Saving Up For Black Friday To Build My Own PC

CLINT-DANBURY wrote on 10/2/2023, 8:43 AM

Time to build my own computer

Current plans Are to Scrimp for now and see if this coming Black Friday is a good one.

I welcome advice, Suggestions, Directions, and the general thoughts of any forum experts here, on...

Processor
Ram
Storage
Display card
Monitor
Audio

...And anything else that I have forgotten to think about

While each one of those topics is certainly important in its own right, my immediate questions are focused on allocating the money, time, and efforts to make the best overall system for editing video

Questions I have at the moment run along the lines of....

What's more important; More core, or More RAM ?
Will a Great Big SSD Drive Obviate my concerns as to balancing cores and RAM ?
Will spending a bunch of money on a super duper display card give me a better net return than spending it on Storage, Ram, or a bunch of cores ?
Is it time to move up from 1080p ?
What's the advantage of including an audio card on the motherboard as opposed to just using the Built-in audio of the processor ?

...And perhaps a super important question: What am I forgetting to ask ?

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 10/2/2023, 2:03 PM

@CLINT-DANBURY

Taking your points in order I would suggest the following for future prrofing:

Intel 8 to 12 core processor with integrated GPU at least 10th generation eg i7-10xxx, or newer. Avoid AMD processors, user have more problems with these.
DDR4 16GB minimum, 32GB maximum.
OS and Programs only - internal SSD drive 1TB minimum
Data internal - drive SSD 4TB minimum.
NVidia RTX 3000 series minimum, 4000 series if funds allow, OR Intel ARC GPU - for utilising Resizable Bar for optimum performance.
Monitor 24" minimum, dual monitors if possible, avoid super widescreen monitors.
Realtek HDA - built into motherboard.

Other items:

Power pack 750W minimum
BluRay writer

Questions:

Difficult question as this is a cost per gain balancing act where the returns are not directly proportional to the extra cost. I would not recommend going above 32 GB of RAM as the performance return for 64Gb or higher is not worth it, the same applies for the number of cores eg above 12 the returns decreases with the number of cores
No, however if you use a single drive then too big can hurt performance, hence my recommendation for 2 drives, the OS/Programs drive does not have to be bigger than 2TB, however the data drive does need to be more substantial depending on the amount of data (video clips) you intend to store.
Unknown as performance comes mainly from the CPU/GPU combination with the drive types contributing a smaller %age to performance.
That depends on your viewing devices, if you are creating video for viewing on a 4K UHD TV then yes, if you are producing for eg Youtube probably not. Certainly recording in 4K UHD does have advantages.
None unless your are going for super HiFI audio listening with Studio Monitor grade speakers/headphones.

. . . . What am I forgetting to ask ? . . . .

Should I go for a custom build, stock build or workstation ?

Respectively Yes, Yes and definitely no - the latter are designed for high end graphics and studio work.
Muliple CPU's or Xeon processor?

Definitely no - the performance return is not worth the extra cost and Xeon processors are mainly designed for servers and high end CAD workstations.

HTH

John EB