video editing build below $1000

[hoorhay]

I'm about to finalize the purchase of parts for my girlfriend's new editing tower. She'll be upgrading from an i5-2500 & GTX 480 with 12GB 1600mhz 3x4. We're working with a budget of roughly $1,000 and are most likely looking to buy tonight. I've built probably over 50 towers(customer orders) over the last three years(I own a small repair business) and this will be her second time doing it herself

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($241.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Directron)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($324.99 @ Directron)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $961.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-11 22:58 EDT-0400

We're trying to get the most out of her budget. She MOSTLY does video and photo editing, and often times has to compress large files as well. She'll benefit a lot from CUDA so it's almost a given to go with the 970. She's not much into overclocking, so we decided the xeon may be the best option, even over buying a 4790 locked chip from microcenter. She rarely used all 12GB of system memory with her current tower, but we're obviously not going with 8GB.

Any suggestions?

 

[CTurbo]

Great build but you must avoid the H81 chipset in a build like this. Grab a H97.

 

[tachybana]

That SSD is quite small for the task. With the Speed you'll be working with, you'll wish it were larger. Try to up it to at least a 256GB. Also, had a bad run in with the Seagate Barracuda (1TB) 16mths and went belly up with only 20% minimal usage. Will never trust that brand again. Hitachi or HGST is the way to go if you're saving your projects in a HDD.

 

[Blueberries]

I've heard the 780ti is a better option for your wife but I personally would stick with the 970 for lower wattage, HDMI 2.0, and better driver support going into the future. I would, however, spend more money on a higher fidelity motherboard and PSU, especially if you want this for work and you want it to last. That is, if the higher performance and efficiency wasn't enough. I mean it's only an extra ~$120 or so to get the best of the line rather than the cheapest and it pays for itself.

 

[Deuce65]

Great build but you must avoid the H81 chipset in a build like this. Grab a H97.

What? Why? What specific feature(s) do you consider indispensable to this build that are available in the h97 chipset but not h81 chipset?

 

[CTurbo]

The H81 only offers two USB 3.0 ports, two sata III ports, no RAID support, and usually have questionable build quality compared to the H97 and Z97 boards. They also tend to be flimsy and I would not put a heavy heatsink like the 212 Evo on one. I think the two sata III ports is bad enough by itself to warrant getting at least a B85 chipset.

 

[Deuce65]

he only has 2 sata3 devices listed so 2 sata3 ports is fine and in any case he also has 2 sata2 ports as well. he has no usb devices listed so that is a non issue. he isnt going to raid (and cant with what is listed) so that is a non issue. reliability is not a function of chipset and in any case the board comes with the same warranty.
as he is obviously on a tight budget it seems silly to spend 3 to 4 times the price for features he knows he isnt going to use. this is *exactly8 the type of build that can benefit from a cheap feature poor motherboard seeing as he doesnt need any of the missing features.

 

[CTurbo]

How can you so confidently speak to the OP's needs?

USB 3.0 and sata III are extremely important to editing builds and RAID is also very useful to have.

The motherboard is one of the two most important foundation pieces of any build and is one of the hardest and most time consuming things to upgrade. Why do you think I'm recommending a motherboard "3 to 4 times the price..." anyway? This H97 board is $20 more. $20 is nothing in a $1000 build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $64.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 13:33 EDT-0400


It also supports up to 32GB RAM compared to the H81's 16GB. That may come in handy in the future.




I also wanted to throw this case recommendation out there. This is a great case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($40.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $40.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 13:36 EDT-0400

 

[Deuce65]

How can you so confidently speak to the OP's needs?

Well I can speak confidentally of the OP's needs because he told us what he needs!

USB 3.0 and sata III are extremely important to editing builds

I'm sure they are, and he has both of those features on the H81 board. He isn't even using all the ports he already has, why purchase more?

and RAID is also very useful to have.

Again, more junk the OP didn't ask for. I have yet to meet a video editing machine that was "mission critical, 100% uptime required", and I would like to think if this was the first the OP would have mentioned it. But on the off chance that 100% uptime is required I should think that a real RAID card would be in order as opposed to the fake raid on the board you selected. But it's moot because OP isn't going to RAID and in any case only has one hard drive.

The motherboard is one of the two most important foundation pieces of any build and is one of the hardest and most time consuming things to upgrade. Why do you think I'm recommending a motherboard "3 to 4 times the price..." anyway? This H97 board is $20 more. $20 is nothing in a $1000 build.

Because the typical H97 board is quite a bit more than 65 dollars. A moment ago you suggested reliability is an issue, now you are suggesting the cheapest board in its class?
And it isn't "just 20 dollars more", in order to actually use the features you are suggesting he pay 20 dollars more for, he also needs to purchase more memory for it at 90 dollars, more hard drives at 120 dollars, etc putting him way over budget. What would you suggest he get rid of to get back under 1000 dollars?
Or alternately, if we are going to ignore the budget OP imposed, why not just ditch 1150 entirely, put an x99 board in there and a 5960x to match and be done with it?

Last thing OP said:

"We're trying to get the most out of her budget"

Buying extra ports she doesn't need, raid that she isn't going to use and can't use, and more memory slots then she has memory for is hardly getting the most out of her budget.

 

[CTurbo]

Wow I am at a loss at how offended you seem to be about me preferring a H97 chipset. The "upgrades" I suggested account for a mere 2% increase in price so it doesn't exactly bust the $1000 budget. This is the most over-reacting I have seen on this site in quite a long time.



This is my final recommendation. Basically the same price, more reliable, and much more capable.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($70.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($316.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($40.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $958.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 21:51 EDT-0400

 

[Deuce65]

I'm not at all offended, and I apologize if I came across that way. With that said, you stated,

"Great build but you must avoid the H81 chipset in a build like this. Grab a H97"

Perhaps it is the forcefulness with which you declare the H81 board he selected specifically, and the chipset in general, as being completely unacceptable for a budget build. Perhaps I misunderstood words like "must", but I don't read that as a simple "preference" for H97 (which I would have no objection to; it is better after all) but rather as H81 simply can't be used at all.
It just seems strange to me that you say he\she MUST avoid H81 and should instead use H97, and then list a build that doesn't take advantage of even a SINGLE feature difference between the two. So yea it's only 20 dollars, but it is quite literally akin to lighting a 20 dollar bill on fire but without the benefit of getting to watch it burn.

In any case, I'm guessing he\she already got their stuff so little sense in arguing about it now.

 

[Blueberries]

I think we can all agree that in general the quality of an H81 motherboard is less than an H97, however, I would say the ASRock H97 Anniversary board is about equal with the MSI board in the OP, and I firmly believe that MSI generally offers better UEFI/BIOS and firmware support. I do not mean that MSI boards are better than ASRock boards; ASRock's higher end boards like the Z97M OC Formula are best in class, the aforementioned actually being the best m-atx board available at a hefty $125. (A small price to pay for what you get if you ask me.)

Let's be real though, we can also agree that USB ports are useful, I don't do any video editing and I use at least 6!

 

[Archaic59]

- Faster Xeon
- Better motherboard
- Best SSD available
- New quiet Corsair case
- Powerful PSU made by Superflower

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($263.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($67.98 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($70.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($330.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1013.69 after rebates
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-13 02:04 EDT-0400