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Recommendations for Editing Stations under $3K?
  • 143 Replies sorted by
  • qwerty123qwerty123

    @vlcharris look over at tonymac if you are going to build a hacintosh... Slugnet's video editor is a pretty good build... though I would get a different, more expensive case than the one on that system.

  • punditpundit

    I think Thunderbolt should be on the list for a Hackintosh build. A number of TB MB's are beginning to appear.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    So I just decided to upgrade from my MacPro and externals to a powerful Hackintosh system, thought I would look through here for advice and help...and I do believe my brain has imploded on its self and is now oozing all over the floor, giving the dog something to do. Thanks guys! :)

    The worst part about it, I used to be a global network guy!!!!

  • jrdjrd

    @kronstadt

    There is no such thing as a "cheap" case with soundproofing, but the Antec 183v3 is often used in custom systems designed for quiet operation. Runs $120-$150 in U.S. It may pay to replace stock fans with Noctua fans, or similar, if you want a really quiet system.

    Here's more unsolicited advice, since I've been researching similar questions recently:

    The Asus Pro Px79 board is one of the cheaper Px79 boards (though not cheap!), and commonly recommended by a number of software vendors (including Resolve and I believe Avid, though you might want to confirm that).

    The Geforce GTX 660Ti looks like a decent compromise between the current high-end GPU (GTX 680) and the lower end cards, but there's not much comparative performance data around, on how much CUDA acceleration you really gain (in PPRO), with the expensive cards.

    Beware: there can be SDRAM issues with the 3930K chip. Make sure you use only approved SDRAM. You might also look into low voltage SDRAM, from Samsung. The other common recommendation is z-ripjaws.

    Your power supply looks more than adequate for the system.

  • kronstadtkronstadt

    Thanks @Vitaliy_Kiselev. Will make sure to read that thread.

    People can actually calculate how much power they will need using this http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

    For me it showed 500-700W (with all additions that I might get in distant future) , so I went ahead and purchased "Seasonic 860w 80+ Platinum". I hope it should be enough. By the way, for those in the UK, it is on special offer at overclockers.co.uk for £166 (incl VAT&shipping). This should keep it silent for most of the time, and I figured with current electricity prices, this efficient PSU will pay for itself in a year in terms of energy savings.

    Regarding the silent case, if you can suggest an alternative that is both cheaper and better in terms of sound isolation, then I'm open to suggestions. The thing that I liked about Corsair 550D is that it has 2 fan hatches that easily pop out. So my plan is to put Noctua fans there and a fan controller on the front. That way, on a normal day, the comp stays closed and silent. And on an editing day, the hatches open and fans are on. 2 PCs in 1.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @kronstadt

    1. Just get any ASUS Mb compatible with your processor. Go to their site and find one with ability to tune fans (it has fancy graphs pictures). Gigabyte boards are also not bad. LGA 2011 boards are much more rare and you always pay premium.

    2. http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3823/graphics-card-for-video-editing, as I understand, if you do not use Resolve any modern 6xx NVidia card will do.

    3. About case, do as you wish, but real case noise is defined by fans and PSU.

    4. About PSU, I think anything 550W or more is good . Just get any you like, you can check tests on sites for noise.

  • kronstadtkronstadt

    Thanks for the response, Vitaliy. I have bought i7-3930K processor already (on eBay brand new in a sealed box, which was cheaper than anywhere else), so I will build the system around it. For a silent case, I think it will be Corsair 550D. The 3 questions are:

    1. which motherboard - specifically - would be good for it? (I can't afford Big Bang, Sabertooth or any high end ones, but more mid-range price would be nice. I've read the whole thread, which is pretty old by now, and still
    2. which graphix card, specifically? (I'm not a gamer, just need to edit on Premiere Pro, color correction, audio edit, plus Adobe After Effect)
    3. Which Seasonic PSU is silent enough and powerful enough for a system like this?

    Thanks.

    Also found this video that answers the topic title:

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    U i7-3930k (may consider cheaper 2600k, 3820 or 3770K)

    3770 is absolutely enough.

    Motherboard ... I'm clueless, and open to advice

    Check posts above. I suggest ASUS as they have very good fan tuning rules.

    SSD - 256GB Samsung 840

    Yep, Sandisk also has good and cheap SSDs.

    2x8GB RAM for now, and I will expand with time

    Get just normal RAM, not overclockers sets.

    Video card - open to advice

    Check correspondint topic here.

    Sound card - do I need one?

    I strongly suggest some semi-pro USB box (with XLRs inputs and headphone amp)

    Power supply - I think Corsair TX750W should be enough.

    Do not overdo things. As I know Seasonic are top choice is you like silency and efficiency.

    Case

    Get any good case with thick walls and place for two 12mm fans, and get Noctua fans.

    Keyboard - HP standard black (£7). I like simple keyboards.

    Same here, check keyboards topic. Throw out this cheap shit.

  • kronstadtkronstadt

    I've been editing GH13 footage on my 6 year old Dell laptop D820 (3.2GB RAM, XP, Premiere CS4). You'll be surprised how good Dell once was. But it became a complete pain in the neck, so I've decided to invest in a proper PC that will keep me going for another 6-8 years.

    I want it to be relatively "future-proof" and be ready for BlackMagic camera 2.5k RAW footage. It will be primarily for Adobe Prepiere Pro, although I want to install AVID on it and start learning it.

    Overall budget: ~ £1200 ($2000 or 1500 Euro). Here are the specs that I'm planning. Any advice that I can get, would be much appreciated!

    • CPU i7-3930k (may consider cheaper 2600k, 3820 or 3770K)
    • Motherboard ... I'm clueless, and open to advice
    • Cooler - Noctua D14, although I would love something completely motionless and silent like "Nofan" with an option to automatically start the fan only at a particular temperature like 60C. Any ideas if there's something like that on the market?
    • SSD - 256GB Samsung 840 (I will add more HDDs and SSDs with time when the prices drop and more money comes in. For now I keep my footage on external drives, 6TB in total)
    • 2x8GB RAM for now, and I will expand with time. (I have no clue which speed to get)
    • Video card - open to advice.
    • Sound card - do I need one?
    • Power supply - I think Corsair TX750W should be enough.
    • Case -- I'm absolutely clueless, but would prefer a cheap case with good soundproofing.
    • Keyboard - HP standard black (£7). I like simple keyboards.
    • Monitor - I already have 28" Hanns-G 1920x1200, but will probably get an additional Shimian 27" 2560x1440

    As I mentioned, any advice would be much appreciated.

  • meemee

    Update on my AMD system. At half resolution in the magix monitor I now have no stutter in my current editing and effect loads, even at stock speed, and even underclocked. I don't really need full resolution for my editing purposes, since I rarely view full screen when editing, so for the time being I am very happy with my budget build.

  • Jean71Jean71

    @bheath Hi Bill! Nice solution should be nvidia series 6 cards (660, 670, and 680 all has 1500 cuda cores). I'm checking the avid website and apparently it says, in system requirements, all nvidia cards are good, (i have a 670, that's pretty fast and affordable). Give it a try, i think it would work :-)

    Try to check this: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539

  • bheathbheath

    I'm Avid MC 6.0 and in need of a desktop. Avid wants you to install the expensive nvidea quadro cards. My notebook workstation does have that card but it's a tired unit. Anyone manage to build an avid system without buying the turnkey workstations from dell or hp? Thanks

  • meemee

    @Vitaliy, so would running two GPU's in Sli smooth out the stutter. I have a 465gtx, and can get another for less than $50. I use Magix fyi, not sure how that plays into it all. I haven't OC'd my GPU much lately cause I figured it was more than enough stock, but maybe tonight I will see if I can get it up there and smooth things out. It's a 352 core card with a stock clock of 607mhz, but I have had it up around 900mhz and pretty stable. Unfortunately there is very little headroom with the memory clock. Can't remember it's number right now cause I don't touch it anymore.

    Intel is out of the question for now. I have a deal with my wife that I can use what I make from Video for camera stuff and computer stuff. Right now that aint much.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @mee

    Right now you need to understand why you need all this GHz.

    It can be for effects and encoding mostly. Sad thing is that GPU is better at this. Intel QuickSync is also very good at encoding help and in most situations Ivy Bridge with QuickSync will be faster.

  • meemee

    Got my new Mobo and Ram set up. Some things are better than expected like rendering speed, and load times. I knew they would increase, but was still pretty blown away by how much. The board and 1090t seem to get along very well. Almost too well. I was able to OC the 1090t to scary levels with relatively low voltage and acceptable temps, but I didn't dare attempt rendering out of fear of frying it. At 5.2GHZ (I stopped going up before it did) and on air all I can say is little was to be desired in most areas, and I am finally thinking seriously about water cooling just so I can really utilize that speed. Back down at a reasonable 4.3ghz things are still fast, and I am not flinching in anticipation of an explosion from my CPU. I still have a bit of stutter when loading effects, but not nearly as bad as before. It's a fresh OS install though, and I need to see if I have the right codecs (can't remember anything from last time I got them). Time to bury my brain in tech stuff. I am very much a right brain person, so not really into computers by nature, but by necessity I learn what I need to.

  • kavadnikavadni

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev .. Thanks, I will look into some alternative boards, or perhaps the non K version will be a little cheaper.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @kavadni

    H boards do not have any overclock functionality (I mean here multiplier change available in K processors).

    Modern boards that are designed to work with K processors - Z77 based boards.

    Intel boards are usually not really popular due to very basic design.

    Check Gigabyte and ASUS boards.

  • kavadnikavadni

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev .. please do explain further.
    I don't want to get the wrong processor at it's $350 cost

    I selected it as the fastest i7 the board will handle from here.

    http://processormatch.intel.com/
    I chose 'Find Processors' and entered the board DH67GD

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @kavadni

    Motherboard seems strange with this processor, in reality you need Z77 based MB.

  • kavadnikavadni

    I am building a second machine .. not fully specified .. and I don't think it will be fast as my 4 year old pair of e5410 Xeons.

    Bang for Buck, the core will be an Intel DH67GD MB, just over $100. An intel i7-3770K and 32G of Ram http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9CD10BCEA5CA7304

    I recently have the need for a mac .. and am pretty sure I should be able to HackMac this in dual boot

  • mrbillmrbill

    google Videoguys - they have various diy recipes on their website and plenty of excellent advice.

  • meemee

    I should add the retail price of what I put into my system is about $1200. But I paid a little less since I tend to hunt down used bargains on allot of it.

    Also ordered my new Mobo and Ram yesterday =) 16GB RAM and an Asus Sabertooth 990FX. Total cost for the duo = 15,000 Yen. ($190). The 990FX has native architecture for the Bulldozer and up coming piledriver chips from AMD, so it should do a decent job as I progress into this world of editing.

  • EbachervilleEbacherville

    I edit on a 27" iMac under Windows primarily (bootcamp) having the high resolution IPS screen makes editing so much better than even a full 1080p screen.. get a BIG HIGH RES IPS monitor.. I chose a iMac because its plenty powerful and the screen and is compact and semi portable for traveling gigs.. also if i need to run OSX I can , and yes I do have certain things I need OSX for from time to time.. like if I get a project from other production houses in Final Cut or Motion. Depends on your needs, but spend some bucks on a a hires monitor..

  • meemee

    I'm chiming in a little late, but in reference to jaecjaec's last specs for what he was getting, he seemed to decide to go with 2133mhz ddr3. Just figured I would mention from what I have read anything over 1600, or even 1333, is actually not utilized and pretty much a waste of cash. Apparently it is do to a system bottleneck elsewhere. They have been using these higher speeds on ddr3 for ddr4 testing, since presumably the bottle will be overcome by the time the DDR4 boards are out. Anyways, I am not really that smart about computer stuff, but I read it from a reliable source. So save your money and get ddr 1333 or 1600.

    And then on the subject of my own system. I am not quite cool enough to be able to go to intel just yet. I have been using and still currently use an

    Asus Crosshair II formula Mobo

    AMD 1090t hex core

    MSI 465gtx Golden edition (beautiful cuda card).

    OCZ stealth 600w psu

    4 WD HD's between 500GB and 2TB

    1 Silicon Power 60gb ssd (faster than shit).

    4 GB DDR800 minus 2 GB because I ripped out the threads wires while trying to remove a heat sink to check if it was getting proper contact.

    It is all wrapped into an Apevia SupraX mid tower case. This case was cheap, but I bought it based on reviews focussing on it's great airflow. I have 5 fans, not including the 2 on the gpu.

    Anyways, I mention my system just because I imagine I am not the only one with a very tight budget. Real time playback is very smooth for simple editing. It bogs down when I run more than 3 effects usually, but this system trucks on and renders at what I consider reasonable speed. However because of the recent death of half my meager 4gb of ram, I have been faced with the need to move up to a ddr3 motherboard and ram, since 16gb of ddr3 and a nice mobo is cheaper than 8 gb of ddr2. I really wanted to max out my 16gb potential because this motherboard has been a rock, plus they don't make any motherboards with all the copper like this on has anymore, Howeve at $350 for 16gb of ddr2 is is just not practical. 16gb of ddr3 is $60 man, and I can get 990fx boards for $100 or 890fx boards for $50.

    I will update when I have the new components and see how much I can really get out of an AMD hex core system.

  • qwerty123qwerty123

    What do you guys think about newegg's combo diy pc kits? Like here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=30000007%20600084356&IsNodeId=1&name=Enthusiasts%20%2f%20OC%20Gaming

    Anyone tried these?

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