PC for 4K editing

R

rabbit2

Member
Hi!
I'm not really into PC stuff and don't know about latest gear, I mostly film and others do the edit. But now I decided that I want my own editing PC. The main necessary is capability to edit 4K clips. Also high bitrate HD videos. I'm aiming to GH4.

I found one version that for me seems okay.

Intel Core i7-4770 3.4Ghz 8M S1150
MSI Intel H81 S1150 mATX
8GB RAM (I guess I'll need more)
1TB 3.5" SATA3 7200rpm 64MB
and 120GB SSD SATA3 2.5"
GeForce GTX760 2GB GDDR5

Will it be good for 4K work? Thank you.
 
The CPU should be plenty, although make sure to get some sort of aftermarket cooler. The 4770 has a tendency for running a bit hot when pushed, from my experience.

As for ram, you will want more. I've had luck with 16 gb, but if I were to build a brand new machine with the sole purpose of 4k editing, I would just go ahead and get 32 from the get-go. Its not too expensive anyway, and you'll be better off because of it.

Be mindful as to which SSD you pick up. There is a huge difference between the various models in terms of speed.

As for the GPU, it obviously depends on what files you'll be working with etc (meaning, if its primarily Red, maybe you should look at their own GPU etc). If you can afford it, I would look at the GTX770 windforce. I just fitted one in my friends computer which we'll be using for some editing and its frankly mindboggling fast. I'm not sure if the GTX760 will be quick enough, but I'd just imagine you could be wanting for more power from it.

Lastly, something you did not include in the list is a proper powersupply which is so very important when it comes to these things. Make sure to pick up a good one. Personally, I always get the 750w Corsair one, but I'm sure other brands are good too; I just know Corsair will last forever.
 
Not a big fan of MSI. I've had more than one MSI mobo arrive DOA. ASUS and Gigabyte have always been my rocks.
 
David Jimerson said:
Not a big fan of MSI. I've had more than one MSI mobo arrive DOA. ASUS and Gigabyte have always been my rocks.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you've been really unlucky. I've always been under the impression that MSI made pretty stable products, which is why I didn't bother to comment on it in the first place. To be honest, I've never really found that one particular brand of motherboads gave me better performance aside from overclocking, which most of them do fairly well these days anyway. That being said, the last 4 or 5 computers I've helped build, I've bought Gigabyte. They are so easy to work with. I can suggest the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H in particular. Great peace of equipment.

As for Asus, its obviously good gear, but lately I think they've been branded more towards gaming and overclocking. Not that its a bad thing at all, but it usually inflates the prices a bit. Writing GAMING on something somehow makes it more expensive.
 
In any case, for a mobo, if you're running the i7-4770, you want the Z87 chipset, and that MSI doesn't have it.
 
My take on editing 4K footage is that you do not have necessarily to edit files in full resolution, but you could use proxy files for editing. Premiere and avid enable this functionality, I think edius too. With this approach you would not need an extremely powerful editing workstation or a new mac pro and you could work with less resources. Furthermore, I think that you do not necessarily need to edit on a 4K monitor, especially if you work on a dual monitor layout, however you would need a 4K output monitor (a 4K tv monitor for instance) to check the final result.
 
Kostas speaks sense.

However if you do want to be editing and viewing 4K files natively, the thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is HDDs. 4K files are huge, meaning you'll want a lot of storage, and to play them you'll need high bandwidth to be able to read the files fast enough.

A 1TB HDD probably won't do you very well. 7200rpm is good, but two 7200rpm drives in a RAID 0 would be much better. I've got two premium Western Digital 2TB 7200rpm drives in my PC and I can multicam four streams of HD in Premiere. It works great, and I wouldn't want anything less for one stream of 4K.

As JensK says, you'll need 16GBs of RAM minimum, but 32GBs would be better. I'd imagine you'd want a bit more VRAM with your GPU too as that will affect higher resolutions.
 
I'm going to echo what kostas said. There is definitely some advantage of editing in native 4k files, but there are lots of advantages of editing using proxy (lower quality files). Especially depending on the project.

These days "proxy files" doesn't mean you need 640x360 resolution files. You can pack down 500GB of 4k files down to 80GB of HD quality H.264 mpeg files which will edit faster than 4k files will, and later you can simply relink to your 4k files once you're ready for an output.

You can also give your proxy files to someone else who might work on your project and instead of giving them your original source files (some people would have issues giving out original files) they can work on the project using the proxies, and the bonus is they don't need lots of hard drive space as mentioned.

Also using proxies you can edit on practically any computer made in the last 5 years, you don't need a top of the line i7, 64GB of ram, etc.. etc..
 
If the budget permits, get an Intel Xeon processor (and appropriate motherboard since the Xeon has a different pin configuration than i7 CPUs. The Xeon will yield faster render times. And don't skimp on the power supply. Bigger is better if you later upgrade to dual graphics cards, and no-name power supplies are a waste. The earlier poster stated Corsair, which are excellent units that I also use.

In regards to the motherboard: the more SATAIII ports the better!

Dave
 
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