Building a PC for Davinci Resolve

Hi everyone,

My hobby is recording and editing video. This is my set up:
Recording tools:
Sony a6000 (uncompressed)->Ninja Blade (1080p)->SSD->USB 3.0 dock->Davinici Resolve 12.5.
MacBook Pro Retina recording audio from a mixer if possible + Tascam Dr-22WL->Audacity-> Resolve.
PC:
HP ENVY 15t
i7-4510U, Geforce 840M, 16 GB RAM, 2TB HD @5400 RPM

This set up was OK for editing and grading short videos and I could live with the max render speed of 10 fps (into the YT 1080p preset). However, I recently started recording longer events like piano recitals, speech competitions, and church services (up to 3 hours). My PC is very slow when the video and audio is added. Color grading is nearly impossible, and the entire computer is terribly laggy. Renders have to be left overnight, and my CPU & GPU gets hot (possibly dangerously hot) even with USB fans to help the internal cooling system.

I want to build a PC for Resolve/work/gaming (in that order) with a budget of $1500. After looking through the internet, I learned that Resolve needs the GPU for editing and grading, while the CPU is left for accessing files while editing, and rendering. Since it seems I need a powerful GPU, I decided to look at Nvidia's Battleboxes since the parts are preselected. I found a Battlebox Essential Plus from CyberpowerPC with this:
Intel® Core™ Processor i7-7700K 4.20GHZ 8MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151
CyberpowerPC Z270 SLI Xtreme ATX w/ RGB, AC WiFi, USB 3.1, 2 PCIe x16, 4 PCIe x1, 6 SATA3, 1 U.2, 1 M.2 SATA/PCIe
16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/2400MHz Dual Channel Memory
EVGA GeForce® GTX 1070 Superclocked ACX 3.0 Edition 8GB GDDR5
500GB WD Blue M.2 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 545MB/s Read and 525MB/s Write
2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

Would a system like this fulfill my needs? I don't plan on moving fully to 4K for at least 4-5 years. I'd like to edit 3 hour 1080p videos and audio without lag, render at least at 19-20 fps, and have a good amount of customization potential so I can upgrade in the future. This is just a hobby, so dual Xeons and GTX 1080's is overkill (for now).

Any help would be appreciated, especially with the CPU and GPU choices. As Father's Day is coming up, there are some good sales going on. Thanks for helping me.

Would an overclocked AMD Ryzen 5 1600X be better than an overclocked Intel i5-7600K? AnandTech benchmarks of the stock CPUs show the Ryzen has an advantage at rendering. For final project rendering, would the more cores and threads in the Ryzen be faster? Or would the Intel be just as good?

Also, I'm thinking of going with an Nvidia GTX 1060 6 GB since I'm only working with 1080p. Would this GPU work with Resolve 12.5, and especially with Resolve 14 and Fairlight audio editing? Or should I stick with the 1070?

Personally I would go with a Ryzen 1700 and OC it. Twice as many threads as the intel with a slightly lower clock and is cheaper. I've had great results from one as a render node and Resolve should use those threads when rendering (and I think debayering as well).

Also a 1070 will give you a little head room for the future which never hurts.

Hi everyone,
i7-4510U, Geforce 840M, 16 GB RAM, 2TB HD @5400 RPM

What codec are you using in the Ninja Blade, and what model is the HDD?
I ask, because I wonder if you aren't getting a slow render because you are I/O bound.


It's twice your budget (keep in mind it might be $500 cheaper if you purchased it today), but this is what I'm currently running.
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/dans98/saved/#view=6bPvK8

In DR if my source is 1080 DNxHR HQ I render out to DNxHR HQ and then use ffmpeg to generate the h.264 for youtube.

If I'm not grading, DR renders out around 130 fps. ffmpeg leveraging the cpu and gpu to encode the h.264 hovers around 260fps.


my recommendation would be.

• A 4 to 6 core cpu that can be overclocked to 4+ GHz
• a gtx 1060+ (if you get the 1060 get the 6GB version)
• 16 or 32GB of quad channel ddr4 ram
• an m.2 for the OS drive (Samsung 960 evo 250GB ~$130)
• a motherboard that supports raid
• hard drives for raid 0 scratch drives, and raid 1 for redundancy.

Hi Joshua, the AMD Radeon RX480 may be a good option, you can check why in the following topic:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=49713


Regards

Hi everyone,
i7-4510U, Geforce 840M, 16 GB RAM, 2TB HD @5400 RPM

What codec are you using in the Ninja Blade, and what model is the HDD?
I ask, because I wonder if you aren't getting a slow render because you are I/O bound.

Hi Dan,

I record in Prores 422 normally (I use only LT for very long recordings). I have the DNxHD license, so I can record into AVID DNxHD 220x, 220, 145, and 36 if I need to. I've never used DNxHD before, but if DNxHD is faster to render, than I'll use that.

I record and edit off a Sandisk SSD Plus 240GB via USB 3.0, and Resolve and Win 10 is running off the internal ST1500LM006 HDD in my laptop.

I don't exactly know how ffmpeg works, but I'll learn it if I'm rendering in DNxHD.

I am planning to drop Intel and go with a Ryzen 1700 and OC it as you and Kel suggested. Here is my planned build as of now. I might just go with a 1070 since the price difference between it and the 1060 isn't that much right now.

I can't post an URL for some reason even with the url tags. Anyway, here is my planned build:

AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (overclocked)
MSI - X370 GAMING PRO CARBON ATX AM4 Motherboard
Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB FTW+ GAMING Video Card (or 1070, overclocked)
Corsair - Crystal 460X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA - SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Asus - PCE-AC56 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter
Corsair - SP120 RGB High Performance 52.0 CFM 120mm Fan

Could someone please give me an estimated render FPS rate with this build?

Hi Joshua, the AMD Radeon RX480 may be a good option, you can check why in the following topic:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=49713

Thanks for the suggestion, Miguel. The tests with the 480 were run with a 12 core Xeon, while I'm planning to use a Ryzen 1700 (8 cores, 16 threads). How much faster will a Ryzen 1700/Radeon 480 combo be in rendering 1080p (minor color correcting, 1-2 nodes) than a GTX 1060 or 1070?