I have to make a new PC for 4K editing. help!

[Adriano Moroni]

Hi, after Christmas I have to make a new PC for 4K editing. I use Sony AX100 for shooting. My budget is around 5,000 euro. I use Edius 8 with Win 10. I usually use 2-3 editing tracks with some filters.
Can you suggest how I have to make that new PC? I'd like to know all the precise components. I have to give to technician all the components and the pertinent brands. I mean: case, hard drives, processor, motherboard, graphic card, etc.

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Adriano Moroni

Can you suggest how I have to make that new PC? I'd like to know all the precise components. I have to give to technician all the components and the pertinent brands. I mean: case, hard drives, processor, motherboard, graphic card, etc.

That sounds more like a consultation and you should be expected to pay for that service.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Without getting into specifics I’d get a mid range i7 cpu, ssd for the system, make sure to get a video card that your editing software can use, the biggest consideration is going to be storage, most serious people use an external raid. If you go this route you’ll need a card and separate enclosure.

[Noa Put]

For edius I would suggest a i7 8700K because edius can then utilize quicksync, for all other components it depends on your needs, I would ask a computerbuilder to help you with that using that i7 8700k as a base.

[Mark Williams]

I am using Edius 8 WG with 4K 30fps single stream and a few graphics and or filters with real-time playback. Two streams and it begins to struggle but with WG you can scale the playback so no problem. If I edit 1080 I can handle three streams. Here are my specs. Not the most modern but perhaps a good reference point.

Edius 8 WG, i7 6700K, Asus 170-A mobo, 16 GB Ram, System 960 Evo M.2, Video 850 Evo SSD, Shadow Rock Slim cpu cooler, On board graphics, Windows 10, Panasonic GH5

[Adriano Moroni]

Mark Williams: me too I'm using a PC with 4K projects without problems but I'm using one stream too and I need to increase the 4K video editing with a new and more powerful PC.
I thank all you for your pleasant replies. But I need also and above all suggestions from who make video 4K editing with 2-3 streams. I need to know its hardware sistem with the precise models and brands. In my town there isn't any good computerbuilder who can help me with i7 8700k as a base. I know Edius uses above all the processor and I think i7 8700k is a good processor with a right price.
But I also need to know what case, videocard, motherboard, RAM, etc. etc. About hard drives I think to use SSDs.

In your opinion is it a bad idea to buy a pre-assembled PC with 5,000 euro?

[Mark Williams]

I think you may get a more specific answer posting on the Edius forum https://forum.grassvalley.com/forum/index.php and on the Edius Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/groups/924369457674310/

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Adriano Moroni

In your opinion is it a bad idea to buy a pre-assembled PC with 5,000 euro?

That depends on the knowledge and experience of the one who is going to buy and assemble the components.

If there is no, or spotty, component and build knowledge and experience I think it is a bad idea to try. In that case I would advice to hire an expert to do it for you or get a pre-assembled PC.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Cary makes a good point. Your questions are odd in that people who build a rig do so because the know exactly what they want. You say you don’t want a raid but then go on to describe situation where you would need one. There is no shame in not knowing but its a bad idea to just throw money at something.

[Noa Put]

A raid is not a necessity, I use one 6TB WD black disc which reaches write and readspeeds of around 220mbs and I have a 1TB 960 evo disc that is like 10 times faster. I use the 1tb ssd's for projects I"m working on but have all my other projects stored on the 6TB disc which I also can use as edit disc if necessary, then I have a seperate 2TB int export disc. I prefer to move data between discs because you will use their full speed without interruption.

So my workflow is that everything I film gets imported to a 6TB int disc, then I have a 6TB ext drive which mirrors the 6TB int importdisc, I edit from the 1TB ssd and export the finished project to a 2TB int drive, I then have another 2TB ext drive that mirrors that 2TB int drive.

For motherboard there are plenty of choices and different brands that go with the I7 8700K,here you just have to read up on the features each board has and what matters for you.

For memory you need to look at the motherboards qvl list which you can always find back on their website, that list will tell you which memory is compatible and tested with the board.
The faster the memory is, the more it will cost, it won't have large difference in performance though, if you are not planning to overclock then just go with the recommended speeds by the motherboard manufacturer. 16GB is enough for edius, if you work with adobe products I'd get 32GB minimum.

Videocard is also not that important, unless you use a lot of effects or plugins that rely on a fast GPU, a midrange card like a gtx 1060 with 6gb of memory will do just fine.

For a case I would recommend something like a fractal define xl r2 which is what I have got, it's a large case with extra noise reduction materials and with plenty of room for harddrives and blu-ray burners.

For cooling a aircooler something like a Noctua NH-D15 would do as long as you don't plan to overclock, otherwise get a watercooler, that noctua is big but cools well and is very silent.

Those are the first things that come to mind :)

[Adriano Moroni]

I thank you a lot for your precious suggestions. As Eiud use the processor, do you think i7 8700K is sufficient or is it better to buy a more powerful processor? What this another more powerful processor beside i7 8700K?

[Noa Put]

The 6 core I7 8700k is more then sufficient, the 10 core I9 7900k is also popular but costs 600euro more, in some cases the I7 8700k will be faster because it has a gpu build in on the cpu and can use quicksync to accelerate rendering or time line playback with h264 files. The 16 core theadripper 1950x is also another choice.

The reason to go for more cores is when you want to use a x264 videoencoder to render your files, when you use quicksync the image quality it outputs is good but you can get equal good and better quality in smaller filesizes if you use x264 as video encoder. The problem is that quicksync doesn't work when you choose x264 but then it only uses the processor cores, not the gpu, The 10 or 16 core processor will be at least twice as fast as the i7 8700K to render. If you use quicksync the I7 8700k will be equally fast and in some cases faster to render.

[Adriano Moroni]

Therefore without considering the price if you wer me you would buy i7-8700K processor instead of i9-7900X processor for UHD projects with Edius 8 or Edius 9.
OK.
The clock is ticking:
If I had to buy the i7-8700K processor, what good motherboard and videocard would you buy precisely?
Thanks

[Tony Neal]

Yes,the 8700K is definitely the way to go.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a custom build of this PC https://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/...helite111.html specifically to edit 4K, increasing the memory to 32Gb and adding a Sandisk Ultra II SSD and a Blu-ray writer.

I was hoping to be able to edit at least one 4k track in Premiere Pro without using proxies.

In reality, the PC can continuously and smoothly play a multicam window with three 4k tracks, two 1080i tracks and three further tracks derived by zooming in to one of the 4k tracks. Thats a total of 8 tracks and no proxies were required.

Naturally I am very pleased that the performance of this machine has justified the expense of having it built!

[Adriano Moroni]

Originally Posted by Tony Neal

Yes,the 8700K is definitely the way to go.

Ohhh, good news. But is it necessary to enable quick sync on 8700K?