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The Best Video Editing & Gaming PC Build in 2020

Clockwork 9  |  01-25-2019
Building the Best PC for Video Editing (& Gaming) that we could on a Budget in 2020!

Need a More Efficient Computer & Balling on a Budget?

Us too. We built a new workstation for Adam and made a little vlog to go with it because why not? (at the bottom of this blog) We’re pretty happy with how the build went. It was a tough choice deciding on a CPU to build around, especially with the options available now.

Building the Best PC for Video Editing (& Gaming) that we could on a Budget in 2020!

Need a More Efficient Computer & Balling on a Budget?

Us too. We built a new workstation for Adam and made a little vlog to go with it because why not? (at the bottom of this blog) We’re pretty happy with how the build went. It was a tough choice deciding on a CPU to build around, especially with the options available now.

Components to build a video editing work station on a table with tools

After looking at benchmarks on ridiculous amounts of YouTube videos, we went with the latest i9 series chip under $1k.

The i9 9900K

This desktop processor is an 8-core beast that easily hits 5 GHz per core and supports hyper-threading for whatever that’s worth. There’s another class of chips in the i9 series above the 9900k, but the price to performance ratio just didn’t make sense for us. It’s also hard to understand why something like a 7980xe doesn’t support ECC memory while a Ryzen from AMD can but… Yeah.

The most important thing for us was the raw performance across the apps that we use the most. Premiere, After Effects and Resolve all fly on this thing. And we know there are a ton of variables to consider to push performance one way or another (like Threadripper from AMD being amazing with Resolve) but we had to have balance. For us, the combo of components we put in hit just the right spot.

Hand reaching towards an Intel Core i9 box

Video Editing Computer Specs

Intel i9 9900K
ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate LGA 1151
Samsung SSD 970 PRO NVMe M.2 1TB
Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz
Seasonic PRIME Ultra 850W 80+ Platinum Power Supply
Corsair Hydro Series, H150i PRO GRB 360mm AIO
CORSAIR ML120 PRO RGB, 120mm 3-Pack x2
Corsair Commander Pro
Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic Black Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower

Ram right now is fairly pricy, but should be coming down soon which is great but we can’t really afford to wait with Adam’s 4770k being his main chip at the moment. So despite wanting a lot, we had to compromise while still getting solid and proven (and quick ram). We also really wanted an upgradeable system, and the z390 chipset is pretty wide open right now.

The Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic

This is one of the easiest cases to work in that we’ve seen yet, and better yet, it’s a gorgeous aesthetic. Not to mention the airflow is designed for a watercooler/AIO and a 360mm. Which is perfect for us.

Between the 1TB NVMe M.2 and the quality power supply, this thing will grow as the years tick by.  Chances are we’ll be upgrading to whatever AMD has around the block for the rest of our workstations, but for now the 9900k is a great level. 

SO MUCH RGB!

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