Cheap Editing Setups...

Without spending a decent chunk of money, you're really going nowhere.

You would need at least an i5 6500, with a H77 board, 1x SSD (preferably Sandisk or Samsung), 1x HDD, 16gb of DDR3 or DDR4 RAM (depending on the board).

Graphics card is unnecessary since video editing and rendering is done like 90% on the CPU, or more.

Thats $200 for the CPU, $75 for the mobo, $100 for a 250gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD. $80-$100 for a decent 2TB HDD, $80-$100 for a pair of 8GB DDR4 2133 MHz Crucial RAM sticks.

That is at least around $600 for the BARE minimum assuming you salvage scraps and parts from your existing machine and whatever junk you can heave out of a scrapyard to piece all these parts together into a functioning computer.

bynd2whls said:

I have seen many people say I need a ssd and a hdd. What is the purpose of this, if solid state drives are so superior, why even bother with a spinning drive also? Thanks in advance.

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The SSD is your working drive, the HDD is your storage. The reason you use a HDD is because of cost. You will inevitably need a shit load of space to store working files and rendered files, as well as your software tools.

For the equivalent HDD space, you would pay at least 10 times more per GB. A low end cheap 2TB HDD costs $60, a similar sized low end SSD would cost you at least $600, if it even existed.

Also, having 2 drives is there to split up the data transmission load. Each drive has a maximum bandwidth with which they can use to either transmit or recieve data to and from the CPU and to each other. If you store the original working files on one drive, and render it to another, each drive can focus on only one task, that being reading and writing respectively, making things go faster.

Reize said:

The SSD is your working drive, the HDD is your storage. The reason you use a HDD is because of cost. You will inevitably need a shit load of space to store working files and rendered files, as well as your software tools.

For the equivalent HDD space, you would pay at least 10 times more per GB. A low end cheap 2TB HDD costs $60, a similar sized low end SSD would cost you at least $600, if it even existed.

Also, having 2 drives is there to split up the data transmission load. Each drive has a maximum bandwidth with which they can use to either transmit or recieve data to and from the CPU and to each other. If you store the original working files on one drive, and render it to another, each drive can focus on only one task, that being reading and writing respectively, making things go faster.

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Ooooh, I learned something new here Looking on massively updating my 2002 pc (which had some upgrades trough the years but hey, she's 15, what do you want...) and the SSD-HDD-way is the smartest option it seems
Thank you!

To give you a reference point, I have an quad core @ 3.3GHz that I built in 2012 for gaming. Renders 1080p60 video just fine. Only hits about 75 degrees C under heavy load. I have an SSD / HDD combo, and it is really nice, but not essential. I don't know what the prices for parts would be now, but certainly a lot less than what I bought them for 5 years ago.

My specs:
CPU: Intel i5 2500K
Mobo: Asus P8Z68
Gfx: Radeon HD 6850 Gigabyte brand
RAM: 2x 8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
SSD: 128GB Kingston V300
HDD: 2x 4TB Seagate ST4000
Power Supply: Seasonic X-650
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922

For graphics card, just buy the best one you can afford, as these get outdated so quickly. On-board RAM on the graphics card will help a bit for video rendering, as well. You should be able to get by fine with 8GB of RAM, but if you can swing it, 16 is nice.

Nice thing about the SSD / HDD though is that you don't need to buy a huge SSD, you can buy 250GB for about $100 (USD) these days, and then get like a 4TB HDD to store all your videos on. One thing I will say is careful on the SSD manufacturer. I have had one die on me before a year, and one that was dead on arrival before I even installed it. Two different manufacturers, both very reputable. So check reviews before buying if you go that route. I would say if you do HDD though to get a faster processor, but if you were on a budget, you could go as slow as I have with an SSD and still be all right.

Make sure you get a good power supply that can support all the components you have!

On a budget of $200... honestly, I'm not sure that will do it. You could maybe try computer shops that sell used parts? What are the rest of your specs?

I'm soon to update as well as I use my work laptop to edit and want a dedicated rig for media processing.

It's true that an SSD is not necessary, but really will improve your life.
If possible, an i7 is also beneficial thanks to hyperthreading.

This stuff can be done on older cheaper gear, but you will be exchanging money for time saved and that's the consideration.

If you can, spring on a great motherboard, decent ram and a good cpu (I know you've already purchased, but this is for anyone who stumbles across this in the future), and upgrade slowly over time, as you can afford it.