My wife wants to get into video editing. She’s helping out a local restaurant while she gets her feet wet. I’m familiar with nearly any tech you mention (I’ve had a hand developing some for previous companies), so feel free to use shorthand.
One thing I am unfamiliar with (because I have no need for it), is video editing. I am clueless to the storage requirements, CPU usage, GPU usage, Memory usage, etc. I expect the majority of the videos she will be creating/editing will be either 1080p with some 4K on occasion. I also expect most to be under 5 minutes, but I could see her doing a 30-45 min interview or something at some point.
What kind of specs am I looking at for her build? I’ve considered getting her a mini ITX (or similar) mobo with Thunderbolt 3, so she can still use her computer on the go, but have an external graphics card as required. I’m trying to shy away from a graphics laptop, as I would like to keep it maintenance/upgrade friendly. I would still like to keep it small if possible. The other reason I was thinking about the Thunderbolt external graphics card is a future plan that may or may not come to fruition where we’ll need a bit more conservative power (read: a boat).
I know this is a bit abnormal from the average help-me-build-a-computer, but I know you guys and girls like a challenge.
As an alternative, any links to accurate data about what is needed for video editing would be helpful. She wants to use Adobe, but she likes Linux, so I might be able to get her into Kdenlive or similar (bonus points: good linux video editing software).
TLDR: If you can help with the specs required for handling a typical video editing setup with the requirements in the second paragraph, I can plan the parts.
Depends on the software she uses. I would focus on CPU power to keep costs down while still having performance to spare.
Ryzen 7 2700
ASRock X470 Master
2x 8GB G.Skill Trident Z (because the motherboard lists it as compatible)
Samsung 960Evo 250GB SSD
1x WD Black 4TB HDD (may need more?)
EVGA GTX 1060 6GB (can change this for AMD if CUDA is not required)
Phanteks Enthoo Pro M (can buy more HDD cages for it if more storage is required)
SeaSonic Focus 650W
1080p and 4K are very different beasts. If 4K happens at all, build a 4K rig.
As far as I know 4K editing on linux is not really a thing so far. So, yeah …
Adobe likes clockspeed, always has, always will. But Ryzen is the way to go anyway. The 2700X can ramp up pretty good and compared to anything Intel has to offer is just crazy price / performance.
What about storage for all the video material? Is that gonna live on the same system or on the network somewhere else?
Generally, you’ll want a decent GPU, at least 16GB ram and at least 3-4TB HDD storage.
Before my new rig, I used to work with FX-8350, 2 R9280, 16GB Ram, 120GB SSD, 2TB HDD. It did the job well enough but previewing in after effects took time and rendering videos took me around 20-30min for a 10min 1080p vid.
Also, editing in a laptop is a pain in the butt so don’t do it.
I don’t know much about editing in Linux or Linux in general but if you have other questions about video editing, I’ll my best to answer them. Also, It would be helpful if you could share your budget for this build.
For Linux ignore kdenlive and go black magic resolve. With the v15 release you get a video editor and effects engine similar to after effects for free.
If building for resolve ram is the big thing. Both system and video ram are helpful to go big on.
If you succumb to the Adobe monster system memory is important more than video ram.
Hard drive speed (read as sustained throughput) is a big concern for all editing systems regardless of resolution being able to raid your spinning rust if you use any will be a helpful thing to do.
You can edit raw h264 files on all modern exiting software but you should consider rendering the footage to a intermediate format like avid HDnx or proress as they make I frames far more often and spend less computational time to decompress before the software can apply it’s changes on the preview and final renders.
I might be misunderstanding the response but it’s an issue of sustained data rate the drive can push as you intermediary video formats will be between 80-200megabit a second which means one or two files being read at the same time will saturate you drives ability to play back your footage smoothly
It very much depends on the software she will be using…
If Vegas - then feel free to get the most powerful CPU you can get your hands on (read 8 core Ryzen be it 2700 or 2700X). Vegas barely uses GPU power, so the CPU is the most important part there. It’s properly optimized to use all threads you throw at it, so 16 thread 2700 will outperform 12 thread Intel and could easily be cheaper option.
On other hand Adobe CC uses every ounce of GPU power, no matter CUDA or OpenCL, so you really need a good GPU there with a decent CPU. So there you can get the best GPU for the money you can get your hands on and something like a 2600X or 2600 Ryzen…
Why I only recommend Ryzen? Because the X470 platform gives you the free Store MI software, that speeds up your system one way or another. So I really think this is important for a work station work horse system.
Get an NVME SSD and a huge HGST storage drive and be done with it.
It depends on what you are doing I’m going to have 1.25tb of footage to cut up when I’m done with the conference I am at. And another coworker just burnt up 2-3tb of disk space recording a conference last week. Having a raid solution in your system is not a bad thing to think about. Even if it’s only a 3-8tb raid drive for work it’s still something to think about.
As a layman that watches tech and does not do video editing I find this interesting. I have stopped watching tech tubers for the most part but I do remember this
Is he getting it wrong. I would expect that. I Also remember a tech talk from around that time Q4 2017 where barnacles said his GPU’s (he had 2) where doing work.
On the topic of video editing. Being able to work with 4K captured footage is a big bonus even if you only output 1080p. Lets pans and zooms work without a quality difference.
I haven’t looked at the video. GPU importance carries from software provider to provider and generation of software. Adobe liked Nvidia cards more back in cs6 but now it handles both evenly. Resolve has a minor AMD bias as a 480 is only slightly worse than a 1070 in resolve 14.
I’m going to be setting up a local network storage for her (probably zfs). I may end up giving her two (or three?) SSDs in RAID0 for local storage. We have auto backups currently to RAID5. Not too worried about storage.
Since 4K isn’t a thing for Linux yet, she’ll probably end up using Adobe CC. I’m leaning towards a Ryzen 2700(X?) Build, since I can use it if this fizzles out.
I’ve already configured a VM on our home network for her to play with in the mean time. I passed through my RX580 and gave her 8 threads, so she’ll be ok until I build her something. I’m down a gaming rig while she’s using it though.
there is many best video editing software available in the market in which adobe company has a very popular name. Abobe premium por is a master of video editing. only setup can do nothing. Video editing also needs a compatible PC. You have a good PC but are missing SSD as SSD drive is much faster than ordinary hardware.
