Seeking reliable Non-Apple system recommendations

[DearTheiery]

I have looked through many of the threads here, but haven't been able to find the answers I'm looking for. So, at the risk of driving myself and others mad, here is yet another request for system suggestions...

I recently shipped my iMac from Canada to Europe and United Postal Service destroyed it during transit. The insurance will give me about $2000 CAD (about $1300 USD or Euro) and I'm looking to replace the iMac with a Windows machine because my understanding is that I might get the same horsepower as the iMac by buying or building a windows machine. I've never built a computer and I'm not totally interested in trying now, however I would if it was easy for a beginner and cheaper.

I was not running a beast by any means, clearly. It was a 21-inch iMac and it had about 80% of the processing power that I needed it to have.

The specs were:

               PROCESSOR  2.9GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5

               MEMORY  16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-2X8GB

               HARD DRIVE  1TB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm

               NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

Taking into consideration that the cost of an iMac includes a rather decent monitor, is it possible to buy or build a comparable Windows machine within my budget of $1300 USD? If so, would I build it myself or are there companies that build reliable systems and ship internationally? (I am aware that this last question exposes my horrible, horrible ignorance. Yes, I've been a Apple baby for too long, and have never actually bought a non-apple in my life. So I have stupid questions. I accept that).

Any links to good hardware sites, or expert advice about what I'm getting myself into would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Finally, is it true that Premiere CC 2017 won't export Apple Pro Res when it's running on Windows machines anymore? That was a big reason why I bought the Mac last time. If this is true, how do people work around this?

Thanks,
Harris

[RoninEdits · Accepted solution]

the best value system config for around that price would have a ryzen 5 1600X and gtx 1050 ti 4gb. that would leave enough money for other parts, including a monitor and storage like ssd(s) and hdd. it might be possible to buy a pre-built or off-the-shelf system with those parts for around your budget as well. unless you have someone that can help you build it, i would suggest buying one already built.

[DearTheiery]

Thanks! These components do seem to be top quality for lowest buck. Any thoughts on RAM, like how much I should get, and which brand?

[RoninEdits]

16gb for HD, 32gb for 4k projects, are common recommendations. ryzen can be somewhat picky with its memory, you may need to check the motherboard qvl for a list of supported ram. corsair lpx seems to be one of the kits that plays nice with most ryzen motherboards. memory speed around ddr4-3000 is also good for a small performance boost.

[DearTheiery]

Thanks again, I'm diving deep into this now. It's pcpartpicker.com trusted in the art of cross compliance? Finally, do I need to worry about Ryzen-Premiere compatibility issues anymore?

[RoninEdits]

pcpartpicker seems ok, but i wouldn't trust its compatibility for a memory kit with ryzen. perhaps looking at completed user builds and reading their notes about their memory kit and speeds would be helpful.

i'm not aware of any current premiere-ryzen issues. ryzen might have a higher risk of problems in the future, as adobe probably only has intel cpu's in their development and testing systems. however its more likely you would run into problems/bugs with premiere that aren't related to ryzen, as adobe has a long history of problems maintaining premiere.

[DearTheiery]

I've taken your advice, and brought your hardware suggestions to a local computer store and they've suggested the following system. Does this look like an appropriate Premiere editing system?

AMD RYZEN 5 1600X 3.6GHZ PROCESSOR

MSI B350M MORTAR ARCTIC AMD AM4 B350

CORSAIR DDR4 32 GB 2X16GB PC 2400 VENGEANCE L

SAMSUNG SSD 2.5 500GB 850 EVO SERIES

GEFORCE GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 3G

TOOQ 700W GAMING PFC.ACTIVO 80+ 6SATA 14CM

I'm trying to avoid conflicts between components, obviously, but I have no idea how to check if I'm going to do this. Also, if there​ are known problems between these components and Premiere, you would be a life saver for pointing them out!

[RoninEdits]

looks decent. i would lean towards the gtx 1060 6gb version, just to have the extra memory for 4k+ projects. if you only plan on HD projects then a gtx 1050 ti 4gb would be reasonable to help save cost.

i'm not sure about that power supply brand, i haven't heard of it before. i would ask them if its a good quality one, or to swap it for a quality one if its not.

depending on how much space you need for your active projects, you may want another ssd for projects/media, or a hdd if budget dictates.

[DearTheiery]

At this stage I'd like to buy you a drink or even just mail you a bottle of fine whiskey as a huge thank you for your supervision throughout this process.

I'll ask them about the upgrade to the 6GB graphics card today.

They seemed to be really excited about the power supply, and said it was really good, but I'll double check that it's high quality. It is low cost, so maybe I have to investigate further.

For years I've worked off of external hard drives. I've been told that USB3 is just as fast as any internal HDD, so I've never really considered an extra internal. Well, sometimes I dream of an extra 1gb SSD, but I've never been able to afford it