intel 3770k? My concern is that I would rather buy an already overclocked custom PC at 4.5 gHz so I don’t have to try and overclock it myself in case that fails.

(like I’ve failed to do with my current i7 930, hardly overclocks at all for me).
Is there any reason to consider getting one of these new Haswell i7 processors, or are they not any faster for AE work? I read they are not faster online.

 

Thanks
Anders

 

 

 

From: Teddy Gage

Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 4:13 PM

To: After Effects Mail List

Subject: Re: [AE] The currently fastest PC config possible for After Effects work for a budget of $1500?

 

For that price here is the setup id recommend. May come out a bit over on price but you will be set for the next couple years

 

Intel 3770k cpu @ 3.2ghz (easy to overclock)

1x 64 gb ssd to install your os

2x 128 gb ssd in raid 0 for cache and projects

1x 1TB 7200 rpm storage hdd

16 gb 2133 mhz RAM (or 32 gb if you can afford it)

Corsair cpu water cooler either h100 or h80

Find a used nvidia gtx 580 for around $250-350, great for cuda and premiere encoding, including raytrace

700 w power supply

 

My 2 c but that would be a great machine for your needs

 

On Wednesday, May 15, 2013, Anders Sundstedt wrote:

Hi,

 

The computer I have is a few years old now, the spec is:

 

Intel Core i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80 GHz

12.0 GB RAM

Windows 7 64 bit

ATI FirePro V3800 graphics card

2 x 24 inch 1920x1200 monitors.
1 x OCZ-VERTEX2 ATA 60 GB SSD drive (for Windows 7 and Software).
(3 x Internal Hard Drives for scratch disk, projects and source files etc. (all NTFS, one Hitachi rest WDC)).

 

At the time this computer was a lot more than $1500.

Now, since I assume a lot has happened since I got this (3rd generation i7 CPU’s etc. and faster graphics cards) I wanted your input on what is the top performing custom built or pre-built PC for this type of projects:

The type of After Effects (CS6) work would be:

1920x1080, 24 fps, short videos typically 1-3 minute animations with standard 3D layers and Camera, Lights.

(Ray-traced 3D would currently not be so important as it doesn’t support: blending modes, layer styles and masks and effects on continuously rasterized layers (including text and shape transfers)).

Any advice on what is the fastest that could replace it that would make a big difference? (minimum 1 hard drive for operative system and one for project and one for scratch disk).

Alternatively what would be the best component to replace/upgrade to make the current setup much faster?

Thanks in advance!

-Anders
 

--
Animator & Editor
www.teddygage.com
Brooklyn