MSI X299 SLI PLUS Product Spotlight

For more than 15 years we have been building Videoguys DIY non-linear editing machines. Our goal has always been to build a powerful machine at an affordable price. If you’ve been a fan of the Videoguys DIY articles you may be disappointed that we have not released a new machine in quite a few years. There are actually several reasons for that.

1. Professional level editing workstations from HP, Dell and others have become more affordable than ever. In fact, there is often a build that would be very comparable to what we would put together without the time and effort of actually configuring the individual components.

2. Professional workstations are backed with better warranties than ever. How can we justify saving a few dollars when a preconfigured machine includes a 5 year warranty?

3. Video editing software is better than ever! While become fast and more powerful the editing software that professionals rely on have also become more efficient and capable of running on lesser machines. We don’t spend nearly as much time on the phones with customers talking about system requirements as we used to. Of course, we are still available at 800-323-2325 to discuss any concerns you may have.

4. Complicated capture hardware is no longer necessary. Most cameras now are storing directly to an SD card or other type of media or you can use an Atomos Monitor/Recorder to save to an SSD drive. This means you don’t need a capture card to get the video into your NLE workstation. Less hardware means there are less compatibility issues to be concerned with.

OK, Great. Now that I’ve told you why we don’t publish Videoguys DIY Articles let me tell you why I am publishing this one today. We received a call from MSI a few months ago asking if we would build a PC with their components and test it with Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro. They were confident that they could help configure a 4K editing powerhouse for about $2,500. AWESOME! That’s always been one of our target price points. Note: Videoguys does not sell this MSI workstation or the key components. This is a hands on review article. We recommend buying the parts from Newegg.com Challenge Accepted! MSI is known for inexpensive yet powerful gaming PCs that perform well and look awesome. The performance requirements of a gaming PC and an editing workstation have always been similar yet different in some key areas. Ridiculous overclocking is not always best on a video editing machine that must be stable and reliable with consistent performance levels from beginning to end. GPU requirements of NLEs have also been different than gaming but NVIDIA has done a lot to close that gap over the past few years. So, for a quick list of the components in this machine check out this link: https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/yKLrxr/intel-x299-pc-build-for-4k-video-editing As you can see from this list this machine should be up to any task we can throw at it. The MSI X299 SLI PLUS is built piece-by-piece to handle all of your video editing needs. The X299 SLI PLUS motherboard supports the Intel Core i9 10-core processor. It’s ideal for running any video editing software including Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The MSI GeForce 1080 graphics card may be built for gaming but with more than 2,500 CUDA cores its high performance is perfect for video editing as well. The MSI X299 SLI PLUS comes complete with two M.2 SSD slots. One of these slots comes with MSI’s unique M.2 Shield which is a thermal pad used to stabilize the SSD’s temperature keeping it cool. It also uses the fastest 3.5 inch hard drive on the market: the Seagate BarraCuda Pro and employs the M.2 Genie that allows editors to do RAID 0 with just a mouse-click saving tons of time for users. The MSI X299 SLI PLUS supports the latest USB devices having ports for USB 3.1 Gen2 and Type-C. Covered by a 5-year warranty and 2-year rescue plan, editors can rest easy knowing that this 7200RPM drive is not only fast but also the most reliable. The XL 299 PLUS is housed in a CoolerMaster MasterCase H500p which expels great airflow with two 200mm fans- perfect for high-end PC’s. Setting up this high-end workstation was affordable, fast and easy and it gives all of the performance we need! We have both Avid Media Composer and Adobe Creative Cloud software running on the machine and they are fast and reliable.

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