Video/photo editing rig

[kandinsky]

Hi all, am looking to setup a video & photo editing rig that will tide me over the next 3-4 years. Will be editing 4K & 1080p dslr/h.264 footage mostly. No gaming. No plans to OC.

Budget: $1.5-2K

Software used: Premiere Pro CS6, After Effects CS6, Lightroom 5, Indesign/Photoshop/Illustrator CS6.

Currently running a macbook pro (2.4/i5). Having issues with the discrete GPU, so been running on the integrated graphics while I figure out the next system. Would have easily gone back to a mac, but have been reading about issues that some users have experienced in LR and Illustrator with the retina screens. Not keen to wait for Adobe to work that out...

Was actually about to go for a XPS 8700 and swap the GPU out, add RAM + SSD, but then it felt a bit wasteful to pay for all the stock stuff that I didn't need/want... (2x4GB sticks, low-end GPU which I can barely sell, keyboard/mouse, etc). Thought I'd explore the self-build route to see if it's feasible. Have to say the price/performance ratio is very attractive. Am somewhat concerned about day to day stability, as I've never assembled a PC before. But am willing to try. Gotta start somewhere.

I've gathered the following list from checking out some of the recommended builds by searching for previous threads on video editing rigs. Plan is to use the SSD for OS/software, HDD #1 for media/exports, HDD #2 for scratch drive. May add more drives down the road.

I'm still on the fence about the 970, sounds like some users on the adobe forums have issues with it being recognized/utilized fully in Ppro, but others have no issue. Anyway, if I go for the 750Ti, I can roll the savings into additional 16GB RAM or an additional monitor, perhaps a S2340L.

Will reuse existing monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Would appreciate any comments/recommendations, thanks!

i7 4790 + Gigabyte H97-D3H (586)
CRUCIAL PC 12800/1600MHZ DDR3 CL11 VALUE RAM 8GB x 2 (200)
Zotac GTX750TI 2GB (219) OR Zotac GTX970 Twin Fan (448)
SAMSUNG EVO 850 250GB SSD (219)
WD Blue 1TB X2 (144)
LG 24X DVD-RW SATA OEM (25)
Seasonic S12G 550W Non-Modular variant (105)
Carbide spec 03 orange (89)
Win8 32/64B (128)

$1626 / $1855

(Prices via PC Theme pricelist)

 

[Jian19]

Looks good, can consider adding a aftermarket cooler like CM hyper 212 evo @ $50

 

[bhtan83]

If u r using after effect 750Ti and 970 are not recognized. U need gpu that can has cuda core that can support 3D Ray tracing. Hence, I'll recommend u getting 680, 770, 780 or titan. Check the list below for more gpu options.

System requirements | After Effects

For cpu, I suggest u use Xeon instead of 4790. It's cheaper and much faster for ur after effect work load.

 

[kandinsky]

Looks good, can consider adding a aftermarket cooler like CM hyper 212 evo @ $50

Didn't include one as I don't intend to OC, but perhaps good to have? Noted, thanks!

If u r using after effect 750Ti and 970 are not recognized. U need gpu that can has cuda core that can support 3D Ray tracing. Hence, I'll recommend u getting 680, 770, 780 or titan.

Thanks! I did check the list. In terms of usage at the moment, I'm about 90% Ppro, about 10% AE, so I thought I'll prioritize Ppro. Read that the latest version of AE gives the user the option to use unsupported cards as they don't plan to add any new cards to the list anyway. So if/when I start to use more AE, I might considering upgrading to CC eventually?

There will be no more cards added to the list of supported cards for the ray-traced 3D renderer for After Effects. That feature is a dead end. We have been saying publicly for quite some time that we are putting all of our 3D development efforts into the Cinema 4D integration that we introduced about a year and a half ago.

That said, you can choose to try to use an unsupported card in After Effects by using the preference described here: GPU changes (for CUDA and OpenGL) in After Effects CC (12.1)

-Can't post links-

via Adobe forum thread #1576835

But yes, thanks for the input! This looks like a possible option: ZOTAC GTX760 2GB REF DDR5 (299)

For cpu, I suggest u use Xeon instead of 4790. It's cheaper and much faster for ur after effect work load.

Hmmm, haven't read up much on Xeons yet. Are you referring to the E3-1245 v3? From the pricelist it's $19 cheaper. Thought it would be much faster only if I went hex-core?

 

[bhtan83]

My friend tried using a 650 Ti but it's not supported. U r free to try it though.

Yes, Xeon is slightly cheaper and better for ur after effect work load. It's up to u.

 

[kandinsky]

My friend tried using a 650 Ti but it's not supported. U r free to try it though.

Yes, Xeon is slightly cheaper and better for ur after effect work load. It's up to u.

Hmm, okay, will take that into consideration. Thanks!

 

[kandinsky]

Since its for photo/video, why don't you consider X99 and the 6 core CPUs since the programs are mostly multi-threaded?

Yeah, I considered this at the start but wondered if it would be overkill for me, and whether it would be useful to have more ram, performance-wise.

If I swap the 970 for the GTX760 (299), with the cheapest mobo combo (MSI X99S SLI-plus + 5820K / $882), total comes up to about $2237. After some reading, realized X99 boards don't support DDR3 ram, so ram costs (Corsair Vengeance 16GB / $385)) would push it even more over budget. Decisions, decisions...

Comparing the two setups: Option of 5820K + 16GB ram ($2237) vs 4790 + 32GB ram ($2105), which would you go for?

 

[bhtan83]

Just go for 4790 and 16gb ram will do.

I'm learning photo and video editing as well and u can see my pc specs on the right. Even though it's an amd rig yet it's doing fine for all the things I threw at it.

Here are the list of things that I use this pc for, gaming, photo/video editing, engineering modeling/simulation.

 

[enenyi]

Just get a i5-4690k with a basic Z87 board will do. Overclock and run at 4.3GHz. Yes hyperthreading helps in rendering, but not much. A powerful GPU can help share the load with CPU, but CUDA hardware acceleration can only do that much to help. An SSD helps reduce load times, thats all. The main bulk rests on the CPU being able to do things fast enough (scrub thru previews, apply complicated effects, analyse warp stabilizer etc). The main advantage in Premiere Pro lies in the ability to process more instructions at one go with a faster CPU clock than divide work efficiently amongst PC components.

For Photoshop, faster CPU clockis definitely a must. Esp when doing HDR processing, photomerge,etc. It would be magical if the CPU can split up these work to other threads to multi-thread process. So having an overclocked i5 still beats a locked i7.

 

[kandinsky]

Just go for 4790 and 16gb ram will do.

I'm learning photo and video editing as well and u can see my pc specs on the right. Even though it's an amd rig yet it's doing fine for all the things I threw at it.

Here are the list of things that I use this pc for, gaming, photo/video editing, engineering modeling/simulation.

Sounds good!

Just get a i5-4690k with a basic Z87 board will do. Overclock and run at 4.3GHz. Yes hyperthreading helps in rendering, but not much. A powerful GPU can help share the load with CPU, but CUDA hardware acceleration can only do that much to help. An SSD helps reduce load times, thats all. The main bulk rests on the CPU being able to do things fast enough (scrub thru previews, apply complicated effects, analyse warp stabilizer etc). The main advantage in Premiere Pro lies in the ability to process more instructions at one go with a faster CPU clock than divide work efficiently amongst PC components.

For Photoshop, faster CPU clockis definitely a must. Esp when doing HDR processing, photomerge,etc. It would be magical if the CPU can split up these work to other threads to multi-thread process. So having an overclocked i5 still beats a locked i7.

Thanks for the explanation! Gave me a better understanding of how each component will affect which aspects of my workflow. Interesting. Is overclocking something that I can set and then not bother with again? My impression is that it's a fairly involved process. Gotta monitor temps regularly, make tweaks etc. I guess I'm not at the stage where I know enough about it to want to dabble with OCing yet, so probably more comfortable with the 4790 for my first build.

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions so far.

 

[ondooy]

get at least 32gb of ram...
after effects will eat your 16gb...

 

[Fatfool]

What's you current monitor? the S2340L has such limited connectivity options (and a lulz colour gamut) and I notice cards these days don't bother with the HDMI port, preferring to provide a DP port.

 

[enenyi]

Sounds good!



Thanks for the explanation! Gave me a better understanding of how each component will affect which aspects of my workflow. Interesting. Is overclocking something that I can set and then not bother with again? My impression is that it's a fairly involved process. Gotta monitor temps regularly, make tweaks etc. I guess I'm not at the stage where I know enough about it to want to dabble with OCing yet, so probably more comfortable with the 4790 for my first build.

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions so far.

For myself, i used to dabble with the OC settings for the fun of it at first. After a while, I just set it to a stable 4.2GHz and treat it as though it is a locked 4.2GHz CPU chip. Overclocking is easy: it's just the trial-and-error the first few times. Once u know the strengths and the limitations of your CPU chip (every chip has different OC capabilities coz they are silicon: no two silicon chips behave the same way), u roughly can figure out the stable speed of your chip and u can just run it at that speed all the time.

Like I said before, the power of an overclocked CPU chip is unrivaled, not even by the extra 4 threads in the i7 chip or the performance of an SSD. To break it down for u, a typical i7-4790 locked CPU chip is clocked at 3.4Ghz, which means a CPU core can process 3.4 billion instructions per second. This versus an i5 or i7 unlocked CPU chip clocked at 4.4GHz, making a CPU core process 4.4 billion instructions per second. The 1 billion instructions per second may make all the difference in video editing especially when video/audio rendering requires the processor to process billions of instructions per second. That 1 billion extra instructions per second could mean 10-20% faster rendering speeds and overall CPU processing speed.

However, since it's your money to spend, u make the final call whether to stick with an i7-4790 or just get an i5-4690k to overclock.

 

[kandinsky]

get at least 32gb of ram...
after effects will eat your 16gb...

Yeap, would go for 32gb if the budget allows, if not 16 first, then add later.

What's you current monitor? the S2340L has such limited connectivity options (and a lulz colour gamut) and I notice cards these days don't bother with the HDMI port, preferring to provide a DP port.

A 5-yr old HP2159m that is probably even more chui than anything else on the market today... A better monitor can come later for me, given that I've been working with a 15" screen for months... anything is going to be an improvement. Yeah, was surprised the 2340L only has two inputs, but I guess it keeps the cost down.

For myself, i used to dabble with the OC settings for the fun of it at first. After a while, I just set it to a stable 4.2GHz and treat it as though it is a locked 4.2GHz CPU chip. Overclocking is easy: it's just the trial-and-error the first few times. Once u know the strengths and the limitations of your CPU chip (every chip has different OC capabilities coz they are silicon: no two silicon chips behave the same way), u roughly can figure out the stable speed of your chip and u can just run it at that speed all the time.

Like I said before, the power of an overclocked CPU chip is unrivaled, not even by the extra 4 threads in the i7 chip or the performance of an SSD. To break it down for u, a typical i7-4790 locked CPU chip is clocked at 3.4Ghz, which means a CPU core can process 3.4 billion instructions per second. This versus an i5 or i7 unlocked CPU chip clocked at 4.4GHz, making a CPU core process 4.4 billion instructions per second. The 1 billion instructions per second may make all the difference in video editing especially when video/audio rendering requires the processor to process billions of instructions per second. That 1 billion extra instructions per second could mean 10-20% faster rendering speeds and overall CPU processing speed.

However, since it's your money to spend, u make the final call whether to stick with an i7-4790 or just get an i5-4690k to overclock.

Thanks for the breakdown!

 

[bhtan83]

4690K with OC works fine.

Just bear in mind that its only 4 cores and 4 threads.

There r situations where 4790 with 8 threads helps:-
(1) When u batch import thousands of photos and converting them from RAW to DNG files.

(2) when u r using after effect.

(3) when u batch process photos.

(4) when u r compressing videos.

Those listed above were the situations where I saw my FX8320 (OC to 4.2GHz) hover around 80-100% CPU load on all 8 cores.

After all it's up to ur budget and how u going to balance the performance.

 

[kandinsky]

Yeah, given the fairly small price differential ($100), even a 4790K+Z97 still fits in the budget easily. Base 4.0Ghz also happy, and OC at a later stage when I'm ready.