Project Zion - Video Editing Build

[SimulatedZero]

Looking for some suggestions on how to upgrade my current rig.

I have an old EGVA P55 board I drug out from storage and dusted off to use for some video editing. I'm running adobe premiere pro and after effects mostly. It was in bad shape so I threw it in a new case with four Noctua NF-P12's and a Corsair H75 water cooler.

Here's how everything stands right now:

EVGA P55 SLI
Xeon 3470 oc @ 4.03ghz stable
EVGA 1050ti
16gb Ballistix Sport 1600mhz
and a very worn out HDD.

I have some crucial SSD's on the way for it now. It runs well, very well actually for being a processor from 2009. But it's still maxing out pretty easily while video editing, rendering, and exporting. I'm tapped out thermally for overclocking without serious cooling upgrades. I tap 70c a few times while exporting for an hour or more and occasionally pass the 72c mark (monitoring with Core Temp 1.13).

I'm looking for an intermediate step to keep editing with and have a mostly smooth interface while in premiere. I was looking hot and heavy at an X58 build with a Xeon X5690. I figured I could push for the 4.5ghz mark with an H115i. I've also been looking at a Xeon E5-1660. It has a good reputation for high overclocks. The price on the old X79 boards is kicking my but though.

I found an old HP Z420 workstation with 64gb ddr3 1600mhz and a E5-1620 for under 300. Could be a good starting point to build from. But, if I'm going to get a new board, processor, and cooling anyways, I might just spring for the whole build now.

I'm looking for something with 6 plus cores and a high enough clock speed per core for a solid workstation on one CPU. Any thoughts or ideas? I'm open to anything, including upgrading my current setup if it has any room left.

 

[trents]

I think you're talking enough bucks on very old equipment that you should be looking at saving up and putting that toward newer technology.

 

[SimulatedZero]

Got any good suggestions on where to start? Every time I start finding something I like with newer tech, I hit near 600 with mother board and processor alone. If I had to set a budget, somewhere between 1100 and 1400 for a build. I looked at the Ryzen 1800x briefly. Wasn't sure how it would stack up against something an X5690 fully OC'd price to performance wise. I figured newer RAM and parts would run the price up high enough that I wouldn't want to invest that far. I guess looking at a 1660 blows that out of the water.

 

[SimulatedZero]

Just a quick update:

- I was pricing out rigs and figured I post a parts list below for two different builds. Not that I'm pushing for these over everything, I'm just worried about hitting anything higher than what I have price wise. Feel free to pick things apart and make better suggestions for different things. Prices are what I would pay if I bought everything right now and include shipping.

X79 Build Out
Xeon E5-1660 (V1) - $100
EVGA Z79 FTW – 250
EVGA 1070 (Ti / FTW / Hybrid) – 300
Corsair H115i PRO – 130 (EVGA CLC 280 RGB – 115)
32gb HyperX Predator (8gbx4) – 220
Crucial 250GB & 1TB SSD – 185
EVGA Supernova 850 – 150
DeepCool Case – 50
Noctua Fans x 4 - ~60
Total Build – X79 – 1445

X58 Build Out
Xeon X5690 – 100 (X5680 – 55)
EVGA X58 SLI – 150
EVGA 1060 (Ti / FTW / Hybrid - Maybe) – 200
Corsair H115i PRO – 130 (EVGA CLC 280 RGB – 115)
16gb HyperX Predator (8gbx2) – 110
Crucial 250GB & 1TB SSD – 185
EVGA Supernova 850 – 150
DeepCool Case – 50
Noctua Fans x 4 - ~60
Total Build – X58 – 1135

( I can just get the X58 build to under 1000 cutting PSU down a bit, one of the SSD's, and pricing a little more stringently)



Two SSD for redundancy as well as needed space. I would be working with 4k video a fair amount which can eat up memory. I hate HDD's. I've had terrible luck with them and I don't paying the premium for an SSD.

850w power supply - Not sure if I need that much. Just quickly priced out something that I knew would cover everything.

Fans I'm looking at are the Noctua NF-P14's. I'm open to anything and everything there for the most part.

For newer stuff, The i5-9600k or the Ryzen 1800x look pretty interesting to me. Price has me a bit on the edge as I'm already tapped out just building up with older stuff.

Feel free to tear into these builds. It's been almost a decade since I did my last build from scratch.

 

[trents]

Well, if the primary purpose of the build will be video editing there is no question that the biggest bang for the buck would first generation Ryzen. There are some good sales right now. You want something with a lot of cores. That is more important in video editing than clock speed. Look at an R5 1600 and an mATX motherboard and some DDR4 2400-2666 memory. If you are not overclocking you can get by with any motherboard. There are a lot of mATX B350 motherboards for $70 or less. Your biggest expense will probably be the memory. The thing is, going used as far back as you're talking about going will cost you as much or more as new current components for some items, particularly the motherboard. And with used, it's a pig in the poke that may not last long.

 

[SimulatedZero]

I really like the Ryzen line so far. I was able to find the R5 1600 for 122 on ebay or 155 on Amazon. Saw a lot of boards under $100 there that seemed decent, including an ASUS Prime B350-PLUS. There's another deal on a R5 1600 with an MSI B350 board for 240 total, which is a great price for a new processor. Great recommendation on the processor by the way. Spec wise, right in the ball park of what I'm looking, only better, lol. What do you think of a a basic MSI AMD B350 board? Typically, for AMD gear I go for ROG boards and cards. Any good suggestions on a decent board?

Also, being that this is a different type of processor, what considerations should I take into account as far as build goes? Certain RAM type, some SSDs not cooperating so well, etc?

 

[trents]

Really, if you're not overclocking, most any motherboard would do. The Ryzens are much, much less power hungry than the FX line was and don't need a beefy VRM section. As far as memory goes, if you stay with DDR4 2666 and under, there should not be any memory compatibility issues as long as the bios is updated to a newer one. There were compatibility problems with high speed memory early on and AMD corrected that to a large extent with bios revisions. That combo you mention with the MSI board should do you well. Get any memory with a frequency of 2400-2660 and you should be fine. URCD.com has OEM Windows 10 pro keys for around $15. A lot of us use that website to get Windows 10.

 

[UltraTaco]

I think you're talking enough bucks on very old equipment that you should be looking at saving up and putting that toward newer technology.

Thos! Sir, please forget x58 platform. The only reason to speak x58 is if you already have it and you plug a $20 xeon in there. She has seen her fame and now it's time to put her to RIP. Well, I keep mine because I only listen to music and edit word documents. Anyways, for a $1000 you mentioned, one can easily build a good amd rig and have much more power to edit video.

Go to pcpartpicker.com and look through completed builds. Limit your search down to $ 1000 and pick like ryzen 5 or 7. There are plenty of examples(templates) you can customize to your needs.

https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/#X=54794,116441&c=1170,1168,1169,1167&G=1

View attachment 204985

Also, if you live near microcenter, you can get excellent deals and when bundled, even more excellent!!
https://www.microcenter.com/single_...&MccGuid=09a30313-1b02-48ee-bfea-cd3d2418a104

View attachment 204986

 

[SimulatedZero]

Wish I had a Micro Center near me, but there's not even one in this state. Been looking around and learning more about the AMD builds. I don't mind leaving things at 300 for a CPU / MB setup. I'm looking at either the R5 2600 or 2600x. Still learning on which one would be better for me overall.

Board wise, I know me, if I don't overclock now, I'm going to later. So, I'm looking at a few different boards and I'm not really seeing a whole bunch that are checking all of the boxes, especially for a 2600x. I do like what I've seen so far with the MSI B450 Tomahawk.

What do you guys think of that paired with the 2600 for a stable overclock? And what advantages or disadvantages would I get with a 2600x.

 

[UltraTaco]

The one with the X is overclockable. I think it also turbos higher. Also I believe it comes with little better air cooler.

 

[trents]

All ryzen CPUs are unlocked and overclockable. Base clock and boost (aka, "Turbo") clock are higher with the X Ryzens. Most folks say when overclocking, however, it winds up about the same.

This is a good primer for "X" AM4 motherboards: https://www.pcworld.com/article/317...crucial-differences-in-every-am4-chipset.html

 

[SimulatedZero]

Gave myself a brief crash course on AM4 chipsets and CPU's. I'm leaning very strongly towards the MSI B450 Pro Carbon paired with the R5 2600X. My end goal is 4.1ghz on the H115i. I would love a Taichi board, but that puts the whole thing out of the $300 CPU / MOBO range. I'm looking the B450 Pro Carbon for the heavy VRM build and heat sinking. Should help keep things stable, especially now that MSI allows for PBO overclocking in the BIOS.

I'm leaning towards the EVGA 1660 Ti for a graphics card. I know video editing typically doesn't require heavy cards, but on the few occasions I'll need it, I think the higher processing ability of the Nvidia chipset will be a better fit than the RX 590 in my price range. It's also comparable and a little cheaper to the 1070 Ti I budgeted for. Also, I still consider it... odd... to cross EVGA kit with AMD, but there's a first for everything.

Nothing set in stone yet, but I'm getting a better idea of where I'm going with this. I like the AMD chips on paper, but paint me a bit skeptical until I actually get my hands on one.

 

[UltraTaco]

Great, makes 2 of us. Definitely do tell how she works out!

Side story, taco will speak:
I got an Asus amd video card one time, a gtx460 rival at that time. 4770? Anyways, I was excited to finally step into the red! Unfortunately, I got yellow artifacting in the game. FSX. I was bummed. Broke down, cried and got a 460gtx from circuit city i think. Surprisingly, nvidia worked better in fsx, even though amd was supposedly more powerful card on paper with bigger raw performance potential. I long that day when taco can roam red planet with amd CPU and gpu. It will be a glorious remission

 

[trents]

Whether or not a game is optimized for AMD or Nvidia GPU architecture, API's and drivers or employs DX12 will determine who wins when the cards are in the same market/price niche.

 

[SimulatedZero]

Alright, If you had to choose between a ASUS ROG Strix-F X470 or the MSI Pro Gaming Carbon X470, which one would you go with and why?

Also, any other boards in a similar price range or lower that would perform just as well? Only other ones I'm looking at so far is the MSI Tomahawk or the B450 Pro Carbon. The internet seems to hate everything these days and it's throwing me off.

 

[trents]

In my experience, Asus makes the best overclocking boards. Their components just seem to be a little more robust than those of the other board manufacturers in the same price range. Having said that, you can't go wrong with either of those motherboards and I would make my decision based on feature set differentials (if there are any) of the two boards that may render one board better suited to your needs and preferences: I/O options, USB technology, number of fan headers, PCIe slots and lane assignments, general layout, etc.

 

[trents]

What are you going with for RAM? Modules with the Samsung "B" die chips are most likely to be able to run at full rated frequency once you get up to the 3200 mhz range. At that frequency those would be modules with a CL of 14. More spendy though than RAM with Micron and Hynix chips. Higher frequency RAM makes more difference in performance with the Ryzen series than it does with Intel's offerings. But I would not try for faster than 3200 mhz as it becomes less likely they will run at full rated speed.

 

[SimulatedZero]

Thanks for the reminder. Found some G.Skills Trident Z chips for 214 for an 8gb x 2 set. I'll run that to start with. I've only hit 70 to 75% of my current 16gb set up, so I should have some head room to wait to add more later without slowing me down too much.

 

[trents]

The Flare X series by GSkill has was made for Ryzen and has the reputation of reliably running at advertised speeds in the 3200 mhz range. No bling with LED however and not sure how fast they would run if you add two more modules later. But the price is lower than what you quote for the Trident Z.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232530 Note how they are specified for the AMD chipset.

Here's the Trident Z in the same frequency and CL (and price): https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232485

 

[SimulatedZero]

Here's the parts list so far:

Ryzen R5 2600
Corsair H115i aio
Asus X470 ROG-STRIX F
G.Skill Trident Z RGB (B-Die chips) 8gb x 2
Asus ROG GTX 1660 Ti
Corsair RMX 850w 80+ Gold
Crucial MX500 SSD - 500gb
WD Blue 7200 rpm - 1tb
DeepCool Matrexx55 Case
Notcua NF-P14 Redux x 4

Throwing in some fan splitters, extra sata cables, etc. Brings me to around $1440 for the build. Little over, but I like what I see with the Ryzen line so far.

The other option is ditch the water cooler and get the R7 2700x and run the stock Prism cooler and xfr. Maybe push an all core to 4.0ghz or whatever the cooler can handle. 5 dollars difference in price.

This is just about the ideal build on this CPU for me. Storage and memory will be upgraded down the line. Just not in the budget for this one.

Kicking all aesthetics, preferences, etc. To the side. I can stick with the R5 2600, drop the ROG title for the 1669 ti and route an EVGA XC Black, rock a bronze rated Corsair TX650w, and drop chipsets to save maybe 200? Im sure I can squeeze another 20 30 out through better sourcing and definitely hit the 1250 mark for the build.

What do you guys think. Is running the premium on what I have up there worth the 200?

And what do you think on a OC'd 2600 vs stock 2700x? I'm hesitant on the 2700x with the Gen 3 processors around the corner. If I see the income flow I want with this build, I'll end up expanding to a larger rig over time to expand my workflow. If I don't see it, this will be my daily for a few years.