PC Hardware → [Parts Check] Recommend Proven, Reliable Motherboard/CPU/RAM for Video Editing

A friend of mine is asking me to build him a new editing workstation. His notebook is inadequate.
Something a few steps above a Q6600, but not bleeding edge. What he's looking for is solid, reliable components that have a good track record working with Adobe Premiere. He's running CC.
He'll need an SSD boot drive, and at least two SSD media drives. I have these picked out. What we need help with is finding a reliable, compatible motherboard, CPU and RAM. Below are the rest of his requirements:

"Please go ahead put some feelers out to the online forums as needed.
Re the motherboard:
I'm thinking of populating it with 16GB memory initially ... but please select a motherboard that has sufficient slots that I could add more memory later for total of 32GB.

I'd like to have lots of connection ports available ... including multiple USB 3.0, eSATA.
I'd like to have daughter board (PCI??) slots available for future expansion.
Re graphics card, I think it would make sense to use THE SAME card you use (GTX680).
Re cost:
I'd like to aim at the right level, i.e. NOT a bleeding edge high-end computer ... rather use components from two years ago.
But I don't want to skimp. Let's use good fans, extra capacity power supply.
If you think we can really save money with eBay used components, I'm willing to try ... especially on things that you can easily test and know whether work ok or not. I'm a little more leery about say the motherboard, because an intermittent connection could be really hard to find/prove."

We're going to use Muskin Reaktor 1TB SSDs and Intel 240GB boot drive.
Also EVGA GTX680 GPU.

Up for speculation are motherboard, CPU and RAM. A good compatible, well ventilated case, good after market CPU cooler because of the long renders. I think I'll recommend a Seasonic power supply, because they've been very good. But the rest I hope to hear your experiences with, what works, what doesn't. Etc.

I can't help you with components that have a good track record with Adobe Premier as I don't use the program and don't know much about what does and doesn't play well with it. What I can recommend if he wants stability over bleeding edge is to look for the "Corporate Stable" boards. I know Asus makes them and here are two currently on Newegg with an Intel 1150 socket.

»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 13131988
»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 13131990

They are Q87 and H87 boards respectively which are one generation behind currently. The H87 is simply a stripped down Z87 that lacks the ability to do SLI/Crossfire and overclocking (both things you are unlikely to need or want). The Q87 is the top of the line "business" grade chipset and has similar limitations of H87 but adds things like vPro (which you also likely don't need).

They both have the same additional PCIe 2.0 channels (8), the same USB ports (6x 3.0, 14x total) and the same SATA configuration (6x 6Gbps ports). They also both support 4 RAM slots with a max of 32 GB capacity (to get beyond this will require going to AMD or Intel 2011 socket).

If he really wants the ability to expand from 16 to 32 GB, you're going to need to populate with 8GB sticks unless he wants to remove sticks in the future (usually a waste). The downside to this is those sticks tend to be expensive.

Here's the full search results if you want to see the others (there's some built around the current gen chipsets, even a Z97 board). »www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· eSize=30

The issue I see with your motherboard necessities is the multi-eSata. From my looking it is incredibly difficult to find a motherboard with native eSata anymore. It is very likely that you will need to use add on cards for eSata. My search was by no means 100% but if it is real important for that need - then look for boards with eSata and go from there. If there are some out there - I would expect them to be pricey.

eSata is the interface that didn't take off, i actually know noone that uses it, if they have multiple hardware with it then you will need to get an extension card. there are still mobos out there with at least one port on the back.

I agree about the eSATA ports. I'm going to advise him to drop that (he may not even understand the difference--may be thinking of SATA for the internal drives).

BTW, kvn864, is that a Sun Conure in your avatar? I have an African Grey myself.

There are adapters that will convert an internal SATA port to an external eSATA port but you will have to give up one of the internal ports. That and make sure to enable SATA hot swap in BIOS.

You haven't posted a budget for this build, which makes it really difficult to recommend something. If budget is a real problem, because he mentions buying components on ebay, then forget the 1TB SSDs and buy the fastest mechanical hard drive instead, and put the money towards the best processor, either an i5 or i7, so he can benefit from QuickSync which will make video coding and decoding much faster.