PC for video editing

I have a buddy that runs a YouTube channel. He is wanting me to build him a PC for video editing. His budget is around $1,600. It's not going to be for gaming at all. It will only be used for surfing the web and video editing. I'm not exactly sure where to start. With his limited budget I know I can't go the 5930k route. That would eat up about half of the funds. Also what video cards should be used? I've been looking around at some Quadro cards. His camera is capable of 4K and he may move to shooting 4K video. Does anyone have some recommendations? Should I try to go the x99 route for the DDR4 or should I stick with an older platform?

I cant give you a real in depth response here but maybe I can help a little. My sig rig will do video editing fairly reasonably. Ive never done anything with 4k or youtube, but I can splice/dice/re-encode and add sountracks in reasonable amounts of time. I guess it would really depend on content volume. If I were trying to push new content (for the sake of argument lets say its an hour long 1080p video) every day I think i could manage with my sig rig. If I needed to do 20 of those a day, Id want to cut down on encode times with faster ram and a beefier cpu and a state of the art graphics card. As far as a good nongaming gpu goes, Ive seen the Firepro line mentioned as business class (photoshop and video rendering) and it carries similar specs to many gaming gpu. I cant say too much about them because Ive never looked to closely at them.

I hope that gives you an idea. The main point is that content volume is going to be your determining factor. Im not sure but I think resizing of resolutions is done in the GPU and changing formats is done by the cpu.

5820K is the same price as 4790K... just the mobo and quad channel DDR4 will be a bit more expensive. Since he doesn't game, you can use a lesser GPU that will help offset those costs... assuming his work is CPU heavy of course.

You need to find out what software he's intending to use. Can't give a proper answer with "he wants to make youtube videos".

Quadro cards aren't happening on that budget.

He records the videos, re-encodes them, and uploads to YouTube. His current rig takes hours to do a short video. He does a couple a week at least. He was going to buy a Dell or something similar. I talked him out of buying one from a store. I'll piece something together and post it here.

Do you think ddr4 will be a substantial difference from ddr3 when it comes to encoding?

it sounds like bob might have a more in depth answer but from what you've said I think the choice of DDR4 would depend on whether or not you want to give your buddy any change back from his budget. Ive only seen pics of DDR4 and the price seems to be coming down but a mobo that will support it brings your cost up a bit right? As far as the performance.... I use a few different programs depending on what Im doing and Ill put it to you this way... I havent maxed out my ram yet. I get closest with Photoshop and authoring tools (compilations with soundtracks, or syncing audio in a poorly synced vid, or even worse trying to clean up noise). So.... 8gb wouldnt be enough DDR3 and 16gb doesnt get maxed out... Ive got no idea what that translates to in DDR4. From what Ive seen "encoding" is cpu heavy and if you want to help that along get all the clock speed you can. My definition of encoding is taking an mpeg from a camera and re-encoding it to h.264/265 -- maxes out the cpu no matter the clocks. I havent been able to bring my clock speeds up enough to still have cpu left over during encodes. I think those programs are set to grab every bit of cpu available no matter what, meaning they will grab all 8 cores and all threads available to get every time. Hyperthreading is a big plus when it comes to this type of work.

He already making videos. Just trying to speed up the process. He's sponsored by some of the biggest manufacturers in the firearms industry. He currently uses Sony Vegas but says he may switch to Adobe. I saw some Quadro cards on Amazon fairly cheap but I'm sure they are ancient.

Both of those softwares utilize CUDA cores.
Definitely get him on a 5820K though.

Something like this is what I'd recommend:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nHZhzy

^^Looks like a pretty solid build, but I would spend the extra $20 and get the updated version of that mobo that supports USB 3.1. It may come in handy in the future when he is transferring large 4k video files.

Quaddro cards are typically over rated for their uses. It's likely the ones for "cheap" are extremely out dated and weaker than newer GeForce cards. For gpu acceleration, more Cuda cores the better, so be sure to compare that to newer GeForce cards. The benefits from Quaddro cards are pretty small for their cost and typically are best suited to operations that are best served with double data precision warrants it (aka not your average youtuber).

Atm gave you a great starting point, and I believe everyone here would say go that route for sure. I'd stretch budget and get more storage and a better gpu personally (if feasible).

Thanks for all the info everyone. I put one together earlier today. Here's the link.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jP93YJ

It's a little past his budget. Especially with 9.5% tax being added in. Unless he doesn't mind ordering from multiple sites. I was trying to squeeze in a 780ti but I think it'll take it too far past his budget. I think I may be able to talk him into the build I posted. I'll send him both though just in case. My main concern is clearance for the heatsink and the team under the heatsink. I guess I'll have to test it out on my rig as I have both. I actually know where a 780 ti kingpin is new in box for $350. Maybe I can convince him of the benefits of the higher end card since the programs will utilize cuda.

Would there be a big difference between 5820 and 5930 for his use?

Edit: It should be 4 x 8GB sticks.

bob4933 said:

Quaddro cards are typically over rated for their uses. It's likely the ones for "cheap" are extremely out dated and weaker than newer GeForce cards. For gpu acceleration, more Cuda cores the better, so be sure to compare that to newer GeForce cards. The benefits from Quaddro cards are pretty small for their cost and typically are best suited to operations that are best served with double data precision warrants it (aka not your average youtuber).

Atm gave you a great starting point, and I believe everyone here would say go that route for sure. I'd stretch budget and get more storage and a better gpu personally (if feasible).

Click to expand...

The biggest benefit of a Quaddro card is industrial class stability, and better driver and customer support. Quaddros are almost always less powerful for the same money when compared to the GT and GTX lines.

You don't need a super powerful GPU for video editing. That's why ATM's build has a 950 and 5820K instead of a lesser CPU and 970 or so. Just because more is better doesn't mean that you can justify spending $100+ more to speed up encoding by less than 1%. ATM's build, like Bob said, is the one I would recommend.

OGMCVilleTC said:

Thanks for all the info everyone. I put one together earlier today. Here's the link.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jP93YJ

It's a little past his budget. Especially with 9.5% tax being added in. Unless he doesn't mind ordering from multiple sites. I was trying to squeeze in a 780ti but I think it'll take it too far past his budget. I think I may be able to talk him into the build I posted. I'll send him both though just in case. My main concern is clearance for the heatsink and the team under the heatsink. I guess I'll have to test it out on my rig as I have both. I actually know where a 780 ti kingpin is new in box for $350. Maybe I can convince him of the benefits of the higher end card since the programs will utilize cuda.

Would there be a big difference between 5820 and 5930 for his use?

Edit: It should be 4 x 8GB sticks.

Click to expand...

I see no reason to go 5930K, he won't be utilizing that many PCIe lanes.
Why such an expensive motherboard? What features does that gain him?
Why a Pro over an EVO on the SSD? What does that gain him?
The 750Ti is slower than the 950, but this only cuts ~$15 off the build.
Any need for the doubling of price on CPU cooler? It doesn't sound like he'll be overclocking if he was going to buy a Dell.

Dlaw said:

The biggest benefit of a Quaddro card is industrial class stability, and better driver and customer support. Quaddros are almost always less powerful for the same money when compared to the GT and GTX lines.

You don't need a super powerful GPU for video editing. That's why ATM's build has a 950 and 5820K instead of a lesser CPU and 970 or so. Just because more is better doesn't mean that you can justify spending $100+ more to speed up encoding by less than 1%. ATM's build, like Bob said, is the one I would recommend.

Click to expand...

For sony vegas, no, i wouldn't even bother with a GPU to begin with. But if he gets into after effects or light draw, (VERY FEASIBLE if hes already using vegas), then gpu power WILL matter.


edit: anyone use openCL? I strangely havent seen that myself, r9 290 may be a good medium of power and cost if openCL is acceptable substitute for cuda.

I was going to overclock the CPU of course. I was just discussing the CPU differences with Tukr on Destiny last night and decided to go down since he wouldn't utilize the lanes. He wants to "future proof" as much as possible. I think his last computer is 5+ years old. I could probably go the evo heatsink and still keep it cool. As far as the motherboard, I've always had good experiences with Asus. I have one that is ancient and still running fine. My Asrock board needed to be replaced and I was less than impressed with the z97 OC Formula. I'll look to see what less expensive boards there are. I guess it's my fanboyness coming out. I've used the pros in my builds and never had an issues. I reckon using an evo wouldn't be bad. I'll just research their warranty compared to the pro and go from there.

The 212 evo is a good budget unit, but its not really a super quality unit. For a higher end workstation type build, youre better off biting the bullet and getting the better dual tower coolers that are on the market.

OGMCVilleTC said:

I was going to overclock the CPU of course. I was just discussing the CPU differences with Tukr on Destiny last night and decided to go down since he wouldn't utilize the lanes. He wants to "future proof" as much as possible. I think his last computer is 5+ years old. I could probably go the evo heatsink and still keep it cool. As far as the motherboard, I've always had good experiences with Asus. I have one that is ancient and still running fine. My Asrock board needed to be replaced and I was less than impressed with the z97 OC Formula. I'll look to see what less expensive boards there are. I guess it's my fanboyness coming out. I've used the pros in my builds and never had an issues. I reckon using an evo wouldn't be bad. I'll just research their warranty compared to the pro and go from there.

Click to expand...

My point is that you don't need a $300+ motherboard for him, whether it's Asus or not.

My build should have been showing a nice Phanteks cooler, does it not?
And if overclocking, look for an AIO.
Honestly though, he needs stability, I wouldn't overclock it unless he wants you to.

i used to do a lot of video work (using premiere). Cpu threads are king in the re-encoding space.

Does your friend have any parts that can be re-used?

If it were me, I'd go with something like this socket 2011, 8-core, Xeon for $400, a cheap but decent mobo like this one , maybe something like this quad kit of ram.

Note that I'm sure you can find better prices than what is linked.

Just some thoughts...8 cores, 32GB of ram, an AIO cooler and a decent graphics card would make a beast of a re-encoding box.

Update: Add a decent ssd and a couple/few, big sata drives in a fast raid config.

Update2: Just noticed your friend's desire for a bit of future-proofing (for whatever that's worth given the 1-2 year cycles atm). The above recommendation is definitely EOL but likely offers the biggest bang for the buck unless he can somehow swing a setup built around a 5960x.

I honestly didn't see the Phanteks. It didn't have a pretty picture beside it. I'm all about pop up books and pictures ATM.

Thanks for the revisions fun. All his parts are so old that nothing could be reused. He's coming into my work today and we're going to sit down and talk. I'll show him everything and go from there.

Yvw!
Perhaps he/you could re-use his case, psu, keyboard, mouse, some drives, ram, etc?

Yet another alternative that might be worth a thought is to go with a dual-socket mobo like this one. Add in a pair of 8 core xeons and he'll have a monster.