Help creating a multimedia creating workstation

I have posted this on "what laptop should I buy" but got 2 unhelpful responses.

again, please .. feel free to discuss or share new options.

Thank you

 

As a fellow editor ( primarily video though )

1: what Video apps are you planning on using, some support CUDA, some hate SLI/Crossfire. others are big RAM hogs, some are VERY CPU intensive.

2: Myself, the company I work for and thousands more on forums find Nvidia GPU drivers a bloody nightmare for DPC latency for audio work. if audio is a priority avoid Nvidia consumer cards ( gforce ) IMO. google Dpc latency in nvidia gpu, or see the rekated threads for m18x, m17x, clevos, ASUS and HP

3: which CAD apps or rendering engines. some prefer pro gpu's for huge openGL speed boosts

4: dont worry on the laptops sound card, there is no such thing as a really good audio chip in a laptop anymore, if your doing serious work your looking at an external DAC and speakers or headphones anyways.

now for reccomendations. a good business class workstation like the elitebooks in sig, but without some if the goodies. heres why

1: small sacrifice in speed for stability and cooling
2: can upgrade them like a sager/clevo. if something breaks most business units can have parts shipoed to you so you can fix OR have next business day support with accidental as an option
3: tested and certified for pro apps such as autodesk applications, AVID and Adobe products.
4: unmatched displays. the non gloss Dreamcolor displays match a couple of multi thousand external monitors I have (but they are an expensive option )

why not.
1 No SLI/crossfire if your a hard core gamer
2 internal Speakers are not as goid as some gaming/consumer models
3 bit more expensive depending on options

now to answer a few things for you. win 7 is much better than vista and tends to slow down ALOT less
32 gb of ram is better, clickspeed is a moot point unless your into benchmarking for bragging rights
and a matte or proper non glare screen is better for color reproduction,

 

im not sure yet to be honest, im a photographer into timelapse photography lately and thinking of making few movies here and there .. 5-10 mnts.

as stated above, im a photographer, not familiar with that term TBH, can you clarify?

i usually use AutoCAD for my engineering school requirements and Adobe's photoshop, lightroom, Audicy, (maybe premier and AfterEffect in the future)

I already got the headphones, i just wanna make sure there is enough power to drive it since i can spend another grand on a hi quality DAC.


im definitely going into multimedia in the near future since photography alone wont do me any good without being combined with some movie actions and music.

any idea's on the screens ??

thanks for the help, appreciate it =)

 

no problem. DPC latency issues mean that your system cant work realtime audio without microsecond dropouts, clicks or pops. Nvidias drivers for their video cards have been a never ending source of frustration for audio people the last 2 years.

if its basic autocad without plugins you want fast cpu but dont worry about cores, it only uses the first 2 99.99% of the time. RAM is its friend. and unless your going for certified video cards, the most basic will do.

a decent $100 DAC is going to be better than any laptop chip. just get a cheap one for edits. ( realtek, cirrus logic etc really dont cut it )

see edit above in post 1 but to recap.

matte or low gloss has better color reproduction the dreamcolors and the IPS in dell m6400 win hands down
90% gamut screens in the clevos as options are good to work on.
most consumer laptops have bad color reproduction and under 70% gamut

 

actually it was recommended before but the price that showed up after building it was astronomical.

i dont care about fan noise or the looks to be honest and as for the screen i thought i would do great enough with the %90 Gamut screens

either way im still a student, so i gotta save up really good for it or sell something .. cuz the one i use right now might die at any moment

thanks again =)

 

im making my mind on one of clevo's as i read .. but i think i will wait for the new cards from both ati and nvidia to make my final choice.

KCETech1, thank you so much for the help, really appreciate it .. your tips would save me some dollars, might be invested in a spyder3 color calibrating tool.

 

You said you're a student? If your school has like an imaging lab or something similar, chances are they have calibrating tools. You could check with them to see of they'll let you borrow/rent one before spending money on one.

 

its a small engineering school .. but will check anyways .. thanks for the tip =)

 

sorry just want to pump this a little to see different points of view.

not saying the ones discussed lack anything

 

Model: Clevo P170EM

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 675M

Because of CUDA and much better support across the production board be it Avid ,Autodesk or Adobe. I have no problems at all doing audio editing (Media Composer/Audition)

RAM: 16GB-32GB:

You won't see a huge difference between 1600 & 1866, it's just a bit snappier. If you plan for mSata caching just get 2x8GB and put in another 2x8GB in case need arises down the road.

SCREEN: 95% COLOR GAMMUT

(I would suggest MATTE, but it's personal preference)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...150hm-matte-w-95-gamut-glossy-w-95-gamut.html


CPU: i7-3820QM or the fastest Ivy Bridge model that you can afford.
(will be available for configuration from Monday 30th onwards).
After you finished your edit at least the encoding will make good
use of all 4 cores and max it out. Also it helps a lot while using
multiple Softwares at the same time.

DISK: SSD as the Windows drive, plus 750GB 7.200rpm drive as
secondary and a mSata cache, sounds great!

 

what about 680 ?? is the new core technology worth the waiting?

i thought its only has 1 mSATA port .. what do you mean by 2x8's ??

definitely the highest gamut i can get .. but need to know if the matte one still has that grainy nature caused by the coating.

and i always thought hi-end reference displays were glossy with zero glare

 

doubt it, Kepler based cards seem MUCH slower for compute and CUDA as nvidia seems to have optimized them heavily for purely gaming.

RAM, he means 2 8Gb chips to get 16GB so its easy to upgrade to 32 later

glossy and zero glare are very contradictory. ever why all external high end color match screens are matte or very low gloss? ( except the ACD abomination )

 

ACD abomination??

but the problem still .. do the 90 matte have that grainy nature of the coating ??

 

ACD = Apple Cinema Display

and no idea I have never used a Clevo 90% panel, try asking in theiir forums

 

we are in their forums .. LOL

and i wish i can afford that one .. god its so pleasing

 

the cinema display?? I hate them. 8 bit color not 10. +/- 5-20% on their colors and it keeps swinging so you cant keep em calibrated, serious glareomatic and color washout. and best if all calibrate to a whopping 78% gamut with a good spyder!

im spoiled, too used to Pro HP's and EIZO's

 

wow really ?? then it is just for the looks xD like every apple product xD

i think i will go ahead with the 90% .. then borrow my friend's reference later

still gna wait for the new graphics card

 

yep, its pure looks and marketing. we got in some off breed Korean IPS screen for $389.00CDN that does a better job just not pretty.

I thinky our good togo with a 90% screen but really dont think I would bother waiting for a 680. the desktop Kepler cards are certantly slower in the mercury rendering engine in Premier Pro and Photoshop 6 than their predecessors

 

Hey KCTech THX for the follow up!

The GTX680M may only come end of July, so it was out of your timeframe anyway...just go ahead and order next monday once the new CPUs hit!

Here a thread about UAE import:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/398238-shipping-dubai-xotic-pc.html

 

i know but ati's 79xx are coming soon too

 

some of us have 7990's

slickdude80, table 21 and others have lots if info on NBR akready

 

It will be a great card for gaming , but in the best case scenario not support your work...in the worst case softwares like Avid may not work at all. We had to change a lot of cards at work, because either there was no playback at all, or no full screen etc. apart from not having realtime effect previews (cuda).

 

wait .. i thought there is a new breed from ati gna hit the market soon .. wuts going on xD

@Prema .. thanks for considering man .. appreciate it

but i might be working with NASA this summer so i will just save up and order it from there

 

Hazaa some people already have the new AMD 7970's. and for gaming its a monster. roughly as fast as 2 675's in SLI but much better minimum framerates

 

augh .. im so confused right now .. plus this visa form im filling is not making it any better ><

so do you suggest the 675 ?? would be enough for what i will be doing??

 

go with the 675, its CUDA and Compute ( GPGPU ) is better than the newer Kepler architecture in the 680 and is more than sufficient

 

YES, it's your best bet for work, and a good gaming card for the weekends

 

sounds perfect .. thank you guys so much .. wouldnt know what to do without you guys

 

Your Welcome! Enjoy your NASA adventure and maybe share a few of your timelapse creations with us.

 

definitely will do once i shoot like 10,000 photos xD

 

Hey guys, very interesting thread here. I'm kinda in the same position as Hazza3. Can I ask some questions? Basically to KCETech1: What external DAC do you recommend for audio work? Brand specific... And do you know if some Clevo reseller sells laptops with DreamColor displays? And if no Clever reseller sells them... who does?

 

1: I use an XDA-1 personally, at work we use a variety.
XDA-1 Balanced DAC | Emotiva Audio | High-end audio components for audiophiles and videophiles, spanning 2-channel music systems, as well as 5.1 and 7.1 home theaters. Products include multichannel amplifiers, stereo amplifiers, and monoblock amplifi

2: Dream Color IPS displays are specific ONLY to HP portable workstations ( 8740W, 8760W, 8540W 8560W ) Dell has a similar panel in the m6400/6600 I believe. other than that nothing is close.

 

So what do you think about the 95/90% gamut matte screen options sager/clevo/resellers offer? Are they decent enough?

 

they are awfully good actually. but if you need exacting color precision dont forget to hook to a calibrated external displayand verify. for 90% of work its perfect and MUCH better than a Macbook Pro for color work.

 

Yeah, I hate MACs very overpriced and not really good screens. But good marketing. Which colo calibrator do you recommend? I was checking out the DACs you recommend, but it seems kind of expensive. Do you recommend another cheaper one?

 

IMO a Spyder/Spyder pro for calibrations unless you have a Pro HP or Eizo screen .... they come with better

M-audio fasttrack/fast track pro are popular, for light work even a soundblaster external unit works decently.

 

Much thanks dude! Really If I could somehow give you props I would.

 

dude .. i used to edit then export the photo to my phone .. just cuz it has more gamut xD

and btw .. there is a music player and a portable dac from a company called hi-fi man .. stuff is expensive as hell .. but its the only one the joins the both .. worth it ?? heard bout it ??