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PC Build for Video Editing, Motion and 3D

O

Owen Rucker

Guest
I'm a Video Editor that is coming from Mac OS that does a lot of motion in my projects, hopping back and forth between Premiere and After Effects.
Also, have been learning 3D and feel like I need to begin learning Redshift and/or Octane. Just want the capability at decent speed but won't be doing client projects too soon.

I created 3 builds and not sure what is redundant and what might be extra. Budget is ~2k. Thanks.

Video Editing
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8GHz 12-Core Processor ($429.99)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 ($89.90)
Motherboard: MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX AM4 ($249.67)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700XT - Gigabyte Gaming OC ($409.99)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 C16 ($129.99)
Storage SSD: Crucial MX500 2TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($223.21)
Storage PCIe-SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB NVME M.2 Solid State Drive ($134.99)
Storage HDD: Seagate BarraCuda Compute 4TB, 3.5" ($89.50)
Power Supply: Seasonic Focus GM-650, 650W 80+ Gold Power Supply ($99.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($123.99)

Motion Design
CPU: Intel i7 10700k 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($402.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 ($74.90)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z490-A Gaming ATX LGA1200 ($249.99)
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB - MSI Gaming X ($629.98)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 C16 ($129.99)
Storage SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB NVME M.2 Solid State Drive ($134.99)
Power Supply: Seasonic Focus GM-650, 650W 80+ Gold Power Supply ($99.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($123.99)

GPU Rendering
CPU: Intel i7 10700k 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($402.00)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 ($74.90)
Motherboard: MSI Z490 Tomahawk ATX LGA1200 ($189.99)
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 SUPER 8GB - MSI Gaming X Trio ($849.99)
Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 C16 ($129.99)
Storage PCIe-SSD: Crucial P1 1TB, M.2 Solid State Drive ($104.99)
Power Supply: Seasonic Focus GM-650, 650W 80+ Gold Power Supply ($99.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($123.99)
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

CG Hardware Specialist @ CGDirector
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As those builds are quite similar in performance, let me summarize which workloads benefit most from specific components:

GPU Rendering obviously needs fast or multiple gpus. You should stick to Nvidia GPUs here, as octane or redshift currently only support Nvidia GPUs.

Motion Design: Because you are doing so much active work and need instand smooth / lag free previews of your animations, you need a high clocking cpu, and not necessarily a cpu with lots of cores.

Video editing: Almost the same as motion design, but it does sometimes make use of a slightly stronger gpu for decoding/encoding footage or acellerating effects. Additionally, because your footage can be quite big, some added storage is beneficial.

So to merge all of those into one PC that would run all of your workloads nicely, I'd go with your first Build suggestion (video editing) but swap the GPU with an Nvidia GPU such as the 2070 Super.
 
M

Miguel

Guest
Hello! I think the only thing I'd consider would be the NVMe drive. Of course I might be picky, but from Tomashardware site (https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-ssd,5955-2.html) you can see that when put through heavy workloads, the drive you chose does not hold very well and drops in performance. I'd recommend something a bit more stable in heavy workloads such as the 970 evo plus (even if like $60 more) to make sure your main working drive (im guessing ur using the nvme as the working drive) is always performing as best as possible. But then again im no expert! Im just a guy that does a lot of research ahah But i hope at least I give you that small issue to think about, because in the long run it does make a difference.
 
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M

Miguel

Guest
Hello! I think the only thing I'd consider would be the NVMe drive. Of course I might be picky, but from Tomashardware site (https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-ssd,5955-2.html) you can see that when put through heavy workloads, the drive you chose does not hold very well and drops in performance. I'd recommend something a bit more stable in heavy workloads such as the 970 evo plus (even if like $60 more) to make sure your main working drive (im guessing ur using the nvme as the working drive) is always performing as best as possible. But then again im no expert! Im just a guy that does a lot of research ahah But i hope at least I give you that small issue to think about, because in the long run it does make a difference.
PS: I'm considering you already chose the first build, so thats the one im referring to.
 
O

Owen Rucker

Guest
PS: I'm considering you already chose the first build, so thats the one im referring to.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with the first build and upgrade the GPU.

I actually had a question about the drives. I know the HDD drive will be for storing media but why do I need 2 SSD drives? What is the difference?

2 other questions: will I need a network/bluetooth card for this build? And does this motherboard accept USB-C?

THANKS!
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

CG Hardware Specialist @ CGDirector
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You can also have just one SSD. The second SSD is for some added performance and most importantly, safety. If you have your Os/Apps on your first SSD, and it breaks for any reason, your footage ssd is still healthy. Your HDD should be used for archiving and regular backups.

The MSI X570 Tomahawk ATX has inbuilt Wifi and accepts USB-C, yes.
 
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