Opinions please! Premiere Pro 4K, Photoshop/LR and PixInsight (astrophotography)

C

ccalum07

Member
Hi All,

I've put a fair amount of thought and time into comparing a PC to carry out these tasks vs an iMac (9900K, 32Gb aftermarket RAM), 8Gb GPU (not the Vega) and SSD, Storage would be external)

Would anyone be so kind as to critique the build and let me know what they may think is a better option or alternative given the job it has to do.
Also any opinions on living with a PC for this role as opposed to an iMac would also be useful (my wife wants a mac for the clean solution, but I wanted to explore the PC option thoroughly as well)
I have ordered 3 laptops from PCS.co.uk in the last 8 years, love this company!

My thoughts on the spec -

I will be using a Philips E-line 276E8VJSB 27" 4K UHD Monitor (£280) Unless someone knows of a better screen below £500
I'm curious about the RAM I should choose, I'm wary of pushing speed too high (but maybe the 3000/3200 is fine?) and getting BSOD during important workflow.. Does this processor support 4 sticks of 16Gb or should I get 2x32?
I would have the OS installed on one 256 SSD and the processing software installed on the other 256 SSD, with some swap file space allocated on them to help PixInsight if required. The 4TB HDDs would be set up in RAID1 to safely store and backup my work before and after processing, so speed is not as important.
GPU suitable for Premiere Pro? I will not be gaming on this machine.
Total system price (including the monitor mentioned above) is £2500 vs equivalent iMac (add on external storage and less (32Gb) ram) £3300

Seems to be clear that the PC is WAY better value and performance, correct me if wrong!

Thanks

Calum

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX MB530P RGB GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)

Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!

Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 16GB)

Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!

1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE

2nd Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)

2nd M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)

RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler

Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)

Price: £2,213.00 including VAT and Delivery
 
C

ccalum07

Member
My latest attempt to keep the price down and not lose any performance.
I will NOT be overclocking

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX MB530P RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 2300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £2,082.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/YcAVZGQcR6/
 
S

skewball

Silver Level Poster
Bumping up for you.
Hold off on buying.
One of the moderators will have some good advice.
In the meantime you might need a pcu cooler for that processor so should price in a liquid cooler, probably a corsair h100i or 1500i.
They also usually recomend at least a 650w PSU for that build.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
There are definitely some changes I would consider...

I'm not a fan of the case. It's fine for cooling, no doubt, but have a look at google images and videos to be sure you are happy with the aesthetic. It's not purdy IMO.

If you definitely want the 3900X you're going to want a water cooler on there. Nothing to do with overclocking, it's got to do with the boost clocks. It'll keep them FAR happier and performing better. It also helps with expelling air from the case, aiding airflow. The 240 Coolermaster is the MINIMUM I would suggest, budget limited. I always prefer the H100i RGB platinum though, it's just a great cooler and whisper quiet.

RAM - I think you are WAY over-cooking what you need here. 32GB should be more than enough for editing stills and most levels of Premiere Pro. You're into high end 4k with multiple effects to need any more. The cache drive would make a huge difference here though.

The storage seems very strange to me. 2 4TB drives seems like overkill but I'll presume it's well thought out. RAID 1 doesn't really save you from anything other than single drive failure which is so rare. Far better to have external backups or cloud backups. RAID is pretty much redundant now. For the system drive you want at least 500GB as a primary nowadays. The fastest read/write drive that size is the evo. If you want to up that to 1TB you would be better to select the Firecuda. The 2nd M2 drive I have selected is for a scratch/cache drive. Check your software to see if it can use a cache/scratch drive. If it can, it'll make a difference.

PSU - RMX is a no brainer for me. Anything at this level should have a semi-premium PSU. It has high end components in it and runs silent when not under heavy load (zero fan).

Cooler - Already covered.

If there's a particular budget you want to stay within then post up.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 465X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (1900 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £2,247.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/Swv46bCVgT/
 
C

ccalum07

Member
Thank you Scott, some great info in there and plenty to think about

Budget is spot on to where I want to be, I think you've brought me closer to a solution so that's great.

Re the HDD situation, I'm fairly certain cloud storage is a better option but I'm out of touch so will need to locate something.
Costs do add up and I felt a duplicate HDD was a simpler solution, with RAID 1 to avoid anyone forgetting to back up their day's writing or art or whatever.. It's happened before!

PixInsight uses a LOT of RAM, but yes with a M.2 Cache drive I can keep it at 32Gb, 64 was mainly just for a bit more headroom but I currently use 16Gb and it's nowhere near enough so set up cache files on my SSD which helps a lot and stopped it failing due to lack of memory, with the M.2 speed it will be transformational.

I certainly want the 3900X for as many cores as possible, processing data takes an eternity with my Quad core i7-7700K at the moment.
Premire pro is almost impossible to use to edit my 4k video, I need the cores! The 3950X is just too expensive though.

Can you comment on the motherboard? I saw in the X570 TUF spec online it didn't support M.2 which seems very unlikely as I can spec it here, and the images have M.2 slots.. So I'm a little nervous about the MoBo, don't want to under or over spec for any reason.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Motherboard is absolutely fine, great spec motherboard. All current boards support M2 so really surprised that anywhere showed that. If you want something a bit more special the STRIX is a great motherboard (It's actually the one I would choose if I was building). It comes at a premium though and you don't get a LOT for your money, it just has some nice touches like good VRM cooling, better audio, etc.

The 3900X is a beast, you'll be very impressed with it I think. One of the other things to consider with a base such as this.... it has some life left in it in the future too. The next AMD chip is expected to be fully compatible with the X570 motherboards. This would mean that you could put the NEXT generation, NEXT level straight into your system and bump up a couple of levels again without having to replace the system. Everything else has you covered. With this in mind though it may be worth also considering the STRIX motherboard (Because VRMs).
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Lowering the RAM would allow for the motherboard and the RGB Platinum. I've also selected the RGB RAM, it would be a very pretty case internally and externally, well lit.... so removed the RGB strips.

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 465X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 SUPER - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (1900 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £2,247.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/bcDTMSUu3R/
 
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