When building a computer for your video editing workflow, there is at least a myriad of component options available out there to pick from. From choosing the processor to the minute details like the sleeving for your component cables, the general rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for.
The more you spend on an item, the better performance in return you should be able to get, right? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, plus if you spend too much, you might enter the territory of diminishing returns, which is a situation that you should try to avoid.
All in all, it’s rather common for people to spend countless hours of research trying to find the best components for the most reasonable price fitting their needs and requirements. If you consider yourself as a person currently being in the same position and wonder where to start from, here’s another excellent video produced by computer-savvy YouTuber Max Yuryev that should help you to sort things out.
Beyond any doubt, one of the main highlight features of this particular build is the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor available on board. Based on AMD new’s game-changing ThreadRipper CPU architecture, the unit provides enough processing power for seamless 8K video editing in real-time. Moreover, the performance benefits of ThreadRipper surpass those of the Xeon and i9 line built by the engineers of team blue (Intel). Looking at the Cinebench scores comparing ThreadRipper, i9, and a Xeon processor, Max found that AMD can achieve 37% better performance compared to Intel’s line of processors.
Even with both the i9 and ThreadRipper processors overlocked, AMD still manages to pull ahead of team blue’s flagship product. AMD’s ThreadRipper architecture can be hailed as an example of the progression of processor speeds today. Max was able to put this in perspective with his own series of Geekbench comparison, where he compared the speeds of the Intel 6700K, the former standard for efficient video editing, against other processors, including the ThreadRipper.
It goes without saying that the other essential component for the efficiency of every video editing workstation, besides the processor, is the graphics card. In this build, Max put to the test three different GPUs – the AMD Vega Frontier for those using DaVinci Resolve, NVIDIA 1080 Ti for those who want to take advantage of CUDA support when editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, and the AMD Radeon RX580 for those working on a budget.
To put the computer through its paces, Max utilized his standard suite of tests by performing certain operations within the video editor of his choice with each task varying in complexity. At the end of the day, the ThreadRipper-based beast was able to complete each task with low rendering times and no perceivable issues.
Regarding efficiency, the ThreadRipper/Vega combination blows the competition out of the water. After placing 14 LUTs on a 4K clip inside of DaVinci Resolve, the program was able to playback the footage flawlessly with only 35% CPU usage and 65% GPU usage, now we’re talking.
If you think this editing PC wasn’t jaw-dropping enough, keep in mind that it can even handle the playback of 8K footage, which is the equivalent to playing four streams of 4K footage simultaneously. This type of performance is absolutely insane, especially when you consider that’s not edit-friendly codecs like ProRes or CineForm, but REDCODE Raw 8K footage. The fact that this machine can even handle such quality is an indisputable evidence of its computing power.
That being said, make sure you don’t skip a second of the incredibly insightful video above for the full details regarding the comprehensive benchmark testing conducted by Max Yuryev. Meanwhile, here’s the full list of components you will need to build this 8K Video Editing Beast from scratch.
- Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB Computer Case (B&H, Amazon US)
- EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 Power Supply (B&H, Amazon US)
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X CPU (B&H, Amazon US)
- ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 360, High-Performance CPU Water Cooler (Amazon US)
- GIGABYTE X399 AORUS Gaming 7 Motherboard (Amazon US)
- Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit RAM (B&H, Amazon US)
- Samsung 960 EVO Series – 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD (B&H, Amazon US)
- Corsair SP Series, SP120 RGB LED, 120mm High-Performance RGB LED Fan (B&H, Amazon US)
- AMD Radeon RX Vega Frontier 64 8GB Graphics Card, used in the video (for DaVinci Resolve) (B&H, Amazon US)
- NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Graphics Card (for Adobe Premiere Pro) (B&H, Amazon US)
- AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphics Card (the budget option) (B&H, Amazon US)
[source: Max Yuryev]
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