Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 So, I'm looking into doing some actual video work for both PXOD and personally, to bolster my skills and creative room. To do so, I need a PC that will be able to eat any game I throw at it and still have room for recording using something like FRAPS. I'm kind of new to the whole building PC thing, so I was hoping you all could help me find an ideal build. A few things: The maximum amount I have in my head is $1,500. If I really have to, I can meet that price or maybe go a little higher, but I'd prefer to keep it under. I'm also poor at choosing manufacturers and things like that, so if you could link me to a Newegg store page for each part of your build suggestion or something like that, I would really appreciate it. If it happens to go under and I have a little spending money, I'd appreciate suggestions for microphones and video editing software. With any luck, I'll be able to ring up a final price, take it to my parents, and see if I can make things happen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enervation Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 I think if you're going to do video editing a lot, regular PC graphics cards aren't the best ones for you. There's ones specifically tailored for video editing and the like, specifically the Nvidia Quadro series, which is also used for stuff like medical and engineering rendering. This is assuming that you are purely doing video editing. I have tried several Quadros first hand with both rendering and gaming, and I can say for certain that Quadros are not for gaming, so think about what you want very carefully. Quadros and those in a similar vein are probably the best you can get for solely video editing, but if you also want to play games I think, perhaps, a regular one would do. Keep in mind that it won't be nearly as powerful as a rendering card though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 If I understand right, at least most of the video editing will be ancillary to gaming (recording game videos, then editing them), so a card that's no good for gaming wouldn't be a good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 heh, don't need a quadro for video editing That's for CAD work anyway. Video editing primarily relies on the CPU anyway, however you can use a GPU, a gaming one, with CUDA for boosting video rendering. It's hardly an issue these days anyway, most modern CPUs can eat through the video you toss at them. Most in this case being HD, since he's just recording the screen, not messing with footage off a full blown cinema camera. It's RAM that's an issue with video editing these days. More RAM means more video footage in play than in the cache. I'm pretty much always going to recommend Nvidia these days, especially for work and play. Whatever you get now is something that should last at least 2 years until next gen kicks in on consoles. Harddrives are currently ridiculously expensive, so that'll eat a chunk of your budget. CPU wise I'm unsure on the current market, AMD got any decent gains lately? I'll be honest Sandy Bridge still vaguely confuses me, but seemed simple enough to put together despite the built in GPU. Basically you want to pick what CPU you want first, that'll dictate your motherboard. Motherboard choice dictates how much RAM you can have, and then you pick your GPU n PSU. Oh n have Tomshardware open on the side. Oh and a case, but cases are (apart from being ATX, and I assume full tower if you're going full out) can be much of whatever you want. I'd suggest not buying the ones with built in PSUs. Video Editing I like Premiere, but not enough to pay for it Dunno where you feel with that. Microphone I just use whatever is on my headset, oh except when I use the Guitar Hero mic which is actually not bad quality for just being a random gaming peripheral we only plugged in for a joke. http://www.tomshardw...ndation-54.html - could build off something like this if you're unsure on what to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 Yeah, the primary focus would be gaming, and capturing videos of games at the highest settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 I talked to you about it on Steam a little bit, and my suggestion would be to go with an i7 2600K (if you can get it cheap, otherwise an i5 2500K) for the CPU and a GTX 570 for the GPU, with probably 8+ gigs of RAM. Depending on if you'd want to overclock or go SSD or not, I'd either go with a high end P67 board or a Z68 for the SSD caching. And make sure it's Sandy Bridge on the 1155 socket, as that's the newest Intel socket and should support at least to Ivy Bridge as far as longevity goes. That's an Intel CPU and a Nvidia card, though, and because I'm not really an ATI guy I'm not sure what the alternatives would be on that side. As far as manufacturers go, I have an MSI mobo I'm quite happy with, I've always liked EVGA or MSI for GPUs, Cooler Master for cases/cpu fans/accessories, and then Antec for PSUs. I'm a fan of the mic+headphones combination rather than a headset, so if you're really serious about voice I'd go with a Blue Yeti or Snowball, but they're quite pricey, and you might be able to squeeze about the same performance out of something like a Logitech desktop mic, which is what I currently use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 My Ben got the i5 2500K in his recent PC. Seems to be enjoying it despite his original want/need of an i7 (cos it's two numbers bigger). I showed him the benchmarks, saved him about £80 iirc. SSD I feel is still an "on the fence" kind of component. From those with them I've heard wonders, but it does come down to "if you're up for the price, the realisation it'll be getting cheaper all the time, and that they're a bit limited to just OS/games". Which is an issue for me cos I'd want to put my games on it, but a 250GB SSD is really fucking expensive. Which would mean to junctioning the steam folder and it's a tad fiddly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 My Ben got the i5 2500K in his recent PC. Seems to be enjoying it despite his original want/need of an i7 (cos it's two numbers bigger). I showed him the benchmarks, saved him about £80 iirc. Yeah, I chose the i5 2500K as well, but if he's going to be doing a lot of video editing I figure the i7 could be a good choice. Video editing is one of the few things the i7 does better than the i5. I'm not an SSD guy myself, but that's just because I've used standard hard drives for so long and haven't given myself the chance to get spoiled by an SSD. I don't really mind the boot up times or the length of time to launch a game, but I'm sure if I was to get an SSD and use it for a little while I just might not ever want to go back to the standard HDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 On SSD... Its really freaking nice to be able to do whatever once you see your desktop.You will have to go with HDDs for your other stuff though which will slow you down a tad bit. For example, I get about 1-3 second lag on stuff starting up since I split my storage of large or large amound of files/programs on different HDD, so such and such HDD got to take a second to warm up. My SSD got all the main programs so most of my stuff comes on instantly. Is it neccessary? Nope. Is it freaking nice? Hell yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 (edited) Here's what I have so far: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157271 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130595 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139025 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115070 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231314 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231314 http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827135204 Edited December 4, 2011 by DukeOfPwn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 All that looks good to me. Do you have a monitor already, or do you need one of those too? Also, don't forget mouse/keyboard. Another thing when looking at cases is to be sure and check if they have built in fans. First time I built a desktop I neglected to order fans and the case didn't have any built in; I was not happy when I was putting it together and realized my oversight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 Looks good so far. If you aren't going to get an SSD I wouldn't go Z68 for the mobo, as the main feature it has over P67 is SSD caching. That is an excellent price for that board, though if you do decide to go with it. And make sure the RAM isn't too wide (with the heatsinks) so it can fit 4x4 in the board you pick. Otherwise, looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197 The case description says it has fans. I have a mouse already, but I should look into a keyboard. And also, how do I tell if the RAM is too wide? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 That would be hard to check but best bet would be from reviews. I think you should not have problems. I personally never ran into them being too wide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Good call on the case. I've got a HAF912 (yours with less flair) and it's fantastic. Best case I've used in a build. Have you thought about getting 2x8GB ram instead of 4x4GB? It would be more expensive, but you can always add more easily that way if (for some reason) 16 doesn't end up being enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Good call on the case. I've got a HAF912 (yours with less flair) and it's fantastic. Best case I've used in a build. Have you thought about getting 2x8GB ram instead of 4x4GB? It would be more expensive, but you can always add more easily that way if (for some reason) 16 doesn't end up being enough. Don't you mean if 8 GB doesn't end up being enough? Anyway, I'll stick with 8 GB for now and see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Oops. There's my problem. I totally thought you were getting 2 8GB sets. Must've opened the links wrong. Disregard my comment about them fitting then. They'll fit fine, just make sure you put them in your 1 and 3 slots in your mobo, or whatever the instructions say. They don't go in slots 1 and 2 for some odd reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Yeah, that's the one part I do know about building PCs. 1 and 3, then 2 and 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 No, the RAM link is in there twice. I thought he was getting 2 sets of 8GB too. *Edit* - Actually, double check on your mobo's manual. My old motherboard was 1 and 3, 2 and 4, but my current one is 1 and 2, 3 and 4. It's weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Do you mean "weird" or "finally making sense"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 No, the RAM link is in there twice. I thought he was getting 2 sets of 8GB too. I could've sworn it was... Well, it's cleared up now. What I meant by mentioning it was that my 8GB Corsair set with the heatsinks like those do cover slots 2 and 4 just enough to not allow any more ones like them. The GSkill ones linked look like they could have a similar issue, but they're priced really well so I'd go for it regardless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 PURCHASED! Thanks for playing everybody. I'll be building it at my parent's house when I get home for Christmas. So excited. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Now why did I help you again? /clawatcard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Whenever I help someone build/upgrade their computer it always makes me want to upgrade mine. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted December 6, 2011 Report Share Posted December 6, 2011 Whenever I help someone build/upgrade their computer it always makes me want to upgrade mine. I know the feeling. Having helped Excel and another friend get their PC's up and going lately, I've been jonesing to build a new system myself. Thankfully (or not), my PC not posting means I'm forced to put my plans into action sooner rather than later. Best of luck with the build, Duke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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