Custom video editing PC ?

R

raf702

Active member
Hey all, so I'm looking to upgrade my 4 year old custom PC. It's running a i7 2600k cpu with supporting parts. Runs pretty good, but editing 4K is a bit laggy but still manageable.

I'm currently editing 4K and once in awhile 5K from RED cameras. I don't do any heavy visual/special effects, mainly color correction/grading, cuts/transitions, etc. in Adobe Premiere Pro/Sony Vegas Pro/DaVinci Resolve.

I've originally had my eyes set on the i7 5960x setup. But now with the i7 6700k out, I have no experience or info on it for video editing. I just know it's like less than half the price of the 5960x. I've read loosely a 5930x OC'd would perform as good or better than the 5960x, and at nearly half the price.

My budget will be based on which CPU would be best suited for my needs. I will run either 32 or 64gb ram, x99 motherboard, Titan-X 12gb gpu, etc. I know this setup will be pricey but I want this to be future proof for at least another 5 or more years.

Thanks, I appreciate everyone's tips and opinions!
 
Most folks build their computer around the specs of their editing software. Some software depends more on the CPU than GPU during playback or visa versa. Check the Premiere, Vegas and DaVinci forums and see what they recommend.
 
1st - Premiere uses the graphics card a lot, so but the biggest NVidia gamer card you can find.

2nd - I would wait as long as you can. Intel has been dribbling out the speed increases at a snail's pace over the recent years. Future proof for five years is not possible with current gear imho. With 4k you are by no means 'owning it" yet when it comes to performance. Maybe with the next generation of "E" processors 4k will be strong, but you have to consider encoding as well. 1080p with a high bitrate already takes a long time, 4k with a high bitrate will take forever in comparison unless you are using Quicksync.

3rd - Do you want Quicksync? If so then you can't use the "E" level of processors.

Intel used to be a hero company for me but I am disappointed in their recent products. They are engineered to need overclocking for the best performance. Go to hardware review sites like Toms Hardware and compare your CPU with newer models to see how much they help out. Many times there is an improvement but nothing like the encode will be done in half the time...
 
What I've seen so far regarding the speed increases on the new CPU models is a bit disappointing. I can't vouch for the authenticity of the numbers I've seen, but I'd stick with the Haswell personally. A good workstation graphics card is going to give you a much bigger boost (if it's an upgrade) than an expensive processor, regardless, as will other components. It depends exactly on what you'd be sacrificing. If you can get the Skylake and invest in a faster, more robust SSD storage solution as a result, and maybe a GPU boost, that's the direction I'd go.
 
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raf702 said:
Hey all, so I'm looking to upgrade my 4 year old custom PC. It's running a i7 2600k cpu with supporting parts. Runs pretty good, but editing 4K is a bit laggy but still manageable.

I'm currently editing 4K and once in awhile 5K from RED cameras. I don't do any heavy visual/special effects, mainly color correction/grading, cuts/transitions, etc. in Adobe Premiere Pro/Sony Vegas Pro/DaVinci Resolve.

I've originally had my eyes set on the i7 5960x setup. But now with the i7 6700k out, I have no experience or info on it for video editing. I just know it's like less than half the price of the 5960x. I've read loosely a 5930x OC'd would perform as good or better than the 5960x, and at nearly half the price.

My budget will be based on which CPU would be best suited for my needs. I will run either 32 or 64gb ram, x99 motherboard, Titan-X 12gb gpu, etc. I know this setup will be pricey but I want this to be future proof for at least another 5 or more years.

Thanks, I appreciate everyone's tips and opinions!
Click to expand...

I'm in a similar position. Trying to edit multicam UHD is proving to be a challenge without my system locking up.

i7 4790k 4ghz (no overclocking)
GTX980 Ti
32GB DDR3 RAM
Samsung 1TB SSD boot drive
3TB 7200rpm drive
6TB 7200rpm drive
Windows 10

Doing UHD multicam with color correction in Premiere Pro CC2015 via Magic Bullet maxes out the CPU. Keep in mind I'm editing from the SSD. There are also times where I'm being warned that my RAM has hit maximum capacity as well. I'm doing multicam edits with FS5 and a7sII UHD footage.

My next move is the 5960x with an X99 motherboard and 64GB of DDR4 Ram. The extra processing power and RAM should fix the issues I'm having. Keep in mind the next generation of Intel E processors are due out by Summer. The replacement for the 5960x will have 10 cores instead of the 8 cores in the 5960x. The rumored pricetag is $1500 versus $1050 for the 5960x.

10 core processor CLICK HERE

The new 10 core processor will run on X99 as well. You could also go the Xeon route and run dual processors. I'm considering dual Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 processors. Running them in tandem nets better CPU performance than the 5960x. Plenty of options, happy hunting!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpREXiGjsyA
The 5960 will be a lot faster for video editing. Editing software likes more cores and ram. I just upgraded to the i7-6700k and I can get real time scrubbing on 4K video from my GH4 and Shogun a7s 4K footage but I maxes out the CPU and if I apply any type of effect in PP 2015 or Resolve my 4K footage starts to lag. I use a GTX 960 with 2 gig of ram and cudda turned on. Check out a build by Dave Dougdale and what he says about editing 4K machines
 
Just finished my upgrade to the 5960x with 64gb of ram and it's making a significant difference in editing multicam (2 camera) UHD footage (FS5/A7SII). The CPU still hits max load (100% utilization) when playing back the timeline at 1/2 resolution, but it does so far less frequently. than the 4790k. The 4790k would lock up at 1/4 playback. Also, Premiere Pro is gobbling up as much as 49gb of RAM out of 64gb when playing back the timeline. Keep in mind, that's using Film Convert and Magic Bullet Looks etc. I'm very impressed so far and will upgrade again if the new Intel e processors give a significant performance boost over the 5960x.

Edit: I haven't overclocked the CPU yet but I will to see if that makes a difference in CPU load.
 
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Ok... I have to take back my words and eat them with a hat and salt.... atleast partly.

I never really used Media Encoder, but that appears to be plain stupid on my part. Media Encoder utilizes 6 of my 8 cores, so it makes a lot more sense to queue up the files and have ME handle the rendering.

Made me both fairly happy and a little embarresed at the same time ;)
 
Have you considered buying a turnkey system from a video editing specialist ?

The pc hw options out there are endless and knowing what works well together and what does not takes knowledge and experience.

5 years ago I make the decision to go turnkey. All hardware, software loaded, system optimized and tested together, before shipping to me. I bought from ADK editing and the system was based on the latest version of Premiere CS 5.5. Live realtime HD output from the graphics card for previewing the timeline without rendering. Preview the timeline with color correction, transitions, layers, all realtime in HD. This was the big hurdle back then. Premiere was the only system doing it.

Fast forward 5 yrs. to now. I bought a Sony A7S ii, 4k camera. To my surprise, my ADK turnkey system edits and exports the Sony XAVC-S 4k with no problems at all. Only thing I want to change is the graphics card so I can view and preview in 4k. I will eventually replace the whole system and when I do, I will go directly to ADK.
 
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I recently made the switch from Mac to a custom built PC and I put a 6700k processor in it over-clocked to a comfortable 4.4GHz - I have nothing but positive things to say about the processor. My only bottleneck seems to be a GPU driver issue with my R9 390.

Unfortunately I do not have much to add in terms of comparison with other machines, but I can say I have had little issue editing 4.5k Red footage and 2.5k raw footage from blackmagic cameras.
 
ectobuilder said:
Is Quicksync important if we are using CUDA to accelerate encode/decoding?
Click to expand...

Quicksync is irrelevant to NLE's. It is a specific way of encoding H.264 for efficient Intel GPU hardware decoding. It is a streaming delivery standard. This is only used by streaming players. NLE's are not players and don't decode compressed footage the same way.

High level intermediate production codecs like Prores, DNXHD, Cineform, MPEG-2 i-frame require much less computer power to edit smoothly with high quality results than any form of compressed AVC/H.264. The consumer H.264 camera formats cause various performance issues in every NLE. The H.264 standard was specifically designed for efficient transmission of compressed video over Ethernet networks. It was not designed for nor intended for editing.

We had an in house demo of IP video transport systems frim SVSI a couple of weeks ago. They have three different levels for applications from studio production routing to IPTV delivery. The uncompressed broadcast video transport option, 1300Mbps, had a frame delay time of less than 15 Ms. The JPEG 2000 DCI grade transport had delay time in the 39Ms range. The H.264 transport solution had delay times over 200Ms. This is a reflection of the processing power required to encode/decode the transport stream at each end over a 10G Ethernet network with dedicated broadcast grade hardware decoders costing around $4k each.

The robust aftermarket in external Prores/DNXHD on camera recorders that bypass low end camera codecs is not just about capturing better IQ. Production grade codecs are much easier to edit. They may require a lot more storage space. but that is rapidly becoming a non-issue as media costs come down.
 
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I'll be heavily working with raw 4K R3D/RED footage. Now I'm looking at the the 6850k processor, I plan to get this PC built by someone else. I would go 6900k but that's an extra $500+ that I don't want to spend, or just stick to the original plan with the 5960x.

I also was thinking of switching to the GTX 1080 8gb instead of the 980 TI 6gb SC.

My main NLE's will be Premeire Pro CC and Davinci Resolve 12+

What do you guys think so far?
 
I ended up with the following, just got this other day.

I7 5960x
32gb ram
1tb ssd os
1tb ssd data
980 4gb
600w
Win 10

It's fast and super smooth, I do plan to get the 980 ti 6gb soon. Huge difference from my iMac 27 that I've been using, and certainly beats my old 2600k custom PC.
 
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