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June 2002

Cutter's Targa 3000 Machine, Good God that's fast!
...that even a geek can afford: pretty far under ...

Oh, the Targa 3k...  It's what little editor dreams are made of.  You want real time mulitple stream uncompressed? You want RGBA uncompressed? You want Milk? Well you got it, the Targa 3K is about the most powerful thing out there and it keeps getting better. Targa 1.5 drivers offer full Win2k support and higher stability in a 64-bit world (which we have officially entered).  What's more, Targa machines have to be really fast, so I always have a blast putting them together.  I can get all scientific calculating electrical impedance, bandwidth limitations etc.  Brings a warm feeling to my tummy just think about it.  So if you were to consider buying such a machine, you would definitely make a friend at DV411.

The Chassis

Lets start off with the body (chassis).  I haven't really been into Supermicro cases very much in the past.  There previous series (SC-750) always seemed a bit too big and cumbersome, which need really long cables which caused some bandwidth issues.  Their new series, the SC742 seems to be a step in the right direction.  Though still very big and about as stylish as a Sherman tank, one of the versions (SC-742S-420, about $400), comes standard with a hot swappable SCSI drive compartment and a good size power supply (420W).  One nice thing about this series is the fact that you can buy a optional kit to make it rackmountable!  Most importantly it has a case mounted CPU fan assembly which is necessary when using the P4DC6+ motherboard.  Well some now info since the incite page; I have completed two machines using this case.  One SCSI and one IDE.  I have to say I like them a lot.  Much more than I thought.  They are still my second favorite next to the new IBM MPro cases.  The SCSI Chassis are well designed and sturdy, very good cooling.  Riveted and bolted steel as well as top mounted power supply chassis which gives me a little more headroom.  The only thing I can even begin to complain about is the SCSI backplane is only single channel.  Other than that, it's a spicy meatball.

The Motherboard                                                          

I'm going to have to go with the Supermicro P4DC6+.  Although Supermicro and I have had our problems in the past (mostly due to a REALLY poor DOA percentage, RAM compatibility, $$$$, etc.), I'm going to have to give them another chance.  The DC6+ is huge... gigantic even.  It gives me everything I need, Ultra ATA100, dual channel 800MHz Rambus, onboard LAN and audio, SCSI, etc.  I could go on but it's easier if you go to the Supermicro website.  You may think all this onboard stuff is unnecessary.  You're thinking "I could probably buy a cheaper motherboard and get a regular LAN card etc. and save some money!"  Well, you'd be wrong.  With all the other cards we are going to have to pack in there, PCI resources are going to become a problem (if not a problem definitely a concern).  So we want to keep off-board peripherals to a minimum.

The CPU'S

We are going with Xeon processors of course, but how fast and what kind do you ask?  Well Incite sets in minimum certified systems at 2.0 GHz.  I on the other hand am going to recommend the latest and greatest 2.4 GHZ (or faster) road hog.  These are the first of the Xeons to surpass the Athlon in certain key floating point benchmark tests.  Though I personally have yet to build a machine with 2.4s yet (you might think about helping me out on that one) the 2.2s remain relatively cool under pressure.  There is a really good article over at Tom's Hardware that everybody should read on dual AMD vs. Xeon.  Anyway, all arguments aside (and the fact that it's not money I'll be spending anytime soon), I'm going with Xeons for this configuration.

The Ram

Rambus, what can I say, it's fast, fast ram. Way more bandwidth that you actually need; for now.... We are going to start off with 2 gigs of ECC ram (4x512). Why?, you ask, the easy answer is that you can't have enough ram, you can't. The more difficult explanation is that I know when you buy this system your going to push it to it's limits. 10 titles with multiple composites and Combustion open in the background, and then some. Because I know you (and you know I do), I'm going to recommend 2 gigs.

SCSI Card

The ATTO Express PCI UL3D Dual Channel Ultra 160 SCSI Controller is what I like. Everybody's always going on to me about the Adaptec cards: Who the heck is Atto? I've always had Adaptec cards in my systems etc...Well, yes, previously I have always built my systems exclusively with Adaptec controllers. specifically with the 2940. I think mostly this is because Atto was only previously available on the Mac. I tell you!!, you have to see it to believe it. We had an Atto controller with a stripe of 8 10k drives pushing out 200 to 210 Mbs on a Targa 3K. The Adaptec on the other hand has trouble pushing 160 at best. Now your asking, "what do I need with that fast a stripe?". With software getting more and more sophisticated, taking advantage of certain features like background rendering and larger and larger file sizes demand really fast write speeds. With the Atto, your never going to worry about bandwidth!

Storage

OK, here's where it gets tricky. You have a whole lot of optional available to you when it comes to this subject. Everything really depends on how much capability you want out of the Targa. If you want three streams of YUV, your going to need a good size stripe. If your going for DV, then not so much. Check out our storage pages at DV411 Storage. For these pages I always go for the top because it pleases me to do so... let's just go for broke shall we. Take a deep breath. 10 by 36 15k Seagate ST336752. Yes it only 360 GB's, but the data transfer and seek times are staggering. Of course I couldn't guarantee any more than 210 Mbs, but.. Theoretically we here at DV411 agree that 270 to 280 speeds are attainable. Plus with a stripe like this you'll be ready for PCI-X 320 controllers. But that's for the future.

For your system drive I think an 18.4 GB cheetah 15k SCSI drive will do.  This will leave enough room for a dual boot system as well as extra storage for graphics, project files, EDL's and other miscellaneous files.  Plus it's really, really fast so your applications will run smoother and more stably. On a side note, doesn't it look cool too.

And how could a little old DVD-RW hurt.  We here at DV411 like the Pioneer A04 mostly because it seems to have the best overall compatibility with consumer level players.  In other words a DVD you burn on the A04 will have about an 85 percent chance of playing on any random player at Best Buy.  Even if that is not a concern you can use it to back up data just like a CD, except it will hold 4.7 GB.  I'm going to give you a regular sony DVD-Rom as well. This way you can copy from disk as well as test your DVD's out on a Sony laser. I think a floppy drive goes without saying, yes? 

Graphics

I'm going to recommend the Elsa Quadro4NVS. This is a new card on the market (released at NAB '02) based on the nVidia Quadro4 chip. Now this card has been optimized for video, not 3d like some of the other quadro cards. It's not going to give you a whole hell of alot of openGL support, but you do get 64 mb of ddram and dual screen overlay. It's a really good card and it's cheep, around $160 street. Also avalable is the NVS 400 which has Dual GPU's for quad monitor capability. I can't wait for eight :)

Ahh the TARGA 3000

Features..you want Features. How about eight layers of video, graphics and effects in real time, how does that grab you. How about 3 streams of YUV uncompressed. How about two streams of RGBA uncompressed. How about the power of flight (ok, you won't be able to fly, but you'll be flying through your projects). Go check out our Targa page and the Targa Homepage because I'm getting lazy in my old age and I would take up the entire page praising it. Two clicks are worth a thousand words.

Monitors

Since i'm already out of control, with a budget be dammed attitude for this page. Lets bring in the subject of monitors.

That's me: "Touched by a virus, but still standing"

Geeks-in-Residence Pages: Ultimate Machines Geeks Can Afford Created: June 2002  --  Last Updated: July 30, 2004 page views