So you wanna edit 4k video, but you need a PC, and $1,000 doesn’t look like it’s gonna cut it.
Stop looking at that pre-built stuff, because you are gonna build
the best dang 4k editing rig ever on your own and I’ll show you how.
This is DIY in 5!
Hey every body!
My name is Trisha Hershberger and you are watching DIY in 5 - the show where we all
work together to conquer seemingly difficult tech tasks in a simply, user-friendly way.
Today, we are going to talk you through what you need to build a 4k editing rig for one $1,000 or less.
If you find this video helpful, please go ahead and subscribe
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When building a high-res editing PC, your processor is by far the most important part
of your build and you should focus more of your budget there than anywhere else.
In general, you’ll get more traction with more cores as opposed to faster individual cores.
The latest gen AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a price to performance monster
and that’s what we’ve chosen for the purposes of this video.
After you’ve chosen the processor, let’s look at our RAM.
RAM is important in an editing PC to keep your editing program running smoothly,
especially when you'er dealing with higher res RAW files.
To edit 4k video, we recommend at least 16GB of DDR4 RAM and for this we’ve chosen
HyperX FURY DDR4 3200 memory.
You can use slower than 3200, but AMD CPUs tend to perform better with faster memory.
These two 8GB sticks are low profile and super reliable.
We’re Kingston, so this is kinda our area of expertise.
Now speaking of those large RAW files, let’s talk storage.
You want your storage to be high capacity and fast.
While a traditional HDD hard drive is fine for H.264 footage at 1080p and could work
for 4k if you don’t mind some dropped frames, you’ll really want to invest in an SSD,
even if you just get a small one to run your operating system and important software.
For our build, we’re going whole hog and getting the Kingston A2000 1TB NVME SSD.
It’s an affordable way to get 3x the performance over a SATA SSD and totally worth it.
Next let’s talk GPU.
You may be wondering why we didn’t bring this up earlier in the video.
The importance of your GPU in an editing build is less than one might think
unless you are using Davinci Resolve as your editing software which is super GPU intensive or you also
plan on gaming on your computer, which may then benefit from a nicer GPU.
Strictly for editing purposes, say using Adobe Premiere, the GPU will step in when rendering
or working with fancy visual effects, but take a backseat other than that.
You’ll see more results from investing in your CPU, RAM and quicker storage.
Regardless, for editing 4k video we recommend at least a GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB GDDR5 RAM
or a Radeon RX 570 4GB if you would rather go AMD.
For our build today, we are going with the Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Ti video card.
It’s robust, performs well and is a great value at $250-$300 from most retailers.
At this point, we can choose a motherboard that is compatible
with everything else we’ve chosen so far,
so we’re looking for something that supports the latest M.2 and PCI-e solutions,
and as a bonus has super-fast USB standards for when we have to transfer footage.
We’re going with a Gigabyte X570 board.
Since finding compatible components can sometimes be a real pain in the I/O port, I always recommend
PCPartPicker.com to double check compatibility and it will also give you a good idea of how
much wattage you’ll be eating up so you can pick an appropriate PSU.
We want something reliable and clean, that leaves room in case we upgrade later,
so a 650 watt 80+ Gold Certified PSU should do the trick.
This 750 watt fully-modular unit was on special this week, so of course we couldn’t say no.
After all the major components are out of the way, you’ll have to settle on
a case to put them in and this is really up to aesthetics.
There are tons of great, affordable cases that offer cable management features,
sleek architecture and even RGB if you’re into that.
We have a NZXT H510 Mid Tower case here but we’ve put the Phanteks P300
in our build guide below which is similar and will save you a few bucks.
The tempered glass side panel will show off all the hard work you’ve put in with great airflow,
cable management and just a slight hint of RGB.
And of course, you can’t forget about operating system.
If you decide to go Linux to save a buck, you’ll most likely be editing with Davinci Resolve
and then you’ll have to spend more money on your GPU anyway.
The GeForce RTX 2060 Super cards are a great upgrade over the 1660 we have in here
and will run about $100 more.
If you are going Windows, there are numerous ways to get a discounted or free authentication key
from using your old one to buying one from a legit, third-party seller at a discount.
It’s also good to note that if you are a student, you can get Windows 10 Education for free.
So that’s that.
We’ll link our full list of components we chose for this build in the description below
but we’d love to hear what you would put together for a 4k editing rig under one $1,000.
Would you splurge in a different area? Why or why not?
Also, feel free to show off your 4k creations by tweeting them at us using the hashtag #DIYin5.
Alright, thanks for watching everyone and I’ll see ya next time.