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new pc minimum specs

FoolsFollowing

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Hey guys,

Haven't posted on here in a while as have been busy over summer and hada
 

FoolsFollowing

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Damn phone cut off my message when I posted.anyway what I was trying to say is I need to buya new computer as my laptop dropped dead at the start of summer and I'm looking for some advice on minimum specs. I will be using it for editing blu rays and using Sony beggar pro and after effects mostly,plus a bit of animating software. Can anyone give me some guidance as to what my minimum graphics card and processor should be,what ram I need etc. I'm not particularly computer savvy especially when it comes to hardware!

Cheers
FF
 

ssj

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FoolsFollowing said:
Sony beggar pro

damn autocollect!

welcome back, FF.
i'm a mac user, but there are plenty of windows users here who could give you guidance.
 

TM2YC

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Any bog standard new PC will allow you to edit, so there isn't a "minimum spec" you'd need to worry about IMO. Editing requires far less specs than something like gaming but the faster the hardware the easier it's gonna be to work in your editing program and the faster the renders. So just buy the best you can afford.
 

dangermouse

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For HD editing I'd recommend a decent processor.
The new Skylake processors form Intel will stand you in good stead. i5 gives best bang for buck.
Get 8GB of RAM (16GB if you can afford it)
Get an SSD at least 250GB as your OS drive.
And the biggest HDD you can afford (eg. 4TB) for movie storage.

If you can't afford a Skylake get the last series of i5's or i7's. Note that some i5's are slow, so be careful (i7's are generally all good) The Devil's Canyon is a good one.

Don't bother with an i3, Pentium, Celeron, any of the AMD "A" processors. In fact, steer clear of AMD apart from their 8-core FX-8xxx editions. Those are pretty good and you can get a fairly decent setup a lot cheaper than the equivalent Intel system.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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all good suggestions, but for cost-cutting measures, I don't fully agree with the following:

dangermouse said:
Get an SSD at least 250GB as your OS drive.

You really only need a 120GB SSD for the OS hard drive. I'm running a 90GB, and it's annoyingly maxed, but I have several bloated software suites installed. A 120 would be perfect.
 

dangermouse

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I also have a 120GB SSD, but I wish I had a 250GB (particularly for games :) ). I'd recommend that since they have come down heavily in price.
But, yes, 120GB is all you *need*. Thanks ThrowgnCpr.
 

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What's the consensus on the benefits of a dedicated graphics card for editing nowadays? I know they're mandatory for PC gaming, but for fanediting? There used to be a benefit to CUDA-compliant cards and the like, but I haven't kept up. (I only have an Intel GPU on my laptop because I'm a Linux user, and both Nvidia and AMD GPUs suck in different ways.)
 

Q2

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A dedicated GPU that is supported by your NLE will greatly increase render time. Example: at work we use Premiere on Mac. Before we got a supported GPU the render time for a 4-6 minute HD video could take upwards of an hour depending on the number of filters and effects. With a dedicated card it has dropped to 5-10 min.
 

dangermouse

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^ This - if it's supported by your editing program. So check that first before you splash out and find it's not compatible. But if you're hobby editing, the investment in a GPU solely for editing is not essential. If time is money, then i7, big SSD, and a AMD R9 Fury or something!
 

FoolsFollowing

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Ok this is what I'm looking at a the moment.

Desktop PC rather than laptop
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-6700 3.4GHz 8MB cache quad core
Motherboard: ASUS Intel® H110M-D D3 Micro ATX SATA 6gb
RAM: 8GB HyperX Fury Dual DDR3 160Mhz
Graphics Card: 4GB AMD Radeon R9 380 eyefinity
Hard Drive: 2TB HDD 3.5" SATA-III 64mb cache
Sound Card: onboard 6 5.1 high def audio
Monitor: ASUS 21.5" LED 1920x1080 dynamic contrast ratio 80,000,000:1
But it costs £830 which way more than I should spend given my current financial situation (I have more outgoings than income and only a couple of grand reserve in the bank). Does any of it seem like overkill, or anything lacking (proper sound card perhaps)? A laptop would be better because I move so often but a desktop is more of an investment as I can keep upgrading over the years. I don't think I should be spending more than £700 though (my original budget was about £400 but I'm really not sure that's workable with what I want to use it for!). Ugh, feeling frustrated by this whole thing!
 

Q2

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Instead of a single HDD I'd recommend two, one for the OS and software and one for your editing drive. Maybe two 1TB drives or a 500MB OS drive and a 1TB editing drive? It's best to keep the media you're editing/rendering/etc separate from software due to amount of read/writing.

Also, what software are you using to edit?
 

FoolsFollowing

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Thanks yeah i already have a sea gate hdd and should be able to rescue the one from my old laptop too.
 

dangermouse

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Drop the graphics card if you're not playing games and use the integrated graphics.
Buy an i5 instead of i7.
That should save you £300.
But I'd really recommend buying an SSD! Huge impact in daily use.
 

Q2

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I disagree. A dedicated GPU, even a low end model, will be better for editing than an onboard one.
 

FoolsFollowing

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The site I'm on an i5 will save me about half that. Pcspecialist.co.uk is there a huge difference between 2.7 3.2 or 3.3ghz?I can choose between 6400 6500 6600 or the i7 is an Intel 6700.

An ssd adds an extra £200 to the cost though!
 

Q2

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No. The big difference between i5 and i7 is multithreading. Some software takes advantage of multithreading while most don't. If your NLE doesn't then it's not worth the investment.
 

FoolsFollowing

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Well my software does support it but maybe i7 is overkill given my current budgetary restraints.
 

dangermouse

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£200 for an SSD??? They should be around £50 for a 250GB.
Re CPU - you get what you pay for. So get the best within your budget. Basically any of the i5's will be fine. Get the cheapest and upgrade later. I'd say the same for the GPU - get that later if you find you need it.
 

FoolsFollowing

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Ok I've given it a lot of thought and decided against a desktop. I move around too much and in the long run it'll just weigh me down. So we're back to laptops, for better or worse.

http://m.ebuyer.com/700304
Do you guys think this will be adequate for my needs? I5 dual core processor processor 8gb ram. 15.6" HD screen is smaller than my last laptop but means it'll be portable. Only 500gb memory but i have over 1.5tb of existing hdd space. At£400 it's a killing but there's no point of it's insufficient for whati need!
 
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