[LAU] OT: New i7 rig, Gfx card recomendations and more.

[Kaza Kore]

Hi all.

A little of your expertise and experience would be appreciated here. I am aiming to build a new computer to go in my old rack-mounted case, which has basically been out of service since I got my laptop some years ago. The main parts I have chosen based on what are used in some of the Ubuntu based video servers here at work. But they run in an X-less environment (using Firefox Chromless interface, controlled remotely via http from any (generally Windows) computer on the network) and use Blackmagic cards for HD video ingest and playout.

Most likely I will be hoping to get a stable Fedora/CCRMA install working on this computer (something I'm sorry to say I have attempted a few times on the laptop and failed.) I do suspect I will be persuaded to install Win7 on it at some point though. Why, you ask? Because it is due to be used with a mobile sound system for a combination of digital DJing, some VJing and probably some audio recording too. Although I will try and persuade people to use Mixxx (or use their own laptop) too many people are more used to, and have their controllers configured for, Tracktor or Serato. Of course it depends on it being commercially viable for me buying a licence for one of these and for basic, vinyl controlled digital DJing I believe Mixxx is now sufficient (although yet to test their claims.) On the VJing side the argument seems just as strong, with there being nothing to even remotely challenge Resolume out there! Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. (And also a good place to discuss Linux (Live) Video. I joined the sister list to this one on the subject but don't think I'm yet to see a single email on it.) But as I said I want to try and go the Linux (and predominantly FOSS) route at first.

I start with the few questions on the chosen pieces first:
Motherboard I am looking at is the Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3. As this is going to be very mobile I want to use the RAID option of the card. I was thinking 3x WD Caviar Black 1TB drives, connected to SATA 3Gb/s ports using RAID5 (cheaper than 2x 2TB drives and same redundancy.) I believe this is on the Z68 chipset. Does this kind of RAID play well with Linux? I would want multiple partitions across this main space so OS(s) and data both have redundancy.
Specs for the video servers used here are i7 2600k but I see the 2700k is only a few quid more so assume the upgrade would make sense?
I currently have a RME RPM (useful due the the dual Phono input meaning no prestage is needed for vinyl control of DJ software.) I only have the HDSP card for the laptop though. Would you recommend the PCIe or standard PCI HSDP card for use on Linux? At some point I would quite like to also get a Multiface for recording multiple streams at once but that is probably some time away and if I can get it all working with the RPM I'm sure it will with the Multiface.
Graphics card recommendations??? As stated some VJing work so will need something reasonable but I don't think it needs to be up with what is needed for the latest games. Budget is flexible-ish... I've already extended it once ;-)


Although maybe I should scale it back a little and go for a cheaper motherboard and i5 processor of some kind? At this specification it would seem silly not to use it as my main rig!


Sorry for going on and on so much. Many thanks to all that have managed to read and digest everything I have written. I have a backlog of posts from this list I will read through now, before getting to any replies I hope to receive from you ;-)

TL/DR:
Z68 - works with RAID5 on SATA2 ports OK?
RME HDSP card - PCI or PCIe?
Gfx card recommendations??
Or persuade me to go for a cheaper rig as I probably don't really need all that...

Regards, Dale.
 		 	   		  
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