Computer Build Advice

[Vyunger]

Hi,

I am in the process of building a computer for my wife, she does graphic design mostly photoshop and a little video editing. She is also looking to get into recording videos and more advanced video editing.

So far the set up is as follows

i5 4570
Asus H87M-E
Samsung SSD 128GB
WD Caviar Black 1TB
Corsair CX500M PSU

I am trying to figure out how much ram to put in the machine to optimize performance and also for now I was going to have her use the integrated video card but I am assuming that will not work well once she gets into the video recording/editing. I see alot discussion about video cards in the context of gaming but I was curious if that much power is really necessary for graphic design work.

I would really appreciate if someone could explain to me the difference as far as system usage for recording video vs. editing video. If we are to record a 30 minute video would that be taxing at all on the video card or is that mostly just hard drive space intensive.

Thanks for your help
VY

 

[yvesj]

window 7 only need 8 gb ant thing more is a waste of ram and money
not only that window will reconize 3.8 gb anyway

 

[yvesj]

but buy a 6 cores cpu

 

[Vyunger]

The 6 core i7 chips are 3X more expensive than the i5 4 core chip that I am looking to use, is there such a big difference in performance that the additional expense is justified? Again this is a graphics design PC not really for gaming.

 

[owensdj]

You won't need a dedicated graphics card for things like Photoshop and video editing. The Intel HD Graphics 4600 integrated into that i5 processor is good enough for what she's going to be doing.

As far as memory, that's harder to say. I'd start out with 8GB(a 2x4GB kit) and see how the system performs when she has large images loaded in Photoshop.

The difference between recording and editing video is that recording is much more processor intensive because of the video encoding. Neither one stresses your graphics.

 

[saratoga172]

The i5 you have picked out is probably one of the best bang for the buck intel processors. For a bit more you could step up to an i7-4770k. Quad core but has 8 threads.

For memory 8gb will probably do you well. You may also consider 16gb for a bit of future use. As long as your OS is 64 bit you'll be able to take advantage of having it.

Lastly if your budget allows, consider either a 2nd 128gb ssd or a 256gb ssd. If I'm not mistaken (someone correct me if I'm wrong) but when encoding you will want to use the ssd as your temp location to keep that from being your bottleneck. Doesn't matter how fast everything else is if your hard drive can only deliver and write the data so fast.

Hope that helps!

 

[Gunbuster]

not only that window will reconize 3.8 gb anyway

NOPE. Get with the times dude. Win 7 and 8 64 bit fully support and recognize 8+ GB or RAM.

Honestly your wife could probably get away with a NUC or BRIX and a large USB 3.0 storage drive.

 

[Vyunger]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

 

[mvbighead]

window 7 only need 8 gb ant thing more is a waste of ram and money
not only that window will reconize 3.8 gb anyway

If you are considerably less informed, kindly do not offer advice that someone may take to heart and use to spend their hard earned dollars. I know very little about HVAC systems, and as such I do not seek out HVAC forums to offer my advice.

To the op, the platform you laid out looks like the perfect balance of cost and performance.

To the notion of memory and GPU power, that will depend on the application you are running and what it is capable of offloading to the GPU. I would think that memory you could find at a very reasonable cost for 16GB:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D1IUEHW/?tag=pcpapi-20

You could probably get by just fine with 8, but typically with video editing, you'll want to keep as much as you can in memory to avoid having to wait on disk.

As for graphics, you'll need to identify what programs she'll be using. I'd personally start with the integrated (it's on the board already so it costs you nothing to try it out) and then step up if needed after determining what the application can benefit from.

 

[mfenn]

If you are considerably less informed, kindly do not offer advice that someone may take to heart and use to spend their hard earned dollars. I know very little about HVAC systems, and as such I do not seek out HVAC forums to offer my advice.

To the op, the platform you laid out looks like the perfect balance of cost and performance.

To the notion of memory and GPU power, that will depend on the application you are running and what it is capable of offloading to the GPU. I would think that memory you could find at a very reasonable cost for 16GB:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D1IUEHW/?tag=pcpapi-20

You could probably get by just fine with 8, but typically with video editing, you'll want to keep as much as you can in memory to avoid having to wait on disk.

As for graphics, you'll need to identify what programs she'll be using. I'd personally start with the integrated (it's on the board already so it costs you nothing to try it out) and then step up if needed after determining what the application can benefit from.

:thumbsup: You can finance the RAM upgrade by swapping out two of the more overpriced components in your current list, the WD Black and 840 Pro (assuming pro since you said 128GB instead of 120GB).

Swap those to the WD Blue 1TB (-$25) and PNY XLR8 Pro 120GB (-$58), and you'll be able to afford the 16GB RAM kit in the same budget.

 

[DSF]

As a hobby I do some amateur cartography, which requires working with large, detailed images. I get by with 8GB, but if I were doing it professionally I'd absolutely want 16GB.

It's possible that your wife's images are much smaller than mine, but it's also possible that she's using more of them at a time.

Either way I'd lean towards 16GB.