Handbrake encoding machine

lwhitworth

lwhitworth

lwhitworth

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Joined
1 Oct 2010
Posts
13
Hi all,

Currently encoding a big stack of DVDs to mp4 and the process is going to kill my three year old laptop at this rate, as it's only running a Core2Duo P8400 @ 2.26Ghz, and after encoding for a bit you could fry an egg on it.

So I'm thinking of a desktop to sit in a corner of my house and churn through the encodes. Doesn't need any fancy graphics or sound cards, doesn't need a huge chunk of local storage as files will end up on a NAS, don't need a monitor or anything like that. CPU is king with Handbrake so the faster the better!!

Budget somewhere around £500 - £600 but not set in stone. If it means saving some pennies that could be used for Hardware I could even run Ubuntu on it over Windows ;)

Cheers for any tips
 
Hello.

The i7 proccesser is what you need. They are pricey at £270 just for the chip.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £269.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £88.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi "Core" USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £46.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
Total : £584.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).



have a look over these components and see what you think. i would be inclined to double the ram if you can afford it. as you know with encoding its all about the ram and cpu cores

I have not included a hard drive in there also. i would get a 60gig ssd and just use that.
 
Last edited:
Come up with the spec below, don't forget you will only decode as fast as the DVD reader can supply the data, unless the data is already on the hard drive?


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
(£154.16) £184.99
(£154.16)
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
(£30.82) £36.98
(£30.82)
BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £34.98
(£29.15) £34.98
(£29.15)
TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Sub Total : £499.90
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £102.23
Total : £613.38
 
Thanks so much guys for your quick replies.

When encoding I run everything through makemkv first, so the actual Handbrake part is run disk to disk (means I can stack up an entire season of a show before going to bed).

Am very very tempted by an i7 system so will probably head down that route :D Just as an aside, if I buy it without Windows for now, can I just purchase an OEM Windows 8 version down the line, or is the rule that you still have to buy it at the same time as some hardware?
 
RJC said:
You should be ok purchasing windows on its own, worse case buy a USB key :D
Click to expand...

It has been a very long time since the only requirement for using an OEM version of Windows was purchasing it with some random piece of hardware.:) (assuming that's what you were referring to)

I believe that the revised licensing options for Windows 8 will finally legitimise the use of OEM versions of Windows for personal use.

For Windows 7 the licensing terms of the OEM version don’t allow it to the purchased and used on an individual basis. This obviously doesn’t stop it working perfectly well, and MS are unlikely to come looking for you.

If you're spending £500-£600 on a PC I hope you'll get use out of it beyond encoding DVDs.
 
The alternative is of course to look for an alternative to Handbrake - an alternative that uses the graphics card to process. I use Handbrake but I also use Badaboom. The latter is a good 6 or 7 times faster running off my 580 GTX as opposed to my Q9450.

Of course, difficult to get the GPU you want into a laptop...
 
Cool I'll give Badaboom a look. My laptop only has a ATI HD3400 so I don't know how much that's likely to help!

As for getting more use out of the system than just encoding, that's the one thing that's stopping me from buying at the moment tbh, as I don't think I will. Already got a laptop that (apart from encoding) does everything I need and a Nas for file storage. Can't really think of anything else I need a system on 24/7 for!

And 7-9 minutes on a i7.....jealous!
 
Isn't this sort of workload something a Hexacore AMD thrives on?

An i5 will only be 20% slower than an i7 for this sort of workload btw.
 
Strange thing is from testing my 2600k there's no difference in encoding time using handbrake, with ht on. 8 threads are used but the time is the same as with ht off. Quick sync is OK for small portable devices, but if you have a big TV then handbrake is the way to go
 
Yeah I'm encoding to watch via apple tv on my 40" tv so it's a nightly build of handbrake using the appletv3 preset with decomb switched on at default level at the moment. Cheers for all discussions so far, plenty of food for thought!
 
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