Shopping For A New PC

Takashi

Takashi

Always willing to give help to those who seek it.
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I'm considering getting a new PC but I have no idea where to start. I mainly use my PC for internet browsing and making gameplay videos for YouTube. Right now a 20-25 min. 1080p 60 FPS video takes 3-3.5 hrs. to render and I'd like to get that down to 30 minutes or less. I've not build computers regularly for 10 years and my brother did most of the work when we build my current computer in 2015. The only thing I know about my current setup is it's an AMD A10-7870K Radeon R7 with 16 GB RAM.

I've tried looking at some "build your own custom computer" sites but a lot of them are $1,600+ and we build my current system for around $550. Is there anyone where who knows a lot about computers that could give me some advice on what I need and where I need to go to get it. I'd prefer to have it built for me rather than build it myself.
 
What is your current PSU wattage? Do you have a ssd right now or only a HDD? Is the HDD a high RPM? You can use some of that to shave off cost.
 
BearButt said:
I’m assuming you’re using the built in APU graphics, rather than a dedicated card? You could either add a R7 card and utilise AMD Crossfire to use the power of both GPUs together, or disable the APU graphics in the BIOS and put an overall more powerful GPU in.

That alone will give you a significant boost to performance with both gameplay and the videos you make.

You’ll need to make sure your PSU is up to the job of running a dedicated graphics card, and that what you pick out isn’t too powerful to avoid wasting money and causing bottleneck against the CPU. It’s not a terrible professor but it’s definitely moving towards the lower end especially against AMD’s newer offerings.

If possible, can you open your case and tell me the brand and model of your power supply, as well as the rated power output? It will give me an idea of what you can do, and I will be able to recommend some options to go forwards with.

Just a thought, as it would give you a bit more use of your current build so you can postpone your new purchase and maybe save a bit more for when you do.

If you look for a new build, the reason why you are seeing higher prices may be because you are looking at systems with graphics cards where you don’t have one with your current PC? That’s still a possible route to take this time too. AMD still make APUs (CPU with graphics built in) but they have gotten way better since, under the Ryzen brand now.
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The power supply is 550w. My C drive is a 120GB SSD with a 3TB D drive. As for everything else you said, I have no idea. Like I said in my first post, I haven't built computers in 10 years so a lot of the terminology just goes right over my head.
 
Takashi said:
The power supply is 550w. My C drive is a 120GB SSD with a 3TB D drive. As for everything else you said, I have no idea. Like I said in my first post, I haven't built computers in 10 years so a lot of the terminology just goes right over my head.
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Can you tell me what software you are using to render in? Also if you are gonna be using this to game; what games do you play? If its sony vegas, I do need to know the version you have cause certain versions actually added in better support for some cpus and stuff.

Finally if it is sony vegas , from what my friend has said it uses a lot of ram when rendering so you probably gonna want like 32gb. He has 16 and says that he will easily come close to capping that.

Do you use a lot of effects in your videos? Are they like 20min long all the time?
 
kratox said:
Can you tell me what software you are using to render in? Also if you are gonna be using this to game; what games do you play? If its sony vegas, I do need to know the version you have cause certain versions actually added in better support for some cpus and stuff.

Finally if it is sony vegas , from what my friend has said it uses a lot of ram when rendering so you probably gonna want like 32gb. He has 16 and says that he will easily come close to capping that.

Do you use a lot of effects in your videos? Are they like 20min long all the time?
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I don't see myself gaming on it. I use Vegas 14 with no effects. An average video is 20-25 mins. but I'm considering doing longer videos in the future. I'm also thinking of going from an external Hauppauge HD PVR2 to an internal capture card capable of 4K.
 
Takashi said:
I don't see myself gaming on it. I use Vegas 14 with no effects. An average video is 20-25 mins. but I'm considering doing longer videos in the future. I'm also thinking of going from an external Hauppauge HD PVR2 to an internal capture card capable of 4K.
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Is there anyway you can upgrade to 15 or higher? from what im seeing you can get huge benefits on rendering times by getting a ryzen cpu and also switching encoder to NVIDIA nvenc.

1568841801516.png
 
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kratox said:
Is there anyway you can upgrade to 15 or higher? from what im seeing you can get huge benefits on rendering times by getting a ryzen cpu and also switching encoder to NVIDIA nvenc.

View attachment 35417
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I'd have no problem upgrading. I had no idea there was such a difference between 14 and 15.
 
Takashi said:
I'd have no problem upgrading. I had no idea there was such a difference between 14 and 15.
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Would you money still be $500 cap basically?
 
I went through all this when I was looking for a new Desktop after my Dell XPS got bricked by a windows 10 update. I ended up finding a pretty good deal on an Alienware system through Amazon.
 
I tried to make it close to what you were looking for but some motherboards don't have native support for new ryzen ones and require a update. You could shave off like 50 bucks though if you don't mind a little work. I also ended up going down in ram somewhat because of your budget.

This is assuming you will use same case,psu,storage, and etc. This also assumes your motherboard is a Full ATX.

So if you don't want to have to worry about getting a temp cpu from amds program to update the bios here:

$667.76

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660 - PCPartPicker

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660
pcpartpicker.com pcpartpicker.com

If you don't mind a little work:
$606.58

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660 - PCPartPicker

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660
pcpartpicker.com pcpartpicker.com

You could also try shaving off some bucks by simply buying a used GPU online, you are gonna want to get a Nvidia one though for support on cuda and nvenc.
 
kratox said:
I tried to make it close to what you were looking for but some motherboards don't have native support for new ryzen ones and require a update. You could shave off like 50 bucks though if you don't mind a little work. I also ended up going down in ram somewhat because of your budget.

This is assuming you will use same case,psu,storage, and etc. This also assumes your motherboard is a Full ATX.

So if you don't want to have to worry about getting a temp cpu from amds program to update the bios here:

$667.76

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660 - PCPartPicker

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660
pcpartpicker.com pcpartpicker.com

If you don't mind a little work:
$606.58

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660 - PCPartPicker

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce GTX 1660
pcpartpicker.com pcpartpicker.com

You could also try shaving off some bucks by simply buying a used GPU online, you are gonna want to get a Nvidia one though for support on cuda and nvenc.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'm sorry I wasn't clear on the budget. I was simply saying "We built this good machine for $500, there's no way I need to spend $1,600+." If I can find everything I want in a PC before factoring in software costs, my budget will probably be around $800. I'll be waiting until Black Friday to decide on what to buy to hopefully find a good deal.
 
Takashi said:
Thank you. I'm sorry I wasn't clear on the budget. I was simply saying "We built this good machine for $500, there's no way I need to spend $1,600+." If I can find everything I want in a PC before factoring in software costs, my budget will probably be around $800. I'll be waiting until Black Friday to decide on what to buy to hopefully find a good deal.
Click to expand...
honestly if you got that much you could definitely upgrade to 32 gb of ram then. you could get a cheap case also if you want
 
Takashi said:
I'm considering getting a new PC but I have no idea where to start. I mainly use my PC for internet browsing and making gameplay videos for YouTube. Right now a 20-25 min. 1080p 60 FPS video takes 3-3.5 hrs. to render and I'd like to get that down to 30 minutes or less. I've not build computers regularly for 10 years and my brother did most of the work when we build my current computer in 2015. The only thing I know about my current setup is it's an AMD A10-7870K Radeon R7 with 16 GB RAM.

I've tried looking at some "build your own custom computer" sites but a lot of them are $1,600+ and we build my current system for around $550. Is there anyone where who knows a lot about computers that could give me some advice on what I need and where I need to go to get it. I'd prefer to have it built for me rather than build it myself.
Click to expand...

Did you buy a new pc?
 
4 years is a long time in the PC industry and $1600 would be cheap for a pc, If you really want speed then look at the AMD Ryzen processors and go from there.
 
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