Video Editing: i7-5820k vs i7-5960X || Separate PCs?

[Nervly]

Greetings!

I'm thinking of building a video editing computer, in which I'm still not sure of what CPU to use. I've looked into several benchmarks and there's a bit of a difference between the 5820k and the 5960X but I'm not sure if the 5960X would actually be worth the extra money. I'm not going to record or upload anything in 4K. My videos are usually around 15-20 minutes long at 1080p and in my current laptop, using Sony Vegas, it takes around 3 to 4 hours to render one video alone. With this new build I'm planning on getting, I'll be using Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop. I'd like to know which CPU would be the best choice in this case, considering I'll keep on rendering 15-20 minutes long videos at 1080p, and how long it'd take for each processor to render one video. Something around the 30 minutes would be perfect already, if it'd take less, even better. Also, considering I won't be rendering anything at 4K, which would be the best choice for a Graphics Card? Should I go for a 980, Titan X or 1080 anyway, or would a 970 be enough? I'd also like to know if it is recommended to overclock any of these CPUs and if so, up to how many GHz? I've never done overclocking before.

This brings another question: Is it a good idea to have two separate computers, one for gaming and recording and the other for video editing (using the aforementioned software) alone? Because I'm also torn between having two separate computers or only one where I'd do everything in. This is mainly because of another question about CPUs: i7-5820k vs i7-5960X vs i7-6700k. Since apparently the latter is the best one for gaming but the two first ones are best for editing and rendering, I don't know which one I'd choose if I were to build a single computer for all these tasks. I feel like in one hand it'd be good to have separate computers, it'd mean more storage exclusively for raw files and rendered videos (Ill be using 2 SSDs and 1 HDD) and it'd also have more free space which wouldn't slow it down. Plus, while it rendered, I could keep using my other computer. If I have everything in one, I'd probably need more space, rendering could take more time, it could slow down a bit more the computer and it might not allow me to do alot while it renders the video. Then again, I could be speaking utter garbage, as I never owned a powerful computer and I don't know its true limits.

I'll also be using 16GB DDR4-2400 (4x4GB on the 5820k/5960X and 2x8GB on the 6700k). As for a motherboard, should I go for a Asus X99-A?


TL;DR - Rendering 15-20 minutes long 1080p videos, how long would it take using a 5820k and a 5960X? Is the latter worth the extra money? Should I OC any of them? And should I have two separate PCs, one for gaming and one for editing? Which CPU should I choose in that case? Should I use a Asus X99-A Motherboard?

Thanks in advance!

 

[basroil]

1080p video shouldn't take 4 hours to encode, on my old i7 2600k I can transcode 2 hours of 1080p video with placebo settings in under 3 hours in CPU alone, if you are exporting for youtube using quicksync (rather than to bluray on cpu), it should be much faster than realtime even on a laptop!

If you're not going to use it as a primary gaming machine, an i7 6700K without GPU is the best bang for buck you can get

 

[azaran]

Unless you need the absolute best for gaming, I'd build your core system around video rendering and go with a video card that can do both. If you really wanted to multi task as best you can, of course two high end systems would be great but you're effectively doubling your costs here.

As for which CPU to go with, it kind of depends on the GPU and if you're running dual or not. For 1080, it looks like a high frequency 6 core CPU works best if you're running a single GPU. I'd read through these articles to get a good idea of testing.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-Multi-Core-Performance-698
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-2015-Multi-Core-Performance-Update1-806

Premiere does love it some Cuda cores, so going with a good high end mainstream card would give you a good bang for your buck since you want to game on this computer as well. If it was purely a rendering rig I'd recommend a Quadro but it seems for your needs a mainstream card like the Geforce 1000 series card would be fine.

A good high end SSD, for its fast I/O would be ideal. Something like the Samsung 950 Pro would certainly do the trick if it's in your budget. If you go with the i7-5820k just make sure to keep an eye on your PCeI lane use so you don't go over the 28 lanes, as PCIe SSD's will count towards that.

For RAM, I'd look at the 3200 speed stuff with a good CAS rating. Its not whole lot more and for rendering those few NS differences could make a difference.

For boards, the Asus X99-A is a good solid board, tho I'd look at the X99-A/USB 3.1 updated model so you can get the updated USB 3.1 hardware.

 

[Nervly]

1080p video shouldn't take 4 hours to encode, on my old i7 2600k I can transcode 2 hours of 1080p video with placebo settings in under 3 hours in CPU alone, if you are exporting for youtube using quicksync (rather than to bluray on cpu), it should be much faster than realtime even on a laptop!

If you're not going to use it as a primary gaming machine, an i7 6700K without GPU is the best bang for buck you can get

Welcome to my laptop! It has a Intel Pentium T4300 Dual-Core 2.1GHz with 3GB of RAM (even though it should be 4GB) and an old HDD. I also rendered in .wmv (incase it makes a big difference) and the computer is really messed up at this point. Thank you for the suggestion!

Unless you need the absolute best for gaming, I'd build your core system around video rendering and go with a video card that can do both. If you really wanted to multi task as best you can, of course two high end systems would be great but you're effectively doubling your costs here.

As for which CPU to go with, it kind of depends on the GPU and if you're running dual or not. For 1080, it looks like a high frequency 6 core CPU works best if you're running a single GPU. I'd read through these articles to get a good idea of testing.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-Multi-Core-Performance-698
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-2015-Multi-Core-Performance-Update1-806

Premiere does love it some Cuda cores, so going with a good high end mainstream card would give you a good bang for your buck since you want to game on this computer as well. If it was purely a rendering rig I'd recommend a Quadro but it seems for your needs a mainstream card like the Geforce 1000 series card would be fine.

A good high end SSD, for its fast I/O would be ideal. Something like the Samsung 950 Pro would certainly do the trick if it's in your budget. If you go with the i7-5820k just make sure to keep an eye on your PCeI lane use so you don't go over the 28 lanes, as PCIe SSD's will count towards that.

For RAM, I'd look at the 3200 speed stuff with a good CAS rating. Its not whole lot more and for rendering those few NS differences could make a difference.

For boards, the Asus X99-A is a good solid board, tho I'd look at the X99-A/USB 3.1 updated model so you can get the updated USB 3.1 hardware.

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry for my late response but I've been on holidays.
I like your idea. Even if I do end up going for two computers, I'll still need to build one of them first, so I think the ideal would be building a 'hybrid', so, much like you said, building my core system around video rendering and using a video card that can do both.

After some research, I think maybe the 1070 would be the best for me. I won't be doing VR, at least for now, and 4K isn't in my plans either. Though I will be using a ultra wide monitor in the future, at either 2560x1080 or 3440x1440, would a GTX 1070 be ready for this? I'm still not sure if I'll go for more than one monitor, though I likely won't, but if I do it won't be more than two monitors.

The Samsung 950 Pro is exactly the one I was thinking of going for, I wasn't aware of the PCIe lanes thing however. What are these PCIe lanes exactly and how do they work? I also read about the 6850k which seems to have 40 PCIe lanes and faster clock speed, with the same cores and threads as the 5820k. Is it worth the extra 200€? Still not sure if I'll be overclocking since I've never done it before, is it worth the effort? I've decided not to go for the 5960X since I won't be doing 4K and it doesn't seem to be the most efficient CPU for 1080p considering how expensive it is as well. As for the GPU, I will most likely run a single one.

Thank you for your help so far and sorry for all the questions, hopefully it's not bothering you.

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

I'm tempted to suggest waiting for Zen as with the Blender we saw it looks to make a splash in the prosumer market.

That being said, you can still get a decent rig now.

 

[azaran]

1080p video shouldn't take 4 hours to encode, on my old i7 2600k I can transcode 2 hours of 1080p video with placebo settings in under 3 hours in CPU alone, if you are exporting for youtube using quicksync (rather than to bluray on cpu), it should be much faster than realtime even on a laptop!

If you're not going to use it as a primary gaming machine, an i7 6700K without GPU is the best bang for buck you can get

Welcome to my laptop! It has a Intel Pentium T4300 Dual-Core 2.1GHz with 3GB of RAM (even though it should be 4GB) and an old HDD. I also rendered in .wmv (incase it makes a big difference) and the computer is really messed up at this point. Thank you for the suggestion!

Unless you need the absolute best for gaming, I'd build your core system around video rendering and go with a video card that can do both. If you really wanted to multi task as best you can, of course two high end systems would be great but you're effectively doubling your costs here.

As for which CPU to go with, it kind of depends on the GPU and if you're running dual or not. For 1080, it looks like a high frequency 6 core CPU works best if you're running a single GPU. I'd read through these articles to get a good idea of testing.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-Multi-Core-Performance-698
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-2015-Multi-Core-Performance-Update1-806

Premiere does love it some Cuda cores, so going with a good high end mainstream card would give you a good bang for your buck since you want to game on this computer as well. If it was purely a rendering rig I'd recommend a Quadro but it seems for your needs a mainstream card like the Geforce 1000 series card would be fine.

A good high end SSD, for its fast I/O would be ideal. Something like the Samsung 950 Pro would certainly do the trick if it's in your budget. If you go with the i7-5820k just make sure to keep an eye on your PCeI lane use so you don't go over the 28 lanes, as PCIe SSD's will count towards that.

For RAM, I'd look at the 3200 speed stuff with a good CAS rating. Its not whole lot more and for rendering those few NS differences could make a difference.

For boards, the Asus X99-A is a good solid board, tho I'd look at the X99-A/USB 3.1 updated model so you can get the updated USB 3.1 hardware.

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry for my late response but I've been on holidays.
I like your idea. Even if I do end up going for two computers, I'll still need to build one of them first, so I think the ideal would be building a 'hybrid', so, much like you said, building my core system around video rendering and using a video card that can do both.

After some research, I think maybe the 1070 would be the best for me. I won't be doing VR, at least for now, and 4K isn't in my plans either. Though I will be using a ultra wide monitor in the future, at either 2560x1080 or 3440x1440, would a GTX 1070 be ready for this? I'm still not sure if I'll go for more than one monitor, though I likely won't, but if I do it won't be more than two monitors.

The Samsung 950 Pro is exactly the one I was thinking of going for, I wasn't aware of the PCIe lanes thing however. What are these PCIe lanes exactly and how do they work? I also read about the 6850k which seems to have 40 PCIe lanes and faster clock speed, with the same cores and threads as the 5820k. Is it worth the extra 200€? Still not sure if I'll be overclocking since I've never done it before, is it worth the effort? I've decided not to go for the 5960X since I won't be doing 4K and it doesn't seem to be the most efficient CPU for 1080p considering how expensive it is as well. As for the GPU, I will most likely run a single one.

Thank you for your help so far and sorry for all the questions, hopefully it's not bothering you.

As to the GTX 1070, from what I've seen it will work for 3440x1440 but you're likely looking at 45-50fps on ultra settings. If you feel you want more from your gaming, I'd look to the GTX 1080 so you can carry that over in to your gaming machine once you build it.

As for the 950 Pro and PCIe lanes... its basically a math game. The i7-5820K has 28 PCie lanes. That means it can support up to 28 lanes worth of traffic from devices that are plugged in.
So say you have a GTX 1080 running at x16 PCIe. That means your using 16 lanes and CPU will have 12 lanes left for other things.
If you decided to run a GTX 1080 at x16 and a Samsung 950 Pro, you'll be using 20 lanes. 16 lanes from the GPU, and 4 lanes from the SSD since it is a PCIe x4 drive.

Now if all you want to do is run one GPU and one or two PCIe drives, you're fine with a 28 lane CPU like the i7-5820K. However if you wanted to run SLI things get more complicated and thats why the 6850k runs so much more, clock speed difference aside. It supports many more lanes of traffic and allows for higher speed SLI. A 28 lane CPU can only do at best x16/x8 speeds with two GPU's in an SLI configuration, where as the 40 lane CPU can do a true x16/x16 configuration. For the avg gamer x16/x8 is usually plenty. But if you're a high end rendering pro and putting a couple of 4000€ M6000 Quadros in your rig, that extra 200€ is chump change and the performance you get is worth it.

As for overclocking, yeah it can be worth it. You're speeding the CPU up so you're performance will increase accordingly. If you're dumping 200€ worth of gear in to it, I think you'd be better off just upgrading the chip. But if you can boost the speed up with a 100€ or so water cooling AIO or less for a big air cooler, it might be worth it. Plus its always fun to monkey around with a system.

Also a note on the RAM. I just started working with an X99A /USB 3.1 board like we talked about earlier and I will say this, make sure you look at the QL vendor list for RAM. The thing is incredibly picky about it's RAM. From the QL sheets I was looking at, DDR4 3200 in higher than 16GB (4x4GB) configurations isn't supported. You have to drop down to DDR4 3000 to find qualified kits. I was able to get it to run with a DDR4 3200 32GB kit, but it started throwing errors like mad thats making me have to figure out if its RAM or motherboard slot issues.

 

[Nervly]

1080p video shouldn't take 4 hours to encode, on my old i7 2600k I can transcode 2 hours of 1080p video with placebo settings in under 3 hours in CPU alone, if you are exporting for youtube using quicksync (rather than to bluray on cpu), it should be much faster than realtime even on a laptop!

If you're not going to use it as a primary gaming machine, an i7 6700K without GPU is the best bang for buck you can get

Welcome to my laptop! It has a Intel Pentium T4300 Dual-Core 2.1GHz with 3GB of RAM (even though it should be 4GB) and an old HDD. I also rendered in .wmv (incase it makes a big difference) and the computer is really messed up at this point. Thank you for the suggestion!

Unless you need the absolute best for gaming, I'd build your core system around video rendering and go with a video card that can do both. If you really wanted to multi task as best you can, of course two high end systems would be great but you're effectively doubling your costs here.

As for which CPU to go with, it kind of depends on the GPU and if you're running dual or not. For 1080, it looks like a high frequency 6 core CPU works best if you're running a single GPU. I'd read through these articles to get a good idea of testing.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-Multi-Core-Performance-698
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-2015-Multi-Core-Performance-Update1-806

Premiere does love it some Cuda cores, so going with a good high end mainstream card would give you a good bang for your buck since you want to game on this computer as well. If it was purely a rendering rig I'd recommend a Quadro but it seems for your needs a mainstream card like the Geforce 1000 series card would be fine.

A good high end SSD, for its fast I/O would be ideal. Something like the Samsung 950 Pro would certainly do the trick if it's in your budget. If you go with the i7-5820k just make sure to keep an eye on your PCeI lane use so you don't go over the 28 lanes, as PCIe SSD's will count towards that.

For RAM, I'd look at the 3200 speed stuff with a good CAS rating. Its not whole lot more and for rendering those few NS differences could make a difference.

For boards, the Asus X99-A is a good solid board, tho I'd look at the X99-A/USB 3.1 updated model so you can get the updated USB 3.1 hardware.

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry for my late response but I've been on holidays.
I like your idea. Even if I do end up going for two computers, I'll still need to build one of them first, so I think the ideal would be building a 'hybrid', so, much like you said, building my core system around video rendering and using a video card that can do both.

After some research, I think maybe the 1070 would be the best for me. I won't be doing VR, at least for now, and 4K isn't in my plans either. Though I will be using a ultra wide monitor in the future, at either 2560x1080 or 3440x1440, would a GTX 1070 be ready for this? I'm still not sure if I'll go for more than one monitor, though I likely won't, but if I do it won't be more than two monitors.

The Samsung 950 Pro is exactly the one I was thinking of going for, I wasn't aware of the PCIe lanes thing however. What are these PCIe lanes exactly and how do they work? I also read about the 6850k which seems to have 40 PCIe lanes and faster clock speed, with the same cores and threads as the 5820k. Is it worth the extra 200€? Still not sure if I'll be overclocking since I've never done it before, is it worth the effort? I've decided not to go for the 5960X since I won't be doing 4K and it doesn't seem to be the most efficient CPU for 1080p considering how expensive it is as well. As for the GPU, I will most likely run a single one.

Thank you for your help so far and sorry for all the questions, hopefully it's not bothering you.

As to the GTX 1070, from what I've seen it will work for 3440x1440 but you're likely looking at 45-50fps on ultra settings. If you feel you want more from your gaming, I'd look to the GTX 1080 so you can carry that over in to your gaming machine once you build it.

As for the 950 Pro and PCIe lanes... its basically a math game. The i7-5820K has 28 PCie lanes. That means it can support up to 28 lanes worth of traffic from devices that are plugged in.
So say you have a GTX 1080 running at x16 PCIe. That means your using 16 lanes and CPU will have 12 lanes left for other things.
If you decided to run a GTX 1080 at x16 and a Samsung 950 Pro, you'll be using 20 lanes. 16 lanes from the GPU, and 4 lanes from the SSD since it is a PCIe x4 drive.

Now if all you want to do is run one GPU and one or two PCIe drives, you're fine with a 28 lane CPU like the i7-5820K. However if you wanted to run SLI things get more complicated and thats why the 6850k runs so much more, clock speed difference aside. It supports many more lanes of traffic and allows for higher speed SLI. A 28 lane CPU can only do at best x16/x8 speeds with two GPU's in an SLI configuration, where as the 40 lane CPU can do a true x16/x16 configuration. For the avg gamer x16/x8 is usually plenty. But if you're a high end rendering pro and putting a couple of 4000€ M6000 Quadros in your rig, that extra 200€ is chump change and the performance you get is worth it.

As for overclocking, yeah it can be worth it. You're speeding the CPU up so you're performance will increase accordingly. If you're dumping 200€ worth of gear in to it, I think you'd be better off just upgrading the chip. But if you can boost the speed up with a 100€ or so water cooling AIO or less for a big air cooler, it might be worth it. Plus its always fun to monkey around with a system.

Also a note on the RAM. I just started working with an X99A /USB 3.1 board like we talked about earlier and I will say this, make sure you look at the QL vendor list for RAM. The thing is incredibly picky about it's RAM. From the QL sheets I was looking at, DDR4 3200 in higher than 16GB (4x4GB) configurations isn't supported. You have to drop down to DDR4 3000 to find qualified kits. I was able to get it to run with a DDR4 3200 32GB kit, but it started throwing errors like mad thats making me have to figure out if its RAM or motherboard slot issues.

Hmm, I think for now the 1070 will be enough but I'll still have a closer look into the graphics card.
Ohh, I understand now! It's actually a really simple concept. I think 28 lanes will be enough then. Do HDDs use PCIe as well? Because I was thinking of going for 2 SSDs and 1 HDD.

It seems like for what I need, the 5820k will be enough then. I'm not thinking of going for SLI, at least not for now. If I do go for SLI in the future, I'll just have to upgrade my CPU.

I'm considering on overclocking the 5820k and using a AIO Water Cooler. Question is, which water cooler do you think would be best? I looked at the Corsair H105 and the H110 but I'm not sure if there's a different one that'd be ideal or if those are good enough. Also, which frequency would you recommend overclocking it to? Intel's website says its maximum is 3.6GHz if I'm not mistaken, but I've seen people boosting it to 4.5GHz, which is a really tempting clock speed. Finally, what would be a safe temperature interval for an overclocked 5820k?

I'll stay at 16GB (4X4GB) RAM, 32GB isn't worth it for what I need. Should I still go for 3200MHz or lower down to 3000MHz?

Thank you so much for all your help!

 

[Nervly]

1080p video shouldn't take 4 hours to encode, on my old i7 2600k I can transcode 2 hours of 1080p video with placebo settings in under 3 hours in CPU alone, if you are exporting for youtube using quicksync (rather than to bluray on cpu), it should be much faster than realtime even on a laptop!

If you're not going to use it as a primary gaming machine, an i7 6700K without GPU is the best bang for buck you can get

Welcome to my laptop! It has a Intel Pentium T4300 Dual-Core 2.1GHz with 3GB of RAM (even though it should be 4GB) and an old HDD. I also rendered in .wmv (incase it makes a big difference) and the computer is really messed up at this point. Thank you for the suggestion!

Unless you need the absolute best for gaming, I'd build your core system around video rendering and go with a video card that can do both. If you really wanted to multi task as best you can, of course two high end systems would be great but you're effectively doubling your costs here.

As for which CPU to go with, it kind of depends on the GPU and if you're running dual or not. For 1080, it looks like a high frequency 6 core CPU works best if you're running a single GPU. I'd read through these articles to get a good idea of testing.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-Multi-Core-Performance-698
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-2015-Multi-Core-Performance-Update1-806

Premiere does love it some Cuda cores, so going with a good high end mainstream card would give you a good bang for your buck since you want to game on this computer as well. If it was purely a rendering rig I'd recommend a Quadro but it seems for your needs a mainstream card like the Geforce 1000 series card would be fine.

A good high end SSD, for its fast I/O would be ideal. Something like the Samsung 950 Pro would certainly do the trick if it's in your budget. If you go with the i7-5820k just make sure to keep an eye on your PCeI lane use so you don't go over the 28 lanes, as PCIe SSD's will count towards that.

For RAM, I'd look at the 3200 speed stuff with a good CAS rating. Its not whole lot more and for rendering those few NS differences could make a difference.

For boards, the Asus X99-A is a good solid board, tho I'd look at the X99-A/USB 3.1 updated model so you can get the updated USB 3.1 hardware.

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry for my late response but I've been on holidays.
I like your idea. Even if I do end up going for two computers, I'll still need to build one of them first, so I think the ideal would be building a 'hybrid', so, much like you said, building my core system around video rendering and using a video card that can do both.

After some research, I think maybe the 1070 would be the best for me. I won't be doing VR, at least for now, and 4K isn't in my plans either. Though I will be using a ultra wide monitor in the future, at either 2560x1080 or 3440x1440, would a GTX 1070 be ready for this? I'm still not sure if I'll go for more than one monitor, though I likely won't, but if I do it won't be more than two monitors.

The Samsung 950 Pro is exactly the one I was thinking of going for, I wasn't aware of the PCIe lanes thing however. What are these PCIe lanes exactly and how do they work? I also read about the 6850k which seems to have 40 PCIe lanes and faster clock speed, with the same cores and threads as the 5820k. Is it worth the extra 200€? Still not sure if I'll be overclocking since I've never done it before, is it worth the effort? I've decided not to go for the 5960X since I won't be doing 4K and it doesn't seem to be the most efficient CPU for 1080p considering how expensive it is as well. As for the GPU, I will most likely run a single one.

Thank you for your help so far and sorry for all the questions, hopefully it's not bothering you.

As to the GTX 1070, from what I've seen it will work for 3440x1440 but you're likely looking at 45-50fps on ultra settings. If you feel you want more from your gaming, I'd look to the GTX 1080 so you can carry that over in to your gaming machine once you build it.

As for the 950 Pro and PCIe lanes... its basically a math game. The i7-5820K has 28 PCie lanes. That means it can support up to 28 lanes worth of traffic from devices that are plugged in.
So say you have a GTX 1080 running at x16 PCIe. That means your using 16 lanes and CPU will have 12 lanes left for other things.
If you decided to run a GTX 1080 at x16 and a Samsung 950 Pro, you'll be using 20 lanes. 16 lanes from the GPU, and 4 lanes from the SSD since it is a PCIe x4 drive.

Now if all you want to do is run one GPU and one or two PCIe drives, you're fine with a 28 lane CPU like the i7-5820K. However if you wanted to run SLI things get more complicated and thats why the 6850k runs so much more, clock speed difference aside. It supports many more lanes of traffic and allows for higher speed SLI. A 28 lane CPU can only do at best x16/x8 speeds with two GPU's in an SLI configuration, where as the 40 lane CPU can do a true x16/x16 configuration. For the avg gamer x16/x8 is usually plenty. But if you're a high end rendering pro and putting a couple of 4000€ M6000 Quadros in your rig, that extra 200€ is chump change and the performance you get is worth it.

As for overclocking, yeah it can be worth it. You're speeding the CPU up so you're performance will increase accordingly. If you're dumping 200€ worth of gear in to it, I think you'd be better off just upgrading the chip. But if you can boost the speed up with a 100€ or so water cooling AIO or less for a big air cooler, it might be worth it. Plus its always fun to monkey around with a system.

Also a note on the RAM. I just started working with an X99A /USB 3.1 board like we talked about earlier and I will say this, make sure you look at the QL vendor list for RAM. The thing is incredibly picky about it's RAM. From the QL sheets I was looking at, DDR4 3200 in higher than 16GB (4x4GB) configurations isn't supported. You have to drop down to DDR4 3000 to find qualified kits. I was able to get it to run with a DDR4 3200 32GB kit, but it started throwing errors like mad thats making me have to figure out if its RAM or motherboard slot issues.

Hmm, I think for now the 1070 will be enough but I'll still have a closer look into the graphics card.
Ohh, I understand now! It's actually a really simple concept. I think 28 lanes will be enough then. Do HDDs use PCIe as well? Because I was thinking of going for 2 SSDs and 1 HDD.

It seems like for what I need, the 5820k will be enough then. I'm not thinking of going for SLI, at least not for now. If I do go for SLI in the future, I'll just have to upgrade my CPU.

I'm considering on overclocking the 5820k and using an AIO Water Cooler. Question is, which water cooler do you think would be best? I looked at the Corsair H105 and the H110 but I'm not sure if there's a different one that'd be ideal or if those are good enough. Also, which frequency would you recommend overclocking it to? Intel's website says its maximum is 3.6GHz if I'm not mistaken, but I've seen people boosting it to 4.5GHz, which is a really tempting clock speed. Finally, what would be a safe temperature interval for an overclocked 5820k?

I'll stay at 16GB (4X4GB) RAM, 32GB isn't worth it for what I need. Should I still go for 3200MHz or lower down to 3000MHz?

Thank you so much for all your help!

 

[azaran]

Hmm, I think for now the 1070 will be enough but I'll still have a closer look into the graphics card.
Ohh, I understand now! It's actually a really simple concept. I think 28 lanes will be enough then. Do HDDs use PCIe as well? Because I was thinking of going for 2 SSDs and 1 HDD.

It seems like for what I need, the 5820k will be enough then. I'm not thinking of going for SLI, at least not for now. If I do go for SLI in the future, I'll just have to upgrade my CPU.

I'm considering on overclocking the 5820k and using a AIO Water Cooler. Question is, which water cooler do you think would be best? I looked at the Corsair H105 and the H110 but I'm not sure if there's a different one that'd be ideal or if those are good enough. Also, which frequency would you recommend overclocking it to? Intel's website says its maximum is 3.6GHz if I'm not mistaken, but I've seen people boosting it to 4.5GHz, which is a really tempting clock speed. Finally, what would be a safe temperature interval for an overclocked 5820k?

I'll stay at 16GB (4X4GB) RAM, 32GB isn't worth it for what I need. Should I still go for 3200MHz or lower down to 3000MHz?

Thank you so much for all your help!

When you're saying you want to add SSD's, and your concerned about their impact, make sure to add the PCIe or SATA descriptor. While both are SSD's, PCIe vs SATA makes a big difference not only in their speed but also what you have to take in to account when you choose one. Don't sweat the normal SATA stuff, it goes off the chipset. Its different from the PCIe lanes that are directly connected to your CPU. If you just want to throw a couple SATA drives (SSD or HDD), it's not going to be affected by your CPU.

As for overclocking, I'd read up on it before attempting. Tom's has some good articles on it and posting in the forums for specifics would be a good idea. In general OCing is a crap shoot. What speed you end up with depends on the binning of your chip and what kind of cooling your using and occasionally the alignment of the stars. So there isn't a specific number I'd say you should start at, you just take the process slow and see where you end up. The Haswell-E chips haven't been known as exceptional overclockers but after reading up on it, if you feel up for the task then go for it. The 3.6Ghz rating you were asking about is Intels max turbo speed. Thats the speed the chip is designed to essentially overclock it self to when you need the kick. Beyond that is up everything I just mentioned.

As for what AIO cooler to get, that largely depends on your case. It's all well and good to want a 360mm cooler, but if your case only supports a 120mm then your either out of luck or in for a long day with a dermel. If you can, I'd honestly recommend the Kraken X61. Its a big guy at 280mm, but the tubing is incredibly flexible and makes mounting very easy. The software for the Kraken is also very nice and simple. The Corsair H110i... it depends on if you mean the GTX version which got turned in to the H115i or the GT which just turned in to the H110i... I hate Corsair's naming schizophrenia. The new H110i is slightly longer and thicker than the H115i, it's also running faster fans with a higher rate of airflow but it's also noisier.

The Corsair H100i v2 (which was the H100 GTX) is what I'm playing with right now on the X99a I'm building up. Its a bit stiff but so far I haven't had any problems. The i Link software has improved since I last used it and doesn't seem to be so twitchy. The H105 is a 240mm like the H100i v2, but there are differences. It has a thicker rad (38mm vs 30mm) so it'll cool a bit better, but mounting it may be problematic depending on the case you use so you'd need to look out for that. The H105 also doesn't have the built in LEDs or use the i Link software that the H100i v2 uses, which is a plus or minus depending on what you want out of your cooler. The H105 is an older cooler so not sure how the pump performs to the H100i.

There is also the EK Predator which people have raved about. It's supposed to be a bullet proof cooler, but it is also twice the price of the Corsairs and Krakens out there.
https://www.ekwb.com/solutions/all-in-one/

Whatever AIO direction you want to go in, first figure out your case selection. From there find a cooler that you want. For an AIO, stick with a 240mm or 280mm higher, beyond that I'd really say look at a custom closed loop if you want to get super serious about overclocking.

And finally RAM. Going from 16GB to 32GB isn't a huge jump in price and might be worth it with the video work you want to do. As for 3200 vs 3000 it depends on the latency. Basic math on figuring out the overall latency of the RAM (which is really the major factor) is (CAS/frequency)*2000. So say you have a two sets of RAM,
Set A is a 16GB DDR4 3200 CAS 16. (16/3200)*2000 = 10NS (Nanoseconds)
Set B is a 16GB DDR4 3000 CAS 15. (15/3000)*2000 = 10NS
They're effectively the same speed, but I'll bet you the 3200 stuff is a bit more expensive and probably not as tight of timings. Now if the 3200 stuff was a CAS 15, then it'd be worth the price increase but in this example there's no real point in running the 3200. So make sure you look at the CAS rating on the RAM when your selecting.

 

[Nervly]

Hmm, I think for now the 1070 will be enough but I'll still have a closer look into the graphics card.
Ohh, I understand now! It's actually a really simple concept. I think 28 lanes will be enough then. Do HDDs use PCIe as well? Because I was thinking of going for 2 SSDs and 1 HDD.

It seems like for what I need, the 5820k will be enough then. I'm not thinking of going for SLI, at least not for now. If I do go for SLI in the future, I'll just have to upgrade my CPU.

I'm considering on overclocking the 5820k and using a AIO Water Cooler. Question is, which water cooler do you think would be best? I looked at the Corsair H105 and the H110 but I'm not sure if there's a different one that'd be ideal or if those are good enough. Also, which frequency would you recommend overclocking it to? Intel's website says its maximum is 3.6GHz if I'm not mistaken, but I've seen people boosting it to 4.5GHz, which is a really tempting clock speed. Finally, what would be a safe temperature interval for an overclocked 5820k?

I'll stay at 16GB (4X4GB) RAM, 32GB isn't worth it for what I need. Should I still go for 3200MHz or lower down to 3000MHz?

Thank you so much for all your help!

When you're saying you want to add SSD's, and your concerned about their impact, make sure to add the PCIe or SATA descriptor. While both are SSD's, PCIe vs SATA makes a big difference not only in their speed but also what you have to take in to account when you choose one. Don't sweat the normal SATA stuff, it goes off the chipset. Its different from the PCIe lanes that are directly connected to your CPU. If you just want to throw a couple SATA drives (SSD or HDD), it's not going to be affected by your CPU.

As for overclocking, I'd read up on it before attempting. Tom's has some good articles on it and posting in the forums for specifics would be a good idea. In general OCing is a crap shoot. What speed you end up with depends on the binning of your chip and what kind of cooling your using and occasionally the alignment of the stars. So there isn't a specific number I'd say you should start at, you just take the process slow and see where you end up. The Haswell-E chips haven't been known as exceptional overclockers but after reading up on it, if you feel up for the task then go for it. The 3.6Ghz rating you were asking about is Intels max turbo speed. Thats the speed the chip is designed to essentially overclock it self to when you need the kick. Beyond that is up everything I just mentioned.

As for what AIO cooler to get, that largely depends on your case. It's all well and good to want a 360mm cooler, but if your case only supports a 120mm then your either out of luck or in for a long day with a dermel. If you can, I'd honestly recommend the Kraken X61. Its a big guy at 280mm, but the tubing is incredibly flexible and makes mounting very easy. The software for the Kraken is also very nice and simple. The Corsair H110i... it depends on if you mean the GTX version which got turned in to the H115i or the GT which just turned in to the H110i... I hate Corsair's naming schizophrenia. The new H110i is slightly longer and thicker than the H115i, it's also running faster fans with a higher rate of airflow but it's also noisier.

The Corsair H100i v2 (which was the H100 GTX) is what I'm playing with right now on the X99a I'm building up. Its a bit stiff but so far I haven't had any problems. The i Link software has improved since I last used it and doesn't seem to be so twitchy. The H105 is a 240mm like the H100i v2, but there are differences. It has a thicker rad (38mm vs 30mm) so it'll cool a bit better, but mounting it may be problematic depending on the case you use so you'd need to look out for that. The H105 also doesn't have the built in LEDs or use the i Link software that the H100i v2 uses, which is a plus or minus depending on what you want out of your cooler. The H105 is an older cooler so not sure how the pump performs to the H100i.

There is also the EK Predator which people have raved about. It's supposed to be a bullet proof cooler, but it is also twice the price of the Corsairs and Krakens out there.
https://www.ekwb.com/solutions/all-in-one/

Whatever AIO direction you want to go in, first figure out your case selection. From there find a cooler that you want. For an AIO, stick with a 240mm or 280mm higher, beyond that I'd really say look at a custom closed loop if you want to get super serious about overclocking.

And finally RAM. Going from 16GB to 32GB isn't a huge jump in price and might be worth it with the video work you want to do. As for 3200 vs 3000 it depends on the latency. Basic math on figuring out the overall latency of the RAM (which is really the major factor) is (CAS/frequency)*2000. So say you have a two sets of RAM,
Set A is a 16GB DDR4 3200 CAS 16. (16/3200)*2000 = 10NS (Nanoseconds)
Set B is a 16GB DDR4 3000 CAS 15. (15/3000)*2000 = 10NS
They're effectively the same speed, but I'll bet you the 3200 stuff is a bit more expensive and probably not as tight of timings. Now if the 3200 stuff was a CAS 15, then it'd be worth the price increase but in this example there's no real point in running the 3200. So make sure you look at the CAS rating on the RAM when your selecting.

That's good to know. I can use 2 PCIe SSDs plus a SATA HDD with no problem then.
I'll follow your advice and read up some articles on here as well as ask the community for help when deemed necessary.

I see, I wasn't aware of the size restriction thing. How can I see if the case I'd like to buy supports certain sizes? I can't find that info for the ones I've been looking at (Kolink Punisher, Tacens Mars Gaming MC2 v2, NZXT H440, BitFenix Nova). After looking up the Kraken X61, I saw some temperature benchmarks and it was always up there with very low temperatures, I might actually try and go for that one as it is very tempting. Though the H100i v2 doesn't stay behind at all, but it seems like the Kraken X61 would be better for me given its easier installation.

The one I currently have on my list is a G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB DDR4-3200 CAS16, but I also looked at a Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-3200 CAS15. Is there a difference between brands or is it irrelevant?

 

[azaran]

Most cases will have some sort of information on radiator size, but its still a fairly new measurement that manufactures are including so not all cases will list it. Nzxt typically lists it, but they also specifically have a configurator on their site for checking if a part is compatible. It's based off Partpicker so its not an internal list but it tends to be pretty accurate. I know the H440 will fit an X61 since I've put one in to that case before, and they're listed on Nzxt's site as having 280mm (top) or 360mm (front) support. According to amazon the Kolink Punisher seems to support a 240mm (top) and a 360mm (front), but it might be worth writing to them to confirm. Couldn't find anything on the Tacens Mars Gaming MC2 as its web page was pretty thin on info, so writing to them might help as well. The BitFenix Nova seems to only support a rear 120mm cooler, but has options for an external cooler if you wanted to go with a custom loop system. Both the Bitfenix and Mars cases seem pretty cramped, so I'd really recommend the H440 out of that lineup.

For the RAM I'd really recommend looking at the QVL listing for the recommended RAM. It isn't an exhaustive list but that board seems to be pretty damn picky about its selection. Asus seems to favor G.Skill Ripjaw 4 over the RipJaw V, which makes a bit of sense since the 4's were designed for x99 and the V's were supposedly designed for the z170 shipsets. You can find the RAM list here.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/X99-A/X99_Series_DRAM_QVL0603.pdf?_ga=1.204830800.1378229542.1443676758
Corsair makes very good memory but in my opinion they're over priced. G.Skill tend to have RAM running tighter timings for less so I tend to go with them. if the Corsair LPX is Cas 15 and costs the same as the G.Skill V Cas 16, I'd say go for the Corsair, but the only kits I've seen at CAS 15 were DDR 3000, which if costs were the same or less I'd say go for it. Cas 15 at DDR4 3000 is the same latency as a DDR4 3200 Cas 16.

 

[azaran]

Also some other cases I'd throw at you to look at (not sure on your budget).
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv
Phanteks Enthoo Pro M
Phanteks ECLIPSE P400
Thermaltake Suppressor F31 (recently released but has gotten some good reviews)

 

[Nervly]

Most cases will have some sort of information on radiator size, but its still a fairly new measurement that manufactures are including so not all cases will list it. Nzxt typically lists it, but they also specifically have a configurator on their site for checking if a part is compatible. It's based off Partpicker so its not an internal list but it tends to be pretty accurate. I know the H440 will fit an X61 since I've put one in to that case before, and they're listed on Nzxt's site as having 280mm (top) or 360mm (front) support. According to amazon the Kolink Punisher seems to support a 240mm (top) and a 360mm (front), but it might be worth writing to them to confirm. Couldn't find anything on the Tacens Mars Gaming MC2 as its web page was pretty thin on info, so writing to them might help as well. The BitFenix Nova seems to only support a rear 120mm cooler, but has options for an external cooler if you wanted to go with a custom loop system. Both the Bitfenix and Mars cases seem pretty cramped, so I'd really recommend the H440 out of that lineup.

For the RAM I'd really recommend looking at the QVL listing for the recommended RAM. It isn't an exhaustive list but that board seems to be pretty damn picky about its selection. Asus seems to favor G.Skill Ripjaw 4 over the RipJaw V, which makes a bit of sense since the 4's were designed for x99 and the V's were supposedly designed for the z170 shipsets. You can find the RAM list here.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/X99-A/X99_Series_DRAM_QVL0603.pdf?_ga=1.204830800.1378229542.1443676758
Corsair makes very good memory but in my opinion they're over priced. G.Skill tend to have RAM running tighter timings for less so I tend to go with them. if the Corsair LPX is Cas 15 and costs the same as the G.Skill V Cas 16, I'd say go for the Corsair, but the only kits I've seen at CAS 15 were DDR 3000, which if costs were the same or less I'd say go for it. Cas 15 at DDR4 3000 is the same latency as a DDR4 3200 Cas 16.

The ones I'm looking the most at are the NZXT H440 and the Phanteks Eclipse P400. I'll also be using the Kraken X61 given it fits both these cases. How was your experience with it noise wise? Not that it bothers me a lot, but just curious.

Regarding RAM, I might go with the G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series DDR4 3000 Cas 15. There was a Cas 15 at 3200MHz version on pcpartpicker but it didn't have a price tag and when I switched countries to see how much it was, it reached the 500€ mark, which is too much.

Thank you so much for all the help you've been giving me. At this point, at least for now, there's only one question remaining: what company should I get my GTX 1080 from? I currently have the EVGA one selected on pcpartpicker as it seems to have really good costumer support, quiet good quality fans and I like the RGB lit front plate, but I've also read good things about the Asus Strix. Does brand make a difference? Are there compatibility advantages if I go for the Strix since the motherboard is also from Asus? Or is it irrelevant?

This is how the build is looking like thus far: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Nervly/saved/cWxFTW (Set to UK)
What do you think? Is there anything missing that I should add?

 

[azaran]

I haven't gotten to play with the P400 yet but its supposed to be very nice (tho the acrylic window apparently scratches easily), but I have built up a H440. I loved that case, if it weren't for the fact that I need 5.25in drive bays I'd swap out for one. The X61 is still my favorite AIO to install, the hoses are super flexible so it makes mounting the pump very easy. The fan noise in the H440 I set one up in had a little bit of an echo since it was top mounted but it was only noticeable in a totally silent room while trying to listen for it. Just make sure to look up the instructions online, the paper insert was mostly useless. Nzxt has instructions online for it and youtube would be a good place to look for people doing installs so you know what you're in for.

As for GPU manufactures, the big 4 names I look at are Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA. EVGA has fantastic support and tends to have well clocked cards. Gigabyte seems to be leading in terms of a lot of peoples preferences but their high end cards tend to be very long, so depending on the case it could be an issue. But for Gigabyte I'd look at the GV-N1080G1 GAMING-8GD. The Asus Strix (there are 3 so find which one matches your price point) and the MSI GTX 1080 GamingX 8G are the other ones I'd look at. It doesn't really matter if it matches up with your motherboard or not. The only thing I'd say would matter is if you want stuff to match up color/brand wise or if the motherboards apps can detect and give you readings for same brand cards.

As for your build, two things.
1. Why the 128GB 850 pro & the 950 pro? You're going to want to be working off the fastest drive for OS and application usage, so I'd just stick with the 95. Ditch the 128GB Pro and either keep the 2TB HDD or move it up to a 4TB if you really need a lot of room for storing your video projects.

2. Your PSU. Ditch it. Its basically one step above models that are considered hazards. £5 more gets your a much better quality 550w PSU. If you felt you needed a bit more power, another £9 will get you a 650w model.

3. You'll need an OS. Don't remember if you already have one or not so threw it in to the build.

Here's the build change I'd recommend. Comes out a bit less than your build minus the OS since I don't know if you need that or not. With the OS it comes in £2 more.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£357.99 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£114.98 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£239.50 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£97.81 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£287.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.38 @ YoYoTech)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card (£660.92 @ BT Shop)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case (£57.27 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.97 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit (£85.88 @ More Computers)
Other: (£0.01)
Total: £2032.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-20 05:55 BST+0100

 

[Nervly]

I haven't gotten to play with the P400 yet but its supposed to be very nice (tho the acrylic window apparently scratches easily), but I have built up a H440. I loved that case, if it weren't for the fact that I need 5.25in drive bays I'd swap out for one. The X61 is still my favorite AIO to install, the hoses are super flexible so it makes mounting the pump very easy. The fan noise in the H440 I set one up in had a little bit of an echo since it was top mounted but it was only noticeable in a totally silent room while trying to listen for it. Just make sure to look up the instructions online, the paper insert was mostly useless. Nzxt has instructions online for it and youtube would be a good place to look for people doing installs so you know what you're in for.

As for GPU manufactures, the big 4 names I look at are Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA. EVGA has fantastic support and tends to have well clocked cards. Gigabyte seems to be leading in terms of a lot of peoples preferences but their high end cards tend to be very long, so depending on the case it could be an issue. But for Gigabyte I'd look at the GV-N1080G1 GAMING-8GD. The Asus Strix (there are 3 so find which one matches your price point) and the MSI GTX 1080 GamingX 8G are the other ones I'd look at. It doesn't really matter if it matches up with your motherboard or not. The only thing I'd say would matter is if you want stuff to match up color/brand wise or if the motherboards apps can detect and give you readings for same brand cards.

As for your build, two things.
1. Why the 128GB 850 pro & the 950 pro? You're going to want to be working off the fastest drive for OS and application usage, so I'd just stick with the 950. Ditch the 128GB Pro and either keep the 2TB HDD or move it up to a 4TB if you really need a lot of room for storing your video projects.

2. Your PSU. Ditch it. Its basically one step above models that are considered hazards. £5 more gets your a much better quality 550w PSU. If you felt you needed a bit more power, another £9 will get you a 650w model.

3. You'll need an OS. Don't remember if you already have one or not so threw it in to the build.

Here's the build change I'd recommend. Comes out a bit less than your build minus the OS since I don't know if you need that or not. With the OS it comes in £2 more.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£357.99 @ Ebuyer)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£114.98 @ YoYoTech)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£239.50 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£97.81 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£287.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.38 @ YoYoTech)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card (£660.92 @ BT Shop)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case (£57.27 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£70.97 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit (£85.88 @ More Computers)
Other: (£0.01)
Total: £2032.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-20 05:55 BST+0100

I'll still look a bit into both cases to see which one I'll really go for.
It seems to be really quiet then! I'll be sure to look up some instructions online as well as watch some videos on its installation, thanks!

Hmm, I think for now I'll stick with the EVGA GPU. There really seems to be a lot of people with good experiences regarding EVGA so this might be a good choice. Still, I'll do some more research just to make sure.

Regarding the build:
1. My mindset for this was, I'd use the 128GB SSD exclusively for the Operative System and the 512GB for editing software, rendered files and possibly games. The 2TB HDD would be for raw video files, media, documents, etc. So basically, I'd be filling the 512GB SSD instead of the 128GB SSD, leaving the latter with more free space for better performance on the OS part. Thing is, I'm not absolutely sure if this is how it works. Do SSDs get slower the more they have in storage? Or is it irrelevant? Hopefully I'm wrong, because getting only one SSD is way more economic.

2. Good to have your input on this, I really didn't know which PSU to choose and just judged by ratings.

3. I have the CD for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, hence why I didn't select any OS. Though I've seen Windows 10 being used by a few friends of mine and it seems to be really good. Is it worth the £85?

Thanks for tweaking it, I think it's looking pretty good!

 

[azaran]

For SSD's, if it isn't setup with a proper amount of space for trim or gets entirely full, then yes filled to capacity will effect performance. But if you're using a 512GB with the HDD for cold storage, the likely hood is pretty slim that you'll fill it up. If you do, chances are by then 1TB ssd's will be the equivalent price. But if you want to set it up like that, go for it. Its not that its bad, I just don't think you'll realistically see any gains from it. Also you'll need to micromanage where your installs and default libraries are located, also not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be dealt with. I'm usually of the mind of keep things as simple as possible, and less overhead is one of those simple things for me.

As for the OS.
1. If you're using an OEM license, thats tied to the existing hardware its installed on. Microsoft will sometimes let you activate on a new motherboard if you call them up at the activation process. Sometimes they wont. It's a crap shoot at best.

2. Keep in mind that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit has a max RAM limit of 16GBs. You would need to upgrade to either a higher level of Windows 7 or Windows 10 to increase your RAM past the 16GB point. Beyond that you shouldn't have any problems installing it as their support site lists drivers for Win7 so it should ship with a CD with those drivers as well.

As for if windows 10 is worth the upgrade, it depends on your software. If your existing software suites are compatible or cheap enough that repurchasing isn't a detriment, then I think it is. You gain better support for the high amount of RAM you'll likely eventually want for video rendering. And for gaming it has support for DirectX 12, which Windows 7 does not. If you're using £5000 software that isn't compatible with Win10... eh it may be worth sticking to Win7, or running a dual boot with Win7 for your production work and Win10 for gaming. An £80 240GB Evo would be all you'd need for the Win10 load if you wanted to keep as much of your boot drive to the production side of things as possible.

 

[Nervly]

For SSD's, if it isn't setup with a proper amount of space for trim or gets entirely full, then yes filled to capacity will effect performance. But if you're using a 512GB with the HDD for cold storage, the likely hood is pretty slim that you'll fill it up. If you do, chances are by then 1TB ssd's will be the equivalent price. But if you want to set it up like that, go for it. Its not that its bad, I just don't think you'll realistically see any gains from it. Also you'll need to micromanage where your installs and default libraries are located, also not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be dealt with. I'm usually of the mind of keep things as simple as possible, and less overhead is one of those simple things for me.

As for the OS.
1. If you're using an OEM license, thats tied to the existing hardware its installed on. Microsoft will sometimes let you activate on a new motherboard if you call them up at the activation process. Sometimes they wont. It's a crap shoot at best.

2. Keep in mind that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit has a max RAM limit of 16GBs. You would need to upgrade to either a higher level of Windows 7 or Windows 10 to increase your RAM past the 16GB point. Beyond that you shouldn't have any problems installing it as their support site lists drivers for Win7 so it should ship with a CD with those drivers as well.

As for if windows 10 is worth the upgrade, it depends on your software. If your existing software suites are compatible or cheap enough that repurchasing isn't a detriment, then I think it is. You gain better support for the high amount of RAM you'll likely eventually want for video rendering. And for gaming it has support for DirectX 12, which Windows 7 does not. If you're using £5000 software that isn't compatible with Win10... eh it may be worth sticking to Win7, or running a dual boot with Win7 for your production work and Win10 for gaming. An £80 240GB Evo would be all you'd need for the Win10 load if you wanted to keep as much of your boot drive to the production side of things as possible.

I just saw the 950 Pro has trim support. Would it take any action from me to make use of it or does it automatically do the job?
I'd rather do it your way, it gets cheaper and like I said, I wasn't sure if it really did work like I thought it would. If it doesn't get to the point of actually affecting the computer's performance, then it'll be better to ditch the 850 Pro and save that extra money. It's nice to keep things simple.

Hmm, the one I have seems to be OEM software. Come to think of it, this CD was lent to me by a friend of mine, is that even legal? I'm not sure it would work on my future computer as it also has a Product Key, that was most likely already used by him. Because if it doesn't, then I'll just have to get Windows 10. That'd also open doors to 32GB RAM if I do end up increasing my memory and, like you mentioned, support for DirectX 12.

Sorry for not understanding, but what did you mean with your last sentence about the 240GB Evo?

 

[azaran]

For SSD's, if it isn't setup with a proper amount of space for trim or gets entirely full, then yes filled to capacity will effect performance. But if you're using a 512GB with the HDD for cold storage, the likely hood is pretty slim that you'll fill it up. If you do, chances are by then 1TB ssd's will be the equivalent price. But if you want to set it up like that, go for it. Its not that its bad, I just don't think you'll realistically see any gains from it. Also you'll need to micromanage where your installs and default libraries are located, also not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be dealt with. I'm usually of the mind of keep things as simple as possible, and less overhead is one of those simple things for me.

As for the OS.
1. If you're using an OEM license, thats tied to the existing hardware its installed on. Microsoft will sometimes let you activate on a new motherboard if you call them up at the activation process. Sometimes they wont. It's a crap shoot at best.

2. Keep in mind that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit has a max RAM limit of 16GBs. You would need to upgrade to either a higher level of Windows 7 or Windows 10 to increase your RAM past the 16GB point. Beyond that you shouldn't have any problems installing it as their support site lists drivers for Win7 so it should ship with a CD with those drivers as well.

As for if windows 10 is worth the upgrade, it depends on your software. If your existing software suites are compatible or cheap enough that repurchasing isn't a detriment, then I think it is. You gain better support for the high amount of RAM you'll likely eventually want for video rendering. And for gaming it has support for DirectX 12, which Windows 7 does not. If you're using £5000 software that isn't compatible with Win10... eh it may be worth sticking to Win7, or running a dual boot with Win7 for your production work and Win10 for gaming. An £80 240GB Evo would be all you'd need for the Win10 load if you wanted to keep as much of your boot drive to the production side of things as possible.

I just saw the 950 Pro has trim support. Would it take any action from me to make use of it or does it automatically do the job?
I'd rather do it your way, it gets cheaper and like I said, I wasn't sure if it really did work like I thought it would. If it doesn't get to the point of actually affecting the computer's performance, then it'll be better to ditch the 850 Pro and save that extra money. It's nice to keep things simple.

Hmm, the one I have seems to be OEM software. Come to think of it, this CD was lent to me by a friend of mine, is that even legal? I'm not sure it would work on my future computer as it also has a Product Key, that was most likely already used by him. Because if it doesn't, then I'll just have to get Windows 10. That'd also open doors to 32GB RAM if I do end up increasing my memory and, like you mentioned, support for DirectX 12.

Sorry for not understanding, but what did you mean with your last sentence about the 240GB Evo?

The 950 will come with a software suite called Magician that will make setting everything up nice and easy. Run that and step it through the over provisioning (it'll make sense once you see it) and you're good to go.

If you have any question on if the Win7 is legal, I'd just make life easy and go with 10. It'll open up more RAM options and give you all the perks of a modern system.

The last line was about running a dual boot system. If for some reason you needed Win7 for backwards compatibility, you could always run a dual boot system where you have both Windows 7 and Windows 10. There's a lot to it, so if your interested I'd look in to it separately but the basics are you can have both OS's loaded (either on the same drive or one drive per OS) and then just choose which OS to boot in to when you start the computer. Very handy if you say had a piece of software that doesn't run in Windows 10 and you didn't want to, or could not, replace. Then you could have one drive setup for production on Win7, and then another drive setup with Win10 for gaming. Thats where the Evo comment came in.

 

[Nervly]

For SSD's, if it isn't setup with a proper amount of space for trim or gets entirely full, then yes filled to capacity will effect performance. But if you're using a 512GB with the HDD for cold storage, the likely hood is pretty slim that you'll fill it up. If you do, chances are by then 1TB ssd's will be the equivalent price. But if you want to set it up like that, go for it. Its not that its bad, I just don't think you'll realistically see any gains from it. Also you'll need to micromanage where your installs and default libraries are located, also not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be dealt with. I'm usually of the mind of keep things as simple as possible, and less overhead is one of those simple things for me.

As for the OS.
1. If you're using an OEM license, thats tied to the existing hardware its installed on. Microsoft will sometimes let you activate on a new motherboard if you call them up at the activation process. Sometimes they wont. It's a crap shoot at best.

2. Keep in mind that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit has a max RAM limit of 16GBs. You would need to upgrade to either a higher level of Windows 7 or Windows 10 to increase your RAM past the 16GB point. Beyond that you shouldn't have any problems installing it as their support site lists drivers for Win7 so it should ship with a CD with those drivers as well.

As for if windows 10 is worth the upgrade, it depends on your software. If your existing software suites are compatible or cheap enough that repurchasing isn't a detriment, then I think it is. You gain better support for the high amount of RAM you'll likely eventually want for video rendering. And for gaming it has support for DirectX 12, which Windows 7 does not. If you're using £5000 software that isn't compatible with Win10... eh it may be worth sticking to Win7, or running a dual boot with Win7 for your production work and Win10 for gaming. An £80 240GB Evo would be all you'd need for the Win10 load if you wanted to keep as much of your boot drive to the production side of things as possible.

I just saw the 950 Pro has trim support. Would it take any action from me to make use of it or does it automatically do the job?
I'd rather do it your way, it gets cheaper and like I said, I wasn't sure if it really did work like I thought it would. If it doesn't get to the point of actually affecting the computer's performance, then it'll be better to ditch the 850 Pro and save that extra money. It's nice to keep things simple.

Hmm, the one I have seems to be OEM software. Come to think of it, this CD was lent to me by a friend of mine, is that even legal? I'm not sure it would work on my future computer as it also has a Product Key, that was most likely already used by him. Because if it doesn't, then I'll just have to get Windows 10. That'd also open doors to 32GB RAM if I do end up increasing my memory and, like you mentioned, support for DirectX 12.

Sorry for not understanding, but what did you mean with your last sentence about the 240GB Evo?

The 950 will come with a software suite called Magician that will make setting everything up nice and easy. Run that and step it through the over provisioning (it'll make sense once you see it) and you're good to go.

If you have any question on if the Win7 is legal, I'd just make life easy and go with 10. It'll open up more RAM options and give you all the perks of a modern system.

The last line was about running a dual boot system. If for some reason you needed Win7 for backwards compatibility, you could always run a dual boot system where you have both Windows 7 and Windows 10. There's a lot to it, so if your interested I'd look in to it separately but the basics are you can have both OS's loaded (either on the same drive or one drive per OS) and then just choose which OS to boot in to when you start the computer. Very handy if you say had a piece of software that doesn't run in Windows 10 and you didn't want to, or could not, replace. Then you could have one drive setup for production on Win7, and then another drive setup with Win10 for gaming. Thats where the Evo comment came in.

I dont think I'll have trouble setting that up then.

I agree, the best option is to just go with Windows 10 as, like you said, it'll open up a lot of new features to me.

Oh, I understand now. Seems like it really would be handy should I ever need backwards compatibility. I'll have to look into the software I use/will be using to see if they all run in Windows 10 or if I'll be needing a dual boot system. Though even if I don't and ever come across something that's not supported in Windows 10, I'd still be able to get a new drive and install Windows 7 on that one. That reminds me, when installing the OS, it will usually ask me if I want to do partitions of a certain drive. Are there any performance influences on these? Let's say I have one SSD and separate it into two partitions, one for the OS alone, and the other for everything else. If I filled the other one only, since it's still the same drive, would it make a difference or is it irrelevant?

 

[azaran]

For SSD's, if it isn't setup with a proper amount of space for trim or gets entirely full, then yes filled to capacity will effect performance. But if you're using a 512GB with the HDD for cold storage, the likely hood is pretty slim that you'll fill it up. If you do, chances are by then 1TB ssd's will be the equivalent price. But if you want to set it up like that, go for it. Its not that its bad, I just don't think you'll realistically see any gains from it. Also you'll need to micromanage where your installs and default libraries are located, also not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be dealt with. I'm usually of the mind of keep things as simple as possible, and less overhead is one of those simple things for me.

As for the OS.
1. If you're using an OEM license, thats tied to the existing hardware its installed on. Microsoft will sometimes let you activate on a new motherboard if you call them up at the activation process. Sometimes they wont. It's a crap shoot at best.

2. Keep in mind that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit has a max RAM limit of 16GBs. You would need to upgrade to either a higher level of Windows 7 or Windows 10 to increase your RAM past the 16GB point. Beyond that you shouldn't have any problems installing it as their support site lists drivers for Win7 so it should ship with a CD with those drivers as well.

As for if windows 10 is worth the upgrade, it depends on your software. If your existing software suites are compatible or cheap enough that repurchasing isn't a detriment, then I think it is. You gain better support for the high amount of RAM you'll likely eventually want for video rendering. And for gaming it has support for DirectX 12, which Windows 7 does not. If you're using £5000 software that isn't compatible with Win10... eh it may be worth sticking to Win7, or running a dual boot with Win7 for your production work and Win10 for gaming. An £80 240GB Evo would be all you'd need for the Win10 load if you wanted to keep as much of your boot drive to the production side of things as possible.

I just saw the 950 Pro has trim support. Would it take any action from me to make use of it or does it automatically do the job?
I'd rather do it your way, it gets cheaper and like I said, I wasn't sure if it really did work like I thought it would. If it doesn't get to the point of actually affecting the computer's performance, then it'll be better to ditch the 850 Pro and save that extra money. It's nice to keep things simple.

Hmm, the one I have seems to be OEM software. Come to think of it, this CD was lent to me by a friend of mine, is that even legal? I'm not sure it would work on my future computer as it also has a Product Key, that was most likely already used by him. Because if it doesn't, then I'll just have to get Windows 10. That'd also open doors to 32GB RAM if I do end up increasing my memory and, like you mentioned, support for DirectX 12.

Sorry for not understanding, but what did you mean with your last sentence about the 240GB Evo?

The 950 will come with a software suite called Magician that will make setting everything up nice and easy. Run that and step it through the over provisioning (it'll make sense once you see it) and you're good to go.

If you have any question on if the Win7 is legal, I'd just make life easy and go with 10. It'll open up more RAM options and give you all the perks of a modern system.

The last line was about running a dual boot system. If for some reason you needed Win7 for backwards compatibility, you could always run a dual boot system where you have both Windows 7 and Windows 10. There's a lot to it, so if your interested I'd look in to it separately but the basics are you can have both OS's loaded (either on the same drive or one drive per OS) and then just choose which OS to boot in to when you start the computer. Very handy if you say had a piece of software that doesn't run in Windows 10 and you didn't want to, or could not, replace. Then you could have one drive setup for production on Win7, and then another drive setup with Win10 for gaming. Thats where the Evo comment came in.

I dont think I'll have trouble setting that up then.

I agree, the best option is to just go with Windows 10 as, like you said, it'll open up a lot of new features to me.

Oh, I understand now. Seems like it really would be handy should I ever need backwards compatibility. I'll have to look into the software I use/will be using to see if they all run in Windows 10 or if I'll be needing a dual boot system. Though even if I don't and ever come across something that's not supported in Windows 10, I'd still be able to get a new drive and install Windows 7 on that one. That reminds me, when installing the OS, it will usually ask me if I want to do partitions of a certain drive. Are there any performance influences on these? Let's say I have one SSD and separate it into two partitions, one for the OS alone, and the other for everything else. If I filled the other one only, since it's still the same drive, would it make a difference or is it irrelevant?

On SSD's I haven't seen anything that really suggest an performance increase by partitioning since position in the SSD doesn't equate to better performance like a platter based HDD. The main benefit of partitioning out your OS and then a separate partition for your programs is that you can do a regular backup of your OS (acronis is a common program for that) as a realitivly small image. So that in the event of needing to do a reinstall you don't have to spend days updating and reinstalling the programs since you can just over write that partition with the image and all your other data is safe on the untouched partition. If you regularly have to worry about that sort of thing its very handy, if not then its more overhead.

 

[Nervly]

For SSD's, if it isn't setup with a proper amount of space for trim or gets entirely full, then yes filled to capacity will effect performance. But if you're using a 512GB with the HDD for cold storage, the likely hood is pretty slim that you'll fill it up. If you do, chances are by then 1TB ssd's will be the equivalent price. But if you want to set it up like that, go for it. Its not that its bad, I just don't think you'll realistically see any gains from it. Also you'll need to micromanage where your installs and default libraries are located, also not a big deal but just one more thing that has to be dealt with. I'm usually of the mind of keep things as simple as possible, and less overhead is one of those simple things for me.

As for the OS.
1. If you're using an OEM license, thats tied to the existing hardware its installed on. Microsoft will sometimes let you activate on a new motherboard if you call them up at the activation process. Sometimes they wont. It's a crap shoot at best.

2. Keep in mind that Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit has a max RAM limit of 16GBs. You would need to upgrade to either a higher level of Windows 7 or Windows 10 to increase your RAM past the 16GB point. Beyond that you shouldn't have any problems installing it as their support site lists drivers for Win7 so it should ship with a CD with those drivers as well.

As for if windows 10 is worth the upgrade, it depends on your software. If your existing software suites are compatible or cheap enough that repurchasing isn't a detriment, then I think it is. You gain better support for the high amount of RAM you'll likely eventually want for video rendering. And for gaming it has support for DirectX 12, which Windows 7 does not. If you're using £5000 software that isn't compatible with Win10... eh it may be worth sticking to Win7, or running a dual boot with Win7 for your production work and Win10 for gaming. An £80 240GB Evo would be all you'd need for the Win10 load if you wanted to keep as much of your boot drive to the production side of things as possible.

I just saw the 950 Pro has trim support. Would it take any action from me to make use of it or does it automatically do the job?
I'd rather do it your way, it gets cheaper and like I said, I wasn't sure if it really did work like I thought it would. If it doesn't get to the point of actually affecting the computer's performance, then it'll be better to ditch the 850 Pro and save that extra money. It's nice to keep things simple.

Hmm, the one I have seems to be OEM software. Come to think of it, this CD was lent to me by a friend of mine, is that even legal? I'm not sure it would work on my future computer as it also has a Product Key, that was most likely already used by him. Because if it doesn't, then I'll just have to get Windows 10. That'd also open doors to 32GB RAM if I do end up increasing my memory and, like you mentioned, support for DirectX 12.

Sorry for not understanding, but what did you mean with your last sentence about the 240GB Evo?

The 950 will come with a software suite called Magician that will make setting everything up nice and easy. Run that and step it through the over provisioning (it'll make sense once you see it) and you're good to go.

If you have any question on if the Win7 is legal, I'd just make life easy and go with 10. It'll open up more RAM options and give you all the perks of a modern system.

The last line was about running a dual boot system. If for some reason you needed Win7 for backwards compatibility, you could always run a dual boot system where you have both Windows 7 and Windows 10. There's a lot to it, so if your interested I'd look in to it separately but the basics are you can have both OS's loaded (either on the same drive or one drive per OS) and then just choose which OS to boot in to when you start the computer. Very handy if you say had a piece of software that doesn't run in Windows 10 and you didn't want to, or could not, replace. Then you could have one drive setup for production on Win7, and then another drive setup with Win10 for gaming. Thats where the Evo comment came in.

I dont think I'll have trouble setting that up then.

I agree, the best option is to just go with Windows 10 as, like you said, it'll open up a lot of new features to me.

Oh, I understand now. Seems like it really would be handy should I ever need backwards compatibility. I'll have to look into the software I use/will be using to see if they all run in Windows 10 or if I'll be needing a dual boot system. Though even if I don't and ever come across something that's not supported in Windows 10, I'd still be able to get a new drive and install Windows 7 on that one. That reminds me, when installing the OS, it will usually ask me if I want to do partitions of a certain drive. Are there any performance influences on these? Let's say I have one SSD and separate it into two partitions, one for the OS alone, and the other for everything else. If I filled the other one only, since it's still the same drive, would it make a difference or is it irrelevant?

On SSD's I haven't seen anything that really suggest an performance increase by partitioning since position in the SSD doesn't equate to better performance like a platter based HDD. The main benefit of partitioning out your OS and then a separate partition for your programs is that you can do a regular backup of your OS (acronis is a common program for that) as a realitivly small image. So that in the event of needing to do a reinstall you don't have to spend days updating and reinstalling the programs since you can just over write that partition with the image and all your other data is safe on the untouched partition. If you regularly have to worry about that sort of thing its very handy, if not then its more overhead.

I understand. Never had to worry about something like that so far, so it probably won't be necessary to take such measures.

Well, I think that pretty much solves all of my questions then, at least for now.
Thank you so, so much for all the patience and explanation! I was able to learn a lot in these last few days thanks to you.
Really glad I created this topic and I'll be sure to hit this forum again should I ever need more assistance.

Have a great day!

 

[azaran]

Glad we could help out with everything. And good luck with your build! Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

 

[Nervly]

Glad we could help out with everything. And good luck with your build! Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

Thank you, I really appreciate it!