I think it's time I look into upgrading my PC

[looneymoon]

So I got this PC as my graduation gift. It's a few years old now, and running a bit slower for my needs. I've used it mainly for gaming in the past, but now I really need it optimized for video editing and the like. It's still perfectly fine to use to play games, but it really slows when I start using Adobe programs.

The problem is when I got it, I asked the worker at NCIX to give me a list of what I needed at the time. Now that I am thinking of upgrading, I am not too sure where to begin.

Here's what my specs are like

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rGB...ew?usp=sharing

Unfortunately, I don't think NCIX exists anymore. So even if I do know what I need, I am not sure where I can get a decent deal on parts without spending a bunch on shipping

Anyways, any advice is greatly appreciated

[Obsidian Fire]

Generally speaking, a good editing computer needs the same things a good gaming computer needs. The one exception would be RAM. You'll probably want 16 GB of RAM instead of 8. It makes a huge difference if you need to load large files.

The other thing to keep in mind is what types of programs you use for editing and if they can makes use of multi-threading. If they can make use of multi-threading (most can't) then AMD CPUs become and option. If they can't, stick with Intel CPUs.

Deciding on the CUP you'll be using is important because that effects what Motherboard you'll get, which in term effects what RAM you'll get. Both AMD and Intel changed their sockets in the last year or two and RAM's sockets change too, so you're probably looking at a complete computer rebuild rather then just an upgrade.

[Lex]

I would even consider 32GB of RAM. Everyone on the planet will tell you it's excessive... unless they render videos. I have 32 and don't regret it for one moment. It's not like RAM is expensive, it's pretty much the cheapest component.

[Literally Who?]

^This. Especially in Adobe products since they can scale based on available ram if you allow them to. My old rig was 16gb and depending on what the assets and effects/techs were things could get pretty rough once I hit render in AE. The only problem with this is... Ram is extremely expensive these days (relatively to their old price) theirs a global shortage that just totally sucks.

Similarly GPU's are marked up to high hell thanks to Bitcoin mining, and have been for over a year now with no sign of slowing down. So they could be even more than a money sink than they already are =/

The other thing to keep in mind is what types of programs you use for editing and if they can makes use of multi-threading. If they can make use of multi-threading (most can't) then AMD CPUs become and option. If they can't, stick with Intel CPUs.

Something worth noting in the multithreading/tons of cores discussion is that most contemporary programs (and even games) don't utilize AMD structures very well due to them not being the market leader. How ever with recently with the way AMD has been playing the game Intel has sorta backed into a corner and are now pulling the old AMD trick of "Hey were tossing a ton of cores on our stuff now!". Notably the next generation of i7 will be 6 and 8 core IIRC.

So now with the market leader adding this kind of structure to their CPU's we might start seeing a world where games and programs start optimizing for that in the future. It's still a gamble as of right now since its all basically speculation based on PR, but it is something to consider.


Also agreed about your Mobo concerns. I think DDR5 should be coming out next year, and depending on when you got that PC it might still have DDR3, which if thats the case DDR4 definitely wont slot in, and DDR5 most likely wont either.

Additionally say if you go for an AMD Ryzen build not only does it need a specific mobo for the CPU , even if it's cooling unit needs a very specific mobo as well.

Which isn't a big deal, when going through part picker it will tell you if it wont slot in etc. Plus there have been some really cool Mobos releasing in the last few years to make room for some nifty developments, especially in the SSD world.

So what's your budget?

Also I highly suggest browsing buildapc's subreddit and IRC channel

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/

edit:

It seems they started cracking down on the "build me a pc" posts there, so defer to their sister board to consistently see pc builds

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/

[Cthulhu]

Yup, moar memory is good. Just be careful when installing it (with static electricity and shit), I've had at least two memory banks go wonky (one right at the start, the other later on) and it's caused me random crashes and data loss at the time.

I did hear prices for memory are up lately, but, don't know.

Also what storage do you use? If you have an SSD, how large is it? Might be worth looking into getting a secondary one to store your project files (and, if applicable, Adobe's temp files) on. There's either the traditional SSD you stick in a hard drive port / cable, or one you stick in a PCIe slot. I'm thinking of the latter if I'm to get a new PC myself.

[Literally Who?]

Cthulhu wrote:

Might be worth looking into getting a secondary one to store your project files (and, if applicable, Adobe's temp files) on.

Oh man this so much! For reference the other day i noticed my HDD was down like 100gb lower than usual, so i ran WinDirStat and narrowed down the location of the offender.

Sure enough it was my After Effects cache folder. 90gb taken up by Adobe just for the sake of letting me preview video a bit faster while editing xD

-

I did hear prices for memory are up lately, but, don't know

Yup. Theres been a global dram shortage for good while now. IIRC the reason is the mobile phone market basically used it all up.

[Obsidian Fire]

The reason I mention AMD vs Intel is because I do use programs that use all available cores. So the 16 cores I have make a huge difference.

I've got an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and while you do need a specific motherboard for them, it's not like the Ryzen CPUs will be going away any time soon. You can pretty much stick on any good cooler I've seen on those motherboards, but the cooler that comes with the Ryzen CPU dos the job just fine so long as you aren't too crazy with your overclocking.

If you can, do get an SSD. I've got Windows and a few of my huge art programs loaded on an SSD and the rest loaded on a regular hard drive. It makes a big, big difference in program start times and how fast the programs access stuff.

Good fast RAM is probably going to be your biggest nightmare to find. You'll want RAM with good read/write speeds and that stuff is expensive. For comparison's sake, I spent more money on 16 GB of RAM then I spent on my motherboard.

[Literally Who?]

Yeah true that. I actually have a Ryzen 7 1700X, not OC'd (though documentation I've read seems to point I can OC it a decent amount safely) and it's done a great job so far.

Definitely getting my ass kicked lately by opting for 8gb ram on this PC though, but at the time I built it ram was even more expensive.

It seems to have dipped a bit lately though. Hopefully it keeps going down but considering articles like this who knows how the prices will swing.


DRAM makers sued (yet again) for 'fixing prices' (yet again) of chips

[looneymoon]

I cry because this looks like it's gonna cost more than I thought