How to Build the Best PC for Video Editing

Work with video editing, visual effects, and animation requires a high-performing PC to keep things running smoothly and avoid wasting precious time waiting for projects to render and encode. That’s why it’s important to build a computer that will efficiently handle these tasks, which are some of the most hardware-intensive processes the average PC user will perform.

Section 1: Example Video Editing Builds

The following five example video editing builds provide the maximum amount of power for the price. (See Section 2 for a detailed explanation of why we chose the parts.)

Note: When building a new PC, you’ll need to install an operating system. For video editing PCs, we recommend using Windows. Some people are eligible to get Windows free through school or work, so you may also look into that.

Note #2: This guide is primarily intended for building a PC to handle popular video editing programs such as Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas. If you are planning to use DaVinci Resolve, we have included a separate graphics card recommendation, as Resolve takes much greater advantage of graphics processing units. See our section on Resolve for more information about its specific hardware requirements.

Budget Video Editing PC ($750)

This build is for video editors who want a very capable PC for editing high-quality 1080p video on a relative budget. For the price, this build boasts a very powerful CPU and a fast, affordable SSD. You could squeeze out even greater performance by upgrading to 16 GB of RAM, but that is not totally necessary for a build at this price.

Budget Mini-ITX Alternative

For a Mini-ITX version, replace the motherboard, CPU cooler, and case with the following:

Motherboard: ASRock H270M-ITX/ac CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer 11 LP Case: SilverStone Tek SG13B-Q

Budget GPU Alternative for DaVinci Resolve

GPU: RX 480 4GB

Read the full article here.