Computer tech moves quick. Real quick. After couple years (or months in some cases), even a top-of-the-line model can quickly lose its shine. It also means that if you are in need of an upgrade, perhaps to account for that just-announced cinema camera with greater resolutions and frame rates, that you can build an incredible computer with ease using easily found parts.
If you want a build that is going to handle your video editing with ease, look no further than the minds at Orange83. A great YouTube channel for finding Premiere Pro and other video editing tips, they put together a video detailing their own ultra-powerful video-editing machine and how you can build one yourself. It also looks pretty sweet, which is always a nice bonus.
Building your own PC means you can customize it to your liking. That includes getting some cool colorful lights and panels to show off the tech inside.
For this build, they opted for a Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic XL Case. It’s a nice full-size case with room for all the heavy-duty components and water-cooling support. Plus you can get it in black, silver, and white.
Speaking of cooling, the EK Waterblocks Distro Plate is purpose-built for the case. It even looks great lit up by some nice LED lights.
Other benefits of the case include a lot of I/O on the front and some solid cable management that keeps everything looking clean.
At the heart of the machine is an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X. AMD processors have become increasingly common as they now compete head-to-head with the Intel offerings.
Featuring 24 cores and a base clock of 3.8GHz it’ll work wonderfully for video editing. Compared to the higher-core-count 3970X the 3960X delivers much better value and the faster clock speed will benefit many of their programs more than just having more cores will.
The processor is sitting on an ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme Motherboard. ASUS has been a reliable pick for their previous builds, so it made sense to stick with it here. Also, this board can accept up to five M.2 SSDs for ultra-fast storage—three in dedicated ports and two in a DIMM.2 module.
Storage is multi-faceted. There is a Samsung 512GB 970 PRO NVME M.2 SSD for the operating system (Windows) and the program files. Then there are two Samsung 1TB 970 EVO Plus NVME M.2 SSDs for holding data, such as temporary project files.
Again, the other reason to like this motherboard is that EK Waterblocks makes some dedicated CPU water blocks and other water cooling accessories. Keeping everything cool is crucial in actually getting the performance you are paying for in your custom build.
Now for memory! You can use quad-channel DDR4 model with this motherboard/CPU combo, so they opted for four sticks of 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 RAM.
A total of 64GB should be plenty, and the 3600MHz speed is a good point for price/performance. For control over their RGB lighting you’ll need the Corsair iCUE Commander PRO. Powering all this is the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 with 850W power.
Graphics is the fun part of every build, and for this NVIDIA supplied a powerful Quadro RTX 5000. These are optimized for professional rendering and have 16GB GDDR6 memory, which is incredibly useful for video editing as it helps keep everything operating smoothly. Also, Adobe Premiere can now use NVIDIA cards for hardware-accelerated export.
Now to make everything look good. The EK Waterblocks setup helps. It keeps things cool and lights things up. The distro plate comes with a pump with RGB lighting.
There is also the Corsair Hydro X Series XR5 Radiator to complete the water cooling puzzle. Tack on three Corsair QL Series QL120 RGB Fans and you have a party. Using the iCUE Commander mentioned earlier you can control all the RGB lighting in the case.
Back to water cooling. The use of soft tubing makes the whole setup easier for beginners. Some matching fittings will secure it all. When it is ready, you’ll want to fill it with some Corsair XL5 Performance Coolant. Eventually, they want to add GPU cooling, but for now it will remain with its stock configuration. It’s always helpful to check for leaks before you fill up using a leak tester.
It’s a slick system with plenty of power for video editing. Honestly, if you have been intimidated by building your own computer following a guide like this is a great start. It’s a lot easier than you think and can give you a massive performance upgrade for good value.
Are you a fan of this build? Anything you would swap out or add?
[source: Orange83]
Order Links:
- Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic XL Full Tower Case (B&H, Amazon)
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X Processor (B&H, Amazon)
- ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha Motherboard (B&H, Amazon)
- Samsung 512GB 970 PRO NVME M.2 SSD (B&H, Amazon)
- Samsung 1TB 970 EVO Plus NVME M.2 SSD (B&H, Amazon)
- Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB RAM (4 x 16GB) (Amazon)
- Corsair iCUE Commander PRO Smart RGB Controller (Amazon)
- be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Modular Power Supply (B&H, Amazon)
- NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 Graphics Card (B&H, Amazon)
- EK Waterblocks Soft Tubing (Amazon)
- EK Waterblocks Fitting (Amazon)
- Corsair XL5 Performance Coolant (Amazon)
- EK Waterblocks Leak Tester (Amazon)
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