Completely Machinima S1 Special: How to Build a Machinima PC

Phil Rice and Ricky Grove discuss building a PC specifically for machinima production and post-production. They start with the GPU and work their way through an entire PC build adding tips and techniques for making a great machinima workstation PC.

Phil's PC Build

Budget: $2,000

Components

• CPU: Intel Core i9-10900F 10 Core LGA 1200 (Intel 400 Series chipset)

• GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Turbo Edition

• Mobo: ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming Z490 (WiFi 6) LGA 1200 (Intel 10th Gen) ATX Gaming Motherboard

• Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX PC Case

• RAM: Corsair CMK32GX4M4A2666C16 Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz (PC4-21300)

• Power: Rosewill Gaming 80 Plus Bronze 850W Full Modular Power Supply

• CPU Cool (non-stock): Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO V2 CPU Air Cooler

• Primary Storage: WD_Black SN750 1TB NVMe Internal Gaming SSD - Gen3 PCIe, M.2 2280, 3D NAND - WDS100T3X0C

• Additional Storage: 3 X Western Digital 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND Internal PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, 2.5"/7mm, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS100T2B0A (2 in RAID 1 + 1 standalone)

• Operating System: Windows 10 Home

Note: Phil's build is very much a multi-role machine... 1) machinima / animation creation, 3) live streaming to Twitch and YouTube, 3) video editing - sometimes 4K footage, and 4) DAW (digital audio workstation), so he had some extra storage needs that may be extreme for most setups. That's also the reason for his insistence on 32GB of RAM.

Actual Price = $2,030 + tax

Ricky's PC Build

Budget: $1,000-$1,200

Components

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT

• Mobo: GIGABYTE X570 I AORUS Pro Wi-Fi

• Case: Lian Li Mid-Tower Chassis mATX Computer

• RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000)

• Power: Corsair RM 750 Series, 80+ Gold Certified 750W Fully Modular Power Supply

• CPU Cool (non-stock): Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition CPU Air Cooler

• Storage: Samsung EVO 970 1TB PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe M.2-2280 Internal Solid State Drive

• Operating System: Windows 10 Home

Actual Price = $1,530 (oops)

Additional Items:

• Intel Core Processors

• AMD Ryzen Processors

• Mushkin Memory

• Crucial Memory Advisor Tool

• AMD Graphics Cards

• NVIDIA Graphics Cards

• Parts Vendor: Newegg

• Parts Vendor: B&H Photo

• Parts Vendor: Amazon

• Parts Vendor: CDW

• Parts Vendor: Micro Center

• ARCTIC MX-4 (4 Grams) - Thermal Compound Paste

• Energizer LED Headlamp ("miner's light")

• Grounding Wrist Strap

• LG Electronics 8X USB 2.0 Super Multi Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer Drive

• Website / community for DIY PC builders: diybuildpc.com (Phil manages this site/community, which is very new)

• Article/Video: The Many Types of RAM

• Article/Video: Common PC Building Mistakes Made By Beginners

Time Links

• 00:03:49   What kind of PC do we want to build?

• 00:05:04   Laptop vs Workstation PC

• 00:08:50   First step: Budget

• 00:10:49   About the GPU

• 00:12:14   About the CPU

• 00:16:50   The current GPU supply crises

• 00:24:45   Phil on buying a pre-built PC 

• 00:29:19   Ricky's CPU choice

• 00:30:29   Phil's CPU choice

• 00:32:50   Motherboards and cable organization

• 00:41:15   RAM choices

• 00:47:46  Where to buy PC parts?

• 00:51:25  The build process

• 01:01:00  Phil on solid-state drives

• 01:06:36  What to do after the build?

• 01:12:00  Phil's final PC build advice