Help me build a new video editing rig

[dja2k]

Been a while from doing any custom builds so I need some help for compatibility purposes. I need suggestions for a motherboard / i9 cpu / 64gb ram combo, no O.C.. This rig is mainly for video editing with Adobe Premiere and the rest of Adobe CC Suite. Any help is welcome and thanks.

I personally will put in a 1TB SSD NVMe drive, a 850w+ power supply and a good GPU. Not sure about the case yet if I need optical drives or not.

 

[trents]

On the Intel side there are really no compatibility issues with motherboards, CPU and RAM. If you aren't going to overclock just get any mid range socket 1151 Z390 chipset motherboard that will support the i9 and 64gb of RAM. Your only real decisions for the motherboard besides that have to do with feature set questions such as number and placement of SATA connectors, USB type support (e.g. USB C), LEDs, how many fan headers, how many PCI-e NVME slots, onboard WIFI, etc. I would go for 3600 mhz RAM. Brand and timings won't matter much with the RAM. Look for a good buy. The Asus Prime series is a good mid range board but there are many others that can be had for about $175-$200.

As far as an optical drives go, they are slowly going the way of the floppy drive. I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker in choosing a case if push comes to shove and you like every other thing about a particular case that doesn't have a bay for an optical. Besides, you can always pick up a USB optical drive for those occasional times when you might need one.

Are you planning on any drives besides the 1TB NVME?

What are you planning to do for cooling the CPU? Choose a case that will work with your cooling solution, particularly if you are planning to use an AIO water cooling unit. Otherwise, choose a case that is large enough to accommodate the motherboard and the GPU you choose.

It might be a good idea to make some tentative choices based on what I have shared and post a list of the particular parts. Then we can critique the list and make suggestions.

 

[Zerileous]

What is your budget? I would check out these benchmarks and get the most cores you can afford. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...adripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1535/ https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...-Roundup-NVIDIA-SUPER-vs-AMD-RX-5700-XT-1564/

 

[trents]

What is your budget? I would check out these benchmarks and get the most cores you can afford. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...adripper-2-Intel-9th-Gen-Intel-X-series-1535/ https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...-Roundup-NVIDIA-SUPER-vs-AMD-RX-5700-XT-1564/

Ditto

Also, if you are not overclocking you won't need to spend a lot on CPU cooling but I would choose something that would cool better than the OEM cooler. The high end Intel CPUs don't come with boxed coolers but the lower end ones do. Maybe something like the CM Hyper 212 evo.

 

[DaveB]

Been a while from doing any custom builds so I need some help for compatibility purposes. I need suggestions for a motherboard / i9 cpu / 64gb ram combo, no O.C.. This rig is mainly for video editing with Adobe Premiere and the rest of Adobe CC Suite. Any help is welcome and thanks.

I personally will put in a 1TB SSD NVMe drive, a 850w+ power supply and a good GPU. Not sure about the case yet if I need optical drives or not.

I don't know if you're close to a Microcenter store, but here's an example of a Z390 motherboard, i9 CPU , 64GB ram combo based around the i9-9900 8C/16T CPU for under $700. The i9-9900 comes with a HS/Fan and has a max turbo speed of 5 GHz. For $30 they have the Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED for another $30. The Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X motherboard has out of the box compatibility with the i9, comes with two M.2 slots and the higher end Realtek ALC892 sound.

 

[wagex]

the more cores the more better, especially if you are editing 4k, my 7800x at 4.5ghz gets choked up at times with 4k and a 15 minute video takes about 35 minutes to export.

 

[dja2k]

Thanks! Yes 4k editing is a must. I am not close a microcenter, but I sure am a smart shopper. I will look at the exact parts and post a list.

 

[DaveB]

Thanks! Yes 4k editing is a must. I am not close a microcenter, but I sure am a smart shopper. I will look at the exact parts and post a list.

I just mentioned Microcenter because there are two in Texas, but as we all know, Texas is a big state.

 

[Zerileous]

Really I think HEDT is better suited for the task if you can afford it. Once you provide us with your budget we can start making some suggestions. Although the deal DaveB showed is one heck of a deal and you'd have a hard time finding better performance for the price.

 

[trents]

I'm also thinking his stated use is just up the Ryzen platform alley because of all the cores and the favorable price/performance ratio.

 

[DaveB]

I'm also thinking his stated use is just up the Ryzen platform alley because of all the cores and the favorable price/performance ratio.

The two are very close. If you price out a comparable Ryzen 8C/16T system with a 3700X or 3800X the final price will be very close. The CPU is a bit cheaper, but X570 motherboards tend to get pricey and Zen 2 likes higher end DDR4 which will cost a bit more. Here's a combo with the Ryzen 7 3700X where I used the comparable X570 Gigabyte Gaming motherboard with the recommended DDR4-3600 memory. The Ryzen price is actually $5 more which is total insignificant - using a 3800X would increase the price another $30 ($349 at Microcenter). So AMD really doesn't have any price/performance advantage and either will make a great system.

 

[dja2k]

How about we step it up to an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X?

 

[Zerileous]

If you look at the Puget benchmarks, for 8c/16t the 9900K has a noticeable advantage. AMD requires 12c/24t to beat the 9900k. I'm not sure about the 9900 though, I didn't even realize they made one until now (does that bring the total number of I-9 9900* SKUs to 4?), it has a lower base clock and lower TDP, so once it reaches turbo duration it will be running substantially slower (3.1GHz) than even the 3700x with a base clock of 3.6GHz.

Here the 1920x (threadripper 12c/24t) compares quite favorably against the 9900k for literally half the price. The 2920x also has a place at $350 in the budget market. Yes it's an older model but the value is massive at this point. https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...2018-Core-i7-9700K-i9-9900K-Performance-1254/. Be advised though that an x399 motherboard is going to eat $100 to $200 of the savings with a higher cost over a consumer board.

 

[DaveB]

How about we step it up to an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X?

Most Microcenters don't have any in stock. Amazon and Newegg have them for $530 but no $30 discount for the motherboard. So with the 8C/16T 3700X combo at roughly $690, add $210 for the 12C/24T 3900X and $30 for the motherboard for total upcharge of $250 with tax and a combo price of around $850. It may cost more at Newegg or Amazon so you should shop around.

 

[Zerileous]

How about we step it up to an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X?

Yes 12c/24t at Zen 2 (aka Ryzen 3000 series) clocks and IPC is going to outperform even the 9900k.

I've requested a budget from you a couple of times, without that it is really difficult to offer advise because you can easily scale up and buy performance up to a $2000 9980XE or even a $5000 Xeon-W. Because we don't know your budget, we're focused on if a 9900 will outperform a 3700X for $400 while likely a $250 1920x will outperform both of them.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...ith-Intel-Xeon-W-3200-Series-Processors-1561/

 

[dja2k]

Ok sorry asked for the budge and its anywhere between $2500 to $3000. He just wants the best for 4k editing and to cut his time coming from an old Ivy Bridge i7 with 32GB Ram.

 

[DaveB]

Ok sorry asked for the budge and its anywhere between $2500 to $3000. He just wants the best for 4k editing and to cut his time coming from an old Ivy Bridge i7 with 32GB Ram.

At that budget, go for the 12C/24T 3900X. Or go Threadripper. For example, Microcenter has the 24C/48T AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX for $800, and a TR4 motherboard such as the ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 goes for around another $220 so $1020 plus tax, and around $1,200 with 32GB DDR4. There's a new generation of Threadripper coming out but prices will be significantly higher than the close out price for the current models.

 

[dja2k]

At that budget, go for the 12C/24T 3900X. Or go Threadripper. For example, Microcenter has the 24C/48T AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX for $800, and a TR4 motherboard such as the ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 goes for around another $220 so $1020 plus tax, and around $1,200 with 32GB DDR4. There's a new generation of Threadripper coming out but prices will be significantly higher than the close out price for the current models.

That AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX looks nice and should keep him satisfied for a couple of years. Does that board natively support 64GB Ram?

Rough Estimate
AMD CPU $800
AMD MB $250
64GB RAM $600
Video Card 1660 Ti $260
Samsung 1 TB SSD $170
WD Black 4TB Black HD $180
Case Unknown $150
Corsair PS 850 Gold $130
Fans & Heatsink $100
Optical Drives $100
Total $2640

 

[DaveB]

That AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX looks nice and should keep him satisfied for a couple of years. Does that board natively support 64GB Ram?

From the ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 Product page:

- Quad Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
- 8 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
- Supports DDR4 3400+(OC) / 3200(OC) / 2933(OC) / 2667/2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory (U-DIMM)
- Max. capacity of system memory: 128GB

 

[dja2k]

Cool! Now I am thinking do I really need 3600 Ram? That would require O.C. which if it crashes my friend will not know how to do changes to the bios