Solved Best specs for tower build

Hi Doctor Zen,

I'm looking at upgrading to Vegas Pro 13 Edit and building a new computer with enough grunt to handle video editing.

As I was born in the sixties I would appreciate any advice you can give in regard to the important specs to include.

Just briefly the specs i'm considering at the moment:

Intel Core i7 6700 Skylake 3.4GHz 8MB retail box
Asus H170-PLUS D3 LGA1151 DDR3l Value Series C11 1600MHz
WD Blue WD20EZRZ 3.5" 2TB 64MB 5400RPM Dwsktop HDD
Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB 2.5" SSD
Palit GeForce GTX750Ti StormX Dual 2GB GDDR5
Asus DRW-24D5MT 24x Black SATA DVD Writer OEM

The guy at the shop has said that the graphics card he has suggested would be the bare minimum without using a 'Quadro card' which are designed for rendering and editing however while I was looking around for some info on the net someone has suggested that a Quadro card made little difference if using Sony Vegas:

"Forget the Quadro board for Sony Vegas as the cost isn't worth the limited benefits. Check out the official Sony Vegas forum and you'll find several discussions about various GPU setups. THe general consensus is an older (pre 600 series) Nvidia board or one of the new AMD Radeon boards." from www.videomaker.com/forum/topic/video-editing-gpu

Any advice you can give in relation to what specs are all important would be greatly appreciated. motherboard, graphics card ???? i don't mind paying a bit extra if the system delivers what I want - eg to be able to edit multi camera in Vegas Pro edit, be able to edit in a higher video quality (Best full would be nice), faster rendering times etc.

Someone also suggested to go for a 32" UHD TV to use as a monitor - others have suggested I should go for dual monitors - any advice or opinions on that issue?

Thank you.

Did you get the email from Sony about the 35% off discount for all Vegas Pro versions ?
Sale is on until 30th November 2015. I can send copy to you if you are interested.
Includes upgrading from any Movie Studio version to Vegas Pro.
Movie Studio to Vegas Pro Edit 13 = US $195
Movie Studio to Vegas Pro 13 = US $325

If you like making discs, I would recommend you get Vegas Pro 13 instead of Vegas Pro Edit 13, because only Vegas Pro 13 comes with DVD Architect Pro 6.

I would recommend getting Intel i7 6700k (over-clocking version) for more extra power, however 6700 is still very good.

If you got i7-6700k CPU, make sure to get Motherboard that can over-clock.
ASUS are my favourite Motherboard supplier, because the software suite that comes with MB makes setting up extremely easy. With ASUS you can press one button and a safe over-clock is done automatically.

Get minimum 16GBs of DDR4 RAM (memory).

For Video Editing you should be using 7200 rpm Hard Drives. Western Digital Black or Seagate Barracuda.

SSD should be minimum 250GB in size. 120GB gets filled up way too quickly and you will regret it. My favourite is Samsung SSDs.

If you mainly use Sony Software, you should get an AMD Radeon R9 380, R9 390 or R9 390X.

Optical Drive should be Blu-ray/DVD combo Writer, then you can make Blu-ray discs for storing all your 1080p video projects.

To cool the CPU, install a closed loop Water Cooler like one of these units. Video Editing pushes CPUs to max workload, which creates a lot of heat. A cool CPU is a happy CPU.
www.pccasegear.com/category/207_160_1694

Don't use a TV for monitor - bad idea.
Unless you intend to edit a lot of 4K video, 2 x 1080p Monitors is more practical.
24" is a good size to work with.
One will be the main monitor and 2nd can be used as the Preview Window for Movie Studio/Vegas Pro.


All of the above should give you something to think about.

Derek

Hey Derek,

Just an update on the new puter build FYI and anyone else interested in going down this path...

I've discovered the 34" ultra wide LG @3440x1440 34um95c-p www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34UM95-P-ultrawide-monitor and am looking at deleting the two 24" monitors - for laying out a time line this ultra wide just looks luscious.

This beasty is around the $13-1400 mark and may see me end up in the divorce court :neutral: but I have found them on PC Case Gear for $999 plus $50 odd for postage to WA - have you had any experience with PC Case Gear?

There is a LG 34" ultra wide version with lesser resolution @ 2560 x 1080 but this appears to be more suited to the gaming world, but is also $400 odd cheaper.

Monitors are a whole new world of choices again and I've talked the poor guys ear off down at our local Good Guys - I'm just not that impressed with the picture quality on the 1080 monitors - maybe I'm being a bit too fussy but if it's what I am going to be spending hours a day looking at I don't want to be disappointed. I've hooked up an old 32"1080p TV to try it out as an example and I reckon I'm getting a better picture than I saw on a lot of monitors in the $400-600 range.

The Good Guys fella reckons a 40" UHD Smart TV may do the job and looking around the web there seems to be a growing trend in using TVs as an option now that the resolution gas caught up - but I'm still drooling over this 34" ultra wide LG - just can't find a shop here in Perth where I can actually lay my eyes on one.

My new tower is being built as we speak with the following specs:

Intel Core i7 6700 Skylake 3.4GHz 8MB retail box

Cooler Master N300 black mid tower case

ID-COOLING Sweden Series SE-913X CPU Cooler

Asus H170-PLUS D3 LGA1151 DDR3 ATX Motherboard

Times 2 - Kingston 8GB Single DDR3L Value Series C11 1600MHz

WD Blue WD20EZRZ 3.5" 2TB 64MB 5400RPM Desktop HDD

Samsung 850 EVO Series 2.5" 7mm 250GB SSD

Leadtek Quadro K620 384-CUDA Core 2GB DDR3 DVI-I Displayport

Asus DRW-24D6MT 24x Black SATA DVD Writer OEM

FSP Raider Edition 550W 80PLUS Silver Power Supply

PC Case Gear is the No.1 online computer parts store in Australia.
pccasegear.com/

Their service and prices are second to none and I recommend them to anyone living in Australia.
I have been a customer of theirs for the last 5 years. They know their stuff and always keep the very latest models in stock.
I got scammed by a different online store before I found PC Case Gear. I would not shop anywhere else now.

Derek,
Truly appreciate your suggested build. Enjoyed the site/videos for years as I've yearned/watched to purchase Movie Studio Platinum Suite since 2012. Got the Television Production degree back in '92, and worked NLE projects for Discovery, Animal Planet, lots of corporate vids until 1999, and had to accept fate, go corporate, change careers, bla, bla.
Just bought one of the final copies of MSPS version 11 on Amazon for $25 as gift to myself and reincarnate into family video Dad.
If you wouldn't mind, please put on your 2012 hat and suggest what you would have built back in 2012 for version 11.
Yes, I'm looking for a budget build, make vids of my kids playing lightsabers, flying, and dusting off my creative pallette & canvas of editing, that I've missed dearly since 1999.
Best regards,
Glenn

Hi Glen

It's a shame you did not buy a copy of Movie Studio Platinum 12 or 13. The latest version is 50% off right now, which is the best price it has ever been and an absolute bargain. Version 12 and 13 are now 64 bit programs, whereas version 11 is only 32 bit. 64 bit programs on a 64 bit computer run a lot faster and can handle more workload. However there is certainly nothing wrong with version 11 - it was a good stable version of the program.

Any new computer you buy today is going to be 64 bit.
I don't know what country you live in, so I don't know which online store to direct you to.
I will take a guess that because you mention Amazon, you are in the USA, even though there are Amazon stores in many countries now.

NewEgg.com has the best ability to find a computer that will suit you, because there sorting function allows you to narrow down the options very precisely. If you read this other recent forum thread, it lists some of the suggestions I made for another person who asked a similar question.

A fast 4 x core Intel i5 or i7 CPU is a must and an AMD Radeon Graphics card using R9 series works best in Sony programs, like R9 370 or R9 380.
If you can find a 2nd hand Nvidia GTX 560, GTX 570, GTX 580 or GTX580ti, these old graphics card still work extremely good with Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11.
www.moviestudiozen.com/forum/general-computer-hardware/683-black-friday-desktop-comp-deals-which-is-best

Regards
Derek

Thanks Derek. Your header says ' Don't Panic', so I'll try not too. That 50% price just made me panic, so I canceled my 3rd- party vendor order via Amazon, at $25. Hopefully they'll honor it. If my eyes are correct, I see Movie Studio 13 Platinum for only $29.95, Download version? (Sigh)
My lingering attraction to 11, was the royalty free music content folder, which seemed nice to have.
Regards,
Glenn

No it does not say $29.95.
If you have Sony Creative Software set to United States as the country (top right corner), all prices will be shown in US dollars.
Movie Studio Platinum 13 is $39.98 and Movie Studio Suite 13 is $69.98.

Movie Studio Suite 13 is unbelievable good value.
The Suite comes with over 3GBs of Royalty Free Music - a lot more than older packages.

I explain all about it here:
www.moviestudiozen.com/forum/announcements/668-50-off-all-sony-movie-studio-product-range-until-14-december-2015#2722