Building budget editing-workstation

[Namsti]

Budget:  1500€-2000€

Country: Germany

Programs and workloads that it will be used for: Adobe Creative Cloud: Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign

Other details : 

Hi,

first of all, thank you for any input at all, I really appreciate it.

 

I am planning to build a "budget" Workstation for some semi-professional video- and photo-editing. I might be able to buy more components later, but right now the budget is fixed.

There is a rough plan in my mind of which parts I am going to need, but its all rather vague. I could really use some help from someone who knows their stuff about this a little more than I do, especially concerning future proofing, as I would like to use this build for a longer period without the need to upgrade in between. If you have experience in this kind of work, feel free to add anything you think might be useful.

I will list the parts with my thought process behind them:

 

CPU - Here I am really lost. I read that for most ACC programs more cores = better, but I cant afford workstation CPUs. So I was thinking of going previous gen i7/i9 or R7/R9 but have zero ideas as to wether go base/K/KF or base/X/X3D for these workloads .

GPU - 4060 Ti 16 GB (Thought best bang for buck with a bunch of vram, also considered 4060/4070)

MB - Depends on CPU, but thought B660/B550 with 4+ USB3 ports and 2+ M.2 NVME slots

RAM - 64-128 GB (Was planning to get 2x32GB and then upgrade to 128 when I had some spare cash. Not sure in terms of speed/brand though)

Storage - 990 Pro 1TB (For OS and Programs) + 2-4 TB M.2 (Crucial P3/P3+? Will also add more storage later, got some external drives for the moment)

PSU - 750W Gold (got it lying around, dont need any more power)

Cooler - Thermalright Peerless Assassin or some Deepcool AK400 variant (cheap but will get the job done)

Case - Something with a solid airflow/noise performance and with some space to build in. Was looking at Fractal Design 7/Meshify and be quiet! PureBase 500, but especially Fractal is somewhat expensive. 

 

Existing parts lists: Seasonic Vertex GX 750W, mouse, keyboard and monitor

Other peripherals are needed: New monitor for editing (old one is really bad)

What you're upgrading from: Going to be a completely fresh build

When you're going to buy: Still in 2024 if possible

What resolution and refresh rate you want to work at: 4k 60Hz 

 

If anyone got through this wall of text, thanks again for any contribution or for just sticking around to read. I am new to building rigs for this specific purpose, so really anything helps.

Have a good one!

 

[venomtail]

I think this is most cost effective. Boot drive and mass storage drive. Reused your PSU but you'll have to use a splitter for new power plug. One of the best value for money 4k monitors. For timeline stuff UI room will make or break your productivity:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin MINI 66.87 CFM CPU Cooler  (€35.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  (€139.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€113.89 @ Galaxus) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S50 Core 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€58.99 @ Galaxus) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€224.90 @ Alza) 
Video Card: Palit Dual GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  (€598.90 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact TG Light Tint ATX Mid Tower Case  (€95.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic VERTEX GX-750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For €0.00) 
Monitor: Gigabyte ‎M28U 28.0" 3840 x 2160 144 Hz Monitor  (€389.00 @ Computeruniverse) 
Total: €1996.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-04 13:12 CET+0100

 

 

 

Also 64GB is doable, it will be 100eur extra. I'm doing video editing right now on a 32GB machine and tbh its my storage keeping me back rather than RAM and Vegas just being old af so maybe that's why.

[podkall]

33 minutes ago, Namsti said:

Adobe Creative Cloud: Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign

No gaming just creative?

 

34 minutes ago, Namsti said:

GPU - 4060 Ti 16 GB (Thought best bang for buck with a bunch of vram, also considered 4060/4070)

Do your programs need big VRAM pool, or would that be wasting some of your € on something you might even not need?

 

9 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Monitor: Gigabyte ‎M28U 28.0" 3840 x 2160 144 Hz Monitor  (€389.00 @ Computeruniverse) 

Yeah for monitors either reviewed or grabbing like 300-500€ of the budget and asking in the Displays section,

 

here's my take on the build:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 9 7900 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€345.12 @ Galaxus)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140 77.8 CFM CPU Cooler  (€43.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock B650 PG LIGHTNING ATX AM5 Motherboard  (€147.71 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: *GOODRAM IRDM 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€109.00 @ Galaxus)
Storage: *TEAMGROUP MP44L 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€60.80 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: *Kingston KC3000 2.048 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€119.90 @ Alza)
Video Card: *Gigabyte WINDFORCE 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card  (€538.90 @ Mindfactory)
Case: *Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case  (€79.59 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic VERTEX GX-750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€0.00)
Custom: ~500€ Monitor (€500.00)
Total: €1944.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-04 13:40 CET+0100

[Namsti]

34 minutes ago, podkall said:

No gaming just creative?

Yep, no gaming happening here.

 

35 minutes ago, podkall said:

Do your programs need big VRAM pool, or would that be wasting some of your € on something you might even not need?

I looked in the ACC system requirements and hardware specifications of workstation manufacturers and some programs made good use of more VRAM, but I honestly dont think I would max that out. So you're probably right about the 4070, that will be the most beneficial in terms of raw power for the build.
Thanks so much for the recommendations!

[Namsti]

1 hour ago, venomtail said:

I think this is most cost effective. Boot drive and mass storage drive. Reused your PSU but you'll have to use a splitter for new power plug. One of the best value for money 4k monitors. For timeline stuff UI room will make or break your productivity:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin MINI 66.87 CFM CPU Cooler  (€35.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  (€139.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€113.89 @ Galaxus) 
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S50 Core 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€58.99 @ Galaxus) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€224.90 @ Alza) 
Video Card: Palit Dual GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  (€598.90 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact TG Light Tint ATX Mid Tower Case  (€95.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic VERTEX GX-750 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For €0.00) 
Monitor: Gigabyte ‎M28U 28.0" 3840 x 2160 144 Hz Monitor  (€389.00 @ Computeruniverse) 
Total: €1996.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-04 13:12 CET+0100

 

 

 

Also 64GB is doable, it will be 100eur extra. I'm doing video editing right now on a 32GB machine and tbh its my storage keeping me back rather than RAM and Vegas just being old af so maybe that's why.

Thanks for the quick answer! That list looks really promising, especially with that monitor. Do you think Vegas and Premiere are comparable concerning the hardware usage? Again, Im pretty new to this so I actually dont know. How is your CPU/GPU usage on big projects? Do you ever have problems with either of those or is it just your storage?

[venomtail]

28 minutes ago, Namsti said:

Thanks for the quick answer! That list looks really promising, especially with that monitor. Do you think Vegas and Premiere are comparable concerning the hardware usage?

NVIDIA is the gold standard for compatibility with software, simply because they're market leader with most saturation. There are several fail safes people can fall back on for hardware usage, from different native settings in your software to even community fixes or libraries to address an issue.  

 

30 minutes ago, Namsti said:

How is your CPU/GPU usage on big projects? Do you ever have problems with either of those or is it just your storage?

My 5800X3D, RX6800 and 32GB of RAM is plenty. Did UE4/5 development with no issues. I'm satisfied and your PC would be faster.

 

From my experience using professional software, pretty much all the times when I've had lackluster performance has been down to me configuring my project wrong, unrealistic render parameters or sloppy coding/editing that grind everything to a half and so on because on their own, a 9700X and 4070S is top of the line. Of course your can get even more expensive parts with even more performance but at that point it really quickly develops into diminishing returns.

 

I have friends who do video editing and game development on 13400F 4070/6700XT systems and to my knowledge there are no performance issues, in fact they were hyped how fast their new PC's were from where they came from. Your system is more powerful than these 2.

 

With Vegas Pro I'm mentioning, opening a 200GB+ project simply took a minute or two before I can start using it but I think that's just down to how old Vegas Pro is and how inefficiently it reimports all the video footage within the project and on the timeline not that there's something wrong with my hardware that it can't keep up.