Video editing for £900, where to compromise?

martinoheat · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:34

I've been asked to spec and build a PC for a friend, it'll be used for video editing mainly, (and the obvious web browsing too,) but he's not bothered about gaming.

He would also like a wireless keyboard and mouse, and a blu-ray writer (although i'm trying to disuade him from the writer, to be able to spend more on other components.)

EDIT: scrap the blu-ray writer.

His budget is £900 all in, although that's an absolute MAX, lower is obviously preferred.

Below is my first attempt at a spec list, but it goes over budget.
I could downgrade the CPU to a 3570k or an F8350, but would he notice the difference? - rendering can be done overnight, so that's not an issue, but would he experience stutter/lag when actually using the software? (power director 11)

- it's my friend's first custom built powerful PC, and i want him to get the absolute best video editing experience from it. is the GPU specced enough for OpenCl acceleration?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x Sapphire Radeon R7 265 Dual-X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £109.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Gigabyte H87-HD3 Intel H87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £71.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-209EBK 16x BDRW Multilayer 128GB retail £66.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95 (£91.90)
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - White £29.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business £16.99
Total : £924.80
Free shipping

ExRayTed · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:45

Save yourself a bit of cash by not getting the 'K' version of the cpu unless he really wants to overclock. I'd also stick with the i7 if he has the budget for it.

The RAM, whilst both reasonably cheap and quick has pretty poor timings. Maybe go for a 1600mhz set with better timings?

tamzzy · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:47

ignore

tamzzy · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:51

actually. you can have your cake and eat it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ( (BG-345-MS) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-209DBK 16x SATA Internal BD/DVD/CD Burner - No Software £54.98
2 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95 (£91.90)
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £35.99
1 x Deepcool GAMMAXX S40 CPU-Cooler - 120mm £19.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business £16.99
Total : £904.74 (includes shipping : ).

i7k + overclocking mobo
the 7870 is a faster gpu than the 265 you specced
16gb ram
aftermarket cpu cooler for overclocking
matx build

:(Rhodri:) · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:54

Power director isn't generally used much for professional editing, so not sure whether it uses CUDA or OpenCL (would influence wheter to go ATI or NVidea).

Either way you shouldn't need too beefy a GFX card and could probably get away with a lower end model as the GPU is mainly just used for playback (basically you'll want a decent enough amount of VRAM but raw speed isn't too important). I would however try and squeeze more RAM in there if he's working with a lot of HD footage, as you'll tear through 8GB in no time. Your priorities with a video editing suit should be CPU>RAM>HDD speed>GPU so I'd say you're not too far off.

martinoheat · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:58

ExRayTed said:
Save yourself a bit of cash by not getting the 'K' version of the cpu unless he really wants to overclock. I'd also stick with the i7 if he has the budget for it.

The RAM, whilst both reasonably cheap and quick has pretty poor timings. Maybe go for a 1600mhz set with better timings?

what exactly do timings affect? and what is 'good'?
Does this RAM have better timings?

tamzzy said:
my 2 pence. matx build
i dropped spec from an i7k + h87 mobo to a 4670k + z87 mobo. my gut feeling is that he'll see more performance from an oc-ed i5 than a stock i7 (h87 doesnt allow overclocking)

ooh, i do like the smaller mobo and case!

Do you know of any benchmarks that support your gut feeling?
- if i'm not going for the 4770 (K or not K), then wouldn't the AMD F8350 outperform the 4670k?
Thanks for pointing out the Z87/H87 difference too!

Also, you added an R9 280; that's a decent gaming card, will he really need all that power to video edit?

tamzzy · 13 Apr 2014 at 15:58

martinoheat said:
ooh, i do like the smaller mobo and case!

Do you know of any benchmarks that support your gut feeling?
- if i'm not going for the 4770 (K or not K), then wouldn't the AMD F8350 outperform the 4670k?
Thanks for pointing out the Z87/H87 difference too!

Also, you added an R9 280; that's a decent gaming card, will he really need all that power to video edit?

see 2nd spec. ignore 1st spec ;p

martinoheat · 13 Apr 2014 at 16:01

Rhodri said:
Power director isn't generally used much for professional editing, so not sure whether it uses CUDA or OpenCL (would influence wheter to go ATI or NVidea).

Either way you shouldn't need too beefy a GFX card and could probably get away with a lower end model as the GPU is mainly just used for playback (basically you'll want a decent enough amount of VRAM but raw speed isn't too important). I would however try and squeeze more RAM in there if he's working with a lot of HD footage, as you'll tear through 8GB in no time. Your priorities with a video editing suit should be CPU>RAM>HDD speed>GPU so I'd say you're not too far off.

it uses OpenCL, i think, so is the R7 265 enough?

oh yeah, i meant to put 16gb RAM, good point!

My main confusion is which CPU to use - the 4770k/4770 seems to be the holy grail of video editing, but it's SO expensive! if i did downgrade, i could easily get the whole thing within budget, but i don't want him to regret it later

tamzzy · 13 Apr 2014 at 16:11

martinoheat said:
oh yeah, i meant to put 16gb RAM, good point!

My main confusion is which CPU to use - the 4770k/4770 seems to be the holy grail of video editing, but it's SO expensive! if i did downgrade, i could easily get the whole thing within budget, but i don't want him to regret it later

see post #4. you can have your cake and eat it =)

martinoheat · 13 Apr 2014 at 16:11

tamzzy said:
see 2nd spec. ignore 1st spec ;p

that looks very good to me!
i actually managed to talk him out of the Blu-ray writer, so that brings the total to: £860

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ( (BG-345-MS) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
2 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £35.99
1 x Deepcool GAMMAXX S40 CPU-Cooler - 120mm £19.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business £16.99
Total : £860

the B grade GPUs only come with 90 day warranty though, could that be a problem? - presumably if a GPU is going to die, it'll do so within 90 days?

tamzzy · 13 Apr 2014 at 16:24

i think you can deal direct with msi for warranty purposes (i suggest you check with ocuk first)

and i suggest this:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ( (BG-345-MS) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95 (£91.90)
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £35.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business £16.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £16.99
Total : £896.75 (includes shipping : ).

you specced 1600mhz c9 ram. the ram in this spec is 2400c11 (better...and cheaper too!)
added a dvd rw in case you need it

edit: my bad i forgot about cooler overhang. respecced the cpu cooler with the rest of your budget

:(Rhodri:) · 13 Apr 2014 at 16:26

Largely looks good now, I'd just try and get that 16GB of RAM in, and personally I'd always stick to a brand of PSU I know and trust.

martinoheat · 13 Apr 2014 at 17:39

tamzzy said:
i think you can deal direct with msi for warranty purposes (i suggest you check with ocuk first)

and i suggest this:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ( (BG-345-MS) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95 (£91.90)
1 x Cooler Master N200 NSE-200-KKN1 Midi-Tower - Black £36.95
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £35.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business £16.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £16.99
Total : £896.75 (includes shipping : ).

you specced 1600mhz c9 ram. the ram in this spec is 2400c11 (better...and cheaper too!)
added a dvd rw in case you need it

edit: my bad i forgot about cooler overhang. respecced the cpu cooler with the rest of your budget

would an air cooler not fit at all? whilst it's still within budget, a cheaper cooler would still be nice, if a liquid cooler is the only one that'll fit though, then i guess liquid it is!

Also, regarding the RAM; ExRayTed above mentioned that the Kingston RAM had 'bad timings' even though it was cheaper and faster - what affect do the timings have?

martinoheat · 13 Apr 2014 at 17:42

Rhodri said:
Largely looks good now, I'd just try and get that 16GB of RAM in, and personally I'd always stick to a brand of PSU I know and trust.

got 16gb and i've heard good things about superflower

tamzzy · 13 Apr 2014 at 17:53

martinoheat said:
would an air cooler not fit at all? whilst it's still within budget, a cheaper cooler would still be nice, if a liquid cooler is the only one that'll fit though, then i guess liquid it is!

Also, regarding the RAM; ExRayTed above mentioned that the Kingston RAM had 'bad timings' even though it was cheaper and faster - what affect do the timings have?

the ram is taller, so it wont fit under the cooler.
annoying i know. but an all-in-one water cooler makes the rig look nicer =)
there is a windowed version of the n200 for 3 squids more if it floats your boat

and 2400 c11 ram is better than 1600 c9 ram.
basically how quick the ram can process memory instructions and its throughput.
just take it that 2400 c11 is better than 1600 c9 (for haswell builds)
cant be assed to get into specifics lol

ExRayTed · 13 Apr 2014 at 17:58

martinoheat said:
would an air cooler not fit at all? whilst it's still within budget, a cheaper cooler would still be nice, if a liquid cooler is the only one that'll fit though, then i guess liquid it is!

Also, regarding the RAM; ExRayTed above mentioned that the Kingston RAM had 'bad timings' even though it was cheaper and faster - what affect do the timings have?

There would have been no point in 2400mhz ram if you weren't going to overclock. My suggestion was to not bother with the 'K' cpu. If you had gone with this advice the Kingston ram would have made little sense over 1600mhz stuff with tighter timings. As you're going to be overclocking now the Kingston ram makes more sense

martinoheat · 14 Apr 2014 at 21:58

after talking to him about matx vs atx, he and i both think ATX would be better, for one because it allows him multiple optical drives, but also it's slightly cheaper, and has more HDD expansion.

here is the case and mobo changed (i changed the mobo to allow an air cooler to fit, i know that mATX mobos fit in ATX cases):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x **B Grade** **B Grade** MSI HD 7870 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ( (BG-345-MS) £109.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £89.99
1 x Asus Z87-K Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95 (£91.90)
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £35.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Deepcool GAMMAXX S40 CPU-Cooler - 120mm £19.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 for Business £16.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £16.99
Total : £880.88 (includes shipping : £11.75).

What're your thoughts? or does it look about right?