This question is for anyone who can answer it really. I'm learning up to make my first build but I want to make a working machine, not a gaming machine. Most guides out there, especially the video guides are all about making gaming PCs. But I want to make a machine to mostly do work. Is there a difference in the approach of what to buy and how you put it together for building a working machine or is it all the same?
I want to build a computer than can do audio recording and editing, motion graphics editing and rendering, and possibly some livestreaming too. I'll probably only do some very light gaming on it, I tend to prefer small and simple games anyways.
It might be nice to have a video on this topic by Logan or Wendel.
I may be wrong here - but the main difference is optimising your CPU and Memory over your graphics card.
Essentially you want to have strong CPU and Memory performance rather than your primary consideration being the graphics card ( as it would be in a gaming rig).
However, depending on what applications you are using - you can take advantage of Nvidia's cuda cores etc.
A true blue work/editing machine you'll need a 6+ core processor. We do need to know what budget you're looking at to give you a more appropriate recommendation.
Chances are, if you are asking for advice on building a system to perform the activities your described then you are just starting out with these types of things. (correct me if im wrong) I am always surprised with how many people go overkill with their systems. You probably need less than you think. I don't do any video editing, or audio recording, but I do work on my system about 8 - 12 hours a day managing networks and programming and have several virtual machines running constantly for support purposes. The truth is you can do what you are asking on just about any machine. It all depends on how long you want to wait for a task to complete. On my main machine I run an AMD 8350 with 16 GB RAM, and two HD 7870s in cross fire running 3 monitors. Definitely not cutting edge but it never slows down and runs like a champ. If there was only one thing I could recommend it would be to get a good SSD. If you run a traditional mechanical hard drive, it will be your bottleneck. SSDs make celeron systems feel fast. Maybe someone with more real world video editing work loads can give you some better information.
Another question would be is this mainly for a hobby, or is this how you make your income? If this is your primary source of income you might want to look at going for an Intel Xeon platform.
The Xeon line of CPU's from Intel were made to do things like rendering 3D graphics/images and other productivity tasks. You will also want 16/32/64 GB's of RAM since programs like photoshop or autoCAD benefit from that much RAM.
Workstations are expensive, so unless you are doing this for your profession you could get away with getting a "gaming PC" which can do everything a workstation can do, just not as well. If you want to know exactly how much performance you will get from certain parts, look up benchmarks of the software you will be using on the CPU's you are interested in. Here are some examples of the kind of performance you will get from a Xeon processor vs typical gaming processors on productivity applications.
Honestly I'm not sure how much I'm going to end up spending on this thing because I'm still saving up for it. I got over 500 dollars saved up so far, and I would like to build it sometime this summer so maybe up to 1000? I'm not sure if that will be enough or not, I haven't been shopping around online for prices yet.
I've dabbled more than a little with audio stuff, and plan to learn more about it. I do have good work experience with editing and motion graphics, but not as much with shooting footage. I've just never attempted to build a computer before but I've always wanted to.
This is just for a hobby, but a serious one, I will most likely be doing this kind of work every day on this machine. I like your advice on SSDs, thank you.
Best budget editing really. Note that if you're going to use Premier Pro you might benifit more from CUDA and get a gtx 970. SSD and a fast HDD and the CPU are the most important since these guys do most of the work.
Now I left the cooler option open because it wont matter what you get since you don't want to overclock a workstation and risk losing your data! 212 evo or h60 or anything really. 750w PSU in case you decided to Crossfire. otherwise get a 650w bronze psu. R5 is super quiet and office-looking. but you can get what you want :)
To shave off some money you can get the 120gb SSD and a cheaper case and a baraccuda 1TB drive. That would put you at 900 ish.
Wow. I will refrain from posting a reaction image but if I did it would be one of shock and awe. I can't thank you enough, I will definitely look into each of those pieces. Thank you.
That case seems a little expensive though, is that how much cases usually cost? I have, in the past considered making a case out of lego bricks, not sure how practical that would actually be but it would be fun...