[SOLVED] Video Editing Build : 3900X vs 3800X

Nov 20, 2019
6
3
15
Hey. I'm getting ready to build a new video editing rig. I built my last PC nearly 10 years ago and it still runs alright, but struggles with 4K and even some photo editing can have lag. I went for overkill on the CPU and fans with a good mobo and that strategy worked well for me. I'm hoping to do kind of the same again, looking for a PC that will work well for me for 5-10 years like the last one.

What I'd really like is the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. The price is a bit high for me, but I can do it if I think I need to. The 3800X is currently about $200 cheaper, which would be nice.

For 4K editing (videos often 30 minutes long) and longevity of usefulness, is it worth going for the 3900X or would it not be a big difference vs the 3800X?

For reference, I am planning to go with a 570X mobo that's prob in the $300 range, large liquid cooler, 32GB DDR4, and I'm currently thinking about the 1660ti for a GPU.

I don't play games. The PC is used primarily for content creation and web browsing. Oh, and I'm not really concerned with rendering/encoding time as much as ease of use. Right now, I get a lot of lag or momentary freezing while editing 1080-4K videos in Cyberlink PowerDirector. No plans for OC. A big cooler is largely for hopes of keeping temps in check for long term reliability.

If it helps to know where I'm coming from, the current PC is an 1100T Thuban with M4A89GTD PRO/USB3, huge Noctua air cooler, 16GB RAM, 1050Ti.

Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
The 3900x is definitely a better option. What is your PC budget? Frankly, if gaming is not a concern, you could reuse your 1050ti, unless you want to repurpose the machine elsewhere. No need for liquid cooling either. This cooler can handle that 3900x.


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($553.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($255.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($69.98 @...

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
The 3900x is definitely a better option. What is your PC budget? Frankly, if gaming is not a concern, you could reuse your 1050ti, unless you want to repurpose the machine elsewhere. No need for liquid cooling either. This cooler can handle that 3900x.


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($553.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($255.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($249.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($273.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1848.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 14:42 EST-0500
 
Last edited:
Solution
Nov 20, 2019
6
3
15
Thanks. I don't have a set in stone budget, but I'd like to stay around $1200-$1500 and I won't be replacing my drives right at the moment. Those can wait a bit so I can make sure the rest of the system is good. I only use a 250GB SATA SSD for system and prog drive now, with HDDs for storage. Would an M.2 drive make a lot of difference replacing the system drive or is the best upgrade to store files used in a video project on a larger M.2 drive? Again with my main concern being ease of editing more than render/encode time. Currently it takes as much as overnight to produce a 30 minute video, depending on format etc... I don't need it to be done in a half hour, but I'm tired of waiting for small freezes and lag during the actual edit. That's where I read that GPUs can help, but then others say they don't. I'm either misinterpreting some of it or there are differing opinions.
 

jon96789

Reputable
Aug 17, 2019
414
49
4,740
I would go for the 3900X. The price difference is $120. But you get 12 vs 8 cores and encoding videos usually is core dependent and added cores make a big difference. i usually use handbrake for encoding videos. i used to have a Intel i7-6700K PC which took about 2.5 to 3 hours using H.264 at 1080P to encode. With my 3900x, encoding times has dropped to about 20-45 minutes.

What surprised me more is that my RTX2080 GPU can even be faster. Handbrake can use the GPU to encode, and using the GPU can drop encode times down to 15-30 minutes. The drawback is the file size can be 25-50% larger using hardware encoding. Note that the GPU encoding times are also affected by CPU speed, so a slower CPU will also increase the GPU encoding time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VideoPCBuilder
Nov 20, 2019
6
3
15
Thanks for the replies. Now my issue is what's up with the 3900X in the market. Newegg went up $20-30 today. Most are out of stock. It's $50 higher than when I first started looking at it. Is this something that is done to drive people to look at the 3950X in a matter of days, or is the 3900X going to be gone for a bit if it runs out? I hate to miss out, but I also hate to pay $550 now and then find out that in Dec the 3900X will be $450 because of the 3950's arrival. I also saw some info about "Super" versions and wasn't sure if those would be replacements for the current lineup. Guess that's hard to know, but figured I'd ask in case this is common strategy for CPUs. I tend to only follow PC parts when I actually have to build my own, and it's been 10 years so I'm not exactly up on the trends.

Thanks again. The help and opinions are appreciated.
 

jon96789

Reputable
Aug 17, 2019
414
49
4,740
You can buy it for $499 at Best Buy... Shows in stock online... The price fluctuates daily due to demand so you have to keep an eye on it... You can consider buying a custom PC from CyberPower but make sure you know what you want... You cannot make changes once the order has been processed... Their prices are reasonable...
 
Definitely the 3900x. What @logainofhades has is definitely a good build for what you are looking at. If you want it to be cheaper, then maybe keep your current storage drives and GPU as logain has suggested. Also if you already own a large Noctua cooler, then maybe you can reach out to Noctua for the new socket mounting equipment to reuse your old CPU cooler.
 

rigg42

Respectable
Oct 17, 2018
639
233
2,390
To be honest the 3800X shouldn’t be an option, it’s performance is nearly identical to the 3700X to the point you have to ask why it exists. Clearly the 3900X is best but if you want a cheaper adequate option then look at the 3700X.
I've built and tuned systems with every currently released 3000 SKU with the exception of the 3800x. In my expirience the more you spend the better silicon you get. I have to assume that the 3800x chiplet is similar quality to the good chiplet on a 3900x. I can't say this for certain, but I'd bet money that at least one CCX on a typical 3800x chiplet hits 4.4+ ghz at 1.325 V. That is why it exists. It's a binned chip that "should" overclock a few hundred Mhz better than a 3700x.

It's only a $30 premium at Micro Center so I'd choose it 100 % of the time over a 3700x personally.

That being said, I'd have to mostly agree with 3700x over 3800x if running stock and you can't get the MC pricing. Either way I think the 3900x is probably the OP's better bet between those 2 options. If it were me I'd wait and see if you can get a 3950x on Monday.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VideoPCBuilder
Nov 20, 2019
6
3
15
If it were me I'd wait and see if you can get a 3950x on Monday.

That would put 1/2 to 2/3 of my total budget into the CPU alone. I don't think we have to worry about seeing any Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals on the 3900X or 3950X either. I was hoping maybe I'd get lucky and find a good deal on something like RAM, mobo, PSU or GPU though. Prob won't work out. The early stuff that I've looked at has been RAM with a little slower timings, budget mobos, etc... Best hopes for saving much are prob for the GPU and PSU I think.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Encryption+

Encryption+

Upstanding
Sep 26, 2019
330
62
340
And since the 3950X is so new, nobody knows how many bugs may be in it that they haven't had a chance to resolve. If it had been out a few months I'd say maybe but for now I'd say stick with the 3900X.
 

rigg42

Respectable
Oct 17, 2018
639
233
2,390
How married to Cyberlink PowerDirector are you? It would be much easier to make hardware recommendations for more established editors like Adobe Premiere or Divinci Resolve. I have no idea how cores scale or how much GPU acceleration CPD utilizes.

Divinci Resolve is established professional software, is pretty much free, and has a ton of information available about hardware selection.

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ConfigGuides/DaVinci_Resolve_15_Mac_Configuration_Guide.pdf

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...-DaVinci-Resolve-187/Hardware-Recommendations
 
  • Like
Reactions: VideoPCBuilder

Kristomani

Reputable
Dec 12, 2019
69
4
4,535
The Wrath stock cooler that comes with the 3900X gonna work fine. After searching the net and watched cooler setup at YouTube, I decided to just use the Wrath Spire stock. There was some difference in temps, but not enough to go buying water cooling. (I'm no expert, just to make that clear)
 
Nov 20, 2019
6
3
15
Since the thread was brought back to life, I should update. Maybe it'll be of use to someone else using PowerDirector.

Here's what I ended up with :

-Asus ROG-STRIX X570-E Gaming
-AMD 3900X
-Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4
-32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3600 (16-19-19-39)
-500GB Sabrent Rocket PCIe 4.0 M2 SSD
-SeaSonic Focus 850W Platinum PSU
-Phanteks Eclipse 600S Case

Otherwise, I stuck with my old SSD and HDDs and I reused my EVGA 1050Ti.

Shopped all of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday related deals and stayed within my budget.

I've been very happy with it. Everything loads quickly. Editing videos goes pretty smoothly. I won't say it's perfect. I think the actual editing in PowerDirector would improve with a better GPU. Rendering is nuts. I went from some projects taking 10 or 20 hours to render, to being able to render even long 4K projects within 2 hours. Short clips are done essentially immediately. Such a huge improvement vs the 1100T build.

The Phanteks case was expensive compared to a lot of options, but I'd highly recommend it. Everything feels very well made and it's easy to assemble a PC with room for about anything you'd want to do. I even dropped the glass side panel in the floor from about 3-4 feet (accidentally) and it was totally fine. The big Noctua fan that has to be raised to fit over my RAM has maybe 1/8" to 1/4" of clearance under the glass cover, but it wouldn't fit that way in many cases that I looked at.

I leave the sound deadening panels on the case and setup the RGB lighting to "smart" which are green from 0-40C CPU temp or yellow from 40-60C, or red above 60C. It stays on green unless I'm rendering something. I really thought this thing was going to run hotter than this.

Anyway, hope it helps. Thanks to everyone for the input.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rigg42
Nov 20, 2019
6
3
15
Oh, and a few pics.

P1310468.jpg


P1310471.jpg



Here's a quick benchmark of this setup. Not hard to see that the GPU is a weak link for some apps.
3900X.jpg


For comparison; this is what I was using just before this build. I did OC it at times, but this is all standard.
1100T.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: rigg42