Budget PC build for video/audio production (full setup - under $750)

Hey everyone, I’ll keep this brief—I could really use some help putting together a PC build that won't choke on Adobe Premiere Pro. I need rendering times to stay under the 24-hour mark 🤣 and want something that handles my work in Ableton Live without breaking a sweat.

It wouldn't hurt if it could run a few games, but my gut tells me if a rig can handle Adobe Premiere Pro, it can handle pretty much anything else thrown at it.

Thanks in advance. 🙏

Intel Core i5-4460
ASRock H81M HDS R2.0
Kingston 8GB 1600 MHz
Toshiba P300 1TB SATA3
Gigabyte GTX 950 2GB
LG DVD-RW SATA
Fortron Hyper 500W 80+
Cougar MX 200 USB 3.0

1 x ASUS B85M-G, s1150
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 (3.20GHz,1MB,6MB,84 W,1150) Box
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, Value, 1600MHz, CL11, KVR16N11/8
1 x Gigabyte GTX950 OC 2GB GDDR5
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x WD 1TB HDD, Caviar Blue 10EZEX, 1000 GB, SATA3,64 MB, 3.5", 24mo
1 x MS RAIDER Silver gaming case, no PSU included
2 x Fractal GP-12 case fans, 120mm, white
$1672
www.newegg.com

Or if you want an AMD build to squeeze in more RAM—which matters since you're doing video editing
2 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, Value, 1600MHz, CL11, KVR16N11/8
1 x Gigabyte GTX950 OC 2GB GDDR5
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x WD 1TB HDD, Caviar Blue 10EZEX, 1000 GB, SATA3,64 MB, 3.5", 24mo
1 x MS RAIDER Silver gaming case, no PSU included
1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8300 3.3GHz,16MB,125W,AM3+, FD8300WMHK
1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P v2.0, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)
1 x Cooler Master Hyper T4
2 x Thermaltake Pure 12 case fans, 12 cm diameter, 1000 rpm, 19.5 dB
$1681

Honestly, 8GB of RAM just doesn't cut it by today's standards, and if I'm being totally real with you, you really need at least 16GB to stay afloat. Personally, I’d even suggest aiming a bit higher than that because, from my own experience, I've found that even hitting 12GB feels like you're running out of breathing room pretty quickly, even when you aren't doing anything particularly heavy or intense on the computer.

Nathan Moore6 said:8 gigs of RAM is nothing by today's standards. You need at least 16, maybe even more. From what I've seen, hitting 12 gigs is way too easy even if you aren't doing anything heavy.

Stop talking nonsense... I'm running on 6 gigs and everything works fine. I've got a game running in the background, Google Chrome with 20 tabs open, and music playing through Media Player, and I'm only using 5.2GB.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Come on, don't talk nonsense... I've got 6 gigs and everything runs just fine; I can have my game running while Google Chrome has 20 tabs open in the background and a media player playing music, and it's only using about 5.2GB...

That’s basically hitting 90% memory usage, and honestly, if you want to actually get some serious work done—like having a few different browsers open with dozens of tabs or running all those heavy background apps—you’re going to need more RAM, otherwise your system is just going to start hitting the swap file like crazy, and while that might be okay if you have a lightning-fast SSD making the swap snappy, it's going to feel incredibly sluggish if you're still running on an old mechanical hard drive.

In my book, once you've picked out a decent processor, RAM becomes the most important component in your build, because I really don't see much point in spending money on fancy RGB lighting or a pretty case if you haven't prioritized having enough memory to actually run your programs smoothly.

Sure, this specific user might find 16GB worth the investment, but let’s be real: who is actually running a dozen browsers with 20+ tabs open simultaneously while running a high-end game and several background apps? For someone just browsing casually, 4GB is basically pocket change, and even a standard AAA gaming rig should comfortably sit at 8GB—provided you aren't trying to run heavy rendering software, Photoshop, or fifty different video tabs in the background at the same time. 😬)

http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

He's right, honestly. Just keep cranking up the RAM and it fixes just about everything. That's exactly why THIS 😬
exists.

Look, speaking from experience, I’d highly recommend going with a Microsoft setup powered by Intel. I’m running an f8300 myself, overclocked with liquid cooling to 4.0GHz, and it handles Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro quite well. You get those 8 cores that you can really push hard in those apps. Just a heads-up though: you really want at least 16GB of RAM for this kind of work. I’m currently sitting on 8GB, and whenever I’m deep in Adobe After Effects, I can feel that extra 8GB missing just to balance things out across the cores.

When it comes to the graphics card, try to pick one that the software actually supports so you can take advantage of GPU CUDA ray-traced 3D rendering. I'm not entirely sure how much of a massive leap it makes for video editing, but if the boost is only marginal, you might be able to get away without CUDA support.

EDIT: Just to clarify—when it comes to the actual final render, having more RAM doesn't change much, but it makes a huge difference when you're scrubbing through clips and playing back previews.

EDIT2: I almost forgot to mention—make sure you grab an SSD, even just a 120GB one. If you ask me, the best way to set it up is to boot macOS on your HDD and use it for permanent file storage, then use the SSD specifically for your disk cache and temporary scratch space for the clips you're actively editing. Using an SSD that way will seriously speed up your workflow in Adobe After Effects.