Build Advice $2,000 PC for video editing (put together after many hours of research)

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ygli

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Jan 9, 2018
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Hey y'all :)

I want to put together a relatively serious PC for editing videos. I use Premiere Pro and little Ae, both of which rely primarily on the CPU so I prioritized the CPU and its support over the GPU in the budget.
I do want a very strong system that will give a smooth efficient experience for video editing and am prepared to pay for it but do not want to blow money unnecessarily on things that do not make a sufficient contribution to justify the expenditure, and would really appreciate constructive input.
Following is what I have put together so far based on my research (I have some questions below after the part list.):

PCPartPicker part list
CPU | Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $499.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | Corsair - H100i PRO 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $84.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard | Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $194.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $289.99 @ Amazon
Storage (for OS) | Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | Purchased
Storage (for working files) | Samsung - 970 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | $547.99 @ B&H
Video Card | Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card | $179.99 @ Newegg
Case | NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case | $69.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $79.99 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $2002.92
| Mail-in rebates | -$55.00
| Total | $1947.92
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-12 15:07 EST-0500 |

Everything seems to be compatible according to PCP. There are a few questions that come to mind for me.
  1. Is the GPU overkill for Premiere Pro, or alternatively will it bottleneck performance?
  2. Is the RAM a good choice? Is there a less costly alternative that will do a comparably good job?
  3. Is the cooler a good choice? Would it be better to spend more on keeping the 9900K cool? (PCPP says it is compatible, but I have seen a number of recommendations for coolers in the $150 range specifically for the 9900K)
  4. Is it worth spending $550 for the 970 Evo NVMe 2TB SSD for higher write speeds when exporting with Premiere Pro, as opposed to getting a 2TB 850 EVO SATA SSD for $300? Will it likely make a real world difference?
  5. The choice of case is kind of random and arbitrary, if there is a reason to choose something else I'm open to suggestions.
  6. PCPP says that some physical dimension restrictions such as "cpu cooler / RAM clearance with modules using tall heat spreaders" can not be checked automatically. How would I go about making sure the case is big enough?
Thank you all!!
 
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A 1050ti is a lower mid range card so it is unlikely ro be overkill. I dont know much about your workload tho.
An NVME drive really wont make your system feel any snappier than a sata ssd. Unless you are constantly copying drives fron drive to drive, nvme really isnt necessary. For moving video around, the nvme would make the experince better. It really depends on your uses.
The NZXT h500 is a solid case offering good build quality and decent airflow for a good price. It trades the rgb of the h500i for a cheaper price but is still a solid case and will fit your components well. Your ram will not interfere with the water block of the cooler. The ram will have a lot of room and wont interfere with the case. You should be able to mount the cooler to the front of the case.
32gb of ram is good for a workstation since editing is ram intensive. The quad channel should allow for fast bandwidth and good performance.
 
ygli said:
Everything seems to be compatible according to PCP. There are a few questions that come to mind for me.
  1. Is the GPU overkill for Premiere Pro, or alternatively will it bottleneck performance?
  2. Is the RAM a good choice? Is there a less costly alternative that will do a comparably good job?
  3. Is the cooler a good choice? Would it be better to spend more on keeping the 9900K cool? (PCPP says it is compatible, but I have seen a number of recommendations for coolers in the $150 range specifically for the 9900K)
  4. Is it worth spending $550 for the 970 Evo NVMe 2TB SSD for higher write speeds when exporting with Premiere Pro, as opposed to getting a 2TB 850 EVO SATA SSD for $300? Will it likely make a real world difference?
  5. The choice of case is kind of random and arbitrary, if there is a reason to choose something else I'm open to suggestions.
  6. PCPP says that some physical dimension restrictions such as "cpu cooler / RAM clearance with modules using tall heat spreaders" can not be checked automatically. How would I go about making sure the case is big enough?
Thank you all!!
Click to expand...

1. Video editing is more CPU dependent than GPU dependent. A 1050TI is relatively low end but for your uses you should be fine. Alternately if you wanted to, you could go with a low end TR4 CPU - a 16 core, 23 thread 1950X outperforms the 9900K in most video editing tests, but the downside is that the motherboards are double or triple what most Z390 boards run.

2. Yes - Corsair, G. Skill, Hyper X are all good choices. Stay away from Team Elite and

3. It's decent, I would get at least a 280mm radiator like the NZXT Kraken X62 or the Corsair H115i. It will fit the case better and allow for better air flow.

4. Another one of those things where it's really hard to say. Having a really expensive M2 drive vs a standard SSD probably won't make a whole lot of difference unless you're working with huge, multi-layered files. But for regular every day use you probably won't notice the extra few seconds by going with the most expensive choice.

5. Pretty much anything from Corsair, NZXT, or Phanteks is what I would choose. I just bought an Enthoo Pro M and it is a very nice case to build in and work with.

6. The RAM height restrictions are mainly for air cooling - and you won't be able to use any sort of RGB enabled RAM if you go with an air cooler like the Noctua D15 or Cryorig H5. Case height restrictions are also the same way. But really if you go with any mid size ATX tower it should give you plenty of room for those kinds of coolers.
 
You guys are all so helpful!!
Thank you SO much!!
I really apreciate it!!

So, so far:
  • I replaced the NVMe SSD with a regular 850 EVO SATA SSD which saved $250 at probably minimal real-world difference in performance.
  • I replaced the 1050T with a 1060 3GB, it has many more cores with minimal increase in cost as opposed to the 1070s which cost substantially more, and a little less memory than what I had before, but from what I understand, 3 GB is more than enough for basic editing in Premiere Pro. I chose the EVGA over the Gigabyte based just on the Amazon reviews. The Gigabyte has 4.2 stars from 216 reviews and the EVGA has 4.5 stares from 1,509 reviews.
Remaining Question:

Is there a reason to NOT go with the EVGA CLC 280 rather than the Corsair H115i RGB? They are both 280 mm radiators and both have approximately the same reviews on Amazon, and the EVGA is nearly $40 less than the Corsair and as far as I have seen seems to be on par as a reputable brand. I'm spending enough overall that I will happily get the Corsair if there is substantial reason to, I obviously DO want to keep the 9900K nice and cool so I don't want to skimp on performance, but if it is just about the better RGB, I'll pass . . . :)
 
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Ram would be better run in a 2x16gb config, on a dual channel platform such as that. Also want to give you a threadripper option. Video editing tends to lean towards multicore.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 2920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core Processor ($618.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - DARK ROCK PRO TR4 59.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.99)
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Phantom Gaming 6 ATX TR4 Motherboard ($246.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($242.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: HP - EX950 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($359.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card ($184.00 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Monoprice)
Total: $1912.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-13 10:34 EST-0500
 
logainofhades said:
Ram would be better run in a 2x16gb config, on a dual channel platform such as that. Also want to give you a threadripper option. Video editing tends to lean towards multicore.
Click to expand...

Thank you!!

Now that I am changing out the RAM for 2 x 16 GB, I am looking at options and see quite a range within Corsair. For example, the Vengeance RGB Pro I have now is $229.99 and the cheapest one on the list is Vengeance LPX which is $179.99. After doing some research it seems that the only difference between the various Vengenace options is the looks. Additionally, it seems that for Intel CPUs, the speed of the RAM doesn't make a significant difference in performance.
Is there any reason in terms of real-world difference in performance to go with anything more costly than the LPX DDR4-2400??
 
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logainofhades said:
The 9900k, I is designed to run natively with 2666. I wouldn't run less than that.
Given the cost, though, it's worth getting 3000. The Gskill trident ram is good too.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for pointing that out!
I added the Corsair 3000

Here is the system as it stands now:


PCPartPicker part list

CPU | Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $499.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | EVGA - CLC 280 113.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $112.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $179.00 @ Amazon
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | $189.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | Purchased For $0.00
Storage | Samsung - 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $297.99 @ Amazon
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3 GB SC GAMING Video Card | $189.89 @ OutletPC
Case | NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case | $69.99 @ B&H
Power Supply | Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $79.99 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1659.83
| Mail-in rebates | -$40.00
| Total | $1619.83
 
I am no expert on premiere pro.
But Puget systems apparently is.
Here are their recommendations for a premier pro workstation.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...-Premiere-Pro-CC-143/Hardware-Recommendations
You are in a better position to assess how what you do fits with their recommendations.

From a conventional build point of view I have some suggestions assuming the i9-9900K is your processor of choice.

1. Your H500 is a nice case. To improve cooling airflow, add two 140mm front intake fans to your build.

2. The case supports a good tower air cooler.
I think a noctua NH-D15s air cooler would be better. It will cool equally well, be cheaper, quieter, be more reliable, require no maintenance, be easier to install and...
It will not leak.

3. Your choice of lpx and 2 x 16gb seems appropriate.
If you might ever want 64gb, buy a 64gb ram kit up front.
Adding ram later is not always successful.

4. Puget says "if you work with high bitrate RAW footage there can be a large performance benefit to using a M.2 NVMe drive.
 
geofelt said:
From a conventional build point of view I have some suggestions assuming the i9-9900K is your processor of choice.

1. Your H500 is a nice case. To improve cooling airflow, add two 140mm front intake fans to your build.

2. The case supports a good tower air cooler.
I think a noctua NH-D15s air cooler would be better. It will cool equally well, be cheaper, quieter, be more reliable, require no maintenance, be easier to install and...
It will not leak.

3. Your choice of lpx and 2 x 16gb seems appropriate.
If you might ever want 64gb, buy a 64gb ram kit up front.
Adding ram later is not always successful.

4. Puget says "if you work with high bitrate RAW footage there can be a large performance benefit to using a M.2 NVMe drive.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much!

I don't use much high bitrate RAW footage so based on Puget I think the SATA SSD should do fine.

I will do some research about adding additional fans to the case...

I do like the idea of using an air cooler to reduce the likelihood of failure, after looking around I'm considering the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4.
I do have on concern, although based on their universality and the fact that I haven't heard anything about the issue I assume its a non-issue but I'd like to air it out explicitly. The bigger air coolers are rather large and heavy. Is there no concern about the weight of the cooler taking a toll on the structural integrity of the mobo?
 
geofelt said:
If you do not move your case and bounce it around you will be OK.
If it matters, the DRP4 weighs 1.688 kb and the NH-D15s weighs 1.15kg

Both will cool very well.
Click to expand...

Thank you!!

I'm also considering replacing the NZXT H500 with the CoolMaster H500 which seems to have significantly better airflow due to the mesh front (and it includes front fans stock).
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Threadripper 1950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor | $579.99 @ Newegg
CPU Cooler | Corsair - H115i PRO 55.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $119.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard | $294.98 @ Newegg
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $279.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $134.85 @ OutletPC
Storage | Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card | Gigabyte - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Gaming 8G Video Card | $179.99 @ Newegg
Case | NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case | $69.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $69.89 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1899.46
| Mail-in rebates | -$110.00
| Total | $1789.46
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-13 15:36 EST-0500 |
Let me again stress my 16 core threadripper system from the last thread. i have updated it. Video editing uses cores and single core speed. The threadripper has many cores and decent single threaded performance turboing 1 zen core up to over 4 ghz. The rx580 8gb i included is not only cheaper than the 1060 3gb, but it has many more stream processors that will help while editing. It also has much more gddr5 which may or may not be used by your work. The 580 tends to perform better in games than the 1060 3gb, so the same is likely true for workloads. 4 channel 3200 32gb ram is supported by tr and will add to performance in ram bandwidth heavy tasks. The 1tb sata ssd is a very good quality sata drive. The included hdd should work aswell. The included 280mm aio will keep the tr cool.
 
remixislandmusic said:
Let me again stress my 16 core threadripper system from the last thread. i have updated it. Video editing uses cores and single core speed.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for pointing this out!

There are a number of reasons why want to stick with Intel (and NVIDIA) rather than going with a Threadripper despite to increased multicore performance.
  1. Puget mentions that AE and PS perform significantly better with Intel CPUs than with AMD. Although my primary consideration is video editing, I use AE and PS enough for them to be taken into consideration.
  2. Some of the other the other components in the system have been significantly downgraded to compensate for the increased cost of the TR CPU and MoBo. Primarily the HDD used rather than a good SSD which would presumably slow down video exports significantly because of the slower write speed, and this is a serious consideration for me too.
  3. Puget points out (and I have seen this mentioned consistently across my research) Premiere Pro is specifically designed for maximum compatibility specifically with NVIDIA GPUs and that it performs significantly better with NVIDIA GPUs than with others.

The feeling that I'm getting from all this is that between:
  1. the excellent performance i9900K for Premiere Pro (albeit somewhat behind the equivalent TR)
  2. its superior performance for AE and PS
  3. Premiere's superior compatibility with CUDA cores, and
  4. the trade off of having a large SSD instead of HDD for the money saved by going with Intel rather than TR

it makes sense for me to go Intel/NVIDIA rather than TR.
 
So my PC is slowing down and pausing alot today so I just ordered all the parts.
I HOPE it is the Mobo that is aging and not the boot-drive SSD which is only a year or two old and supposed to be very reliable -- 850 EVO 500 GB.
  • I decided on the NH-D15s for cooling the CPU
  • Went with the same GPU but in 6GB instead of 3GB. It was an extra $50, but I've seen mixed comments about the sufficiency of the 3GB for Premiere Pro, and after spending this much for a serious machine I didn't want to have any regrets . . .
  • I upped the RAM to 64 GB to be safe (G.Skill Sniper-X - the cheapest 64GB set available from the preferred brands. I was shocked by the limited range available on Amazon, had to buy from Newegg. I prefer Amazon whenever possible for ease of returns if there are any issues).
  • Went with the Cooler Master H500 (instead of the NZXT; for improved airflow due to the mesh front. NZXT looks waaaaay better, but more concerned about airflow for performance)
  • Upgraded the PSU to the G2. It was only $10 more than the G3, and though I understand little about PSUs and have no idea what the difference between them is, from my reading I understood that the G2 is substantially better quality than the G3.
Here's the final setup:
PCPartPicker part list
CPU | Intel - Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $509.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | Noctua - NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler | $79.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard | Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $199.99 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill - Sniper X 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | $364.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | Purchased For $0.00
Storage | Samsung - 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $297.99 @ Amazon
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB SC GAMING Video Card | $239.99 @ Amazon
Case | Cooler Master - MasterCase H500 ATX Mid Tower Case | $104.99 @ B&H
Power Supply | EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $99.89 @ OutletPC
| Total | $1897.73

Thank you guys all SO much for all your help. You have all been awesome, and I appreciate it tremendously!!!
 
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While the specs do not say, your aorus motherboard with a bios update will support 128gb of ram using 32gb dims.

I do not think you can ever have too much ram.
You may be paying too much.
A 4 x 32gb ram kit may be hard to find and it will be VERY expensive
 
geofelt said:
While the specs do not say, your aorus motherboard with a bios update will support 128gb of ram using 32gb dims.

I do not think you can ever have too much ram.
You may be paying too much.
A 4 x 32gb ram kit may be hard to find and it will be VERY expensive
Click to expand...
Thank you!

I just wanted to ensure that 'maxing out the mobo' (though it seems I am not even technically doing that) wasn't problematic and that I wasn't in for unanticipated issues.
 
ygli said:
Is there a reason to NOT go with the EVGA CLC 280 rather than the Corsair H115i RGB? They are both 280 mm radiators and both have approximately the same reviews on Amazon, and the EVGA is nearly $40 less than the Corsair and as far as I have seen seems to be on par as a reputable brand. I'm spending enough overall that I will happily get the Corsair if there is substantial reason to, I obviously DO want to keep the 9900K nice and cool so I don't want to skimp on performance, but if it is just about the better RGB, I'll pass . . . :)
Click to expand...

No get the Corsair, they all use pretty much the same basic radiator design but the best CLLs are from Corsair and NZXT. I personally wouldn't consider the EVGA but that's just me. Also uniform lighting is pretty sweet.
 
g-unit1111 said:
No get the Corsair, they all use pretty much the same basic radiator design but the best CLLs are from Corsair and NZXT. I personally wouldn't consider the EVGA but that's just me. Also uniform lighting is pretty sweet.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
I ended up going with an air cooler; the Noctua D15s
 
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