High-Performance Editing Machine Build

[Jeremy Wiles]

I'm about to build a new custom editing machine. If you were building today, what parts would you recommend for a high-performance machine? Or, does it make more sense to go with an HP Z8? I'd like to keep the price around $10-$15k (or less). Thanks for any feedback and help!

CPU:
Graphics Card:
Motherboard:
RAM:
OS Drive:
Cache Drive:
Storage Drive:
Power Supply:
CPU Cooler:
Case:
Operating System: Windows ?
Anything else?

 

[Misha Engel]

What software are you (going to) using?
What kind of source material are you (going to) using?
How much storage do you want and how fast and secure does this have to be?

What are your expectations of thise new piece of equipment?
I.o.w. there are a lot of "it depends"

 

[Björn Benckert]

CPU: i9 18 core delided
Graphics Card: 2080ti if windows.
Motherboard: Asus x299 deluxe
RAM: 128 Gb fast ram
OS Drive: M2 1tb
Cache Drive: M2 1tb
Storage Drive: built in raid
Power Supply: 1400
CPU Cooler: liquid cooler with 2 fans
Case: Anything that fits the above
Operating System: Windows ?

If you swap or add to a AMD GPU or 1080ti you can also run OSX. Such machine does 8k r3d playback no problem with any of the 3 GPU´s.
You could also use external raid like pegasus or such over TB3.

 

[Jeremy Wiles]

What software are you (going to) using?
What kind of source material are you (going to) using?
How much storage do you want and how fast and secure does this have to be?

What are your expectations of thise new piece of equipment?
I.o.w. there are a lot of "it depends"

Editing on Premiere. We're shooting Dragon 6k. I have three MaxxDigital RAID's with TB3 for storage, so storage is external.

Expectations? We do a lot of multi-camera shoots using 3-5 Dragon cams with 6k footage. Obviously, we have to create proxies, but even then the footage can be choppy during playback. I need a system that can handle a heavy load with no choppy playback. My bottleneck are usually harddrives, so eventually we're switching to SSD RAID's.

 

[Misha Engel]

You might want to check these articles.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2019-CPU-Roundup-Intel-vs-AMD-vs-Mac-1320/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Creative-Cloud-Intel-Core-i9-9990XE-vs-Xeon-W-3175X-1360/

And these 2 video's

It's kind of hard to get 1 good system for Adobe CC2019.

Rule of thumb, Adobe loves high clockspeeds and lots of VRAM in the GPU(for stability) and probably works better with 2 systems than with 1 big one.

This is a good start to make a budget https://pcpartpicker.com/.

Adobe has a lot of possiblities and is very flexible, if it was a bit more stable... we would still use it.

 

[Chad Lancaster]

Editing on Premiere. We're shooting Dragon 6k. I have three MaxxDigital RAID's with TB3 for storage, so storage is external.

Expectations? We do a lot of multi-camera shoots using 3-5 Dragon cams with 6k footage. Obviously, we have to create proxies, but even then the footage can be choppy during playback. I need a system that can handle a heavy load with no choppy playback. My bottleneck are usually harddrives, so eventually we're switching to SSD RAID's.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-143

 

[Jeremy Wiles]

You might want to check these articles.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Premiere-Pro-CC-2019-CPU-Roundup-Intel-vs-AMD-vs-Mac-1320/

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Creative-Cloud-Intel-Core-i9-9990XE-vs-Xeon-W-3175X-1360/

And these 2 video's

It's kind of hard to get 1 good system for Adobe CC2019.

Rule of thumb, Adobe loves high clockspeeds and lots of VRAM in the GPU(for stability) and probably works better with 2 systems than with 1 big one.

This is a good start to make a budget https://pcpartpicker.com/.

Adobe has a lot of possiblities and is very flexible, if it was a bit more stable... we would still use it.

Misha, thanks for sharing these videos. I watched both of them. There were a few take aways, but I think the main thing to consider is the guys in the videos are shooting Youtube stuff, working with DSLR type cameras and needing faster render and export times. My projects take 6 months to a year to edit, so I don't care how long it takes to export. I need fast playback and a stable machine.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CC-143

Thanks Chad!

 

[Tom S]

FWIW, I get RED Dragon 6k full playback with AMD Threadripper 2950x, 2x 1080Ti, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB SSD M2 harddrive. I have 6 x 10TB WD Red Pro internal hard drives for storage. It takes the internal hard drives 15-30 seconds to wake up when I access them, but the eSata speed is good. Full playback with no proxies in Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve.

 

[Misha Engel]

FWIW, I get RED Dragon 6k full playback with AMD Threadripper 2950x, 2x 1080Ti, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB SSD M2 harddrive. I have 6 x 10TB WD Red Pro internal hard drives for storage. It takes the internal hard drives 15-30 seconds to wake up when I access them, but the eSata speed is good. Full playback with no proxies in Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve.

We have a comparable system 1950x (4 GHz all-core) 2xVEGA FE 16 GB, 128 GB DDR4-3200-CL14, 2 TB SSD(7 GB/s read and write over 8 PCIe-3 lanes) scratch drive.
We have 8 x 4TB(Raid 10) WD Red Pro internal hard drives for storage. Our spinning drives don't sleep, so no wake up time.

Full playback without proxies upto 8k.R3D 8:1 25fps.

Looking forward to Zen2 Threadrippers.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Today I honestly see no reason to edit in premiere compared to resolve. With resolve 16 coming even more so.

The setup I described above is butter smooth in 8k 10 bit resolve setting for editing, then renders realtime to prores when setting highest debayer and shoot out 4444 prores masters.

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

There are some new CPUs (and I think GPUs) from AMD coming soon, so if you can wait to do a comparison, it might be a good idea. Just FWIW.

Also FWIW, I question the need for more than 16GB of RAM if your swap file is on an SSD. Of course I don't use high-end workstations so maybe I'm off here.

What I do know for sure, without question: do not skimp on the power supply! It's the most important component of any computer.

 

[Misha Engel]

Also FWIW, I question the need for more than 16GB of RAM if your swap file is on an SSD.

Your swap file degrades your SSD every time you write to it.
Better spend a bit more on RAM.(100..130 USD per 16 GB DDR4-3200 stick).