€800 PC Build

Beara102

Hi all,
Looking to build a PC for video editing and general use. Have done a few builds in the past so should be ok putting it all together.

1. What is your budget? [€800]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Video Editing/Internet/General use]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [No]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No] Would prefer dual monitor capability for future upgrade

5a. If yes, what size do you need.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [Yes] 1920 x 1080

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Card Reader

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Maybe

8. How can you pay? [Credit Card/Paypal]

9. When are you purchasing? [Within the next month (Hopefully)]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Waterford.]

Thanks for your time and help.

minitrue

With €800 to spend to make a video editing rig I'd probably go for something like the following (case is just something cheapish but not the cheapest without much care spent on picking it, you won't have a hard time picking something else for similar enough money if you want):

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (€311.99 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€81.04 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€69.77 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€149.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€85.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€37.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€55.25 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €800 delivered give or take a couple of euro

Biggish ssd and a big hd in there but I've no idea how much space you need? Keeping everything you are working on on SSD is super and might be in budget for you or maybe ~500GB is more then enough (or too much) already! There's a big difference in demands between editing together the odd 30 second video from a couple of minutes of some footage you recorded on your phone to editing a 2 hour feature from raw hdr 60fps footage!

No graphics card but I get the impression video editors still aren't really using gpu processing significantly and an i7 is going to go a lot further in general! If your workflow does need a chunk gpu then probably an rx480 (or gtx1060) for in and around €200 would be the way to go and you'ld best find the money for it from your budget by dropping the storage and cpu (e.g. go back to a i5-7500 and either drop the 3TB or reduce the SSD to 240GB). An rx460 for around €100 might not be a bad way to hedge your bets either (dropping storage OR cpu to squeeze it in).

Your budget will get you something decent, with internet and general use a non issue. Throw out what information you can if you want more pointers on how best to decide exactly how best to spend it for the video editing aspect (what software you use might help someone say what sort of dedicated gpu, if any, you might want).

wotzgoingon

Would a Ryzen build not be best as he will not be gaming. A Ryzen 7 1700.

minitrue

Maybe Ryzen would be better, but might be tough to squeeze it into the budget depending on storage (and graphics) demands. Ryzen needs a gpu anyway, the cpu/board adds (at least) another €50 and ram options are "interesting" to say the least. Add €150 to the above and you are down to a 240GB ssd with no 3TB (or just no ssd) and that seems unlikely to be the right choice for a video editing build.

A bit more info is really needed for a concrete build suggestion. I might be more gun shy then others about Ryzen, just the ram situation alone is enough to have me really struggle to suggest squeezing Ryzen into a budget.

Xenoronin

It's a tossup, but Ryzen does seem to lead in rendering benchmarks which would help here. The R7 1700 is only 30€ more than the i7 7700 so it should be possible to squeeze into budget.

The Ryzen 5 lineup is also a very enticing option as 6 cores 12 thread should still beat the 7700.

minitrue

The cpu is a bit more. The board is more (maybe only a little). Getting a decent combo of ram and board might be a good chunk more. And you must add a gpu. So it's not €30 in the difference but €150+

For a render farm Ryzen would be much much harder for me to ignore but here you have to suspect the time spent using the video editor will be more important then the differences in rendering time between the i7 and a r7.

Whether Ryzen could be an option here or not depends on storage requirements Vs budget Vs gpu requirements ... if they need an rx470/rx480/gtx1060 then even the i7 is probably out the window unless the budget is extended or a 240GB ssd is enough.

BloodBath

The Ryzen 1600 will be out in a few weeks which will only be around €250. Cheaper and way faster for this kind of work.

Shouldn't there be at least 16GB of Ram as well?

minitrue

Ryzen 1600 might be €250 but then add the extra you need to spend for the gpu and board (and maybe ram to get something sane to go with your board) and it's costing you €50+ more then the above for the system.

Would it even be quicker? Forgive me if I'm sceptical of unreleased silicon performance and for a "workstation" rather then a node in a render farm I'm extra sceptical.

As for 16GB of ram, that's another problem to get into the budget and my instincts say keeping "everything" you are working with on a bigger SSD is going to be better then 16GB here. The i7 option above is easy to pop more ram into anyway though, Ryzen is a total mess from what I can see as far as ram is concerned.

Anyone else can feel free to propose their idea of a build and see if that prompts the OP to pipe up about what they do, use and need

K.O.Kiki

Do not recommend Ryzen 5 until real benchmarks drop.
ty

BloodBath

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Do not recommend Ryzen 5 until real benchmarks drop.
ty

Why not? It's very easy to infer how these chips are going to perform. Roughly 75% of the R7's in workloads that can use them properly. There have been multiple benchmarks showing how strong these chips are for video editing. Obviously depends on workload and programs. Here's a video showcasing some.

He has a point though. No IGP kinda sucks for this budget so he may well be better off getting an intel. Op still hasn't said what kind of video editing so he might not need crazy specs anyway.

Maybe a xeon with an igp? Maybe even a second hand one. If that's out of range then a cheap i5.

Beara102

Thanks for the advice and suggestions. Storage not such a big issue as I keep most of my files on external media; The 500gb SSD would be fine for my needs and more can be added later if needed; Would rather stick with the SSD anyway. I know the budget is a bit tight for a video editing build and I'd rather get a decent motherboard, processor, ram and gpu that I'll get a few years out of with the €800 even if it means waiting to get the rest of what's required for the rest build so I could get the PSU and case a bit later.

minitrue

I'd get everything at once or at least get enough to build and use and then add extras later. I wouldn't order the guts and then wait before getting a psu and case and building it.

If you can tell us what sort of software you use and whether you think rendering times or a faster editing system is more important it might be easier to make the call between trying to get a Ryzen build or going with Intel.

Intel offers the chance to just use the onboard graphics and fire in any gpu down the road if it becomes needed. With Ryzen you will need a gpu from the outset. If your video software will really use a gpu heavily then that factor goes out the window but my impression is that gpu use still remains very light in most video editing packages.

Without some more guidance or info from you, my gut still says to slap the €800 down on a nice intel build without a gpu and then spend whatever you want on a gpu later if you decide you want/need one. So something like:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (€311.94 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€80.92 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€113.43 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€149.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€62.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€77.51 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €820 ish delivered

The case (and psu) there are the easiest things to pick alternatives for to reign in the price a little (and you probably have your own ideas what sort of case you want). I've dropped the 3TB from the earlier build, bumped it to 16GB and upped the prices on the psu and case to a level where you have lots of great choices (I'd like the two I picked).

If you know you will really take advantage of gpu power it seems nvidia is a better bet and I'd suspect a gtx1060 would be much saner then a gtx1050 in that event, getting that in drops you back to an i5, 8GB and heading for the cheapest (usable) case and psu, but it's doable in your budget (though I'd rather a few euro more for the case and psu). Swapping the cpu back to the i7 and dropping the gpu to a gtx1050 would make it about €830. The i7 and the gtx1060 €930.

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€197.71 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€80.92 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€69.77 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€149.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Dual Video Card (€220.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€23.67 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX XT 400W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€44.39 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €800 ish delivered

What Ryzen might really have done though (or start doing) is make it a bit easier to find some high-end second hand machines (or board+cpu+ram combos anyway).

BloodBath

Still think a Ryzen build would be better. Op could always buy any cheap ass second hand graphics card to go with it.

Beara102

Yeah probably better to just get it all together and just build it. I use Lightroom and Magix movie edit pro software; faster rendering time would be favourable.
Thanks.

minitrue

Lightroom seems to only use the gpu for some parts of "developing". Magix talk vaguely about hardware acceleration but only recommend a 512MB video card so I think you are very much in the cpu > gpu territory and don't need to try and stretch to a gtx1060. Having no real gpu power doesn't look like too good an option though but I'd guess Intel onboard wouldn't be stupid (and an equivalent even second hand gpu is probably going to cost €50+).

Last time I tried I just gave up trying to figure out what Ryzen board and ram options are "good" (in this case I think you very much want the option to add more ram later) so I really don't know if you could squeeze anything sane with a Ryzen R7 into your budget. For €1000 you should certainly be able to go Ryzen and it's probably going to be a good chunk quicker rendering.

I'm not going to post a Ryzen build because I'm still clueless when it comes to figuring out the board+ram, but if you put in a gtx1050 you are looking at maybe just under €1000 for the equivalent of the €820ish Intel build I gave (16GB and nice case+psu). 8GB, dirt cheap case and more minimal psu and you might get it down to €870 or so (including the gtx1050, with the right gt730 maybe €800 and roughly comparable to the Intel onboard graphics).

Which all boils down to my opinion that if €800 is the hard limit I'd still go Intel, but if you can make it €900-€1000 your request for rendering time (over editing speed) would make a Ryzen R7 look good.

If you think a 250GB ssd would be enough that could help get you over the line, but I would strongly recommend not to add an old style spinning disk to get away with a smaller ssd! Especially for things like video editing if you can have everything you are working on on ssd it's going to make a huge difference and it seems to be in your grasp (I'd take the i5 and big ssd over Ryzen with a tiny ssd for OS and bigger spinning disk for media).

With the extra information now someone might jump in with a suggested Ryzen build, but I think you can help them by clarifying the budget exactly, is €800 a hard limit for the initial build now? Any wiggle room?

You could also wait to see how the Ryzen R5 cpus pan out, IF (big IF) they are simply 3/4 of an R7 in performance terms then they probably would edge out the i7 for your use, I don't think they would be a clear big victor though so I wouldn't hold out for it (but if you decide you need another month to rustle up a few more euro anyway you keep that door open).

p.s. if nothing else getting all together and building makes dealing with any problems easy, going back a month later to say something doesn't work can lead to pain (treated as a warranty issue rather then doa).

BloodBath

Lightroom doesn't look like it has great multi threaded support anyway so you might be better off just sticking with the intel.

Less headaches and the build above is pretty solid.

davelk

BloodBath wrote: »

Why not? It's very easy to infer how these chips are going to perform. Roughly 75% of the R7's in workloads that can use them properly. There have been multiple benchmarks showing how strong these chips are for video editing. Obviously depends on workload and programs. Here's a video showcasing some.

He has a point though. No IGP kinda sucks for this budget so he may well be better off getting an intel. Op still hasn't said what kind of video editing so he might not need crazy specs anyway.

Maybe a xeon with an igp? Maybe even a second hand one. If that's out of range then a cheap i5.

Its an AMD chip so assume that the actual hands on performance will be sub par.

BloodBath

davelk wrote: »

Its an AMD chip so assume that the actual hands on performance will be sub par.

You know what they say about people who assume things right? Try looking at some benchmarks. This is one of the best CPU's AMD have ever made.

The entire line up will be the top of every price/performance bracket after they launch.

Beara102

Have thought over all your suggestions and recommendations and I've decided to opt for the Intel €820 build without a GPU; I can decide if I need one at a later stage. Thanks again to all for your help and advice on my build.
Cheers.