Video editing custom build.

[Sonnyp]

Hi All,

I'm new on this forum.

I'm looking at building a custom video editing/gaming/normal use desktop. I dabble a little in video editing and play games online.

I want a computer that can handle anything that's given to it without lagging or slowing down and I don't need to upgrade it for a couple of years, but will still need to be upgradable when the time comes.

here's what I've come up with.

CPU FX-8320 $199
MB AsRock 970-Extream4 $ 129
Ram G.Skill Aegis F3 1.35V (Low Voltage) 16GB Kit (8Gx2) DDR3 $174
GPU Asus R7260X-DC2OC 2GB $155
PS Coolermaster OEM S Series RS550 550Watt 80Plus Silver Power Supply Unit $ 62
SSD OCZ ARC 100 ARC100 240GB SATA3 2.5" $ 128
HDD Seagate 3.5" Barracuda 1TB $ 69
Case Thermaltake Commander MS-III Black USB3.0 Mid Tower Case $65
OS Windows 8.1 Pro $189

So what I'm looking for is advice on
1. Am I heading in the right direction with the components in the build
2. Am I missing something
3. Is it powerful enough.
4. Tell me what your using

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[lehtv]

What's your total budget?

What resolution is your primary gaming monitor? Any particular game(s) that you want the PC to run well?

Where are you buying from? FX-8320 shouldn't be that expensive in USD or CAD. Australia, maybe? Can you link to shops that you plan to use.

Is there any particular feature you want from Windows 8.1 Pro? If not, you'll be fine with standard 8.1.

1. Am I heading in the right direction with the components in the build

If at all possible, you should buy Intel. An i5 is better than FX-8320 as an overall gaming/editing CPU. Gaming is not heavily enough multithreaded for FX-8320 to be competitive with i5, even if overclocked properly. Meanwhile, video editing does benefit from the extra cores, but not all the time - mostly during encoding. Even then, FX-8320 is barely faster.

FX-8320 only makes sense if almost all that you do is run heavily threaded software and just can't afford a Xeon.

I would consider a 128GB SSD or leaving it out altogether. An SSD is still a luxury product, it doesn't directly improve performance in any consumer workload like gaming or such, it just makes the PC more responsive overall. It's nice to have, but in this case I'd want to put more emphasis on the CPU and the GPU.

Not sure about the quality of that PSU... I would want something with top quality capacitors, preferably a unit built by Seasonic.

You probably don't need 16GB of RAM. Gaming is fine with 8GB, and "a little video editing" doesn't really justify 16GB either. Also, RAM is easy to add later as long as you have 4 DIMM slots on the motherboard.

2. Am I missing something

Not that I can tell.

3. Is it powerful enough.

Depends entirely on your desired gaming settings/performance and editing workload. For me, 260X is simply too slow for gaming, but if you don't play very intensive games and don't mind low-mid settings then you're fine for 1-2 years. I would shoot for at least R9 280 3GB. As for editing... if it's only something you do occasionally, then it's not a factor. Even an i3 would be fine for occasional editing.

4. Tell me what your using

Does that really matter? Your budget probably isn't enough to afford an i7 and GTX 970 (which is the go-to for maxing out games on 1080p and having proper video editing capability).

but will still need to be upgradable when the time comes.

That's another point favoring Intel, as you're much less likely to run to CPU limitations when upgrading the graphics card.

 

[MongGrel]

Good points, it seems you're low balling monetarily for what you're wanting to do.

I was going to comment on it a bit ago, lehtv seems to have hit most the issues I saw.

I still use a ASUS R9 280 DCII TOP myself, and do not game much atm.

About as low as you could go these days and run a real game decent I'd imagine, depending on a few things.

 

[Burpo]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32293457&postcount=1

 

[Sonnyp]

Thanks lehtv

My budget is $1500 AU but around $1250 for the desktop build & $250 monitor, mouse & keyboard.

Here's the link where I'm buying the components from
http://www.msy.com.au/home.php

I was looking at getting an i5-4690K but I don't think I could afford it on my budget.

 

[Sonnyp]

Here's some changes I made

Option 2 build

i5-4690K $324
Asus R9 270 DC2OC $215
Gigabyte H97 Gaming Motherboard $149
8GB RAM G.Skill Sniper $94
SSD 128GB $69

Tell me what you think.

 

[lehtv]

4690K doesn't make a whole lot of sense on a H97 board. Either you buy 4690K with a Z97 board and overclock it, or you buy a locked i5 or a Xeon with a H97, B85 or H81 board. With this budget, forget about overclocking.

Separate budgets for the PC itself and the peripherals also don't make a whole lot of sense. I've never understood why people separate these budgets. In the end, it's all going to be part of the same computer, no?

 

[lehtv]

Here's what I'd build for $1500 incl. the tower itself, mouse, keyboard, monitor and OS. http://cdn.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf

Minimum build:

Motherboard: Asrock H97M Pro4 $109
CPU: Intel i5-4590 $269
RAM: 8GB kit Patriot S 1600MHz $88
GPU: Gigabyte R9 280 3GB Windforce $249
HDD: WD Blue 1TB $70
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 or H25 $52 (whichever looks better to your eye; specs are the same)
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 520W $85
KB/m: Coolermaster Octane Gaming Mouse+Keyboard $69
Display: BenQ GL2450HT $229
OS: Windows 8.1 OEM $125

= $1345

Now, with the $150 left in the budget you can upgrade different things, or add an SSD. It depends what you want from the PC the most. This base build can already do everything you throw at it, so anything on top of this is just extra. Some suggestions, pick and choose at will:

Motherboard: Asrock H97 Performance +$26. Upgrades to ATX form factor which adds more expansion slots and onboard connectors. Built with higher quality components and includes excellent Realtek ALC1150 sound chip.

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231V3 +$80. Adds hyperthreading to the CPU which improves performance in heavily threaded apps and games. Does not really impact performance with current mid-range graphics cards, but in 2-3 years, you might get significantly increased performance as games become more heavily threaded and graphics cards get faster.

Video card: Gigabyte R9 290 4GB +$134. Improves gaming performance by around +50%, but also requires more power. Recommend changing PSU to Neo Eco 620W +$10.

SSD: OCZ Arc 100 240GB +$128, or Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB +$78. Improves general responsiveness, decreases load times when opening applications, loading data in games etc. No impact on things like encoding speed or gaming framerate.

PSU: Antec HCG-520W +$10 for 5 year warranty (Neo Eco = 3 year warranty). EVGA SuperNova 750W G2 +$56 for 10 year warranty, top quality and efficiency, and support for possible dual GPU configs in the future (unlikely to happen, but 10 years is a long time).

Display: AOC G2460PQU 144hz monitor +$140. Benefits mainly fast paced online games that don't require much graphics horsepower to reach high framerates, like CS:GO, COD series and such. If you value image quality more than responsiveness and gaming performance, then you could also consider one of the IPS or PLS monitors (but I'm not sure if any of them has a height adjustable stand).

I wouldn't recommend having 16GB RAM just yet, with so many other things to improve. RAM is easy to add later, and I doubt you'll really need it for just minor video editing

EDIT. One more thing. You can install Windows from USB, but you need to download an image and make a bootable USB drive on a different computer first. This saves you from having to buy a DVD drive ($18 at MSY), assuming you don't need it for anything else.

 

[Sonnyp]

WOW thanks lehtv I'll have a look at what you recommend.

 

[lehtv]

Also if you want the PC to be particularly quiet, you'll want an aftermarket CPU cooler and a case with quiet fans. Completely optional. E.g. Coolermaster TX3 EVO $24 to cool the CPU, then upgrade case to Coolermaster SIL-452 $79 ($27 more than Versa H24/H25). This isn't still perfectly quiet, but truly quiet components are a bit outside the budget.

 

[mfenn]

Here's what I'd build for $1500 incl. the tower itself, mouse, keyboard, monitor and OS. http://cdn.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf

Minimum build:

Motherboard: Asrock H97M Pro4 $109
CPU: Intel i5-4590 $269
RAM: 8GB kit Patriot S 1600MHz $88
GPU: Gigabyte R9 280 3GB Windforce $249
HDD: WD Blue 1TB $70
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 or H25 $52 (whichever looks better to your eye; specs are the same)
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 520W $85
KB/m: Coolermaster Octane Gaming Mouse+Keyboard $69
Display: BenQ GL2450HT $229
OS: Windows 8.1 OEM $125

= $1345

Excellent build as usual! I would definitely recommend making the SSD upgrade from your list.