[SOLVED] Build me a system for PD19 - or steer me to OEM options

[Goldenvoice]

I'm needing a system for basic home office stuff, surfing, printing, and light HD video editing. I'll be doing "live" type music videos for YouTube, transition in and out, plus replacing audio with that from a zoom recorder. I don't need a world class workstation, and I don't game; I need reliability first (it's my business), reasonable speed, and reasonably quiet (sits next to me on the desk).

My research indicates the following system should be target for running PowerDirector 19
CPU benchmark of at least 10,000 and of course up-gradable to Win 11
16gb RAM
nVidea graphics card with NVENC chip, capable of full HD https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new#Encoder
*I also have a higher end audio card that needs to go in: PCIe x1

I have a mid-ATX case (Thermaltake V9) which I'd modified (fan locations, sound absorption, etc) and like. I like having a CD-ROM and manual fan controller on the front. My old i7-950 lived in it. It has an EVGA 750 G2 80 Plus power supply that's working great, but has been running the computer for 6 years - not sure if it's time to retire it, or not.

Budget: I'd like to target under a grand; don't know if that's realistic or not. (Musicians don't feel flush after 2 tough years in the pandemic, but if I have to bump the budget a little for a lot of gain...) I'm fine with a good working used video card to save $$$ - something in the GTX 950/960 980 1070/1080 etc balpark should work great - must have the NVENC chip.

So a "new" build would need:
MB with Intel CPU and chipset - something with a proven track record of reliability

i5 or i7 with Benchmark over 10k

16gb stable and reliable Memory

1 TB HDD - actually perhaps also an SSD to boot from, but I'm old school, and OK with HDD. Again, reliability is paramount here, and my arm could be twisted. If I find I really enjoy doing videos, I could/would add a storage drive just for those.

Perhaps a fresh PS - again simply due to the age of my 750 G2 (6 years - my how time flies)

A decent CPU cooler - mostly for quiet - my i7-950 had a cooler master hyper 212 evo - I liked it.

*I do have a system-builders Windows 10 Pro that's only been installed once (on my i7-950).

That was a long ramble. I'm also OK with snagging something fairly late model used off Craigslist - I CAN get basic needs covered that way for under a grand, but it can be a shooting match. (I personally have had fine luck doing this in the past)
Thoughts and options?
Joe

 

[Darkbreeze]

Don't buy used, Don't buy a prebuilt if you are able to handle a screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers AND give us both a region you are in plus a budget, and I'm sure you'll get plenty of options including but not limited to whatever I'll offer you if you provide the requested information.

You seem like an intelligent person, so I'm pretty sure you can understand the why when I tell you that spending money on used hardware is not only a crapshoot, which clearly means a gamble, but also a bad investment even if you "win" that round, because you lose everything else you get with the purchase of new hardware including manufacturer tech support and a warranty period that for most hardware is absolutely essential not to mention a much better odds maker than a used purchase.

Just as ONE example, a graphics card that maybe costs 800 dollars right now, that you get used for 400, with no transferable warranty because hardware manufacturers have become very aware of the cost savings if they eliminate those, is no deal at all if it fails in two or three months and you can't get it replaced because you didn't buy it new OR don't have the original purchase information and email address address that it was originally registered under to pursue any RMA claims.

 

[Goldenvoice]

Sure. I'm very handy with a screwdriver and pliers, and have no problem tackling a build.

I'm in NW Oregon, USA

Budget: I'm already getting the feeling $1000 won't likely get me there, but if it will - point to caveats of such a system

$1200-1500 would be do-able.

Above that would be something I'd have to ponder a bit. I see so many building "impress your neighbors and amaze your friends" gaming rigs, and I believe I don't need to enter that territory. But then, I have not priced out what it cost to build a system in a very long time.

Feels good to be here

 

[Darkbreeze]

Something like this would give you everything you are looking for and then some, not to mention having all of your investment covered by factory warranties. The PSU has a higher capacity than the build actually needs, by quite a bit actually, but the price difference between this and the 550W model is like five bucks and since quiet operation is a desired feature it's likely that the additional capacity will afford the system the ability to rarely if ever see the fan come out of zero RPM mode, which will reduce electrical hum and ambient noise.

Obviously, you could go bigger on the graphics card but since you're not gaming this is likely more than capable for your needs and it supports NVENC as well. Various tweaks could be made if desired but this would really cover all the requirements you listed.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($278.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright MACHO Rev.C 84.97 CFM CPU Cooler ($51.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 AORUS Master DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory ($87.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.99 @ Western Digital)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1650 G5 4 GB Phoenix OC Video Card ($201.79 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($82.57 @ Amazon)
Total: $1067.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-10 16:11 EST-0500

 

[Darkbreeze]

Or, as I'd recommend, ditch the spinning drive and go with an all SSD configuration which would further increase performance and reduce noise and electrical hum. It would be well worth the extra fifty bucks or so.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($278.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright MACHO Rev.C 84.97 CFM CPU Cooler ($51.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 AORUS Master DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory ($87.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1650 G5 4 GB Phoenix OC Video Card ($201.79 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($82.57 @ Amazon)
Total: $1112.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-03-10 16:18 EST-0500

 

[Goldenvoice]

Thank you darkbreeze for the response; looks good to me.

I did watch the graphics card going up in price already, so snagged one.

* The PS has already jumped up $20 !, but same page has the 650 watt version for $84.99 - safe to assume that would be adequate?

Strange time we're living through.

As far as "tweaks" that could be made, what kind of "food for thought" would you suggest?

And I'm thinking: if I'm purchasing all this new goodness, I might as well stick it in a new case...

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you get a new case you might also find a need or desire for new case fans as well since most cases don't come with enough to be adequate. I would have to agree that a new case isn't a terrible idea since yours is a rather old design that lacks modern features. It was fine for it's time but they've made things so much easier to build in these days. The only problem is that there are relatively few of them with external 5.25" drive bays anymore. There are a few, but not many.

We can certainly find you one that has one but having two is going to be much more difficult. Again, there are a few still around but I'll have to look and see because a lot of them are also older designs. And if we are being honest, I think the days of manual fan controllers is pretty much over. There is so much that can be done via the very good fan controls in the BIOS these days that it basically doesn't make sense to worry about manual fan controls unlike in the old days when there were few fan headers, poor control software, lack of PWM fan support and so on. Plus, a lot of boards these days allow you to configure and adjust fan controls using desktop utilities right on the Windows desktop, although I generally discourage doing so as most such software is rather clunky and such utilities sometimes cause issues. The BIOS option for custom fan curve profiles or preset curves is almost always a much better option as it's generally set it and forget it because it works so well.

The only other first line recommendations I might make would be moving up from the 10 core i5, which consists of 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores (You can google this for a full explanation) with a total of 16 threads (6 hyperthreads) to the i7-12700 (Or 12700k) with it's 8 performance cores plus 4 efficiency cores along with 10 hyperthreads for a total of 20 threads, but I'm not sure that your workflow is going to be demanding enough to need this really if you were still getting along somewhat with what you had. The other option might be a larger SATA SSD for your storage or the addition of a ~4-6 TB hard drive for storing backups. The work will be much faster if you are saving it to the secondary SSD I included in the build but not having a sufficiently large SSD if you already have or have plans to add another backup drive depending on how large of files you plan to work with is something that you might want to think about.

Don't ever get caught with your pants down, which will happen if don't have your important data in at LEAST two locations at all times. This could be any secondary repository including another internal drive, an external drive, cloud storage, optical disks, whatever. So long as anything important is in more than one location and honestly if any of it is very important, three would be even better. Often we also say, if it's CRITICAL then one of them should regularly be offsite.

 

[Goldenvoice]

I've been combing through case selections, and I see and agree: go external with the optical drive - in a mid tower that space can be occupied by a 3rd front fan.

Fans: most included fans are 3-wire DC controlled it seems. These would need to be replaced with 4-wire PWM fans for the MB to control them, correct? I've liked the fans from Noctua in the past. I currently have a Cougar exhaust fan - pleasent sound, and moves lots of air. (too bad we can't purchase the cases without fans)

Optical Drive: my OS is on a DVD. Will I be able to set the boot order to include an external drive on USB to load the OS?

Case: I think the Phanteks Eclipse P600S, while not low budget, looks like would fit me to a "T" - by reviews, I'd be glad I spend a little extra on it. The Phanteks P500A also has good reviews, but since I spend a high percentage of my time doing light work...
be quiet! Pure Base 500DX is nice open flow - talked myself out of the 601 pretty quick.

i5 vs i7: This video was well done:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l85HxlooxXA

My immediate workflow doesn't demand the i7, but I would be glad I went that route if my creative efforts pay off, and lead me further down that road. Would the same MB be a good bet if I go i7-12700? I don't see myself overclocking, so would stay away from the K model, correct?

Storing backups: I will likely add a storage drive a little down the road - will get up and running first. And I agree; I try to keep things backed up externally. I also occasionally place back-ups in my shop (well away from the house)

Bumping up the budget a bit - I'm OK with that at this point.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Not on modern systems. It's been a few years since I've seen a motherboard, at least so long as you aren't going with something that is the absolute bottom of the barrel like the ASRock VDH models, that didn't have the ability to designate DC or PWM for each fan header, individually, in the BIOS.

The Purebase 500dx is a good case. Practically any of the mid tiered to upper tiered Corsair cases are good. Just about anything over 70 dollars made by Fractal design is very good and I can attest to the exceptional customer service FD offers as well. Way beyond other companies, much like EVGA is. Phanteks is pretty good too depending on the model. Those are the companies I mainly look to when selecting cases for builds.

Fractal design, Corsair, Phanteks, Be Quiet, Lian Li, Cougar, Silverstone, and occasionally I'll look at something by Cooler master, NZXT, Rosewill or Thermaltake but usually only in niche applications.

Yes, that same motherboard would work fine with a compatible i7, and as long as you have no designs on overclocking the CPU there really isn't a lot of compelling reasons to upgrade to a much more expensive Z series chipset board since that B660 has a great VRM configuration, and most every feature you'd find on any of the lower to mid Z690 motherboards.

 

[Goldenvoice]

Well, I started assembly this afternoon, and became a bit stumped. ? Best slot for the NVME Samsung 970 ?

Motherboard manual: https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/2/4/f/6/ee538a65a6673237eb7804281d2c10cdab81.pdf

Trying my best to ask the right question on Google and YouTube, I've learned some; perhaps just enough to be a bit confused. Top slot on MB is controlled directly by the CPU, whereas the other 2 are controlled through the chipset (?) and the only issues that would arise is if I placed a SATA M.2 in the bottom slot, as it would share bandwidth and may create conflicts with any other SATA drives connected off the MB. ?
And the NVME is a PCIe, not SATA, and therefore wouldn't interfere, regardless of which slot it's in - sound about right?

So it's best in the top CPU controlled slot, as it may be a bit faster there???

Thread of some help: https://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/331013-which-m2-slot-to-use

Speaking of which: the 970 will be the boot drive, and all programs, and? basic storage? To re-ask the question: perhaps to save your fingers and time, could you point me to some articles describing how to make the best use of the 2 drives you've included in this build?

Now that I think of it; years ago when I set up my DAW, its second drive is for my recording software to stream audio directly to... Is this creation station designed to work much the same way? (the crucial MX500 is to be used for my video editing software directly?)

Thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

The best M.2 slot is the one closest to the CPU generally.

That motherboard link doesn't work for me. What is the actual model of the motherboard?

 

[Goldenvoice]

Sorry 'bout that - link works for me, but slow to load. It's the MB you recommended:
Gigabyte B660 AORUS Master DDR4 ATX LGA1700

 

[Darkbreeze]

So yes, I'd put the 970 in the M.2 slot that is between the primary PCIe slot you will use for the graphics card and the CPU. It's the one closest to the CPU. And yes, that is the one you will want to use for the boot drive and you will want to NOT connect any other drives until you've completed the basic installation of Windows on that drive. Afterwards you can shut down and connect your other drive and that drive should be used for saving/storing any files etc. Music, video, documents, personal files, pictures, project files, etc. should be saved to their own specific folders on that drive so that in the even something happens to the Windows installation, like it gets corrupted, or infected, or there is a drive failure, or whatever, those files aren't lost and you can simply reinstall Windows and your programs and then you already have all the other stuff saved to the 1TB Crucial SSD.

Programs should (And mostly have to be) installed on the C: drive (The 970) along with Windows, but games can be installed on either drive. I'd recommend installing them on the backup drive so that, again, you don't lose any game files or progress if there are any issues at any point with the boot drive. It's worth repeating as well that anything important you put on the Crucial SSD you really want to also have backed up to another location whether that is another internal drive you buy, or an external drive, or a flash drive, or optical disks or even cloud storage or an NAS box. Someplace. Anything important needs to be in more than one place, and I like for it to be in three places with one of them being some other location than the main two in the even there is a fire or other unexpected disaster that might take them all out at once, at all times. Otherwise, if you lose your stuff it's almost a "well, you deserved that" kind of situation because these days everybody knows or should know that having backups is essential for anything important.

Your video editing program will be installed on the primary drive BUT you can certainly save your "project files" to the other drive and simply point your editing program to that location anytime you need to open the project and work on it. Or you can do it on the primary drive and just be sure to also copy backups of those projects to the other drive as well. It's up to you. I prefer to do it the first way that way it doesn't incur as many writes to the main drive. The reason being, SATA solid state drives are cheaper to replace down the road than PCIe solid state drives are, so you generally want the "wear" to happen mostly on the less expensive drive while also being cognizant of the fact that the SATA solid state drive is still plenty fast for this kind of operations.