Update: Thanks to all you wonderful leechers who helped out, the new parts are on their way. For those who are curious, I decided to go with the quad core and 4GB RAM. This means you can expect more bluray releases as soon as next week this weekend (because of Newegg’s same-day shipping)!
Also, I now know why the site admin disables the donation button after we meet our monthly goal. If he didn’t, we’d get almost $10,000 in donations every month. Which is ridiculous, right? o.o
Original post:
Some of you may have heard that the computer being used to encode most of the blurays is currently dead. Well, this is sadly true. I’ve also heard people asking/complaining about Railgun. With that computer broken (and it being the only one I have with a bluray drive), Railgun and Hayate blurays (as well as any other series that might have been on there, which are Asu no Yoichi and the fixed OP/ED for K-On) are delayed until the computer can be fixed. However, I don’t have the money to fix it, and finding a job in this economy is harder than finding Osama bin Laden. I am not asking anyone to donate to fix the computer. However, I can’t encode any of these blurays until it is fixed. So I’ll just post a convenient link here in case anyone wants to bring the bluray computer back online faster. And yes, I did have to set up a separate site for this, because our site admin finds it effective to disable the “Donate” button on here as soon as our goal is met every month. Anyway, just keeping you, the leechers, updated.
Sincerely,
Your faithful encoder
What’s broken in the computer?
Never mind, I just clicked the link and read…
>>> finding a job in this economy is harder than finding Osama bin Laden.
Same problem, economy is totally f@$%ed π
I’ve been searching for a month now and haven’t gotten so much as a call back. I must have applied to over 40 businesses. It’s ridiculous. :<
You lie, I know what really happened. Mikoto was unhappy with your encodes of Railgun, and she tried to fry you, but only got your computer.
Just to let you know, the cpu for the computer you want is good, but you can get a amd 955 3.40ghz for less than 150, quad core that’s better. I’m a computer nerd and know my bits. mo board same as mine, good choice too.
She should fry JCStaff instead for making the blurays so upscaled. :< By the way, thanks for the advice, massssm. An AMD quad probably won't outperform an i7 like a 6-core would, but hey, for $100 less (than an i7), nobody can complain. :p
Actually, Soichiro, that AMD quad would most likely do the encoding job just as well was that that Phenom would. Take it from someone who graduated computer high-school. π
Trust me I did benchmarking tests on an I7 and 955 and 955 came out better when performing under stress, which with my blue-ray drive, does the job great with a 7gb movie file ^__^ I can play Battlefield bad company 2 at the same time π
The 955 is a quad core, so it allows you to do a lot more, what I’d also reccomend is 4gb ddr3, for double the price, maybe lower than what your planning on paying for the ram, because if you can get a cpu for less you will have money left over for some ram. Which allows you some more paging file memory to do a lot more crap. But hey, that’s my opinion. It’s you who has the money problems at the moment π
Good luck, I can’t wait for the other episodes ^_^
Also what’s the Ghz of the 6-core you getting if you don’t mind?
@masssm:
“AMD Phenom II X6 1055T – $200” on the ChipIn website.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103851&cm_re=amd_X6-_-19-103-851-_-Product
I’d guess… 2.8 ghz.
And… Isn’t it better to have more cores for encoding? Well, I wouldn’t know how many cores are the most optimum for use in that kinda thing anyways. Educate me. Well in the case it’s optimized for more cores, X6>X4, but yeah, a game would definitely outperform with an X4 (Like Bad Company 2) since that is more optimized for quad cores.
geez,
Misaka-san shoots your computer π
6 cores should be good for encodings XD
Why only 2gigs of RAM?! Especially for encoding huge amounts of data which bluray’s surely provide more RAM would make much more sense. If you don’t want to get 4gigs because you want to stick to 32bit OS just forget it. 64bit is the future and all the disadvantages that 64bit OS’s brought with them have nearly vanished nowadays. Really if you want to get a 6 core processor get at least 4gigs of RAM.
Not always, I have a P4 1-cpu 4.40Ghz It’s better than a quad and dual, but that’s low end versions, So the 955 is a high end quad which will be better than a new, first design generation of a 6-cpu. Yeah why only two, as I said in the last post, get 4gb, so fast. Encode+Bad company 2 works well for me. With blue-ray 7gb file π
And yeah, about the OS. Get 64BIT if your planning on getting more than 2gb. 32BIT OS can only handle up to 2gb, anything higher than 2gb will not be accepted, so the other 2gb’s out of 4 will not be used. So the 64BIT allows it to all be used.
Also should we be using this post to talk about Computer parts :S if it’s Ok with you ^_^
cool pic. Who made it?
since BD drives are just plain SATA couldn’t you plug it into a different computer with SATA ports?
You can, but maybe the other computer(s) are not as powerful to encode π try it on a standard computer you’ll se smoke coming from the back and a hole in the side of the case π
Tom: I don’t have any other computers with a SATA port. I have a laptop here, and my other encoding comp is a remote server located 1000 miles away. Not exactly the best for hooking SATA drives up to.
desti: I’m trying not to spend too much money (considering I’m already broke). I would like to get 4GB, but that would push the price up quite a bit. Anyway, my old encoding computer only had 2GB, and it did fine as long as I didn’t also try to play Crysis or something while encoding. Then again, my old computer was only a dual-core. With more threads, x264 would probably use more RAM, so I may want to look into 4GB. But it depends how much money I can pull together.
I’m also curious, because I heard that 32-bit Windows 7 could support over 3GB, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not.
And yes, x264 is optimized for multi-threading, although thinking about it, it may actually be better to get a faster CPU with fewer cores (aka a quad core), since Avisynth isn’t multi-threaded, so things like decoding the blurays and filtering would be faster on a quad core. (Actually there is a plugin to make Avisynth multi-threaded, but it’s not very efficient and doesn’t work with all filters.)
Windows 32 bit can support like 4 GB, but 1 GB is given to the graphics. So basically, you’d get like 3 GB of RAM for the actual system… Or something like that, but either way, if you get 4 GB, you should get 64 bit Windows.
1. – Massssm: the only reason why your P4 is better than a quad is because its at 4.40 GHz. Thats it, end of discussion. If i clocked my Quad core to 4.40 GHz, it would smoke your P4 in seconds.
2. – Get 4 GB of ram. It will help withencoding. Also, get an OS that does well with multi cores (windows 7 is good with them) and get a quad core. 6 cores vs 4 cores isn’t worth the extra money. 4 cores will be fine for encoding.
3. – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704 that processor is more than enough power for encoding, especially if thats all you’ll be doing with the machine. the extra 2 cores and cache aren’t worth the extra $100.
This is what you get for letting BiriBiri onto your computer.
Anyway, 2 gigs are fine, as long as you don’t really do anything else with your computer. If you can get a good deal, I’d say go for 4 gigs.
I don’t think on video encoding, the P4 set at 4.40GHZ would beat a phenom II 9xx series and above at their stock speed. Well, we would need to do some benchmarking for that.
Yeah 4 GB of RAM would be adequate, at least you’ll know you will not need to upgrade later on.
Matt is right by saying that with an x64 application, your encoding will be faster. ( and that L3 cache don’t help encoding so if you pick a quad-core, you could go for a Athlon II as mentioned to save even more money.)
Btw a 6 cores or a 4 cores, well, it is really up to you. Since later on, softwares will problably use the hexa-core better but as for now, they don’t have significant gain.
Anyway, I like the components you picked and the case is good looking! XD
Taking an X6 and crippling it with only 2GB of ram is like taking a Maserati engine, filling it with sludgy oil, and then running the car on ancient bald tires.
@masssam
Your P4 will only maybe beat a dual or quad core in single threaded applications, I say maybe becuase in addition to more cores, the Core2 and the i7 architectures gained much more efficency per clock cycle which means between a 2.2ghz Core2 with only 1 core active and a 2.2ghz P4 the Core2 will nearly always win.
@Everyone who says 2gb is not enough
I encode on *nix which takes more Ram then if I did it similarly on Windows due to the need for avs2yuv being run in wine, even when encoding blurays I never see my OS+avs2yuv+x264 take more then 2gb of Ram besides when I was running some tests on how well larger lookahead values fair. Needless to say, higher values have diminishing returns and by the time it was taking more then 2gb of Ram, the value was over sane limits.
@The Wingless
Thats only if your graphics card has 1gb of Vram, even then the kernel can access the above 3gb Ram, it can just not give it to applications. Although I would still reccomend 64 bit due to x264 performing ~15% faster by most estimates (although unless you use lavf/ffms input needing to run avs2yuv will cut this to 5%)
@Soichiro
By the time you get to faster quad cores/i7/X6 you have to do multiple encodes at the same time if you want to saturate all of your cores, avisynth is too slow. You just have to make two/three encodes and append them in mmg
Seeing so many WRONG comments about computers is painful, although I see Blazewardog has corrected most of them.
Threads to long for me to care beyond this ego trip comment, beside everyone needs to be a computer newb at some point in time.
Ninja: I actually don’t know who made it. I found it on a google image search, which is how I find most of my blog post images. :p
Avisynth is the bottleneck, but on my i7 I encode 2 or 3 things at the same time to max out the CPU lol.
@Blazewardog:
“even then the kernel can access the above 3gb Ram, it can just not give it to applications”
Pretty much that right? Well I figured it was something like that. Thank you for clearing that up.
Finding a job is easy, and as you need only 500$ it is even more, you don’t have to look for a scientist position, just regular cleaning and you will get them, but since ppl already donated, nevermind.
If finding a job were easy, I would have found one 1 month and 50 job applications ago. Maybe you’re fortunate and live in a state that doesn’t have an idiot for a governor, but my state has an idiot for a governor, and an unemployment rate above the national average (which is already high). On top of that, nobody likes Indiana to begin with because we’re stupid and all we have is corn and racing. So basically my state sucks.
Come to Europe, Americans are faggots, at least that’s what European News channels show us.
Wow, it’s been only 3 days and you’re already over your required amount !
Bisou, this is true. However, have you seen the price of plane tickets to Europe? Those things are expensive! So I figure Canada’s probably the next best thing.
Glad to see you got all the money you needed! I would have donated had I seen this before your amount, as I really appreciate the railgun Blu-rays. Thanks for the encodes!
i have to say i lost 400+ GB in raid π but i will try to get my data back π
glad to hear you got the money ;]
i can setup a VMware or a remote desktop system of any type and let you use my system if ya like
spec’s
EVGA SR-2 dual intel 5680’s (12 cores 24 with HT) at 4.2ghz water cooled
3 GTX480 gpu’s lite OC waiting for water blocks
24GB of ram at 1440mhz 6-6-6-19-T2
dual corsair HX1000W PSUs
pulls 54k in vantage
i have a bluray burner as well as a 100Mbs up and down hookup
have 2 128GB SSD HDD
and 4 1.5TB drive’s in raid 0+1
2nd option is send me what settings you want used
and a link to raw files and i can encode them for you
i have studio grade Art monitors and a i use my spyder3 to keep them in check
i have 2 systems setup like this so large batches can be done quick if need be
mastertech24 AT gmail DOT com
Tow3r: Ouch. That sucks. Thankfully my hard drives are still intact, as far as I’m aware. I got lucky in that aspect.
Joe R: Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but it’s a little late now that the new parts are scheduled to be delivered today. :p Although I gotta say, that is one HELL of a system. o_o I’m jealous, lol.
@Blazewardog 2 GB is enough of the person is using a light OS, such as Linux. The main reason I say that 2 GB isn’t enough is because Windows 7 64 bit required at least 2 GB of RAM. Windows 7 also uses multi cores very efficiently. I don’t know how efficiently Linux, the newer versions anyways, use multi cores. I’ve got a quad core and windows 7 uses it very nicely.
@masssam The only other possible reason why your P4 is outperforming quad cores is because the OS is light. If you were to run Windows 7 on each, side by side, the P4 wouldn’t do well at all, even at that speed, let alone P4s at that speed being very unstable and getting EXTREMELY hot. they aren’t made for those speeds, period.
@misayoto Applications don’t use multiple cores, at least in windows 7. Windows 7 assigns a core to an application, so if you have a quad core, 1 core for the OS, and 1 core for each of the first three applications thereafter. if the user has a 6 cores, they can run 5 different applications quite well. I can’t say anything for Linux since I don’t really use it.
And the only reason I say 64 bit will be a better bet is because the hardware, coupled with the right OS, will allow the software to crunch through it quickly. If you have a 6 core but only 2 GB of RAM, the OS will have to read and write constantly to the harddrive. If you have lots of RAM, less reading and writing during encode (but it will still write to the harddrive when the file is being created) and more breathing room for the computer. But in order to USE the RAM, which is the key, you need a 64 bit OS, especially the newer ones. The 64 bit allows the RAM to be used and the newer OSes allow far more efficient use of the multi cores. Older OSes like XP and possibly Linux versions don’t use the multi cores well, more specifically the Quad cores. I don’t even want to know how badly XP uses a 6 core. Since Soichiro is getting a core that has more than 2 cores, its advisable to have more RAM and a newer OS to really get through it quickly, that is, if speed is an issue. If it’s not the biggest issue, then a 32bit OS will work sufficiently, but the RAM won’t be completely accessible to that sole application, only up to 2 GB.
I hope I’ve explained that well enough.
@Soichiro “Iβm also curious, because I heard that 32-bit Windows 7 could support over 3GB, but Iβm not sure if thatβs true or not.”
Double posting I know, but deal. It’s rather the 32bit architecture that’s the limiter. 32 bit can SEE up to 4 GB, but that also includes any sort of graphic card, onboard or dedicated card. ( 1 GB card, you only can have 3 GB RAM, 512 MB card, 3.5 GB of RAM)
However, 32 bit can only USE up to 2 GB per application. But, there is a crack of sorts for tricking XP(I only know of XP that you can do this to) 32 bit into USING beyond the 2 GB limit (I know this, I’ve done it). It would be far more efficient to get a copy of Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate (grab a torrent of it).
I would have gone for 8gb of ram instead of 4gb
Quad Core YAY. 4GB of RAM is fine. I host a server with only 2GB and it seems to be faster than our server with 8GB. Certainly the 8GB of RAM server has 4 Dual cores but it seems to just chug along.
And about those donations. That is amazing! I wish I saw donations like that for my radio station π
Bigger density memory sticks have higher latency, so if I were to get 8GB of RAM and didn’t use it, I would actually be slowing my computer down. And so far, my computer hasn’t gone above 3GB, and that’s when encoding 1080p. So yes, I think 4GB is a fine amount. :p
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