Solved Black Friday Desktop Comp Deals - Which is Best?

HI Derek - great to see your YouTube vid and wishing you a speedy recovery on your health. You are one of the few true gurus that I turn to for info and advice so I wondered if I could ask you:

I currently have a 2012 Lenovo i5 laptop and when I use SMS13 it is just freezing up on me. In terms of what I do when I use SMS13 I do not get into huge effects like 3D titles, but I usually will have 2-3 cameras shot in HQ 1440X1080, I have an mp3 audio track captured from an ext dig audio recorder and titles track w/graphics and possibly an audio track for music. After I match up the ext dig audio recorder track to the vids I then remove the camera audio tracks. In terms of effects I have been using color match, so I do not get really intensive, but with a better computer I would like to learn those eventually. So here are my options:

www.amazon.com/M32CD-Desktop-Windows-Keyboard-Mouse/dp/B014QVM2KO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top ?

ASUS M32CD Desktop (Core i5, 8GB, 1TB, Windows 10

I would probably add 8gb more memory and this
EVGA 02G-P4-3751-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspxItem=N82E16814487025

My other option is to just go all out and push the budget to the max and get myself an early Xmas present with this:

Dell XPS 8900 Series Desktop: Core i7, 16GB Memory, 1TB HDD, 4GB

I would like to be using this for the next 4 yrs without any upgrade worries.

Thank you in advance.

Hi Mike

So I gather that your maximum budget is below $1000.
I checked out the links you sent and then did some power searching/selecting myself for you.
All of these are on NewEgg.com - OMG this website is getting hammered right now - so slooooooooowwww because of high traffic.

One of the most important things to consider if you use Sony Movie Studio or Vegas Pro, is the Graphics Card and CPU.
Sony programs work much better with AMD Radeon cards, not Nvidia.
So I have found some pretty good PCs and they all use different AMD GPU's and have powerful CPUs.

1. Best machine I found is this. Very powerful CPU and mid-high range GPU. Plus it has a 250GB SSD Solid State Drive and 2TB Hard Drive. This would be my pick!!!
Intel i7 6700k
R9 380 GPU
250 GB SSD
2TB HDD
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883230099

2. Next best machine I found is this. Very powerful CPU and mid-high range GPU.
Intel i5 6600k
R9 380 GPU
2TB HDD
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883230074

2. This has same CPU, but lower powered GPU, although still OK.
Intel i5 6600k
R7 360 GPU
1TB HDD
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883272141

All the best!
Derek :woohoo:

HI Derek,

hmmm...appreciate the suggestions but trying to keep the budget (yes I know but I have maintain the expenses) under $800.

If I went with the Asus and I replaced the card with rather than the Nvidia, which AMD Radeon card would you suggest would be to put in that desktop?

My advice is to never rush into buying a new computer.
NewEgg.com has an extremely powerful Sort Function when you go into the Desktop Computer section.
Deals/prices are going to change continuously.

What I suggest you do is use the sort function and expand the Graphics Card GPU section and then select the AMD Radeon card models I suggest. You could also select Intel i5 or Intel i7 CPU models and see what comes up.

Because I live in Australia, we always pay more than what you would in the USA.
In Australia I would have to pay a minimum of $1500 to get a similar computer to what I showed as my No.1 choice.
$1000 is an absolute bargain of the century.

All the best

HI Derek - I have been spending some time and saw someone was selling this customized/made-their-own PC
here are the specs:
-Intel Core i7 930 2.8 Ghz
-Dell 05dn3x Motherboard
-XFX AMD Radeon R9 270x Double Dissipation Edition-CDFC
-6GB(2GBx3) DDR3 Ram
-Dell D525AF-01 525 Watt Power Supply
-2 Optical drives(hl-dt-st bd-re bh20n)(Sony AD-7200s)
-Samsung Desktop Class Spinpoint F3 1 TB SATA 3.0 Gb-s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare-OEM Drives, HD103SJ
-Dell DW 1525 PCIe Network Card up to 5G
-Thor v2 Case
-Side 230mm fan/Front red LED 230mm fan/Top 230mm fan/Rear 140mm fan

Worth it or just dive in and purchase new?

I would not recommend this system - CPU model is over 5 years old. Buy new!
Intel i5 and i7 CPUs from last 2 years are much, much better because they include Intel HD Integrated Graphics. This makes handling HD and 4K video much easier and can also be used for rendering in Movie Studio with some output profiles.

Eat baked beans for 2-4 weeks, walk don't drive and then you will have some extra cash :woohoo:

When I built my own computer back in 2011, I was pretty poor at the time and put every last dollar I had into the build. I never regretted that decision and am still using the same PC today and very happy with it's performance. One of the best investments I ever made and has helped me grow my business.

When I did a search on NewEgg.com, I did find a lot of great value PCs for around $800, but they were all showing as being out of stock.
Just did another quick search and found this for $799
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227627

It uses an AMD FX-8320 CPU instead of Intel, but does have a great GPU and SSD which would give you great performance.
Normally I recommend only Intel CPUs for Video Editing, however this AMD CPU would be OK considering it is a budget priced PC.

HI Derek,

So I bit the bullet and went and purchased your suggested #1. It had the best specs, an i-7. I saw the other four and did not want to do the i-5 for the same price. The last post you suggested for 799 was actually priced at 750, but I agree from all that I have read was to go with an Intel CPU rather than AMD for vid editing.

Here is hoping to finally using the Boris FX in Sony Movie Studio 13.

Thank you for your advice/guidance and hope to be checking in and requesting help with more advance video editing techniques.

That computer is an amazing deal!
I really don't know how they can do it so cheaply.
If you were to buy all the components individually, it would be closer to $2000 worth of hardware.

Getting a computer with a Solid State Drive will totally change your user experience.

HI Derek,

So it arrived and I got it set up. Render is super fast than the laptop (does it in 1/3 the time). So at present I have my unedited clips and final master projects on an ext drive (WD Elements 750GB portable drive) that I connect to the computer to do the work and get the clips. Should I change the workflow and put the clips on the desktop hard drive? Will that improve the performance? Please advise. Thank you again for the advice.