$2,200 Build for 4K Gaming/Video Editing/Music Production. PC + Monitor. *UPDATED: Ryzen a possibility?*

[jpguitar]

Hey everyone,

 

I've got a $2,200 budget for a new build + monitor.  The uses for this build are in the topic title.  Here's a few more notes:

 

-I am going to need Thunderbolt for my audio interface (not sure if that's worth mentioning).

 

-For the monitor, I am happy gaming at 60hz and don't need a higher refresh rate than that.  On that note, I'm happy bumping down to High & even Medium settings on games.

 

-I do video editing for classical guitar performance videos, but I don't edit photos.

 

-I live close to a Micro Center, so I do have access to their awesome CPU/MOBO combo deals.

 

-I would be willing to wait until Black Friday/Cyber Monday to purchase the parts if that makes more sense.

 

-I'm open to Intel or AMD.

 

-I don't think I'd get much out of the 20 series RTX cards, so a GTX 1080ti would probably be a good fit.

 

All that being said, what do you think would be a great PC + Monitor for $2,200?

 

 

Thanks so much,
Jim

[jpguitar]

Here's what I've come up with, minus the monitor:  https://pcpartpicker.com/list/n2sMMZ

 

 

[Zeorth]

28 minutes ago, jpguitar said:

Here's what I've come up with, minus the monitor:  https://pcpartpicker.com/list/n2sMMZ

 

 

Look like a solid list. Do you really need that much storage though? I also wouldn't go with the G3 because of its bad protections (still a solid unit) I would get a G2 or RMx instead. As for the monitor, what resolution do you want it to be at?

[Quadriplegic]

15 minutes ago, OreoPandas said:

Look like a solid list. Do you really need that much storage though? I also wouldn't go with the G3 because of its bad protections (still a solid unit) I would get a G2 or RMx instead. As for the monitor, what resolution do you want it to be at?

4k? It's in the title.

 

 

45 minutes ago, jpguitar said:

Here's what I've come up with, minus the monitor:  https://pcpartpicker.com/list/n2sMMZ

 

 

Are you sure it supports Thunderbolt? Did some Google, it seems like you will need add-on card for it

[Quadriplegic]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CG7MMZ

[brob]

If Thunderbolt is required, then an add-on card is a must. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($309.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($36.50 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Motherboard: ASRock - H370 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Kingston - 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($185.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital - Black 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($156.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital - Gold 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($169.97 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC Black Edition Video Card  ($649.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design - Define C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($73.38 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: LG - 27UD68P-B 27.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor  ($423.68 @ B&H) 
External Storage: Western Digital - My Book 8TB External Hard Drive  ($159.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: ASRock Add-On Card Model THUNDERBOLT 3 AIC  ($117.18 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2453.53
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-26 15:20 EDT-0400

[jpguitar]

OreoPandas:  I didn’t know that about the G3.  Thanks for the tip!  I’ll look into the G2 or RMx.

 

Quadriplegic:  I never even thought about AMD not being a compatible platform with Thunderbolt.  This message board is such a big help!  I’m a bit embarrassed, but happy to learn it now BEFORE spending the money.   Thanks for the great build link, too!  That’s an excellent option for going Intel, since it appears I should be doing that instead.

 

Brob:  Awesome, thanks so much for including the monitor and add-on card!   I may be able to do a slight upgrade to the 8700K with Micro Center’s CPU/MOBO bundles.  I’ve attached a screen shot of the available bundles that I will consider (Need to do more research on the MOBOs). 

 

 

This is all such a big help, everyone.  I’m very grateful for your input!!!

[brob]

Any selected motherboard has to have an appropriate Thunderbolt header and available addi n card.

 

Instead of an i7-8700K consider an i7-8700. Makes it much easier to stay close to the original budget. The stock performance is very similar.

 

[jpguitar]

9 minutes ago, brob said:

Any selected motherboard has to have an appropriate Thunderbolt header and available addi n card.

 

Instead of an i7-8700K consider an i7-8700 instead. Makes it much easier to stay close to the original budget. The stock performance is very similar.

 

Excellent.  Great to know.  I'm sure the i7-8700 would perform well in VR, too.  I forgot to mention that I also game in VR w/my Oculus Rift.  The additional 2 cores & 8 threads will be a nice upgrade over my i5-4690k.

[Taf the Ghost]

28 minutes ago, jpguitar said:

Excellent.  Great to know.  I'm sure the i7-8700 would perform well in VR, too.  I forgot to mention that I also game in VR w/my Oculus Rift.  The additional 2 cores & 8 threads will be a nice upgrade over my i5-4690k.

The 8700 and 8700k are functionally identical at stock, you just can't OC the 8700. However, there's not a lot that's worth the cooling to do it. One is better off buying good RAM and working to get really tight timings with it.

 

Thunderbolt support is the real difficult part of your build. You need an extremely specific set of motherboards that have the controller for it, so that means Intel only. (It also appears dealing with it can be a pain in the butt.) I'd get that sorted out, as the first major step. 

[jpguitar]

30 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

The 8700 and 8700k are functionally identical at stock, you just can't OC the 8700. However, there's not a lot that's worth the cooling to do it. One is better off buying good RAM and working to get really tight timings with it.

 

Thunderbolt support is the real difficult part of your build. You need an extremely specific set of motherboards that have the controller for it, so that means Intel only. (It also appears dealing with it can be a pain in the butt.) I'd get that sorted out, as the first major step. 

Yea, since I don't have a desire to game higher than 60fps & don't mind videos taking a little longer to render, I think stock 8700 would be fine for me.  You're right - it's looking more and more like the Thunderbolt support will my next area of research for this built.  Thank you!

[Taf the Ghost]

9 minutes ago, jpguitar said:

Yea, since I don't have a desire to game higher than 60fps & don't mind videos taking a little longer to render, I think stock 8700 would be fine for me.  You're right - it's looking more and more like the Thunderbolt support will my next area of research for this built.  Thank you!

You could game at 60 FPS on 4K with a 8100, more than likely. But there is no reason to go that low. Thunderbolt 3 is "an issue" that you're going to need to work through. There is a separate controller part for it, and that costs money. So it's going to require a high-end board.

[jpguitar]

2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

You could game at 60 FPS on 4K with a 8100, more than likely. But there is no reason to go that low. Thunderbolt 3 is "an issue" that you're going to need to work through. There is a separate controller part for it, and that costs money. So it's going to require a high-end board.

Yea, I could use the extra cores/threads for possible streaming in the future, as well as VR.  I'm really starting to rethink the audio recording interface I'm using.  It was Mac-only for years, but I'm trying to finish my transition from Mac to PC and really prefer not to use Macs anymore.  Thunderbolt just may not be worth it.

[Taf the Ghost]

5 minutes ago, jpguitar said:

Yea, I could use the extra cores/threads for possible streaming in the future, as well as VR.  I'm really starting to rethink the audio recording interface I'm using.  It was Mac-only for years, but I'm trying to finish my transition from Mac to PC and really prefer not to use Macs anymore.  Thunderbolt just may not be worth it.

Audio is its own brutal issue. A lot have moved to external units just to save a lot of issues. Then the DAW programs are all weird in the way they work. I'd recommend the 8700, in general, for your workflow. There's a few DAW setups that really love Threadripper, but that's not the space you're looking for with this. 

 

8700 with fast (>3000) memory on a high-end Z370 board is what you're looking for. You'll want to nail down the programs you're using though.

[jpguitar]

1 minute ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Audio is its own brutal issue. A lot have moved to external units just to save a lot of issues. Then the DAW programs are all weird in the way they work. I'd recommend the 8700, in general, for your workflow. There's a few DAW setups that really love Threadripper, but that's not the space you're looking for with this. 

 

8700 with fast (>3000) memory on a high-end Z370 board is what you're looking for. You'll want to nail down the programs you're using though.

Right on.  This is great info.  I'm mainly looking at a DAW setup relevant to a solo artist and my recording engineer friend recommended the Universal Audio Apollo Twin, since it has great preamps.  But, I'll definitely see what else is out there.  My old PC recording setup was an MBox w/Pro Tools, and the iLok key drove me friggin' nuts, while my PC failed to recognize the MBox most of the time, no matter which USB port I used (There was probably a deeper hardware issue that I didn't troubleshoot).  So, I ended up buying a Macbook Pro and all of it just worked right away.  Really want to get something good, functional, & stable on PC this time around.  Most of my recording use will be for solo guitar, nylon-string & steel-string.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 minutes ago, jpguitar said:

Right on.  This is great info.  I'm mainly looking at a DAW setup relevant to a solo artist and my recording engineer friend recommended the Universal Audio Apollo Twin, since it has great preamps.  But, I'll definitely see what else is out there.  My old PC recording setup was an MBox w/Pro Tools, and the iLok key drove me friggin' nuts, while my PC failed to recognize the MBox most of the time, no matter which USB port I used (There was probably a deeper hardware issue that I didn't troubleshoot).  So, I ended up buying a Macbook Pro and all of it just worked right away.  Really want to get something good, functional, & stable on PC this time around.  Most of my recording use will be for solo guitar, nylon-string & steel-string.

Building a DAW is an engineering project unto itself. It's got all of the complexity of any normal professional audio setup added together with the highly complex interactions with the OS, Hardware, Software and Connectors. Having the Programs and Audio Parts utterly nailed down before proceeding to picking computer parts is really the primary issue. A good 4K monitor & 1080 Ti will work otherwise fine for gaming, so that part is fairly easy.

[jpguitar]

8 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Building a DAW is an engineering project unto itself. It's got all of the complexity of any normal professional audio setup added together with the highly complex interactions with the OS, Hardware, Software and Connectors. Having the Programs and Audio Parts utterly nailed down before proceeding to picking computer parts is really the primary issue. A good 4K monitor & 1080 Ti will work otherwise fine for gaming, so that part is fairly easy.

Very well said!  I think I'll start with something simple (USB and not Thunderbolt) and go from there.  The gear will mature as my knowledge & experience grows.  This may be the best idea, due to all the complexity you mentioned.  I also saw on a Tech of Tomorrow video that a non-K chip is better for music production, because "On a music production system, overclocking is probably the very last thing you'd ever want to do.  In a music production system, using your DAW, you want something that's going to be completely, utterly, stable with no problems whatsoever."

[brob]

If you decide to go with Intel, you might get a motherboard that has a Thunderbolt header. That way if you ever decide you need Thunderbolt it is just a matter of getting the add-on card.

[jpguitar]

2 minutes ago, brob said:

If you decide to go with Intel, you might get a motherboard that has a Thunderbolt header. That way if you ever decide you need Thunderbolt it is just a matter of getting the add-on card.

Absolutely!  That makes a lot of sense, so the option is there.  

[brob]

Your mention of MBox and ProTools reminded me of a friend who recently acquired https://www.arturia.com/products/audio/audiofuse/overview and seems to be very happy with it.

[jpguitar]

Hey everyone,

 

Apologies for bringing this thread back, but some things have changed and there are updates, so decided to post here rather than start a new thread.  First off, I've acquired some parts.  Here's what I've got so far:

 

GPU:  Gigabyte Aorus 1080ti

RAM:  16gb (2x8) GSkill Trident Z 3200mhz

PSU:  EVGA 750W Supernova 80+ Gold 

Storage:  Samsung 500gb 960 Evo NVME SSD, Samsung 860 Evo 500gb SSD, WD Blue 2TB HDD

 

 

I still need the CPU, MOBO, & case.  Previously, I stated I wasn't going to go AMD b/c I wanted Thunderbolt as an option.  This is no longer the case.  I got a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 interface, so no Thunderbolt is needed.  So, I now have the option of going AMD.  couple of quick notes:

 

-This PC would be for editing 4K video with Da Vinci Resolve, audio production, 4K gaming (happy w/60 FPS), & Oculus Rift gaming.

 

-The 2700X is now a strong option, but I am not very familiar with how that CPU is optimized for Pro Tools and/or Studio One (these are the 2 DAWs I'm considering - I've yet to settle on one).

 

If anyone has any input/experience of how PT or Studio One pairs with AMD, I'd love to know.  Also, if anyone has worked with Davinci Resolve on an AMD platform, I'm all ears.  Would love to hear your experiences.  I'm strongly considering the 2700x, and am wondering if I should steer clear of it for the needs that I laid out.  

 

What do you think?  As always, thank you so much in advance!

[jpguitar]

And if it were to be a 2700x, I'd be taking advantage of Micro Center's CPU/MOBO combo.  Any opinions on the ASUS ROG Strix X470-F Gaming AM4 ATX, or ASUS Prime X470-Pro AM4?

[brob]

The Prime X470-Pro AM4 has a USB 3 type C connector on the rear i/o panel. The Strix doesn't. The Strix has better sound and more RGB support.

[jpguitar]

57 minutes ago, brob said:

The Prime X470-Pro AM4 has a USB 3 type C connector on the rear i/o panel. The Strix doesn't. The Strix has better sound and more RGB support.

Not sure if I'd need USB 3 type C, but better sound certainly helps in my case.  Thank you so much!

[abhisheksan9]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor	$294.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus - Prime X470-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$158.82 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - FORTIS 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$244.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$87.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate - BarraCuda Pro 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$168.99 @ Adorama
Video Card	Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AMP Edition Video Card	$679.99 @ B&H
Case	NZXT - H500i (White) ATX Mid Tower Case	$99.00 @ B&H
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$79.89 @ OutletPC
Monitor	Samsung - U28E590D 28.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor	$293.77 @ Amazon
External Storage	Seagate - Expansion 8TB External Hard Drive	$149.99 @ Amazon
Other	Gigabyte (Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Card) Components Other GC-ALPINE RIDGE	$59.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$2338.41
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$2318.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-10 16:57 EDT-0400

 

I don't know if this is something like what you want but I gave a shot at building something good according to what you want.