Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler HD editing system build....

If you can add the Canopus cards then do it, that will take the load off the CPU. That doesn't mean you shouldn't upgrade the CPU though but you'll have the draw the line somewhere.

I'll second what ClubNeon says, no need for any Quadro (NVidia) or Fire (ATI) series cards, just get the mainstream ones. Don't know what your budget is, but the i7 920 and 12GB RAM is a good start. If you have extra to spend, I'd upgrade the CPU before the RAM.

The Canopus cards were nice in the past for accelerated video encode/decode, but the more general purpose CUDA processing model, allows for all parts of the video processing to be handed off. That includes things like DNR, resizing, color correction, etc. It's only limited by the programmers of the software.

If course that means it has to be supported by the processing software, so review what program you plan to be using before committing to a particular hardware purchase. Although, if the software is still up in the air, I highly recommend looking for programs which do have CUDA support.

Most of this technical discussion is way beyond what I do, but I've built several basic computers and here is some "beginner" advice.

Take your time and be very methodical. Don't force anything into place and don't overtighten screws or connectors. Most components will slip or click into place easily. If they don't, stop and reevaluate what you're doing. Follow all of the steps in the motherboard manual carefully for making connections and jumper settings. Double check everything before you turn the power on.

It really is not very difficult as long as you go slowly and carefully.

Excellent! Thank you all for your advice!