Need some help from PC gurus

I have been out of the "hardware game" for a long time, so I need some help please.

I am looking to spend around $2k on a new desktop so I can create "flashy" YouTube videos for my motovlog page. I really don't know what are good GPUs anymore (I only deal with PCs from a business standpoint - like databases), or how much RAM I should get (other than the mantra of being 'more is better'), or what my base line processor should be.

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

P.S. I have Pinnacle Studio 21 for the software. Is that a good video making package, or should I be using something else?

@StormyJoe: Is this PC for making/editing videos or for gaming as well?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YgJNkT

That's a good PC right there. You could even go the Ryzen 1700 route, get more cores and threads and save about $100 because of the cheaper price and more than adequate cooler. I have that CPU in a super small case, stock cooler and a 500Mhz overclock and the temps never go above the low 50's. The 8700 is super fast though.

@goldenelementxl: It is, better than mine, and more than capable for whatever he needs it for. If he was willing to spend a little bit more though, I'd get the 8700K instead and overclock it to 5GHz. But then he'd have to get a better cooler as well.

Gonna have to agree, need to know if you're actually planning on gaming too, or just editing videos.

Sorry - I was just able to get back online today. No gaming. Just video editing. Thanks so much everyone!!!!

@mordant221: That looks awesome. Thank you so much!!!!

If you are not going to be gaming, just editing/rendering I would go with some guidelines like:

• More CPU cores, more better
• If you go with Ryzen CPU get the fastest RAM you can afford. The CPU interconnect for Ryzen is clocked at 1/2 your RAM speed or something like that. Intel RAM speeds don't matter nearly as much.
• DDR4 is expensive now... you probably want at least 16GB, leave an option to upgrade to 32GB if you can.
• You probably need a dedicated GPU for accelerated rendering, but you don't need a super powerful one, even a 1050Ti would do it.
• The faster the storage, the better - for your video timeline scrubbing. Go for PCIe based SSD if you can. Also avoid running your fast PCIe storage through the motherboard chipset if you can.

Honestly I would try to go Ryzen Threadripper if possible. Maximize your PCIe lanes directly to the CPU (I think TR provides 64). So in the future you could get more PCIe SSDs and put them in RAID0 for insane speeds. If you plan on using a separate server for storage the extra PCIe lanes could be used for a 10Gbit NIC as well.

Something like this as a template: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pp2Dbj

I have no experience with this platform though. I would for sure double check supported RAM speeds and stuff like that. Read reviews, etc...

Also make sure your working project is on the SSD and use the HDD for storage.

That's about all I can think of for your specific use case.

EDIT: Didn't realize that 4TB HDD is external, you can ignore that one

The builds posted are complete garbage then, Pinnacle 21 supports GPU rendering, which is a lot faster than CPU's, you need to be looking at Quadro and FirePro cards, none of these gaming GPU's.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RCX7D8

That build isn't that good either, can you increase the budget to 2500?

You really need 32GB RAM, and a newer GPU with more video memory, 8GB is barely enough for video rendering now-a-days.

Oh, this one would be better then: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/m9ktm8

Thanks a ton! I really appreciate it.

I could probably got $2500. Thank you!!!!

@StormyJoe: Here,

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/B3F2KZ

@StormyJoe: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FTnfsJ

Its not for gaming, so the 1080 is worthless.

Quadro cards today are worthless, GTX cards today do exactly the same thing but are great for gaming as well.

Quadro cards series are still sold today because lack of knowledge of people who used to use them.

1 thing no reviewer ever talks about is the constant 90%> load on a gaming GPU designed for consumers on a non-professional workload.

Its like large businesses buying i9 chips instead of xeons, they both do the same thing, but 1 chip is designed for normal usage whilst the other is meant to be used for servers and very high-loads consistently.

I don't think a 1080 or any gaming GPU will be able to tolerate the high-loads all the time, even gamers might only play for 6 hours at a time, compare that to video-rendering.

Then you have all the other positives, better stability, better drivers, a longer warranty, more support etc etc.

Dont ignore the fact these newer "workstation cards" like Quadro's are based on the same architecture design as same generation of the currently available geforce cards while they are modified to handle more precise compute loads.

There are countless consumers using "normal" gpus with 100% loads for days,weeks or even months on end for things like mining or any other gpu compute based work and not have one issue. As long as they have adequate cooling, they can handle the full tilt workloads for long periods.

Quadro and Geforce drivers are virtually the same since at least Maxwell architecture. Even Nvidia has recommended to others if your going to use both geforce and quadro in same system use the same generation ie maxwell based wont cause issues and you only need to install one set of drivers. So stability of drivers not a real issue.

Longer warranty? Come on now Q6000 has a 3 year warranty which is not uncommon with other higher end Geforce cards... Right now I have a 3 year warranty on my GTX 1080 and my old GTX 560 had a ten year warranty and in 2016 was replaced with a GTX 960 from the manufacturer and still has a warranty to 2021.

Q4000 is not worth it over other geforce options.

You'll do fine with a GeForce card when doing video editing/rendering.

For CAD and other 3D modeling, you'd want to have a Quadro.

Only if you get the higher end ones. Those sub $4k quadro's really dont perform any better in say sutocad since it primary only cares takes about CUDA cores and then VRAM to certain point. Which is why we see a GTX 980 performing better than a Quadro M2000-5000 in autocad for example. Because the 980 has alot more processing power.

Now 3D modeling all depends on the program and its implementation of using Cuda, precision and vram requirements.

It's not about the amount of CUDA cores, it's about the floating point ops on a Quadro, where GeForce would rely on integer ops and sheer amount of CUDA cores. Quadros are also more precise; they calculate geometry with higher precision than GeForce, since GeForce is designed to push more quantity. In other words, GeForce rounds the numbers where Quadro would have more decimals to it.

Also developers like Autodesk and Dassault Systemes provide specialized drivers that are optimized for Quadro hardware. They spend less time serving GeForce hardware.

That said, i actually do use GeForce for CAD at home, and it's fine for modeling training. I have a Quadro card on my office PC, but i haven't actually ever compared the performance. I remember reading somewhere that some features on Soliworks would not work as intended with GeForce cards, or would be downright unavailable. I don't know if this is still the case today.

EDIT: I think you would only benefit from those +$4k Quadros if you are doing heavy rendering (or other demanding simulation) on a regular basis. You can easily handle geometry (parts and assemblies with low visual quality) with those cheaper Quadros too.

@groowagon:

I know with quadro's its about them being able to process their floating points with higher precision ,however like I said all depends on the program and its implementation of using Cuda, precision and vram usage. I seen Pascal 1070+ Geforce cards cream K5000 series of Quadro with 3d work.

It's very task-specific. Depends on which kind of 3D work we are talking about.