Photo and Video Editing Budget PC Advice (Purchase ASAP)

[gohan2091]

My uncle has a budget of £1000 but could stretch to perhaps £1500 if absolutely necessary. No monitor is needed (he has a 1440p one). He wants a PC for basic video and photo editing. No gaming is required but possible use of AI upscaling in the future. He has keyboard and mouse and also he wants to use his pci express sound ASUS sound card.

He wants to buy one ASAP. What should he get? AM5? or would last gen AM4 series be good enough? Obviously that means using DDR4 and not DDR5, does that matter so much? I think 32GB would be enough. Or he could go Intel CPU instead. What about video card? And CPU cooler? I recommend him minimum of a 2TB M.2 drive. Can someone suggest a build within his budget. Windows purchase is not required.

Thanks in advanced.

 

[SpyderTracks]

My uncle has a budget of £1000 but could stretch to perhaps £1500 if absolutely necessary. No monitor is needed (he has a 1440p one). He wants a PC for basic video and photo editing. No gaming is required but possible use of AI upscaling in the future. He has keyboard and mouse and also he wants to use his pci express sound ASUS sound card.

He wants to buy one ASAP. What should he get? AM5? or would last gen AM4 series be good enough? Obviously that means using DDR4 and not DDR5, does that matter so much? I think 32GB would be enough. Or he could go Intel CPU instead. What about video card? And CPU cooler? I recommend him minimum of a 2TB M.2 drive. Can someone suggest a build within his budget. Windows purchase is not required.

Thanks in advanced.

What suites is he using as they favour different setups?

 

[gohan2091]

What suites is he using as they favour different setups?

I'm not sure. He tends to have several video editing software from smaller brands. He uses Adobe Photoshop. I assume he will want to use Adobe Premiere. Doesn't have to be pinpoint perfection, just half decent for general basic video editing and photo editing.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm not sure. He tends to have several video editing software from smaller brands. He uses Adobe Photoshop. I assume he will want to use Adobe Premiere. Doesn't have to be pinpoint perfection, just half decent for general basic video editing and photo editing.

Best to ask him before continuing, you need to be sure you're building the best for his use case.

 

[gohan2091]

Video editing is something new to him. He has no specific software in mind. He just knows he wants to get into that area. He has a large dvd collection he wants to transfer to the pc and do basic editing with so processing time matters. I've no software names to give you, that's to be confirmed. He isn't doing this professionally, it's just for his own personal use. His current pc has died and it's about 7 years old so anything is going to be a huge upgrade for him.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Video editing is something new to him. He has no specific software in mind. He just knows he wants to get into that area. He has a large dvd collection he wants to transfer to the pc and do basic editing with so processing time matters. I've no software names to give you, that's to be confirmed. He isn't doing this professionally, it's just for his own personal use. His current pc has died and it's about 7 years old so anything is going to be a huge upgrade for him.

Different editing suites have very different requirements, a lot of smaller suites don't use hardware acceleration for instance, so a dedicated GPU is completely pointless, and given the budget is quite restrictive for this kind of build it's the difference between a high end CPU platform and a mid range with a GPU, so the outcome is hugely different.

I wouldn't rush into anything, if designed well this would easily last 10 year or so, if designed poorly, that's a whole different story and will invariably cost a lot more than £1500 if you're swapping out CPUs as it doesn't fit the requirements of the suite.

 

[gohan2091]

I was going to suggest a modest nvidia 3060 12GB gpu and Intel I5 14600K with 32GB 3200mhz DDR4. Not sure on the motherboard though. I think we don't need to go into as much detail as you're suggesting. He isn't buying a pc competitively to get every last drop of performance. He just wants a half decent pc for his editing hobby on a budget which will be leaps and bounds above his current pc.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I would avoid intel at any cost, they're really not very good processors and they've just applied forced limits on motherboard manufacturers (which should have been there years ago) which has further reduced performance. They're poor, use an awful lot of energy and need top end cooling to handle the heat generated.

AMD are just a far better option.

This is a decent option, tiny bit over budget but have factored in the best practice drive setup which I'll explain - https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/understanding-storage-for-video-editing-2286/

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.4GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5) - solid strong multicore performer, it replaced the 7900x and has about the same performance but using far less energy
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW) - Dedicated OS and programs
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3200 MB/R, 2700 MB/W) - Dedicated cache overrun, will increase performance and minimal price, you have to set the cache drive in the suite
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W) Dedicated drive for project media
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE - standard storage drive
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,513.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/B!6kWTJ2VJ/

 

[gohan2091]

Thanks very much. I really appreciate the build suggestion. I agree with a lot of it. It's definitely a solid base to do more research. I'll have to read up regarding the storage

 

[gohan2091]

Can i ask about the cooler? If going for the 7900 which apparently runs very cool and is very power efficient, does he need this AIO?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Can i ask about the cooler? If going for the 7900 which apparently runs very cool and is very power efficient, does he need this AIO?

You could use a high tier air cooler but you won’t get as high boost clocks. Modern CPU’s at this level just can’t reach their stated speeds on air.

 

[gohan2091]

I have spoken to my uncle and done some research myself. While video editing is still in the back of his mind, it's not as important as I first thought. I have kept your build @SpyderTracks as a base but made some modifications. I'm spliit between two mindsets regarding the CPU based on this article: https://uk.pcmag.com/processors/146626/amd-ryzen-9-7900

A) Go with a 7900x:
- 5-10% faster than the 7900,
- £13 more expensive (not a deal breaker)
- Much more power efficient saving on energy bills (my uncle tends to leave his PC on the majority of the time)

B) Go with a 7900:
- 5-10% slower than the 7900x
- £13 cheaper
- Comes with it's own cooler (so could save £100+ by not getting the AIO but then additonal fans for the top need to be purchased) - PCSpecialist configurator does not give me the option of "Stock cooler/no cooler" and insists I purchase one (cheapest being £33) How to override this?

I'm leaning towards B but you doubt the stock cooler will be good enough? the article suggests it would be ok. Not as good as an AIO granted, but the savings in cost is substantial and the increase in heat is extremely minimal apparently. If he did get an AIO cooler, getting it for the warmer 7900x makes much more sense than getting it for the tamer 7900.

Also regarding the AIO, the h100x vs h100i. The i can be controlled by iCUE software (both speed and lighting) where as the x cannot (only in BIOS but the lighting stays 100% bright white I believe). So what's your thoughts on that?

I don't like the idea of the multiple SSDs and I think my uncle would prefer a simplier no fuss approach of one SOLIDIGM 2TB drive.

Finally regarding the case fans. The 4000D case comes with 1120mm fan at the front, and 1 fan at the rear so he would need to purchase 2 more fans at the front. I assume the 2 fans that come with the case are RGB? Is this correct? unfortunately PCSpecialist configurator only gives the option of a pack of 3 Corsair RGB fans not 2 and when I go ahead to proceed with 3, it refuses saying I have ordered 1 too many fans! How to override that?

Here is what I think I am going to suggest to my uncle. I had to modify the CPU cooler part as it doesn't let me use the stock cooler so reduce the price by £33:

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.4GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 Series High Performance CPU Cooler <<<NO! HAS STOCK COOLER WITH CPU
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
4 x Corsair AF120 RGB ELITE PWM Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,529.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/99zWEYJ4nA/

 

[SpyderTracks]

A) Go with a 7900x:
- 5-10% faster than the 7900,
- £13 more expensive (not a deal breaker)
- Much more power efficient saving on energy bills (my uncle tends to leave his PC on the majority of the time)

The 7900x is the older processor, it's not as optimised, but it's exactly the same silicon. If you just enable PBO on the 7900 it's exactly the same performance.

- Comes with it's own cooler (so I could save £100+ by not getting the AIO but then additonal fans for the top need to be purchased) - PCSpecialist configurator does not give me the option of "Stock cooler/no cooler" and insists I purchase one (cheapest being £33) How to override this?

PCS are an OEM supplier, they don't get retail stock. The stock cooler is likely only on the retail stocks. I would never recommend a stock cooler on any CPU anyway, certainly not at this level. Even if they are able to properly cool to keep boost clocks (which they can't), they invariably run noisy.

I'm leaning towards B but you doubt the stock cooler will be good enough? the article suggests it would be ok. Not as good as an AIO granted, but the savings in cost is substantial. If he did get anAIO cooler, getting it for the warmer 7900x makes much more sense than getting it for the tamer 7900.

There's a lot of misinformation out there, triggered by the manufacturers and then perpetrated by reviewers. If a chip can't reach its stated speeds, that's thermal throttling. Doesn't matter how the manufacturer wants to dress that up like intel naming it "thermal velocity boost" which is only available if you have enough cooling headroom, NO, that's thermal throttling and means the cooler isn't enough for the processor. Be aware also, with a load like you have on video editing and output, that's a consistent all core multithreaded load which will take whatever resources are available. Why would you for the sake of a couple of bucks reduce your processor performance and neuter it, plus run the system out of specification.

To me just doesn't make sense. If you're even near your CPU limits with a cooler, the cooler isn't sufficient, you should have a good 10c headroom with any suitable cooler, that's hitting expected boosts across the board.

I don't like the idea of the multiple SSDs and I think my uncle would prefer a simplier no fuss approach of one SOLIDIGM 2TB drive.

It wouldn't be recommended and you'll see quite a substantial performance hit. If he's not storing anything on the system which you'd never do on an SSD as the way they fail is catastrophic rather than gradual degredation of an HDD, sure, but outputting a video encode on an OS drive will completely hammer the IOPS and you won't see very long lifespan of the SSD. They're just not designed for that kind of sustained writes, you'd need a proper industrial spec SSD with serious IOPS to cope with that kind of use.

Also regarding the AIO, the h100x vs h100i. The i can be controlled by iCUE software (both speed and lighting) where as the x cannot (only in BIOS but the lighting stays 100% bright white I believe). So what's your thoughts on that?

Personally I would always have an I series, but you had a budget to stick to.

Finally regarding the case fans. The 4000D case comes with 1 RGB 120mm fan at the front, and 1 RGB fan at the rear so he would need to purchase 2 more fans at the front, unfortunately PCSpecialist configurator only gives the option of a pack of 3 Corsair RGB fans not 2 and when I go ahead to proceed with 3, it refuses saying I have ordered 1 too many fans! How to override that?

Best to speak to PCS, you can't override the configurator but PCS will likely accommodate you wherever possible.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Regarding the drives, if you set up the windows libraries as you normally would, your uncle would never know there were multiple drives.

Once they're set in windows (which takes all of 5 minutes), you never have to change that, all apps default to those locations.

The only one you'd have to specify is the cache drive in the video editor, but that would only need to be done once when you install the editor software.

But to your Uncle, it would make zero difference if it was one drive or 70, just the performance and reliability would be a lot better in the long term.

 

[gohan2091]

Regarding storage, my uncle makes regular backups on large USB media. He also has an external HDD which he can use to backup. I store my files on my SSD and I no longer use HDDs. They are slow, heavy, bulky. As long as I regularly backup, I think it's ok going only SSD. Perhaps going 2x 1TB instead of 1x 2TB is wise but the cost increases by £13.

I do think the video editing is an afterthought, his primary focus is a general all-rounder non-gaming PC which has a bit of pace sprinkled with some light video editing. I am sorry for not making that clearer in my post. I feel your advice is geared too strongly in video editing (rightfully so based on my original message so not blaming you at all)

What you're saying about the x vs non x is not completely the same as the website. Is this the misinformation you speak of? Yes you can enable PBO on the 7900 to get X speeds but then you could enable PBO on the X to get further increase performance right? Perhaps the 7900 (non x) with the h100i AIO is the way forward, not 100% convinced but I am leaning more towards the non x based on your post.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Regarding storage, my uncle makes regular backups on large USB media. He also has an external HDD which he can use to backup. I store my files on my SSD and I no longer use HDDs. They are slow, heavy, bulky. As long as I regularly backup, I think it's ok going only SSD.

Yeah, if he's not storing on the PC, then absolutely SSD is fine, but I still wouldn't have one drive for everything, that's a huge no no. You WILL have to often reinstall windows to maintain performance and troubleshoot issues, that's just a given. With everything on one drive, you lose the entire drive, rather than having the OS on a dedicated drive so you just reinstall the OS itself and don't touch any data.

What you're saying about the x vs non x is not completely the same as the website. Is this the misinformation you speak of? Yes you can enable PBO on the 7900 to get X speeds but then you could enable PBO on the X to get further increase performance right? Perhaps the 7900 (non x) with the h100i AIO is the way forward, not 100% convinced but I am leaning more towards the non x based on your post.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, the 7900X is simply higher binned silicon, but it's exactly the same processor, no difference at all.

7900X is fine, it's still a great processor, but it uses a substantially higher wattage vs the 7900 which replaced it. The 10% you talk about is only relevant in high load multicore workloads, it's not going to make any difference whatsoever in general performance. Depends where your preferences lie. I'm a stickler for efficiency (performance per watt) where possible, to me that's really important, but realise that's not the case for everyone.

 

[gohan2091]

Well in my own PC I have x2 2TB SSDs. One for Windows and programs, the other to store my files on and some games. I do understand what you are saying. It does come down to cost too though. In an ideal world, I would recommend he get x3 2TB drives lol

Yes, I do agree with what you're saying on the CPU. All I am saying is PBO increases performance right? so enabling it on the 7900 gives a boost but also it would give a boost to the 79000x too. If the price was larger, it's a no brainer to get the non x but it's just £13 difference, it's a tough choice. If this was my PC, I'd get the x version but for my uncle I think it makes more sense to get the non x.

Thanks very much btw for all your helpful advice. These are the questions I want to ask PCS on Tuesday:

1) The 2 included fans in the Corsair 4000D, are they RGB or non-RGB?

2) I need to order 2 Corsair AF120 RGB fans (2 for the front) but I can only select 3 on the drop down and it won't let me progress forward. It says "The computer case you have selected can support up to 4 additional fan(s) and the processor cooler that you have selected will use 2 fan slots. Therefore the case can only support a further 2 additional fan(s). You have currently selected 3 additional case fan(s). Please reduce the quantity you have selected." Can you override this?

3) Does the AMD Ryzen 7900 come with the stock Wraith Prism cooler?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yes, I do agree with what you're saying on the CPU. All I am saying is PBO increases performance right? so enabling it on the 7900 gives a boost but also it would give a boost to the 79000x too. If the price was larger, it's a no brainer to get the non x but it's just £13 difference, it's a tough choice. If this was my PC, I'd get the x version but for my uncle I think it makes more sense to get the non x.

For me, overclocking is really simple, it's exactly the same silicon, so what you can get out of the 7900X is exactly the same as you can get out of the 7900. The point of value (for me) is the efficiency optimisation on the 7900 would be extremely difficult to obtain off your own back, it would be doable, but far more difficult than a simple overclock. Performance per watt is far more valuable to me than overall performance but costing you hundred of pounds more on your energy bill each year for a 30 second reduction in outputting a video file.

It's not a slight optimisation, it literally uses a third of the power. It's incredible the amount of performance it maintains while using barely any energy. That's far more valuable to me.

1) The 2 included fans in the Corsair 4000D, are they RGB or non-RGB?

Non RGB, it's a very understated case which I thought would fit.

3) Does the AMD Ryzen 7900 come with the stock Wraith Prism cooler?

As already stated, OEM parts don't include stock coolers, it's not something PCS will be supplied.

 

[gohan2091]

Just to let you know, I did go with the majority of what you said. Got the non-x 7900. Got the h100i cooler (not x). Ordered 4 AF120 RGB fans (had to call them for this). Didn't go with the SSD recommendations but my uncle may want to purchase a 2nd SSD in the future where we can mess around with the configuration. Told the guy on the phone I wanted the 3 fans at the front as intake, the rear fan as exhaust and the 2 fans on the AIO (top mounted) as exhaust. The guy questioned if that was the best way to do things. He suggested the AIO fans to both be intake. In my limited understanding, that would result in supplying a constant supply of dust into the PC? What's your take on this?

 

[TonyCarter]

Just to let you know, I did go with the majority of what you said. Got the non-x 7900. Got the h100i cooler (not x). Ordered 4 AF120 RGB fans (had to call them for this). Didn't go with the SSD recommendations but my uncle may want to purchase a 2nd SSD in the future where we can mess around with the configuration. Told the guy on the phone I wanted the 3 fans at the front as intake, the rear fan as exhaust and the 2 fans on the AIO (top mounted) as exhaust. The guy questioned if that was the best way to do things. He suggested the AIO fans to both be intake. In my limited understanding, that would result in supplying a constant supply of dust into the PC? What's your take on this?

I'd probably not even have specified exhaust/intake/push/oull on any of the fans, as the default would be front=intake, rear=exhaust, AIO=push.

I'd only specify the flow it if I wanted something other than the default.