[SOLVED] Looking to build a 4k Video Editing PC

[RamPuri]

Hi there,
I am looking to build a 4k Video editing PC. My Budget is £3.5k
My preference is Intel.

Thank you.

 

[Dj0gany]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ydbh6R

 

[ben001]

Hello
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor (£543.48 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£99.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490 AORUS MASTER ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (£337.15 @ Technextday)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (£170.47 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£219.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£139.29 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB VENTUS 3X OC Video Card (£723.67 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL II-X ATX Mid Tower Case (£82.99 @ AWD-IT)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£125.00 @ Currys PC World)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (£171.12 @ Newegg UK)
Monitor: LG 38WN95C-W 38.0" 3840x1600 144 Hz Monitor
Total: £2613.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-22 20:48 BST+0100

Here, I see the stocks are very limited at the moment so I picked this LG display over a native 4K which is quite preferable for editing with the number of features it has, Sweet spot! but this is optional.

 

[g-unit1111]

I personally wouldn't go for a current generation Intel because of the power requirements of the 10900K and then tack on the power requirements of a 3080 and you're looking at a very high wattage system. If you insist on Intel, I think I would go with an X299 build for video editing over a 10900K build:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9980XE 3 GHz 18-Core Processor (£975.14 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM 97 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£124.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X299 AORUS Ultra Gaming Pro ATX LGA2066 Motherboard (£368.53 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64 GB (8 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£357.60 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£169.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 2.048 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£204.48 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB XC3 BLACK GAMING Video Card (£699.99)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M TG ATX Mid Tower Case (£94.98 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£107.40 @ Alza)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (£171.22 @ Newegg UK)
Total: £3274.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-22 23:29 BST+0100''

Alternately I could suggest an sTR4 rig since you would get more cores for less money but you can't go wrong either way, but the cheapest there would still be way out of your price range.

 

[helper800]

I personally wouldn't go for a current generation Intel because of the power requirements of the 10900K and then tack on the power requirements of a 3080 and you're looking at a very high wattage system. If you insist on Intel, I think I would go with an X299 build for video editing over a 10900K build:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9980XE 3 GHz 18-Core Processor (£975.14 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM 97 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£124.99 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X299 AORUS Ultra Gaming Pro ATX LGA2066 Motherboard (£368.53 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64 GB (8 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£357.60 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£169.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 2.048 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£204.48 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB XC3 BLACK GAMING Video Card (£699.99)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M TG ATX Mid Tower Case (£94.98 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£107.40 @ Alza)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit (£171.22 @ Newegg UK)
Total: £3274.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-22 23:29 BST+0100''

Alternately I could suggest an sTR4 rig since you would get more cores for less money but you can't go wrong either way, but the cheapest there would still be way out of your price range.

Nice build but isnt the 650w PSU cutting it close for max potential power draw? 3080 pulls 370 watts or so depending on the board. cpu can pull 200-300 watts?

 

[ben001]

I feel for today's most complex video editing doesn't need more than 8-10 cores and the fastest processor like i9 changes the scenario. Of course, in theory, the more core & capacity the better. At least price to performance ratio is justified. The X-series Intel CPU's used to be a solid choice, but its 2020. Also, 32GB is really a good capacity to manage and perform at 4K. For the power supply, a total of 850 wattage which sounds solid and gives that headroom for the future as well. Now, leaving some space for a good monitor which I thought would be convenient for OP as he didn't mention if he's getting one.

 

[g-unit1111]

Nice build but isnt the 650w PSU cutting it close for max potential power draw? 3080 pulls 370 watts or so depending on the board. cpu can pull 200-300 watts?

Yeah that is a good question, because the 3080 is a huge power draw. But I think the 9980XE is a lower wattage CPU (165W) than the 10900K is (225W). If you go based off a 10900K build and add a 3080 into the mix, then the higher wattage PSU is justified. For most applications you wouldn't need anything over 850W, but maybe get the 850W to be on the safe side.

 

[g-unit1111]

I feel for today's most complex video editing doesn't need more than 8-10 cores and the fastest processor like i9 changes the scenario. Of course, in theory, the more core & capacity the better. At least price to performance ratio is justified. The X-series Intel CPU's used to be a solid choice, but its 2020. Also, 32GB is really a good capacity to manage and perform at 4K. For the power supply, a total of 850 wattage which sounds solid and gives that headroom for the future as well. Now, leaving some space for a good monitor which I thought would be convenient for OP as he didn't mention if he's getting one.

That usually depends on how layered the files you're working with are. The more layers you have - the more cores you'd need and the more RAM you need. I work with large CAD and rendering files and believe me, sometimes there cannot be enough cores and RAM for those applications. We have a rendering station where I work that has a 9980XE, and some of our drafters complain that it's not fast enough, LOL. I don't use Premiere, but I would think that CAD files, Photoshop files, and Premiere files would all work about the same. More layers = more resources required.

And yes, OP didn't specify monitor - most people don't and it's usually assumed that they either have a monitor or are going to buy it separately from the tower.

 

[ben001]

Aknowleged and agreed, but I found newer technology CPU's does significantly better than older one's and they are efficient as well. It is also quite faster and price-wise adding 6 cores for extra £500 a lot to ask for, anyways that's my view.

 

[g-unit1111]

Aknowleged and agreed, but I found newer technology CPU's does significantly better than older one's and they are efficient as well. It is also quite faster and price-wise adding 6 cores for extra £500 a lot to ask for, anyways that's my view.

X299 is not really that old. But it is meant more for multimedia and development applications than it is for gaming. The i9-10900K is more of a gaming / consumer oriented CPU. It will be interesting to see what the next generation of Intel enthusiast CPUs brings to the table vs sTR4. I would use an sTR4 CPU if the budget allows but they are quite expensive and hard to find at the moment.

Also the 9980XE is an 18 core CPU so you're getting 8 extra cores ,and that's a huge difference.

 

[ben001]

X299 is not really that old. But it is meant more for multimedia and development applications than it is for gaming. The i9-10900K is more of a gaming / consumer-oriented CPU. It will be interesting to see what the next generation of Intel enthusiast CPUs brings to the table vs sTR4. I would use an sTR4 CPU if the budget allows but they are quite expensive and hard to find at the moment.

Also, the 9980XE is an 18 core CPU so you're getting 8 extra cores, and that's a huge difference.

Yes, that's an 18 core CPU, my bad.

Okay, If I am not wrong, 9980XE was released in October 2018 which is almost 2-years from now. Technically it is old, not that old to exclude from the list. I have seen some/many video editing performs a lot better with higher clock speed. Running i9 with 5200 MHz all core will be given a significant boost. Yes, you are right extra core is helpful but, editing software like premiere pro shows there is a chance you might end up using 10 cores or around, and counting anything exceeding than that does show a change, but not much. Yes, The X299 platform is simply better at achieving a higher data throughput.

Here is something, I think a powerful GPU also has a bigger role to play, and to find the right chemistry/ balance between GPU, CPU, and memory will also avoid that bottlenecking thing. As GPU acceleration is far more efficient so jobs can be completed in far faster time-frames than relying on a high core count CPU alone.

Therefore, in many cases, it can rather be beneficial to invest more on a powerful graphics card and the key to price-performance at each stage is the balance. I just see there's no point investing in a super high-end processor, as the processor will not be fully utilized and the end up GPU usage at 100%. I don't know what others have to say in my view, maybe I am wrong but that's what I think. Maybe just to stay in a safe corner, I would say it depends on what software you will use.

and, no doubt AMD has proven the right competitor against intel chips, and in many scenarios, they are having a good time. The question is "Budget".

 

[g-unit1111]

Yes, that's an 18 core CPU, my bad.

Okay, If I am not wrong, 9980XE was released in October 2018 which is almost 2-years from now. Technically it is old, not that old to exclude from the list. I have seen some/many video editing performs a lot better with higher clock speed. Running i9 with 5200 MHz all core will be given a significant boost. Yes, you are right extra core is helpful but, editing software like premiere pro shows there is a chance you might end up using 10 cores or around, and counting anything exceeding than that does show a change, but not much. Yes, The X299 platform is simply better at achieving a higher data throughput.

Yeah that's true. But as I have said is that X299 is a platform that is more dedicated to handling high data throughputs, which is beneficial for video and audio editing. The i9 is a newer CPU, which will offset some of the load, but it's more geared towards consumers and gaming uses, not necessarily professional ones.

Here is something, I think a powerful GPU also has a bigger role to play, and to find the right chemistry/ balance between GPU, CPU, and memory will also avoid that bottlenecking thing. As GPU acceleration is far more efficient so jobs can be completed in far faster time-frames than relying on a high core count CPU alone.

Yes in most applications this would be correct. However, video editing is a far more CPU intensive job than it is a GPU one. So in this case I'd select the far stronger CPU and not be as reliant on the video card. One of the reasons I'm hesitant to recommend the 10900K is because it's been compared to one of the worst CPUs of all time - the FX-9590. It's volatile, and requires a monster cooling and PSU configuration to be able to work properly. And combine that with the 3080 - which also needs a monster PSU to be able to work properly and you have what is essentially a powder keg. Maybe Intel will get these issues ironed out in the inevitable refresh, who knows.

Therefore, in many cases, it can rather be beneficial to invest more on a powerful graphics card and the key to price-performance at each stage is the balance. I just see there's no point investing in a super high-end processor, as the processor will not be fully utilized and the end up GPU usage at 100%. I don't know what others have to say in my view, maybe I am wrong but that's what I think. Maybe just to stay in a safe corner, I would say it depends on what software you will use.

On a nearly £4K budget you have the power to do both, right? And since no monitor was specified, I would assume that's being put in a separate budget. Video editing usually means Adobe Premiere, and that can be very finicky software from what I've been told.

and, no doubt AMD has proven the right competitor against intel chips, and in many scenarios, they are having a good time. The question is "Budget".

Yeah for sure, AMD is definitely superior in this category with TR4 and sTR4. The cheapest CPU I could put into a rig is the 3960X which sells for £1230 in the UK, but even that would drive the price way over budget.