Quiet PC Serenity Videostation

The ideal workstation PC for video editing work using popular editors such as Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas Pro, Cyberlink PowerDirector or other similar video editing suites. Aimed at the serious home user or PC professional.

The Videostation

With the proliferation of digital cameras and the ability of (almost) anyone to take good quality movies, the need for a powerful video workstation on which to actually edit the footage is becoming increasingly popular. QuietPC is proud to announce the Serenity Videostation which is ideal for running popular video editing software like Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas Pro.

Video editing is one of the most demanding tasks that a modern computer system can perform and as such, the options on offer in the configuration section reflect this need as this system can be set up for either the home enthusiast or the professional user. Customers looking for a system to meet more casual video editing needs should consider a system such as the Serenity Home Value.

Unfortunately it is not possible to offer a completely fanless system for video editing because of the intense CPU usage used in the video rendering process.

Which CPU do I need?

Any processor on offer with this system will do the job but the more powerful it is, the less time it will take to render your finished video so always choose the best processor that your budget allows.

Memory Considerations

The more memory that is chosen for the system, the better it will perform. Usually the specifications required for running your editing software will recommend the minimum amount of memory required. We would recommend a minimum of 8GB.

Choosing the Correct Video Card for your Software

Many modern editing applications take full advantage of the very powerful processor’s used on graphics cards developed by NVidia and ATI called a Graphics Processing Unit or GPU. This allows the application to greatly speed up tasks such as rendering and encoding without affecting the main CPU.

By default, no graphics card is selected in the configuration section. Video editing software like Adobe Premiere prefers the use of high-end NVidia video cards like the ASUS STRIX GTX 750 or the more powerful GTX 970 / GTX 980 Ti and high-end cards like the NVIDIA Quadro 4000. On the other hand, the ever popular Sony Vegas Pro works faster with ATI cards like the Sapphire AMD R7 250. If you don’t use either of these video editing packages then please check to see which cards are recommended for your particular editing software before choosing a video card.

Storage Options

While the default SSD drive offered with the system may be large enough for many users it is of course possible to add a much higher capacity SSD if required and a also a standard high capacity hard drive to backup your work. Many applications work better if they have a ‘scratch disk’ which they can use as a temporary workspace. Of course adding any component with moving parts will make some noise but it is possible to house any of the 3.5” drives on offer in a soundproofing enclosure like the Smart Drive Classic SATA HDD Silencer and this will minimise the noise from the drive helping to ensure a quieter system.

RAID Storage

Users with more advanced storage needs may be interested in having two drives in a RAID array in order to increase read/write speeds or to provide a relatively fail-proof backup system. The two types of RAID offered on this system are RAID 0 (Striped) and RAID 1 (Mirrored) and they store information in completely different ways.

RAID 0 arrays stripe data and writes information across two separate hard drives and is often used to increase the speed at which data is accessed and retrieved and this is particularly useful for large video files. The downside is that if a drive fails then you lose everything, so its important to make regular backups.

RAID 1 arrays mirrors data and writes identical information across both drives simultaneously without a speed decrease. So if one drive fails, no data is lost and the PC stays running. But if both drives fail, you lose everything, so its still important to backup regularly.

Programs like Adobe Premier CS6 recommend a RAID 0 drive configuration but do check the recommended specifications required the optimum running of your video editing software.

High Speed USB 3 Card Reader

In order to copy data quickly to and from a the PC via a card reader an additional internal USB 3 interface is required. Like most modern motherboards, the GA-Z97X-UD3H board has only one USB 3.0 internal header. The cases we use need an internal USB 3.0 header to connect the USB 3.0 ports on the top of the case but if you have an additional USB 3.0 requirement (such as a fast USB 3.0 internal card reader) then you would need to decide whether you wanted to have the case USB 3.0 ports or the card reader connected as you can’t physically connect both.

One way around this limitation is to fit an internal USB 3.0 PCI Express card. This will give the PC an additional internal USB 3 header and this is available in the configuration options.

Recommended Options

Video editing programs usually take up a lot space on your Windows desktop so it is usually a good idea to use a large display like the Dell 29” Ultra Widescreen Monitor or even the LG 34UM95 34” IPS Monitor to expand your desktop. The more space you have available on your Windows desktop the easier it will be to work with your editing software.

An alternative (and usually cheaper option) that many people choose is to use two monitors to increase the available space on their desktop and you may need that to view a full size video preview of the media on which you are working.

For professional users who are working with videos all day, the RAID 0 will help speed up the loading/saving and processing of large video files.