Month: January 2021

Twelve cores, 64GB, and a graphics card section that is mostly about how to find one at all. The full parts list for a machine that will not blink at 8K.

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Powerful and genuinely affordable 6K cameras exist now. The Blackmagic Pocket 6K, the RED Komodo, the Panasonic S1H. Which is great, right up until you drop that footage on a timeline and your computer starts making noises like it’s in pain.

So here are the exact parts to build a machine that edits it fast, for around $1500. Whether you’re shooting 4K, 6K, or raw, this build will handle it in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or basically anything else, and it’s great for photo editing, mixing music, gaming and livestreaming too.

Everything is linked below and organized together on my parts list for this build.

This is what to buy, not how to assemble it. For that, my step by step build guide walks from opening boxes to pressing the power button, and all of it still applies here. It’s not hard. It’s kind of like building Legos.

If this is the wrong budget for you, I also have a $750 budget build and a $2000 monster build.

CPU, The Brain Of The Computer

The most important part here, because the more cores and threads you have, the faster your videos edit and render.

Get the Ryzen 7 3700X. Eight cores, sixteen threads, around $320. In my opinion that’s the sweet spot of power to price in 2021.

But I hear you. Matt, the sweet spot is great and all, what else you got? Okay: for about $230 more, the Ryzen 9 5900X takes you to twelve cores and twenty-four threads. It’s a stellar chip and it will handle 4K, 6K, 8K. No matter the Ks, this thing should handle it.

CPU Cooler

Good news on the 3700X: it comes with a stock air cooler in the box, and from everything I can find it’s a good one, so save your money and skip the aftermarket option.

The 5900X does not come with a cooler, so if you go that route, budget for the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, which is a much loved cooler and does the job. If you’d rather water cool, here’s the option I’d point you at.

Motherboard

The MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wifi. Feature packed, and it has wifi built in, which is genuinely nice not to have to think about.

One thing you need to know: if you go with the upgraded 5900X, there’s a chance you’ll need to update the motherboard BIOS to make it work. If that sounds like a foreign language, don’t worry. All you need is a USB flash drive and access to a second computer to download a file on, and you can borrow a friend’s. This tutorial walks through every step.

Memory

Not goats. RAM.

A minimum of 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX at 3200MHz. I ran 32GB in my editing desktop for years and it handled 4K fine, but I’ll be honest about where it started to hurt: rendering footage above 4K, and rendering long 4K videos, think twenty minutes and up. That’s whenever I’d watch it run out.

So if you’re regularly rendering long videos or anything higher than 4K, go straight to 64GB instead and stop thinking about it.

SSD And Storage

Best mix of price, size and speed is the 1TB Samsung 970 EVO at around $140, or the 2TB version if you have the budget. Extra space is always a good thing.

Same rule as always though: this SSD is for your operating system and programs only. For the fastest editing you want one drive holding your software and a separate drive holding your footage. If you travel a lot like I do, that means an external SSD or a large external hard drive. This case will also take an internal SSD or a big internal hard drive if you’d rather keep it inside.

Graphics Cards, And The Mess That Is Buying One

A ton of great cards have come out recently and you cannot buy any of them at a sane price. Perfect storm: a shortage of workers building cards because of the pandemic, everybody home wanting to game because of the pandemic, cryptocurrency mining, which is always an issue, and scalpers buying up stock the moment it lands and flipping it on eBay at double or triple MSRP.

So rather than name one card like I normally would, here are several, to give you the best chance of finding something in stock.

On brands: ASUS, MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte, ZOTAC, PNY. For video editing it genuinely doesn’t make much difference which one you buy, and right now we care far more about availability. If it’s one of those and it doesn’t have a pile of horrible reviews, go.

Cheaper options, MSRP roughly $400 to $500: the NVIDIA RTX 3070, and AMD’s RX 5700 and 5700 XT. All three perform very well for editing, and if you can find one new and not at an outrageous markup, they’re great.

More expensive, roughly $580 to $700: the AMD 6800, the 6800 XT, and the NVIDIA RTX 3080. Because who doesn’t want more power. Same advice, wait until you can get one near those prices.

I do one of these every year, so $1500 – $2000+ Video Editing PC Build Guide 2022 and 4K Video Editing Laptop Buyer’s Guide for $1500+ in 2022 are still up if you want to see how much has changed.

Here are the ones I found in stock as I made this, and I cannot promise they stay that way, because this changes hour to hour: the main pick, then option two, three, four, five, and six.

Set up stock alerts at Amazon, Newegg and B&H. And if you’re near a Micro Center or a Best Buy, walking in gives you a far better shot than refreshing a page. If you do find a store with stock, go leave a comment on the video so other people can sort by newest and grab one too.

Case

Same case as the budget build: the NZXT H510. It’s beautiful without being flashy, and here’s my honest reasoning. Whenever I build a computer I’d rather buy a cheaper case with good airflow and put the savings into the components inside it. You can absolutely go crazy here and there are much cooler looking options, but they don’t make your renders faster. Grab a case fan adapter while you’re at it.

If you want a 5.25 inch bay for an internal Blu-ray or DVD burner, I’d personally just buy an external USB Blu-ray drive or a cheap USB DVD drive. But if you really want it internal, get the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M TG. It costs a bit more than the H510 and it looks professional.

Power Supply

Building the base version with none of the upgrades? The EVGA BQ 500 watt has you covered.

Buying any of the upgrades, or the alternative case with the optical drive? Go with the EVGA BQ 650 watt instead.

Both of those are semi-modular, meaning some cables are permanently attached, which affects how tidy your cable routing can be. If you want to spend a bit more and be fancier about it, the fully modular EVGA G3 750 watt is the one.

Everything Else

Mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, operating system, all mostly down to preference. What I use and recommend: a keyboard with macro keys, the best mouse I’ve ever used, some affordable speakers, and a quick USB wifi adapter if you need one.

For a monitor there’s a good affordable 1080p option, but you’re building a 4K editing machine, so I’d definitely go with the 27 inch 4K to match it.

Windows 10 for the operating system, and this Tom’s Hardware article covers getting a copy free or very cheap.

And if after all this you’d rather not build anything, that’s completely fine. Here’s my prebuilt video editing PC guide instead.

It’s early 2021, winter is upon us, and here are the parts you need to build a 4K video editing computer for around $750. This will comfortably edit 4K and HD in Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, edit photos, mix music, stream on Twitch, and game, and it should hold up for years.

Four things before we get to parts.

Everything is linked below and all of it is organized together on my parts list for this build.

This is a parts list, not an assembly guide. For that I have an hour-plus step by step build guide that walks from opening the boxes to pressing the power button, and all of these parts go together the same way. Please don’t be intimidated by it. Building a PC is genuinely fun, and it’s a lot like putting together Legos.

I’ve included upgrade options throughout, so whenever you have a little extra room in the budget you know exactly where to spend it.

And if $750 isn’t your budget, I have two other guides: a mid-tier build that handles 6K and a high-end build that eats 8K and 12K.

Motherboard

This is what everything else plugs into and what makes it all talk to each other. I recommend the MSI B450-A PRO MAX. Good mix of features for the price, and importantly it should work with future AMD CPUs, so whenever you upgrade the processor down the road you don’t have to replace the board too.

CPU, The Brain Of The Computer

Arguably the most important part for video editing, because a fast CPU with a lot of cores makes a drastic difference in how quickly your videos edit and render.

Get the Ryzen 5 3600. Six cores, twelve threads, around $200 as I record this. Great chip, great price.

Upgrade: the Ryzen 7 3700X gives you two more cores and a nice jump in performance for roughly $120 more.

Memory

16GB of Corsair LPX DDR4 at 3200MHz. That’s enough for 4K editing, but it is not quite enough for multitasking, so try not to have a pile of other programs running alongside your editor.

Upgrade: I’ve found the real sweet spot for 4K editing is 32GB. I’ve run that much in my desktop and my laptop for years and it’s been great.

SSD And Storage

The SSD holds your operating system and programs. Prices keep falling on these and it’s shockingly affordable now.

For a fast budget option, the Kingston A400 gives you 240GB for about $34, which is plenty for Windows and your programs. Want more room? The Samsung 970 EVO is around $65 for 500GB, and there’s a 1TB for about $140.

One thing I want to be clear about: only use this SSD for programs. For the fastest editing you want a smaller SSD holding your software and a separate, larger drive holding your video files. If you travel a lot like I do, get an external SSD or a large external hard drive and edit from that. This case will also take internal drives, so an internal SSD or a big internal hard drive works just as well.

Graphics Cards, And How To Actually Find One

This is where this build guide is different from every one I’ve made before.

A ton of great cards have come out recently, and you cannot buy any of them. It’s a perfect storm: a shortage of workers building the cards because of the pandemic, everybody stuck at home wanting to game because of the pandemic, cryptocurrency mining, which is always an issue, and scalpers running bots that buy up the supply the instant it lands and resell it on eBay at double MSRP or worse.

So instead of naming one brand and model like I usually do, I’m going to give you several, to maximize the chance you can actually find something in stock at a sane price.

On brands: you’ll see ASUS, MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte, ZOTAC, PNY and a dozen more. In my experience, for video editing, it does not make a huge difference which one you buy. If it’s one of those and it doesn’t have a pile of horrible reviews, you’re fine.

My starting recommendation is the NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti, one of the cheapest cards you can buy that’s genuinely capable of 4K editing, and I’ve mostly been able to find it in stock under $200. Its one weakness is only 4GB of video memory, so if you can find one of the cards below instead, take it.

On the NVIDIA side, the GTX 1660 SUPER and the RTX 3060 Ti. Both are hard to find, the 3060 especially, but at retail you should be around $400 or less. On the AMD side, the Radeon RX 570, RX 580, 5500 XT and 5600 XT will all do 4K editing fine, but make sure you get the 8GB version. They make 4GB models of these too and they aren’t as good.

Here are the ones I found in stock as I made this, though I cannot promise they stay that way, because this changes hour to hour: option two, option three, and option four. If you have more to spend, the faster cards are here, here, here, and at Best Buy.

Two practical tips. Set up stock alerts at Amazon, Newegg and B&H so you’re notified the moment something reappears. And if you live near a Micro Center or a Best Buy, walking into the physical store gives you a much better shot than refreshing a webpage.

Power Supply

The EVGA 500 watt is a great price and quite efficient. Be aware it isn’t modular, meaning every cable is permanently attached, which makes cable management more annoying but keeps the cost down.

Upgrade: the EVGA BQ 500 watt is semi-modular and will give you a much cleaner looking build for not much more money.

Case

One of my favorites is the NZXT H510. It’s pretty but still looks professional, with no RGB and no crazy colors, just a well built case that looks good on or under a desk. Around $70. You’ll also want a case fan adapter to power the fans.

One catch: the H510 has no 5.25 inch bays, so you cannot put a CD, DVD or Blu-ray burner inside it. The easy answer is an external DVD burner for about $25 or an external Blu-ray burner for under a hundred. If you really want an internal drive, get the Cougar MX330-G instead, which isn’t as pretty but has great airflow and thousands of very happy owners.

Everything Else

Mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, operating system. There are so many options here that it comes down entirely to what you like, but here’s what I’d point you at: a keyboard with macro keys for editing, a good affordable 1080p monitor or, and this is what I’d personally pick, a 27 inch 4K monitor, the best mouse I’ve ever used, a quick USB wifi adapter, and some affordable but good speakers.

For the operating system, Windows 10, and this Tom’s Hardware article explains how to get a copy free or very cheap.

A Note On Prices

Prices change and parts go out of stock, sometimes very quickly, especially right now. If something on this list looks way too expensive or has vanished, let me know and I’ll swap the link for something that’s actually available.

And if you find a store with graphics cards in stock, go leave a comment on the video telling everybody else. People can sort by newest and hopefully grab one too.

Finally, if you’d rather not build at all, that’s completely fine, and I have a prebuilt video editing PC guide for you instead.