X99 vs z170 Skylake for HD video encoding?

[VideoTechMan]

I had a question on your Skylake build LS. You can merge my post into my 'MB and Chipset' thread if needed, I just wanted to ask how stable your rig has been since you have been using it and how well it performs with rendering times and encoding. I know the Skylake system will chew up SD material for breakfast and lunch, but how well does it do for HD material, up to 1080p when it comes to encodes? Handling the data is usually I/O related.

Been reading and doing more research and many have said in other forums that Skylake is more suited for gaming while systems built around the x99 chipsets are better for video based editing. And there's the discussion of the cores, which is entirely software dependent since they don't utilize them all (especially hexcore and up based CPU's). But many of the posts I have read and googling mostly talks on gaming based performances but not many dealing with video and media production itself.

I'm also aware of the issue of the problem of installing Windows 7 on a Skylake system because of the lack of working USB ports thanks to the missing drivers that's needed, but using an ODD with the OS on DVD eliminates that problem.

I already have a Skylake based build in my Amazon wishlist currently. I have no desire to bother with 4K for quite sometime so all of my work will be with SD and HD up to 1080p material.

[lordsmurf]

The Skylake has no issues with HD -- including x265 encoding/decoding. My system is stable and cool.

Gone are the days of loud fans in a hot room. It's now almost silent, and as cool as any other room. It used to be the hottest room in the house. Realize that it's now almost the peak of summer (95 outside now, may hit 100 in July/August), and I'm not sitting in a pool of sweat, nor running the AC so hard it freezes up. This is how a computer should be!

The idea that Skylake is for games, and X99 for video, is absurd. That sound like something that a salesman would say, when he wants to clear out X99 stock. That's beyond stupid. A huge reason that Skylake was developed was for the lower power consumption, which results in less heat, while still being faster than anything before it. It does this.

I just read a few "x99 vs z170" (Google search) posts on various sites. I highly doubt any of them are (A) video professional, and (B) in the Texas heat. The reasons for x99 over z170 are stupid, because those have nothing to do with video. They're usually about PCI lanes, multiple core, and faster RAM -- and none of that matters. And nobody ever mentions the heat aspect.

The X99 chips are literally about twice as hot. You'll be paying for that twice: (1) power use, (2) AC use.

The 6700K has four 4ghz cores with 8 threads. It works great. Most video software doesn't use more than 2 cores. In fact, the more powerful the software, the less cores it uses. Ironic, huh? So Avisynth uses 1 core, and MainConcept uses 2 cores, while some silly low-quality freeware can use 4 cores. Premiere separates tasks per core and thread, so more cores won't necessarily do anything. In actuality, professionals don't want to fully surrender their system anyway, so not eating up 100% of the CPU is actually a good thing to many. I wish I could encode to 3 cores, and reserve the last one for other tasks. When I do want to surrender the system, I stack 2-4 tasks simultaneously.

There's zero issues with USB and Skylake. In the BIOS UEFI, simply turn on "PS2 over USB". And the motherboard has a specific USB port pair for mouse and keyboard. After Windows is installed, it's no longer an issue. This issue was overblown for no reason. I think mine is still turned on.

At first, I had a USB issue on my motherboard. But it's now resolved. Few settings tweaks, new USB cable.

If you get the X99, instead of the Skylake, you will regret it. (And I have no issue saying "I told you so!" Just ask my sister, who made several boneheaded computer buying decisions in the last 6 months, against my advice. Her home office is a hot wind tunnel, and her budget brand parts are constantly having problems.)

At some point, also realize that other aspects of the system matter more than the CPU. Huge multiple SSD are a must if you want speed. With video, the CPU is only as fast as the read/write.

Show me your Amazon wish list.

[VideoTechMan]

Well thats why i come here for good hardware advice. The x99 boards are more expensive and run hotter, and eventually they will be phased out. I haven't decided on a storage drive setup yet so the jury is still out on that one. There also may be a few things i may have left out on the list but may add later. I'm focused on the core components to get the system going and ensuring stability.

I know a strong I/O setup with the drives matter too to prevent bottlenecks. I know some have suggested RAID based setups but it looks that SSDs are to the point where they are more affordable for multidisk setups.

Eventually i do plan to run After Effects too as I will most likely want to do some graphics and animation work.

Current list:

Amazon i7 Skylake Build List

[lordsmurf]

The Cooler Master 212 heatsinks are vastly inferior to Noctua. Yes, the Noctua costs 2x as much, but it's at least 2x better. The heat gathering surface is huge, and their fans are silent. Noctua NF-P12 fans are the quietest fans that I've ever seen, and have interesting aerodynamic engineering. (It comes with two fans, but I only use the center one. Too many people overdo fans, and that actually hinders airflow.)

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D14...c1af9473d1c85b

And you want the low-noise (power cut) adapters:

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NA-SRC...2af9ff0708a51d

The Noctua is a huge reason why the system is cool and quiet! Probably the biggest reason, aside from the Skylake itself running cooler!

Asrock tends to be better than Asus these days. If you want lots of SATA/eSATA ports, definitely opt for the Asrock Extreme 7+ board. It's only another $50. I have 10 SATA/eSATA total on this board (Intel + Asrock port), and use 8-9 at all times. Most have 6 at most (Intel ports only). Enough SATA/eSATA was a major concern of mine. Video demands lots of storage, and I often needs multiple drives in use at once.

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-DDR4-M...d55f22aaff9e3b

The SSD seems small. I have a 1tb, and would suggest 512 as a minimum. My installed software is already 100gb, and I'm not done installing. I keep my old systems as VMs, and have just over 150gb there. So I'm already at 250gb. Sometimes I encode to the SSD because sometimes it's faster, and the extra space is nice for this purpose. Samsung 850 EVO is a good choice, PRO not needed.

I modded my PSU with a Noctua NF-P12 fan. It now has zero noise, as it cools better than the stock fan.

Antec 300 II case is still my suggestion.

For the most part, your build list looks good.

And use the integrated graphics. It works great, and is yet another way that you can cut down heat output. No graphics card = no heat. I didn't see a graphics card on your list, and I hope this is why.

[VideoTechMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

The Cooler Master 212 heatsinks are vastly inferior to Noctua. Yes, the Noctua costs 2x as much, but it's at least 2x better. The heat gathering surface is huge, and their fans are silent. Noctua NF-P12 fans are the quietest fans that I've ever seen, and have interesting aerodynamic engineering. (It comes with two fans, but I only use the center one. Too many people overdo fans, and that actually hinders airflow.)

Awesome, i'll make the adjustment for the Noctua heat sink. There were many good reviews on the 212 Evo, but as we all know reviews is just that. Having dug further about the 212, its more of a starter low end cooler.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

Asrock tends to be better than Asus these days. If you want lots of SATA/eSATA ports, definitely opt for the Asrock Extreme 7+ board. It's only another $50. I have 10 SATA/eSATA total on this board (Intel + Asrock port), and use 8-9 at all times. Most have 6 at most (Intel ports only). Enough SATA/eSATA was a major concern of mine. Video demands lots of storage, and I often needs multiple drives in use at once.

I've always known ASUS to be pretty solid boards for high end builds (other than gaming) as I have one in my DAW. I've used ASRock in all of my HTPC builds which adds to about 4 and often have many extra features not in other boards. I don't have alot of external drives right now, but I am sure as I get more involved in my work that will change definitely. I'll check into the Extreme +7. I also have to ensure that whatever RAM I get for it is compatible as well to avoid BSOD's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

The SSD seems small. I have a 1tb, and would suggest 512 as a minimum. My installed software is already 100gb, and I'm not done installing. I keep my old systems as VMs, and have just over 150gb there. So I'm already at 250gb. Sometimes I encode to the SSD because sometimes it's faster, and the extra space is nice for this purpose. Samsung 850 EVO is a good choice, PRO not needed.

I have considered the 1TB, but a bit high for my budget for now at least. In my case, I have a separate small Xeon server box running ESXi that takes care of my VM's. A 512 may be a reasonable size in the middle, especially once I start installing more space-hogging programs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

I modded my PSU with a Noctua NF-P12 fan. It now has zero noise, as it cools better than the stock fan.

I've yet to mod a PSU fan; the one that's in my DAW the stock fan there doesn't run until the system is under load. So for the most part the fan doesn't run at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

Antec 300 II case is still my suggestion.

The Antec cases are nice. I have the original 300 which is currently host to one of my XP capture boxes, and the 302 that houses my DAW. Ease of installation of drives is very nice. I've looked at the HAF XB case since the work area where I am doing my video editing is small and the work desk won't really accommodate a mid tower that well, not to mention that it will stick out pretty far from under the desk and partially block the VTR decks. Once I am where I have a much bigger room to work with then I can spread everything out. For now at least I have a condensed space.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

And use the integrated graphics. It works great, and is yet another way that you can cut down heat output. No graphics card = no heat. I didn't see a graphics card on your list, and I hope this is why.

That's correct. There are certain cases where an external GPU will be needed when doing 10-bit color or other intense operations that would need one.

Appreciate the suggestions!!

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, Cooler Master 212 is fine for casual builds. For example, for retired parents. But even then, it's somewhat noisy. By the time you add a quality $25 Noctua fan, you're almost spending enough to just buy the Noctua cooler to begin with. And the Cooler Master is hotter. Even the Noctua heat paste is better than most after-market pastes. Cooler Master hardware just is not premium. It's above-average budget goods.

My PSU is Cooler Master, and works great. But again, the stock fan was crap, and I had to mod it. There really wasn't much to it. I didn't follow instructions or anything like that. It was a basic power conversion, using an Exacto knife on the adapter.

Remember that air is your friend. A small case is confining, and hardware will run hotter as a result.

[VideoTechMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

Yeah, Cooler Master 212 is fine for casual builds. For example, for retired parents. But even then, it's somewhat noisy. By the time you add a quality $25 Noctua fan, you're almost spending enough to just buy the Noctua cooler to begin with. And the Cooler Master is hotter. Even the Noctua heat paste is better than most after-market pastes. Cooler Master hardware just is not premium. It's above-average budget goods.

My PSU is Cooler Master, and works great. But again, the stock fan was crap, and I had to mod it. There really wasn't much to it. I didn't follow instructions or anything like that. It was a basic power conversion, using an Exacto knife on the adapter.

Remember that air is your friend. A small case is confining, and hardware will run hotter as a result.

Most people swear on the Artic Silver 5 paste, but there are other good pastes out there too. Definitely heating up temp wise in Texas but also been punished with alot of rain too over the past month so its been quite a sauna here.

I also have a CM HAF 922 mid tower case empty from a former build that has plenty of room in it too so could re-employ it for the Skylake build. I've always used Corsair PSU's and never had any noise problems with their stock fans. Of course with their newer models they dont even run unless they need to, saving energy in the process. A decent sized case makes for good air flow to keep everything cool.

With the CM HAF XB Evo case I looked at, the motherboard installs horizontal instead of the usual vertical mounting which from what reviewers of that case say will allow better air flow over all the MB components. The PSU and drives are separated by being on the bottom of the case--you can look at some pics of that case to see what I mean.

Having a quiet system is a good thing, especially when it comes to me eventually getting into music composing, having a quiet room with virtually no noise is a necessity, so no XP capture boxes running during those times!

Oh one more thing....are you using studio monitors for your video editing rig? I've been pondering on how to work with that too. Though I can tie the audio into the mixer to hear on the loudspeakers, usually when working with video and audio its best to have some speakers directly in front of you when doing sound adjustments.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VideoTechMan

are you using studio monitors for your video editing rig?

Not anymore. My studio days are over (probably forever), and I've sold off or recycled a room full of gear over the past few years. And to be honest, an IPS LCD is just as good. External monitor/CRT/TV have their own quirks, and are not perfect like most folks seem to think. What I have left is personal gear, and then some gear used for the dFAQ restoration projects. And sometime there is overlap, using personal Skylake to restore, or work workflow to capture.