Thoughts on these builds for Premiere Pro 4K editing system <$4000

[Stephen.Pickering]

Hi there,

I have two system builds below (assembled with pcpartpicker).

I would like to build a new 4K editing system before the end of the year.  I would like to edit 4K (delivery will more often be in HD), use Neat Video noise removal, grade with Lumetri Color and MB Looks in Premiere Pro CC.  I would also like to do chroma keying, motion graphics, and light 3D work (extruded text, Element 3D) in After Effects.

Ideally, my budget is $4,000 but would be nice to have some left over.  I have the following parts already purchased from a previous build that never happened:
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series PH-ES614P_BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case​

XPG SX6000 PCIe NVME Gen3x2 M.2 2280 128GB SSD
Keyboard
Mouse
Optical Drive
Several HGST 6TB NAS drives
Some CineRaid 4x Raid Enclosures (USB3 or eSata) (are these even usable with 4K?)
Monitors (not 4K)

I've always used Intel, but I've read a lot of posts here about Ryzen being an option now.  I've put together two systems at pcpartpicker, one Intel and one Ryzen.  These are based on some different builds that I've found on forums (the Intel system is similar to a build I found on PugetSystems).

AMD Ryzen
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 1800X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor	$389.89 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler	$28.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC ATX AM4 Motherboard	$91.98 @ Newegg
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$754.82 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$127.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Mini Video Card	$712.88 @ SuperBiiz
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case	$89.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$96.59 @ SuperBiiz
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$136.88 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$2469.81
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$2429.81
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-05 01:14 EST-0500

Intel i7

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-7820X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor	$559.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler	$19.99 @ Newegg
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste	$5.55 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Gigabyte - X299 AORUS Gaming 7 ATX LGA2066 Motherboard	$428.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$679.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$127.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card	$743.88 @ OutletPC
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case	$99.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$99.99 @ SuperBiiz
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$136.88 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$2922.94
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$2902.94
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-05 01:16 EST-0500

Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about hardware anymore.  Both systems above are under my budget, which makes me feel that either I am missing something or that I should be upgrading something now instead of later.  Both builds have the case included, but I already have a case).  I would love to stay at $3k, but I want to have a system that will last me longer, instead of a budget system that I'll have to try to upgrade down the road.

I would appreciate any advice you have!

-Stephen

[Bill_Gehrke]

First problem I see is lack of a second SSD, your first drive for the OS and Applications should just be a standard SATA III SSD and then use the high speed M.2 PCIe x4 SSD for your current project and media files, but depending on you project sizes the 250 GB one may not be large enough.  Hard disk drive are fine for backup and archiving but lousy for editing.

[Stephen.Pickering]

Thank you, Bill.  I've never used an M.2 SSD.  If I have a small one (which I have that is not being used) and added on a 250 or 512 M.2 PCIe x4 SSD, would that be ok? I read somewhere that using M.2 slots disables some of the SATA controllers - but as you can tell I don't know anything about this stuff.

So, I need another bigger SSD M.2 drive.  What else?

Thank you again!

[Bill_Gehrke]

Here are the CDM test results from my Samsung 960 Pro M.2 PCIe Gen 3 X4 SSD.

It is one of the better ones and you see the Sequential Write rate above, from my Disk Intensive Premiere Pro BenchMark (PPBM) I can actually get almost 2000 MB/second using Premiere Pro.

Since we have fantastic read write rates and the accompanying microsecond access times rather that millisecond access time on these super speed SSD's the old design rules for a great video editjng computer you needed 3,4,5 or more hard disk drives are thrown out.  My designs use one small SATA III for the OS/Applications and a second super speed device (sized for your typical project size(s) for all the current project(s) and media storage.  When through with a project archive/backup to hard disk dirves

[Stephen.Pickering]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bill+Gehrke  wrote

Here are the CDM test results from my Samsung 960 Pro M.2 PCIe Gen 3 X4 SSD.

It is one of the better ones and you see the Sequential Write rate above, from my Disk Intensive Premiere Pro BenchMark (PPBM) I can actually get almost 2000 MB/second using Premiere Pro.

Since we have fantastic read write rates and the accompanying microsecond access times rather that millisecond access time on these super speed SSD's the old design rules for a great video editjng computer you needed 3,4,5 or more hard disk drives are thrown out.  My designs use one small SATA III for the OS/Applications and a second super speed device (sized for your typical project size(s) for all the current project(s) and media storage.  When through with a project archive/backup to hard disk dirves

Thanks Bill!  So I guess I'll forget about trying to use the 128GB M.2 drive I have (that'll be far too small for multiple projects), and instead get a new small SATA III drive (SSD) and add the Samsung 960 Pro (looks like Amazon has the 512GB for $289).  Can I add on additional M.2 drives as needed, or should I spend more (more than double) for the 1TB up front?

Other than the drives, what else should I add or upgrade (or downgrade)?  It looks like both AMD and Intel are good options, but it looks like AMD offers a bit more for the money.  Hopefully I'll be buying most of the parts next week.

Thank you again!
-Stephen

[Stephen.Pickering]

Ok, I've decided AMD should give me a bit more bang for the buck, except that it looks like I have fewer options of motherboards and RAM choices.  But I think AMD is how I'll go unless there is a specific reason otherwise.

I've updated the list to include different SSD Drives and Motherboard (parts list is at the bottom of this post), but I specifically have a few questions I'd love confirmation on.

Motherboard:
I've been looking over the different specs and I've decided on a motherboard that I THINK looks good: Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4  .  I often have lots of USB devices plugged in at any given time, so I would like as much USB ports as possible, but I also know I can get add-on cards or hubs easily and inexpensively.  My bigger concern is the PCI-E X16 (X8, X4, X1) - I don't know what devices use those and if there is a reason to have more of one over the other.  Obviously the video card (1080 Ti) will be using the X16 slot.

Video Card:
I think I've narrowed the video card down to either ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini 11GB GDDR5X or GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N108TGAMING OC-11GD 11GB 352-Bit GDDR5X

They are both roughly the same price after promocodes (about $700) but I assume the mini would be a bit better for airflow.  Any reason to go with one over the other (or a totally different card)?

CPU Cooler:

Right now I have the Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO fan ($35).  There are some with 2 fans, others that are low-profile, and others that are water cooled.  The biggest complaint about the Hyper 212 was it's big size, I think.  I don't plan to overclock.  Do I need a fancy cooler or is this just fine?  PC Part Picker does give me this note: "The Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler may require a separately available mounting adapter to fit the Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard"  It seems most fans give me this note for the Ryzen CPU.  What is this and do I need it?

The complete build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 1800X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor	$399.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler	$24.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$119.39 @ OutletPC
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LED 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$859.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$139.99 @ B&H
Storage	Samsung - 960 Pro 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$618.00 @ Newegg Marketplace
Video Card	Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Mini Video Card	$712.88 @ SuperBiiz
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case	$109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$84.99 @ Newegg
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$136.88 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$3277.09
	Mail-in rebates	-$70.00
	Total	$3207.09
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-12 17:21 EST-0500

Anything else I need to consider?  Again, I have the mouse and keyboard and speakers and monitors will migrate from an old system for now.

Thank you again for your thoughts, I really appreciate it!

-Stephen

[Stephen.Pickering]

Now I'm getting more and more confused the more I research.  I know these comparisons aren't the same, but reading over some of the posts here about AMD's Threadripper, it seems AMD is not performing as well as Intel at a lower cost.  Since these are not the same parts am I safe to ignore it?  Am I on the right track with Ryzen 7 1800X or should I be looking at an Intel i7?  I know the specific application plays a big role, so I guess I would say I need a balance between Premiere Pro 4k editing and After Effects (greenscreen, some 3D, motion graphics animating).

Thank you,

Stephen

[edithouse41]

Lifetime MAC user here, just built my first PC, 7820-X on a Asus 299 Prime deluxe motherboard. Tonight I just loaded four 4K h.264 DJI drone footage in a 4K timeline quad split with the footage coming from a Samsung internal SSD. I couldn’t believe it played back smooth.  Next in a 4K sequence I loaded one 4K shot, added Magic Bullet looks, all good, then added Lumetri on top, still played back fine. I used the Enthoo Pro case with Noctua air cooling and I am really enjoying this setup.  My 5,1 MacPro 12 core Xeon can’t do any of this, can’t playback my 4K GoPro or DJI footage without rendering.  I am really blown away, I can’t believe I built this thing, I can’t believe it’s performance, and I can’t wait to continue to upgrade it as new tech is released!  This is something the Mac platfom does not have.  If I were you I’d stick with the Intel CPU.

[Stephen.Pickering]

Thank you for the feedback!  I really have no preference between Intel or AMD, but it seemed AMD was crazy powerful at a lower cost- but then I started reading about Adobe not liking the real high-end AMD (but, admittedly my system above isn't even a Threadripper).

In any case, here's a build I put together using a lot of the options from the previous builds, but your your CPU and Motherboard:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-7820X 3.6GHz 8-Core Processor	$568.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler	$24.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Asus - PRIME X299-DELUXE ATX LGA2066 Motherboard	$498.32 @ B&H
Memory	Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$679.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$139.99 @ B&H
Storage	Samsung - 960 Pro 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$618.95 @ Newegg Marketplace
Video Card	Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Mini Video Card	$712.88 @ SuperBiiz
Case	Phanteks - Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case	$108.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Smart M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$78.99 @ SuperBiiz
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$136.88 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$3588.76
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$3568.76
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-13 22:01 EST-0500

Can I ask what the reason is for that particular motherboard?  It has a ton of features (including an onboard CPU temp!), but was there a specific reason?  I don't THINK I need more than 64GB of RAM right now, but I know 8 slots to expand is pretty nice.

Any thoughts on this setup?  I know I would probably be happy with any one of these three setups I've "built" with pcpartbuilder, but it would be great to just know that I'm not burning money on something I don't need or cutting corners on something I will have to upgrade to just around the corner.

Thank you for chiming in, I really appreciate it!
-Stephen

[edithouse41]

I chose this motherboard specifically because of the dual ethernet, and the bios interface, which makes it easy to overclock.  Also the two M.2 slots and one U.2 was another advantage

[Stephen.Pickering]

Thanks for the info. I found a lighter model Prime X299 (not a Delux) which looks pretty good.  I might go that route since I don't think I'd need more than a single M.2 drive, and likely won't be overclocking either.

Thank you again,

-Stephen

[edithouse41]

You can never have enough M.2, and check this out regarding X299 boards, I had this issue as well and the simple overclock in the Asus bios fixed it:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/support-hardware/WHEA-UNCORRECTABLE-ERROR-on-Gigabyte-x299-and-Sky...

[Bill_Gehrke]

edithouse41  wrote

You can never have enough M.2, and check this out regarding X299 boards, I had this issue as well and the simple overclock in the Asus bios fixed it:

I have to agree.  Here are 4 at work, but you will see there are many different ways of installing them that get full performance as long as you also have available PCIe Gen 3 x4 slots.

Three different adaptor boards on my older X99-E WS

[Stephen.Pickering]

Thanks guys.  I actually just bought a PCIe card for another system to utilize a lower end M.2 drive, so you're probably right on that I'd outgrow the single card pretty quickly.  The Deluxe is still within budget, so I guess you're both making a good case for that board at the higher price.  I was hoping for some feedback based on real experience, so I appreciate the feedback you've all provided.  I think I've decided on the Asus 299 Prime deluxe with the 7820X.  I appreciate the reassurance that this is tried and true and still fits within the budget.

My last question is about the video cards.  Can anyone give any reason why one would be better than the other? Does it matter?

ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini 11GB GDDR5X or GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N108TGAMING OC-11GD 11GB 352-Bit GDDR5X

They are both roughly the same price after promocodes (about $700) but I assume the mini would be a bit better for airflow.  Any reason to go with one over the other (or a totally different card)?

Thank you again,

-Stephen