Building a 4K Video Editing PC for 2018

The following article is packed with information that can help you build your own 4K video editing PC, and it can help you navigate what's important when you are shopping for a pre-built workstation. If you haven't seen our HP z custom built workstations for video editing, check out our introduction here - you'll find out why our machines are workhorses built for speed. From ProVideoCoalition

With new processors available, and a battle of cores, deciding which will be the specifications of your next PC may be more difficult than ever. Is it better to buy a pre-built computer or build your own? This guide will help you decide.

...A crucial question at the moment is the number of cores your new processor offers. Here MSI says that “when editing 4K video files with professional performance-demanding software like Vegas Pro, you benefit from more ‘CPU Cores’ or processors cores for faster video processing. Each CPU core provides compute power to encode, render & export video files. Simply put: more cores equals faster video processing and more efficiency, even at higher resolutions.”

The builds recommended by MSI all use Intel CPUs, either the Intel X-Series, associated with MSI’s motherboard X299 SLI PLUS, with support up to 18 cores, or the Intel 8th Generation with the motherboard Z370 SLI PLUS, supporting up to 6 cores. The first motherboard offers 8 DIMM slots while the second has only 4 DIMMs. It’s at this point that you start to choose, as the motherboard will define how much you can expand the system in terms of memory. Building your own machine is an exercise in choosing wisely.

For video editing, continues MSI, “you can never have enough RAM or system memory. At least 16 GB RAM is recommended for Full-HD video editing. When handling 4K video content, 32 GB RAM or more is advised. When you edit videos in multiple streams at the same time, the amount and speed of your RAM affects the time it takes to process the video(s) and render previews.” Buying a motherboard that allows you to go beyond the RAM values currently being used means you can keep your system for a longer period of time simply by adding more memory, a faster processor and more powerful graphics card. That’s why the choice of motherboard is important. Buy it looking at the future....[continue reading]