After Effects PC Spec

colmcq

Active member
Hi all, I'm hoping to put a spec together that can handle After Effects easily and this is what I've come up with. My intention was to include an Nvidia GeForce 3060ti graphics card but a) God knows how long that would take to come through on pre-order and b) I can't bring myself to pay the over the odds prices these cards go for at the moment. I'm content to just wait till after June when the prices start to come down again. That aside do yo have any thoughts or advice on this setup? I'm not bothered about led lights or anything flashy. I just want a pc that can handle heavy motion graphic and video editing work. I haven't needed to do any 4k work so I'm hoping tht's not going to be an issue futher down the line. I wanted a good motherboard with bluetooth which is why I've gone with the Auros Pro. So is this spec overkill, underkill or about right for semi-pro motion graphics and video editing? Plus maybe a bit of light gaming.

Case
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 REV. 2 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE X570S AORUS PRO AX: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 1, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX, WI-FI) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
 

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Hi all, I'm hoping to put a spec together that can handle After Effects easily and this is what I've come up with. My intention was to include an Nvidia GeForce 3060ti graphics card but a) God knows how long that would take to come through on pre-order and b) I can't bring myself to pay the over the odds prices these cards go for at the moment. I'm content to just wait till after June when the prices start to come down again. That aside do yo have any thoughts or advice on this setup? I'm not bothered about led lights or anything flashy. I just want a pc that can handle heavy motion graphic and video editing work. I haven't needed to do any 4k work so I'm hoping tht's not going to be an issue futher down the line. I wanted a good motherboard with bluetooth which is why I've gone with the Auros Pro. So is this spec overkill, underkill or about right for semi-pro motion graphics and video editing? Plus maybe a bit of light gaming.

Case
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 REV. 2 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE X570S AORUS PRO AX: ATX (USB 3.2 Gen 1, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX, WI-FI) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Heya! AE isn’t my speciality but I’m happy to help where I’m able to. Firstly, what's your buget? What monitors will you be using with the build (either make and model or resolution and refresh rate would be ideal!)? Also, would you be able to provide the configurable link? it makes suggesting changes a lot easier.

On CPU's, for AE I'd personally recommend 12th Gen intel, it's on a brand new platform and has fantastic performance especially for CPU bound tasks. The 12700K outperforms the 5900X and would come out cheaper too, then for top performance if you've got the budget, the 12900K is a monster.


On GPU's I understand the frustration with the GPU market. You've specced "I already have a GPU", do you? The majority of the AMD cards don't have integrated graphics so you'd need a GPU to put in for them (if you go down that route). On the card itself, would the 12GB 3060 not be a better choice with the extra 4GB of VRAM it offers?

There are other areas we should look at, but can do this once we have the budget, monitor and link
 

colmcq

Active member
Thanks for the reply Steveyg, here's the reconfigure link now (I hope). https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-am4-gen3-pc/

I've based a lot of my choices on the recomendations I found on thispugetsystems site and other sites which linked to it that discussed After Effects and specs. https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...be-After-Effects-144/Hardware-Recommendations

The 12GB 3060 doesn't perform as well as the 8GB it seems which is weird. Maybe it's a better card for gamers?

Budgetwise I was thinking around the £2k mark - not including GPU as I'm gonna wait. I currently use a GeForce 1650 Super which i know is nowhere near enough but I can live with its shortcomings for now. Or until my patience gives in and I end up splurging a fortune on a proper card.

I have 3 PHL242v8 monitors (1920 x 1080 at 75 Hz).

I appreciate any thoughts and advice you can offer.
 

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I've based a lot of my choices on the recomendations I found on thispugetsystems site and other sites which linked to it that discussed After Effects and specs. https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...be-After-Effects-144/Hardware-Recommendations

The 12GB 3060 doesn't perform as well as the 8GB it seems which is weird. Maybe it's a better card for gamers?
That's interesting! I woulda thought the extra VRAM would've come in handy, I guess not. The 60TI would certainly be a better card for gamers, although as far as I'm aware, Puget doesn't really focus on that side of things

Budgetwise I was thinking around the £2k mark - not including GPU as I'm gonna wait. I currently use a GeForce 1650 Super which i know is nowhere near enough but I can live with its shortcomings for now. Or until my patience gives in and I end up splurging a fortune on a proper card.
Thanks for thr info, should be able to build a beast for that 👌

I have 3 PHL242v8 monitors (1920 x 1080 at 75 Hz).
I'll leave this up to others as I'm not to proficient in production monitors, although I can imagine a 4K 60hz screen being a very nice upgrade. One to ponder maybe?


For the spec itself, I'd recommend an Intel spec (the puget info seems to line up with this too)

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS Significantly higher airflow case will aid in better temps for components. If you're looking for a particularly quiet case, the Fractal Define 7 has my recommendation
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 16-Core Processor i9-12900K (3.2GHz) 30MB Cache Top of the line 12th gen CPU
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready Top end Motherboard, has WiFi 6 and BT 5.2 built in
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W) Small SATA SSD to be used as Scratch disc
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE Not sure if you already have a place to store inactive projects?
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W) Super fast Boot SSD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW) Active project and games drive
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET Higher quality and much higher wattage PSU for a more efficient system, would allow you to add a beast of a GPU down the road if you wanted
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler Top end cooling for the 12900K
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001] I'd stick to Windows 10 for now then upgrade once W11 is a less buggy OS
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 11 working days
Price: £1,996.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/pvzdYE88Nm/
 

colmcq

Active member
That does look good I have to admit. You've convinced me on the Intel build - I didn't realise it could come in at such a decent price which is why I originally went for AMD. Great to have a good reccomendation on a cooler as it's not something i really know much about and that motherboard looks great too. I'll probably pull the sata drives out of my existig setup and use those as scratch and storage disks but I'm curious why you went with a 500GB hard drive for the main OS drive - was that just to keep costs down? I like to have plenty of space on my main drive just to keep my options open. Probably just me being lazy and undisciplined when it comes to using other drives, although I know this slows the system down. Not with the new rig though! Best practices will be used with that. Thanks for the rpid repsonse SteveyG, it's been a huge help.
 

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
That does look good I have to admit. You've convinced me on the Intel build - I didn't realise it could come in at such a decent price which is why I originally went for AMD. Great to have a good reccomendation on a cooler as it's not something i really know much about and that motherboard looks great too. I'll probably pull the sata drives out of my existig setup and use those as scratch and storage disks but I'm curious why you went with a 500GB hard drive for the main OS drive - was that just to keep costs down? I like to have plenty of space on my main drive just to keep my options open. Probably just me being lazy and undisciplined when it comes to using other drives, although I know this slows the system down. Not with the new rig though! Best practices will be used with that. Thanks for the rpid repsonse SteveyG, it's been a huge help.
Yeah, Intel have done really well with 12th gen, just waiting for B660 boards for the cheaper chips then I think they'll have AMD covered pretty much everywhere.

Great to have a good reccomendation on a cooler as it's not something i really know much about and that motherboard looks great too.
The higher end Intel CPU's aren't the easiest to cool so it's pretty much go with the best cooler you can (also the reason I'd encourage a high airflow build). The H150i is both a fantastic performing and looking cooler so should do you plenty.

Awesome, the STRIX options are solid boards, although I've found of the Z690-A to split opinions a bit, good to hear you're on the positive side!

I'll probably pull the sata drives out of my existig setup and use those as scratch and storage disks but I'm curious why you went with a 500GB hard drive for the main OS drive - was that just to keep costs down? I like to have plenty of space on my main drive just to keep my options open. Probably just me being lazy and undisciplined when it comes to using other drives, although I know this slows the system down. Not with the new rig though!
For the average user, 500GB should be plenty for Windows and applications. This may change with your case depending on how many plugins and things you need for AE, but as you say, a larger drive 'encourages' you to be lazy with how you use the system. If you want a real challenege, try 250GB ;) And generally yes, the fuller the drive gets, the slower the system becomes, ideally you'd keep it about half full for optimal speed.

Thanks for the rpid repsonse SteveyG, it's been a huge help.
Junior by the way ;) But no worries, always a pleasure!
 

colmcq

Active member
Yeah, Intel have done really well with 12th gen, just waiting for B660 boards for the cheaper chips then I think they'll have AMD covered pretty much everywhere.


The higher end Intel CPU's aren't the easiest to cool so it's pretty much go with the best cooler you can (also the reason I'd encourage a high airflow build). The H150i is both a fantastic performing and looking cooler so should do you plenty.

Awesome, the STRIX options are solid boards, although I've found of the Z690-A to split opinions a bit, good to hear you're on the positive side!


For the average user, 500GB should be plenty for Windows and applications. This may change with your case depending on how many plugins and things you need for AE, but as you say, a larger drive 'encourages' you to be lazy with how you use the system. If you want a real challenege, try 250GB ;) And generally yes, the fuller the drive gets, the slower the system becomes, ideally you'd keep it about half full for optimal speed.


Junior by the way ;) But no worries, always a pleasure!
Oh haahaa, sorry fella. I really appreciate the advice. I might have gone down the wrong path there but I'm headingback towards th Intel model with pretty much all of those specs.
 

JUNI0R

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Oh haahaa, sorry fella. I really appreciate the advice. I might have gone down the wrong path there but I'm headingback towards th Intel model with pretty much all of those specs.
Which path are you heading down?
 

colmcq

Active member
Which path are you heading down?
This is what I'm planning on now. I might go for a different case though.
Case

FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 16-Core Processor i9-12900K (3.2GHz) 30MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/8HDd8hqQE9/
 
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