Looking for a CPU and system for video editing for a beginner

[Coojeekitten]

Fun thread!

My advice for the OP is to spec from the software. Get the user to decide which type of editing from which type of source & choose an editing package that they like.

From there, build or buy a kit that matches that requirement & as Troezar mentioned, get the kit you need out the box. Not some load of rubbish that then gets thrown out in 6 months. As a rough guide, Premier Pro likes CPU & RAM, Resolve likes graphics cards. (Note that Resolve is not free for editing H.265 video.)

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm not qui

Yep. SSD, warranty, upgrade path. Much better system than a clapped out old Xeon.

Regarding the base system:

Ryzen 5 1600 AF(underclocked Ryzen 5 2600) ~ £86
Patriot Viper Steel 3200MHZ 16GB dual channel kit ~£69
ASRock B450M Pro4-F ~ £62
CWT 500W 80+ PSU ~ £30
Maxtor Z1 480GB ~£46
AvP X6 Gaming Case - White ~£20

From another retailer that came to around £313. Some of the cheaper 3000MHZ kits were out of stock,and if you went for a cheaper ASRock B450M-HDV motherboard,it will be under £300,but I think it is better spending the extra £20. Case is basic but has a top mounted fan mount too - you could probably shop around for a better case. It might be worth adding some extra case fans too.

The CWT PSU is a CWT GPT series PSU,ie,the same platform used for a lot of branded cheap PSUs - not the highest end PSU in the world,but it will have all the basic protections.A Ryzen 5 1600 AF and an HD6670 shouldn't be drawing much power. For another £10 more you could get a better PSU. An Antec NeoECO Classic 550W would be just under £40,for example.

You can get a 21.5" monitor for under £70 with DVI and VGA inputs now.

Even that setup is unbalanced. It took me a few minutes to get something much more balanced if you look at the part of my previous post which I requoted.

Can't see they point in this thread. Spend a bit more and get a vastly better platform that will last years and have huge upgrade potential and warranty. Artificial limits on spending to make old hardware look good today with no regard for tomorrow is just daft. The whole exercise here is to try and make AMD hardware look worse than old, cheap Intel gear. I think there's a word for that...

Even at roughly £300ish I managed to find a reasonably OK list of parts. Especially if you are not overclocking,the Ryzen CPUs don't draw as much power as the Bulldozer CPUs,and there are enough £60 to £70 motherboards which should do an OK job IMHO. There is no doubt more to be had if you were to spend another £100,as you could get a Ryzen 7 2700,one of the MSI B450 Max motherboards,and perhaps even a secondhand RX460 or GT1030.

 

[Troezar]

Cat I agree, buy current and have a decent upgrade path for not much more.

 

[Evil-I]

please note that i can pick up the same E5 processor to benefit from the dual setup for just £25, and another Quadro K2000 to benefit from SLI configuration option for just £32, and i still have 6 empty RAM slots! not to speak of ditching the 2630V2 and getting a 2687W V2 which has a max turbo frequency of 4.00 GHz 8 cores 16 threads at that! i mean at least on paper these got to be good numbers right? but again that's another story at £180 per thinking brain i'd rather keep drinking coffee at the 25 quid hexcore thank you very much,

Beware the stepping on the second CPU as dual socket boards usually need them to match to work, so not just as simple as buying the same model e5. Also beware several of the big boys editing programs like premiere and resolve don't always work great with two physical CPUs for some reason. One cpu gets heavy usage the second much less so. SLI pretty pointless with the adobe suite last I checked, not sure what most recent resolve is like multi gpu.

+1 the newer more modern setup imho. Old hardware ends up a pain...

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cat I agree, buy current and have a decent upgrade path for not much more.

I am actually surprised what you can get now get for around £300,add a RX570 8GB for £120 and you have a capable budget gaming rig for under £450.

 

[Coojeekitten]

I am actually surprised what you can get now get for around £300,add a RX570 8GB for £120 and you have a capable budget gaming rig for under £450.

Yep, OP is looking for a video editing rig though. Albeit with non specific editing software. Not sure £450 would cut it for video?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yep, OP is looking for a video editing rig though. Albeit with non specific editing software. Not sure £450 would cut it for video?

Why wouldn't it though - a Ryzen 5 1600 AF is a 6C/12T CPU,and they have an HD6670 to hand,which they can reuse. Imagine even two years ago,before Ryzen launched what you would be getting for even £250?? Look at the benchmarks of the Ryzen 5 2600 against the Core i7 7700K,and the former holds it own. The Ryzen 5 1600 AF is a slightly underclocked Ryzen 5 2600.

Edit!!

Also,as the budget is small,I would imagine the person is a beginner,as a number of the higher end video suites are not that cheap,if you go for all the bells and whistles. With the upgradeability of the AM4 platform even a £60 to £70 B450 motherboard should work fine with a Ryzen 7 3700X IMHO.