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$4000 computer build for Davinci Resolve
You’re not gonna believe this, but I just managed to hammer in 2 A’s and 2 B’s last semester in engineering school, something my dad could never do when he was my age. As a result, I landed $4,000 or $4K in the pot, $1500 for each A, and $500 for each B. The money is going to go directly towards upgrading my machine to an absolute beast of a computer that handles 4K, even on a 1080p monitor. Ever since that and since NVidia released a GTX Titan X, tallying at 12 GB GDDR at 384 bit, with 3072 Cuda cores, 336.5 GB/s bandwidth, and a base clock between 1 to 1.15 Ghz, 4K editing power seems within my reach. The processor will be the 5960X 8 core Intel i7 Extreme processor, running at 3.0 GHz. The OS hard drive will be a Samsung 850 EVO Series 500 GB SSD. Wait, to make this easier for you guys, I’m going to pull up my PC Part Picker list for this build, and see if this has enough horsepower to edit 4K video:
https://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZwRBt6
Is this unnecessary since everyone is carrying smartphones now? No, even though I do have a smartphone. This machine is meant to accomplish what a smartphone can’t. 2.5K ProRes, V-Log, Log-C or REC709 log dailies from 4K RAW camera data will run smoothy on this machine running Davinci Resolve. Is is possible to turn the edited files into a 4K master?
I’ve had my current machine for 5 years now. Upgrading to this machine, which is more powerful and more energy efficient (since NVidia doesn’t overheat like AMD, plus a 600W power supply), can be a way I can have so much power and to reduce my energy consumption without paying attention to any garbage news stories about our environment.
4K is shaping up to be the successor for HD, but will it work on discs? Only time will tell. I’m actually quite a big fan of technological development, but the idea of robots controlling human life as if humanity lost control of their world is something I’m not a big fan of. Handling big data like 4K masters is something I’m a big fan of. Seriously, I just can’t wait to have this system. Do you think I should make any modifications in order to prep my system for ProRes dailies from ARRIRAW files?
Regards,
Jordan White
P.S. I already have a monitor, a USB hasp for AC wireless networking, headphones, a printer, and a way to get the operating system. I assume that the motherboard comes with built in sound, which it does, after checking the official site for the product.
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2 Replies
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It’s not just the computer. It’s also the drives, the connection, the monitors, the control surface, and everything else. I find the computer is not even 1/4 of the total expense when you factor it all together. 4K is fine, but it’s harder to do in real time than many suspect, particularly when you add in the time and complexity of backups and deliverables.
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Regardless of final output more and more source input will be 4k or bigger. Spend on the Titan x and a bigger power supply. 600watt seems small for a system that needs a graphics card for monitoring plus a Titan for real time rendering.
In 5 years if you are still on the new hardware, 4k will be pretty much base and you will have added a new graphics card or two by then and they may need a bit more power supply head room or you might add another card like a Decklink I/O.
Big fast RAID drives are a must. With $4000 you can build a PC beast if you put it all together yourself.
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