Processor and Components for Encoding - Suggestions

[shane]

Need help with deciding what CPU would be best for encoding video? I can spend close to $1,000 on the whole computer so not sure what to devote to the processor compared to the rest of the components. I was thinking of the Q9450 since the software I use is able to use multiple cores. Any suggestions?

Also, any other suggestions to go along with this CPU, motherboard, case.....? I am encoding h.264, AVCHD, whatever you want to call it. I do about 150 videos a week and they range from 250mb - 1.25gb.

Thanks for any help.

Shane

[Movieman]

I'd do a Q6600 rig, stiil huge for the money and most will clock up to 3.4-3.6ghz
That, a decent board,4 gig of memory,case,PSU,DVDRW,HD and decent vid card should be under $1000.00

[shane]

How important is the video card right now, will it help that much with the encoding? If not, I would wait and get one later down the road.

[karbonkid]

Well, nVidia showed some benchmarks using CUDA on graphics cards for encoding video, and it postively kicked a CPU's ass. So if you can afford it, get yourself two GTX280s and the CPU will be irrelevant.

[shane]

That would solve all my problems with even one of those graphics cards. Thanks for the link to the video. I read in one of the comments that all GeForce GPU's over the 8xxx series had CUDA enabled. I am assuming those new cards would break the bank, so would you suggest one of the others HERE for a cheaper choice?

Also, I don't want to go crazy with OC, I heard the Q9450 was very easy to bump up to 3.1 without any hassle. I think I still want to head that direction. Any suggestions on a motherboard to tie the 9450 with one of Nvidia's GPU's that I linked above?

[tiro_uspsss]

from what I understand, CUDAs support is very very limited - so I wouldnt bank on it