Thanks Gid for taking the time to write a quality reply. I shall take it as intended, and use it as a springboard for sound research

@AndyL

Get a similar setup to mine (check my sig). It goes well.

I might agree with Gid re RAM, I got 64gb which doesn't seem to be used. 32gb might be enough. You could add more. Others may have some ideas; Ray likes lots.

The latest Intel CPUs run hot so make sure you get a good cooling solution.

Things I'd change:

-I should have got a modular power supply as I didn't need half of the wires dangling out of the PS.

- Another gotcha: if your power supply is in the bottom of the case and your SATA drives are stacked vertically, the connectors are upside down (the L is the wrong way). That has resulted in a lot of messy up-down-up wiring. An option is installing your HDDs upside down. Discussion here:

https://www.overclock.net/threads/how-do-you-deal-with-upside-down-sata.1206957/

Make sure you can actually flip your HDDs in the case mounts.

You'll be blown away by the performance jump you'll get. My productivity has gone through the roof with the quick rendering. Editing is now my main focus, not stressing about how to get a movie rendered while not hogging the machine for hours chugging away (or overnight, only to find I'd messed something up and had to render it again).

 

You'll be blown away by the performance jump you'll get. My productivity has gone through the roof with the quick rendering. Editing is now my main focus, not stressing about how to get a movie rendered while not hogging the machine for hours chugging away (or overnight, only to find I'd messed something up and had to render it again).

@AAProds That last statement reminds me of my old 2core PC back in 2004-ish, it was up in my back bedroom & i could hear it working when I'd left it to export over night, only to find in the morning I'd cocked something up & had to redo it all again 🤣,

Now it's a similar thing why I keep MMS updated, when I'm making YT vids, I might be editing all night from getting home from work till the early hrs in the morning, at the end it's nice to export & review what I've created while it's all fresh in my mind.

My vids are UHD roughly 20mins long, so while it's still on the timeline when editing is done I watch it through start to finish, that's 20mins gone providing I don't have to correct anything, if I do correct something I can't just rewatch that bit, I have to back up a bit to watch & feel the flow is correct, so 20mins timeline preview can be 30-40mins...

Then comes Exporting, for me Vegas would take maybe 15mins to render a 20min project, that's not much compared to the old overnight stints but it's a long time at the end of a night's editing. MMS on the other hand will Export 20min projects in 5mins, I don't even have time to make a cuppa, that means I can return from the kitchen, sit down with said cuppa & watch my exported project through. If I see something I don't like, a mistake, maybe something I want to add or even if it's just a few frames I feel need removing because there's a pause in the flow, if that makes sense, exporting with MMS makes this no big deal, I can edit, export & get back to watching in minutes. This whole exporting/watching part of the video making process can take an hr or more, so that 10mins difference between Vegas & MMS export makes all the difference.

Editing with MMS & a decent PC is good, esp if I've got 3-4 vids a wk to edit & upload to YT, or more the case is that it's Fri, I've worked all wk & have a folder full of film clips, the best viewing times on YT are Saturday, so it's in my interest to get those clips edited, exported & uploaded by the early hrs of Fri night/Sat morning ready for the public Sat morning,

@AndyL Buy the best you can afford, MMS will use it well. it makes editing easier & more enjoyable or at the very least it doesn't hog your afk time. I'm always concerned that I if I don't spend that little extra I might regret it down the line later, 👍

@AndyL

Hi

I think @Former user and @AAProds have said 95% of the tips you can be given, the only things I would add to their comments are:

• ' The latest Intel CPUs run hot so make sure you get a good cooling solution.' - some users may recommend AIO liquid cooling systems, personally I would not use them - a good quality dual fan cooler, I use an Arctic freeze eSports, is more than sufficient as the 'stress phase' of video editing is during exporting.
   
• 'Future proof' now, ie get the current generation, or previous, Intel CPU with integrated GPU - not an AMD processor, and a Nvidia RTX 3000 series minimum GPU.
   
• Plenty of storage for you video on a second drive.
   
• Dual 24" minimum monitors for PC make editing a lot is easier. Personally I do not think 4K screens are necessary.and (controversially) are a total waste and unecessary on a laptop.
   
• If you are thinking of a laptop then as above with a 17" screen, editing on anything smaller is a pain both literally and figuratively.
   
• My systems, PC and laptop both of which I now consider mid to low range, were at the time of purchase top end systems - see my signature.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

@johnebaker Hi, I know everybody has their own preference so this is just for the sake of sharing 👍

Dual 24" minimum monitors for PC make editing a lot is easier. Personally I do not think 4K screens are necessary.and (controversially) are a total waste and unecessary on a laptop.

I'm not sure what you mean 4k + laptop?

I had dual 24" monitors for a long time, they did ok but for me the preview was too small, I found myself leaning in to see what was there. enlarging the preview window meant I then only had a few tracks visible, 3 or 4 & I would have to scroll down to see the ones below, it's nice having about 6 tracks visible so media can be swapped around or when masking.. Also effects controls were then not so accessible when the preview window was enlarged on the 24" monitor.

I can't show it because when I put MMS on my 24" screen it jumps back to the no1 32" UHD screen when I click Standard or Rest window & I don't want to mess with my display settings.

This is how it looks, I have a decent sized preview, 7 tracks with a longer length so i can see what's ahead & effects show everything (in width) & i can sit at a comfortable distance.

I'm not going to get 2x 32" monitors any time soon, the 24" is big enough for opening folders & I open emails on there too, on the 32" screen emails at Full screen are too big, you have to sit back to take it all in & you're literally looking around the screen, but I won't be going back to dual 24" for editing & the thought of editing anything more than really simple timelines on a laptop would frustrate me. Like i say just sharing,

Well I did ask! Thanks for all of the above advice. Much appreciated that you have given some weekend time to this. I wasn't even worrying about cooling technology but I am now😃 There is a world of difference between the minimum spec advertised by Magix and the realistic running spec, (and same again between that and the high end systems) but I guess the company don't want discourage any customers

@AndyL Hi, my old PC would get hot, esp in summer after a few hrs, performance drop significantly therefore errors in playback, exporting & crashes are more likely to occur, + overheating reduces the lifespan of the hardware,

I have a liquid cooled CPU, I can have it running for days with no visible deterioration in performance, so @johnebaker is def right in suggesting cooling 👍

PS, in my PC case there's the liquid cooler mounted at the top with 3 fans blowing up & out, there's 2 fans behind the front door blowing out & there's 1 at the back just above where the graphics card is, when i bought this PC I made sure it had as much cooling as poss, so much so there's no room for a DVD/CD player 😂, when I replace this graphics card I'll get a liquid cooled one, the prob will be where to mount the cooler 🤦‍♂️🤔🤣

@Former user

Hi Gid

. . . . I'm not sure what you mean 4k + laptop? . . . .

Same as for video editing on monitors - 4K on a 14/15 or 17inch screen laptop is not visually sharper as a result of the higher pixel count. The type of screen, eg LCD, OLED, QLED etc does makes a much more noticeable difference - eg brightness, increased contrast, higher dynamic range.

Below are my preferred layouts for MMS and VPX - Preview/Program monitor is full screen - I find it useful for effects such as SPR, Camera Zoom, Section etc

MMS

VPX

Where necessary I click the 'full screen' icon on the timeline to see more tracks, click icon again to return to lower half of the screen.

. . . . I'm not going to get 2x 32" monitors any time soon, the 24" is big enough for opening folders . . . .

Same here .

. . . . on the 32" screen emails at Full screen are too big, you have to sit back to take it all in & you're literally looking around the screen,  . . . .

Agreed, that is a negative point for big monitors.

How much noise is generated when all the fans are running at speed?

My case has 2 x 5" low speed/high volume fans one top, one rear both in line with CPU cooler, the power pack has a single 5" low speed/high volume fan which is idle until the load gets above ~12 - 15% then ramps up as required - can just hear the fans when everything is under full load.

John EB