Sooner or later in every creators life comes time to upgrade his/hers editing station. A lot of us do not follow the current tech trends and feel overwhelmed when it comes to picking new parts for a PC build or even choosing a new monitor. In this post I will describe everything I did for my complete future proof editing station upgrade.
Problem
As with every upgrade, you need to define a goal you want to accomplish, and no “I want my PC to be better” is not a goal. Since I was editing on a laptop since recently, my first goal was to leave the laptop behind and switch to a PC that supports more upgrades in case I need any after 7-8 years. Second I need to make a list of all the things I needed it to do in order to pick out the parts:
Edit 4k videos in full res
Video export time should be shortened as much as possible (before I needed 2-3 hours for a 10 min 4k video)
Can handle batch export from Lightroom easily (my laptop for some unknown reasons was struggling mostly with Lightroom)
Support multiple Adobe Software working in parallel e.g. Lightroom, Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects
Parts should be sufficient for at least the next 6 to 8 years
Interoperability shouldn’t be an issue e.g. enough ports
Storage should be sufficient (on my old laptop I had 1.5 Tb which was running out fast)
Should be able to support games for those rare times when I need to blow off some steam
After defining the goals for my PC build I needed to define such for my peripherals as well:
widescreen monitor (at least 34 inches, 4k and above)
multiple ports on the monitor - HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, USB A, etc.
Good out-of-the-box color accuracy
Easy switch between two sources
US layout keyboard ( you maybe laughing here but in Germany, this is hard to find)
Creator features e.g. custom buttons that can be mapped for Adobe and other software
A more ergonomic mouse (I was using a cheap 10 euro mouse that I got from work)
Additional functionality on the mouse - at least side-scrolling
PC Build
The first thing you need to know when starting a pc build from scratch and haven’t done that (ever or in a while) you shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions even if they seem dumb. This might save you a ton of money on parts that are not compatible or even spare you some damaged parts.
Choosing a case
The first “part” I needed to add to my shopping list was the case and I was shocked at how many different sizes, designs, and types of cases have popped up on the market since the last time I had to look up cases. Here a couple of things you need to consider when choosing your case:
sufficient space - make sure it is big enough to fit everything you want, best way to do this is to look up finished builds with a case that you find good looking and check if it can fit the parts, you can do so on www.pcpartpicker.com
Airflow - in general, most new cases have good airflow, but just in case check this out, if you are planning on building a super-powerful pc this can be a big factor
Last but not least - that you like the case, one of my biggest problems when choosing my case was the fact that most cases have the tempered glass on the right side of the case and there weren’t many with a flipped set-up which would have made it much easier to find a good place for my PC
I went with the Lian Li 011 Dynamic Mid Tower, mainly because a friend that was helping me out had already used it for his build I liked how it looked, also since I had access to an already finished build with this case I could check off the first two criteria for choosing a case. It also comes with additional ports on the case - audio jacks for mic and headphones, USB A and C as well.
One thing I do not like about this case is that on the back ventilation hole there was no dust filter as well as they haven’t thought about adding mounts for a fan there. Another small inconvenience is that if you place two 140mm fans on top of the case it will leave a small unesthetic hole in which you can’t fit anything else, but all of these are small things that are not going to affect the coverage of my goals.
Motherboard
Although there are a lot of motherboards on the market, it isn’t so hard to find one that fits you. Most gaming motherboards will do the trick just make sure to check the following characteristics:
enough SSD slots
ports on the back of the motherboard fit your needs (e.g. enough USBs, gigabit internet supported, etc.)
supports enough RAM
it supports the chosen processor (you can’t use a board meant for AMD with an Intel processor and vice versa)
esthetics - if you wish for it to look nice and have maybe RGB or support additional RGB controls
Based on those I went with the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard (Amazon).
It provides compatibility for everything that I am going to list in the next points as well as enough additional support so it can future proof the machine (e.g. add additional storage, GPU, etc.)
Processor
When choosing the processor you need to know if the software you are using is utilizing the processor capacity to the max or it has a bigger usage of the GPU. For example, Adobe software tends to use more of the processor compared to the GPU unlike other editing (video and photo) software available on the market.
When choosing the processor I wanted it to be powerful to cover everything that it might be used by Adobe software currently (photo and 4k video editing) as well as be prepared for any future updates that might lead to higher processor usage. This is why I went with the AMD Ryzen 3950x a 16 core beast of a processor, although the new series of processors from AMD was already announced the 3950x was already in the range of overkill, as it is considered right now more of a gaming processor than an editing one, as currently, you can edit 4k videos with something like an 8 core or even 6 core processor running at lower frequencies. Having that in mind future-proofing the machine with this processor is really well as the price/quality ratio is amazing for this processor (in general AMD have been releasing new cheaper and super powerful processors lately, so you won’t make a mistake with any of the processors in their line up)
GPU
If you are using software that relies heavily on GPU performance or just want to double your working station as a gaming PC for those moments where you just need to go on a rampage in GTA, you have a wide range of graphics cards to choose from both Nvidia and AMD. Both have released recently their new series and although supplies are limited because of well 2020, you still can’t get a hold of one of them if you are willing to pay the extra mark up or wait 2-3-4 months.
Personally, I went with an older model an Nvidia RTX 2060 by EVGA as a temp solution until stocks get back to normal. Why did I choose to do that, first the 2060 cost just 300 euros and I already have a friend ready to buy it off once I get a new one, also for what it offers I have no complaints regarding video and photo editing. 6GB are plenty for working with 4k footage.
The reasons why I will upgrade the graphics card later are two: first I want my machine to double as a gaming PC and second future-proofing as it will definitely hold up once 8k becomes mainstream. For that, any of the new AMD or NVIDIA cards with 10GB or more (more might even be major overkill) will do the trick for you. Choosing which one is up to mainly personal preferences (e.g. the OEMs, ports, thermal performance, etc.). There are plenty of reviews and comparisons online between different OEM versions of the same card, so choose your price range and dive into the reviews.
RAM
RAM is not a big issue, prices have dropped drastically and most motherboards support up to 4 RAM Sticks. The solution here was a no brainer - 64GB (16x4) cheap in price, futureproofing your PC at a reasonable price. I went with two sets from G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory, mainly because it was RGB and G.Skill has a relatively good reputation. Also, keep in mind when I say a reasonable price, that is compared to other major components of this build like the CPU and GPU as well as compared to prices in the past.
Storage
For storage as much as I wanted to go full SSD, good SSDs with enough capacity still cost a lot. So instead I opted for a single SSD for my OS, installing software and some temp file storage for example for the current project I am using. For everything else (mainly long-term storage) I planned a normal hard drive.
Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 SSD (Amazon)
Seagate IronWolf Pro 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Amazon)
To be fair I did remove as well one of the additional hard drives that I’ve put in the place of my CD (yes that’s how old my laptop is) on my laptop. It is nothing special 750GB hard drive that is full almost to the max, but that was the reason as well, I didn’t want to fill up my new hard drives with archive material, so I just connected it to the PC in case I need something from it and yes, it is slow AF compared to the other two disks attached.
Peripherals
For the peripherals, I wanted a full upgrade - Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse that were optimized for efficiency. I won’t go too much into details here, because I will make separate reviews for them and link them here once they are done.
LG5k2k 34 inch monitor - I wanted a true 4k widescreen monitor that was color accurate and this was actually the only available option on the market by a known brand and so far I am happy with the performance.
Logitech Craft Keyboard (Amazon) - It is stylish, has a tone of feature related to both Adobe software and almost everything else that you can think of using on a daily basis for working, supports multiple devices connected and you can switch with just a press of a button. It is on the pricier side and I do not think it is worth so much, but I wanted to buy myself a nice set and if I am honest I love the shortcuts and the wheel.
Logitec MX Master 3 (Amazon) - an amazing mouse packed with tons of features (which I do not use to their full potential). At first it was a bit weird because it is actually really big compared to normal mice, but after 2-3 days of use I got used to the size and since then I can’t use another mouse and only this one feels natural in my hand. One of the coolest things that I need to play around a bit more in the future is gesture control, you can set different gestures for different apps, but I haven’t had the time to play that much around with it. Just tested in on a couple of SW and it felt a bit like doing magic.
Upgrade Finished!
After finishing the build I ran some tests and benchmarks just to check that everything is working fine (e.g. CineBench). Actually, this build even with the temporary GPU is so good that I had run an experiment and it can mine bitcoin on a small profit while I am using it for example for photo editing.