Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Building My Video Editing PC

Updated February 5, 2012 - Here are the specs for my custom-built video editing PC, mainly to utilize Adobe Premiere/After Effects CS5.5.
  • ASUS P8Z68-V Pro motherboard
  • Intel i7 2600k CPU
  • eVGA NVIDIA GTX 570 HD Superclocked Edition video card
  • Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 PC10666 memory
  • Intel 320 Series 160GB SSD boot drive
  • 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7,200RPM scratch drives (in RAID 0)
  • Seasonic X750 80 Plus Gold power supply
  • Cooler Master 690 II Advanced chassis
  • Cooler Master 212 EVO CPU cooler
  • Windows 7 Professional x64
Total cost (before taxes): $1,106

The key to building this within my budget was patience. Start to finish, it took about 4 months to wait for individual components to go on sale within my targeted price range. I subscribed to deal alerts at slickdeals.net to notify me when each component in my wish list was at a discount, and relied exclusively on purchasing from newegg.com, amazon.com, frys.com or Microcenter.

I went with a Windows-based PC instead of Apple out of personal preference to the Windows 7 x64 OS, as well as the fact I wanted more long-term expansion than what any pre-configured Mac could provide. If I had to go with a laptop video editing solution, I would have chosen the Lenovo Thinkpad W520 instead of a MacBook Pro.


All of the prices below are before taxes.

Motherboard (ASUS P8Z68-V Pro) and CPU (Intel Quad Core i7 2600k) combo - $410
The Intel i7 2600k has a $100 premium over the i5 2500k at the time of writing, but the benefit with hyperthreading should help with HD non-linear video editing. Main feature set in the MB that helps with short-term future-proofing is USB 3.0 and SATA6 interface support. Microcenter had a $80 off any Z68 motherboard with the purchase of an i7 CPU, which came out as the best deal I could find anywhere, online or B&M.

Video card (eVGA NVIDIA GTX570 HD Superclocked Edition 1280MB GDDR5) - $260
Since I'm going to be using Adobe Premiere and After Effects CS5.5 almost exclusively for this video editing rig, I prefer leveraging the CUDA support of NVIDIA cards as opposed to ATI. Mercury Playback Engine (MPE) is supported out of the box without a software hack, otherwise the price-friendly 560Ti would have been my second choice. The NVIDIA Quadro cards just have too high of a price/performance ratio to make it worthwhile for me.


Microcenter (B&M) had a 20% off video card coupon, $20 rebate, and a separate promotion for a free digital download code for Batman Arkham City (PC), which were stackable. Sold the download code to get down to the $260 price. Pleased since I've always have been a fan of eVGA 
RAM (CORSAIR 24GB (6 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM PC10666, 1333MHz CMV4GX3M1A1333C9) - $55 ($25 out of pocket after selling two unused sticks)
I'm loyal to strictly three memory brands - Corsair, Kingston or Crucial. Ridiculous value for 16GB, although not 1666Mhz (who's complaining for the price?). 9-9-9-24, 1.5v, this $55 rebate-based deal was too good to pass up. The ASUS z68 V-Pro motherboard only has 4 RAM slots, so I sold two unused sticks to offset the out-of-pocket expense.


Boot OS Hard Drive (Intel 320 160GB SSD) - $105 
The write speeds are not the strongest relative to other SSD drives, but the reality is that Intel has the highest reliability and the 320 series is no slouch. I would have preferred the SATA6 speeds found in the Crucial M4, but it was unavailable. The Intel 320 160GB model had an appealing Black Friday discount with a free Battlefield 3 (PC) digital download code, and using Newegg's Iron Egg price guarantee, I was able to knock off another $20 one month after I bought it. Sold the digital download code for $25 to offset the cost.
http://slickdeals.net/f/3612301-Intel-320-Solid-State-Drives-120GB-SSD-w-Battlefield-3-download-155-after-120-rebate-80GB-SSD-w-Blacklight-Retribution-T-Shirt-Beta-Game-10-Newegg-Gift-Card-80-After

Scratchpad Hard Drives (2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7,200RPM drives) - $80
Offloading the video editing and scratch pad space to a pair of RAID-0 1TB drives made more sense to me than using a single 10,000RPM Velociraptor or a pair of SSD drives which don't help for non-linear editing. Due to the Thailand flooding, finding decent hard drive deals near Black Friday 2011 was close to impossible, but newegg pulled through at put the Samsung Spinpoint F3 drives on sale for $80 a piece. Combined with a stackable $20 off $40 newegg coupon promotion via Google Deals, I landed a pair of drives for $80 total. Only thing I wish I had was the SATA6 speeds, but all of the prices were jacked post-flooding.
http://slickdeals.net/f/3094190-SAMSUNG-Spinpoint-F3-HD103SJ-1TB-7200-RPM-32MB-Cache-SATA-3-0Gb-s-3-5-Internal-Hard-Drive-Bare-Drive-50-Shipped-after-promo-code-newegg?
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/63782/newegg-40-newegg-credit-for-20

Case (Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced) - $50 after rebate
Researching for a mid-sized ATX case was the most difficult piece of the entire system. There are just way too many options for a solid chassis out there, with varying levels of cable management, cooling and desk appeal. My suggestion is to stop by a Microcenter or Frys if you have one near you, since these stories have a much wider selection of tower cases to examine. The Corsair 400R, Lian Li Lancool PC-K62, Cooler Master HAF 922 and HAF-X were all contenders, but for me the 690 II Advanced featured the best feature/price ratio I could find. At the time of writing, the U.S. still does not stock the USB 3.0 version of the CM 690 II Adv, so I was stuck with the USB 2.0 ports only. However, if you buy a CM 690 II today, they do include the rubber grommets and larger CPU sink space than previous builds.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216

Power Supply (Seasonic X-750 Gold 750W) - $109
I could have opted for a $60 Antec Gamer series PSU (non-modular), but I really did not want to skimp on quality with the power supply so I went with one of the best. This was probably the most luxurious option I went among all of the components in my system. This is most likely more power than I really need for a single video card setup, but the Seasonic quality and brand name appealed to me much more than Antec, and I really grew to appreciate modular power supplies for making cable management so much easier.
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3604546

OS (Windows 7 Professional x64) - $30
Upgrade license (digital download) available only to students, but fortunately all you need is an .edu e-mail address to get the deal. Register for a free alumni e-mail from your university, or befriend someone who's in college now. The digital download allows you to burn the ISO and use it for a clean install, not just an upgrade.

Optical Drive (Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive) - $24
Not much research put here, just went with a drive with solid reviews. One disappointment of this drive is that the disc tray is grey and thus does not blend into the black mesh of the CM 690 II Advanced case.
http://www.amazon.com/Lite--LightScribe-Layer-Drive-IHAS424-98/dp/B002SIMPXM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312949457&sr=8-1

CPU Cooling Fan (Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO) - $13
For limited i7 overclocking, the Hyper 212 Plus/Evo coolers are the best bang for the buck. The Noctua DH-N14 is the premiere option and can be found for $50 online at times, but I was concerned with fan clearance issues with the motherboard RAM slots. The CM 212 Evo revision fuses all four heat pipes for improved conductivity than its 212 Plus predecessor. I stuck with the stock thermal paste which appears quite good although I have not done a comparison with the best-of-breed Arctic-5.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065



After-market chassis modding
Prolimatech Blue Vortex 140mm case fans * 3 = $39 
Prolimatech Blue Vortex 140mm blue LED fan - $13
Prolimatech Blue Vortex 120mm case fans * 2 = 24
Antec TriCool 120mm case fan - $10
NZXT Sentry Mesh Fan Controller w/ 5 30-watt channels - $25
NZXT CB-8P motherboard power extension cable - $8
Silverstone Aero Slots (black) - $5

Techflex 1/2" 25ft cable sleeving
25ft electrical tape - $2


Total price: $1,106.00
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Location: Madison, WI, USA