# [SOLVED] Budget Photo/Video Editing Build



## CubicleCowboy (Dec 4, 2012)

Hey, everyone. A friend of mine asked for advice on getting a new desktop PC, so of course I told him that all pre-built PCs are garbage. I offered to put one together for him for some wings and beer. This is what I've got so far:

CPU: Intel i3-3220 ... Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i33220 - Newegg.com
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS ... ASRock B75M-DGS Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz ... G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL - Newegg.com
HDD: SG 1TB 7200rpm ... Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 Internal Hard Drive - Newegg.com
GPU: EVGA GTS 450 ... EVGA 01G-P3-1450-RX GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) Video Card - Newegg.com
PSU: Seasonic S12II 520W ... SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com
Optical drive: LG 24x DVD burner LG Model GH24NS95 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive Black - Newegg.com

He's still picking out the case. The budget is from $500 to $800 - the lower, the better. He will also need to purchase the OS (most likely Windows 7). He already has the monitor and peripherals.

Here's my issue - I am unsure of what you need for photo and video editing. I can put together a gaming build no sweat, but I know next to nothing about media productivity software. My friend will be primarily using Lightroom and Premier for professional editing. Gaming is _not_ a concern. He does work for a local paper, so the images won't be super huge and he's not making animated Disney movies, or anything. My main concerns are the CPU and GPU; based on my research, it would seem that the i3-3220's hyperthreading would help performance for those programs, and that the GTS 450 offers the best value for your dollar for video editing. Is this correct, or am I mistaken? I would have gone with an i7 and a Quadro card but that would be way over budget. 

Given the budgetary constraints, how well would this build work for professional photo and video editing? Would the integrated graphics work just as well for video editing? Would a quad core significantly boost performance? Does it need more RAM for the raw images? Would any of that even make a difference in a budget build?

I'd appreciate any thoughts, advice, or comments.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*

Change the Mobo to Asus or Gigabyte for quality, reliability, support.
The rest should be fine, depending on how serious the photo/video editing will be.
A -Core CPU might be the better option doe serious editing.


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## toothman (Jul 13, 2008)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*

Additional cores are much better for these kinds of tasks over hyperthreading. The AMD FX-8120 is now only $130, _exactly_ the same price as the i3 you listed.

AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX - Newegg.com

The 8120 is leagues ahead of the i3-3220 in encoding tasks like photo/video editing. There's no contest. In anything that can fully utilize all of your CPU's threads, you'll get much more performance out of the 8120.


8gb of RAM should be fine even for this kind of work, but it does depend on the intensity of the encoding. If you think his work is intense enough, you may want to push it up to 16gb of RAM (2x8gb, not 4x4gb) and go with an FX-8350 (AMD's most powerful 8-core).


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*

Same thoughts as Tyree.

Change the CPU to maybe an i5 to get better performance.


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## Vadigor (Apr 19, 2009)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*

I agree wholeheartedly with toothman, the AMD octocores are the best choice for this build. When they're able to use all their threads they perform at almost the same level as Intel's i7. For the build you describe they would be ideal. I'm not familiar with the difference in performance between the FX-8120 (which is listed at 160$ for me) and the FX-8350 (which is 200$), but with the light workload you suggest the 8120 should be more than adequate. Either way, both will destroy the dual-core i3 and even the quad-core i5 in this scenario.

In the end though, it depends on how intensively your friend will use his applications. Basic photo and video editing that is little more than correcting white balance or cutting footage is not that intensive. It's the final encoding process that will be greatly sped up by using an eight-core AMD CPU. For long videos, this may still be a process of hours, but for short clips the encode shouldn't take longer than a coffee break. Of course, this assumes that he's not using single-threaded filters which will slow everything down.

For Lightroom and Premier integrated graphics should be enough as they mostly rely on the CPU. However the AMD FX series doesn't have onboard graphics, so you'd still need a (cheap) discrete GPU. Nvidia has CUDA so I'd suggest you stick with them. Unfortunately if you want to use CUDA you'll have to unlock it as only high-end GTX and Quadro cards can use CUDA in Adobe products. It's probably not worth the trouble.


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## toothman (Jul 13, 2008)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*



Vadigor said:


> I'm not familiar with the difference in performance between the FX-8120 (which is listed at 160$ for me) and the FX-8350 (which is 200$), but with the light workload you suggest the 8120 should be more than adequate. Either way, both will destroy the dual-core i3 and even the quad-core i5 in this scenario.


Oh wow, it was listed as $129.99 when I responded earlier. Thought it was an amazing development.

If only $40 separates the 8120 and 8300, I'd recommend the 8300.


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## CubicleCowboy (Dec 4, 2012)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*

Thanks everyone, that's exactly what I was looking for. 

I guess any old video card will do if I go with the FX chip. Hell, I've got an old 4650 that I can just give him. I'll talk to him about it some more and I'll see what the final build looks like.


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## Vadigor (Apr 19, 2009)

*Re: Budget Photo/Video Editing Build*



CubicleCowboy said:


> Thanks everyone, that's exactly what I was looking for.
> 
> I guess any old video card will do if I go with the FX chip. Hell, I've got an old 4650 that I can just give him. I'll talk to him about it some more and I'll see what the final build looks like.


That should be more than fine. In theory the GPU isn't even required other than to provide video output. Of course in practice you'll need at least the bare minimum to run Windows 7's bloatware GUI whistling and any hardware acceleration used in Lightroom and Premier's interface.

I had a quick look at Premier's requirements. Interestingly enough, Adobe actually does lists an OpenGL 2.0 capable video adapter as a system requirement so it will use some graphics features. They also suggest a 7200 RPM HDD minimum which I see you already have covered in the part list you posted. With eight cores driving the encode the HDD may actually become the bottleneck in the system.


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