long-time lurker spec check for CS5 encoding

[bullyterrier]

Guys, I'm self-building for Adobe Premiere CS5 and so need lots of speedy threads AND CUDA (for the Mercury support) on the graphics card.

I have keyboard/mouse/monitors and Win 7/64 already.

This is where I am (and will wait for a day or so past 30th to see what the lower 950 v 930 prices stabilise at):

i7 930 (or maybe now 950?) overclocked to 4.0Ghz or so.
(will 950 overclock much higher than 930 with more reasonable volts?)
(i7 offers a significant boost in Premiere CS5 versus i5 worth the cost)
(I am happy doing my own overclock so don't want to pay bundle premium)

P6X58D-E

12GB (6 x 2GB) 1600 RAM - Premiere runs much faster at 2-4GB per "real" thread. Any brands/types to choose over another?

CM690 II advanced case
Corsair TX650 PSU
Corsair H50 cooler
(I just like the lack of clutter and intake mode will work with the CM690 fan config)

A GTX460 overclocked
(which twin slot one has the best cooling ducted out of the case? Is there a "strap on" cooler that ducts out? Card will run at 100% for hours)

Samsung F3 1TB drives
(may go RAID if I see an editing bottleneck here and will use the case external bay for rotating offsite backups)

Sony 22-24x DVD writer (the latest one on offer!)

Crucial C300 boot drive (not necessary but I like to reboot between runs, have no patience and want a boy's toy)

Any ideas for revisions gratefully considered!

 

[gary996]

Doesn't Adobe make use of the cores for rendering? If so the 980X would be beneficial

 

[bullyterrier]

Certainly does but that busts my budget.

Premiere CS5 uses threaded CPU for some tasks (e.g decoding) and the Mercury engine uses CUDA cores for rendering (and each release uses more CUDA cores more effectively).

Its a balancing act and so I'm leaning towards i7 930 with the GTX460 and then can sell the 460 and take the GTX up a notch or 2 once Mercury can more effectively use the higher CUDA count in the 470/480.