THE WD EDITOR BOX
Master modder Stuart Tonks once again graces APC’s pages with another sumptuous custom build – which you could win!
Wind back the APC clock a year and you will have seen the very special modded PC built by pro-modder Stuart Tonks, and made possible by WD. It was a stunner, and we gave it away to a very happy APC reader. And now, we’re doing it again!
Stuart has gone in a different direction with this build and it’s aimed ostensibly at video editors – but, really, is simply a powerhouse able to tackle anything, including gaming. Once again, we are running a competition to give this beauty away; see the boxout for details on how to enter. We are quite sure that whoever can call this their own will be very happy indeed!
Here, Stuart shares in his own words how he came to choose the final design, and the components that went into it. Perhaps we can all learn a thing or two from this for the next build we do ourselves.
Planning and design
For an editing PC, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration before rushing out and choosing your favourite parts. When it comes to building any PC really, planning is a very important process and often overlooked. Whether it be a gaming system, custom liquidcooled monster or even just a home office PC, planning should never be overlooked. Most of the time you’ll be building the system for yourself so you know exactly what you’ll be using the PC for. But for this project, Western Digital reached out to me to build a high-end editing PC to showcase the new WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD. Because this PC is also to be given away to an APC reader, things are made rather tricky without knowing the winner and their exact use case. I also feel that even though this project is for an editing system, the winner may also use the system for other tasks like gaming and so on. 01
The final design I went with is a beasty editing specced system with a bit of flair. It not only looks good, it has the ability for some late-night gaming or even just processing huge files. The days have gone of having an ugly black box sitting under the desk. As the PC is not for me, maintenance and upgradability have also been kept in mind, so we won’t be seeing a full custom water loop in this one.
“The final design I went with is a beasty editing spec’d system with a bit of flair. It not only looks good, it has the ability for some late-night gaming or even just processing huge files.”
Selecting the parts
With the planning out of the way and no crazy custom water loop to spec out, I carefully selected parts that to me would give the selected winner a decent editing PC with plenty of options. The main breakdown of parts I went with includes Western Digital (of course) for all the storage needs;
AMD and Asrock for the processing power and future proof connectivity; as well as Fractal Design for the chassis, cooling and powering the system. 02
I’ve been editing for many years now and find one of the key components for a smooth editing session is the CPU. Throwing in a Ryzen 9 3900X 16-core processor will keep this system going well into the night, and running nice and cool. For the motherboard you’ll find an Asrock X570 Creator – yes, hence the name, this has everything a creator needs, 10 Gigabit networking, dual Thunderbolt 3 ports, full PCIE gen4 support, and more. 03
Storage-wise, we find there’s plenty of it in Western Digital’s new WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD. Two 1TB SSDs have been installed in this system. One for a speedy OS drive while the second can be set up for a scratch drive. These SSDs boast speeds up to four times more than SATA SSDs at up to 2,400 MB/s, so they are the perfect addition for any editor or content creator who wants to upgrade their PC. As much as I love my super-fast SSDs, I’m still pretty old school and enjoy my old mechanical drives for bulk storage or backups. If the selected winner is a hardcore editor, they will need some beefy large-scale storage for backups. I’ve gone with four Western Digital Black 6TB drives for this. Black drives are not only incredibly fast – for mechanical drives they’re also very reliable. 04
I’ve gone with 32GB of G.Skill
“As much as I love my super-fast SSDs, I’m still pretty old school and enjoy my old mechanical drives for bulk storage or backups.”
Trident Z RGB memory. It’s 2020, so we’ve got to have a bit of RGB here and there. The lighting from these will tie-in nicely with the RGB fans, GPU and AIO cooler. I could have gone 64GB of memory but often find only specific editing needs will require that much. The memory installed in this system is operating at 3600MHz, which is a perfect match for the Ryzen 3900X processor.
One item that’s often overlooked is the case. There are so many options out there and how do you know if it has the features you need? You’ve probably heard of Fractal Design – it’s been building featurepacked quality cases for as long as I can remember. The Define Series has been a trendsetter since way back when it first came to market. For an editing system it was a no-brainer to go with something like the Fractal Design Define 7. This is a mid-tower chassis with all the features you could need. Plenty of storage options, ample cooling capabilities, neat cable management implementations and clean lines will make for a great showpiece on any desk. 05
While we’re talking about Fractal Design, I’ve thrown in one of its new Celsius+ S36 Prisma all-in-one coolers. This is maintenance-free and will keep the 3900X running nice and cool – while a Fractal Design Ion+ 860W Platinum power supply is powering the whole system. 06
“This is a mid-tower chassis with all the features you could need. Plenty of storage options, ample cooling capabilities, neat cable management implementations and clean lines will make for a great showpiece on any desk.”
When it comes to video cards and editing systems it can be a bit of a mixed bag. Some software relies heavily on the CPU while other software can utilise GPU performance as well. In case the winner wanted to also use this rig as a gaming PC, I’ve thrown in a Zotac RTX 2080 Super AMP
Extreme, which will handle the latest AAA titles with ease.
The build
With planning and parts out of the way, it now came down to building the PC. If you’ve followed my work before, this build is quite straight forward when compared to what I’m used to doing. No custom water cooling or modding required for this system. But in saying that, this may not be a straightforward build for some and/or if you’re a beginner in the PC building department. 07
Starting off, I always mount all the gear (or as much gear as possible) to the motherboard first. This includes, of course, the CPU, memory and the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSDs – saving having to
reach into the case later on. Oh – make sure you mount that motherboard’s IO shield into the case before mounting the motherboard! 08
The Define 7 from Fractal Design is a feature-packed case and has several use cases. Even the user’s manual has instructions for setting the case up for your needs.
The “Server Build” layout was exactly what I needed as this will now provide the support for the four Western Digital Black 6TB hard drives to be installed. They are pushed just enough in the case to allow the 360 AIO to be installed at the front of the chassis. 09
With the case layout set up, motherboard and drives in, the next setup was to quickly mount the AIO fans and then pop them into the chassis. As the AIO cooler is going in the front of the chassis, we need to make sure the fans are oriented correctly with them intaking air from the front. The Fractal Design Celsius+ S36 Prisma AIO uses
the stock AM4 motherboard mounting. You may find other brands use their own cooler mounting. If so, I would install that mounting on the motherboard outside of the case first. No additional thermal paste is required here as Fractal Design has already pre-applied it to the base of the CPU cooler. 10
Next, I can mount the GPU and power supply. Something to be aware of is the length of the graphics card. Some cases might have issues with longer cards. The Zotac RTX 2080 Super AMP Extreme is an absolute beast and was actually fouling on one of the hard drives. This wasn’t much of an issue for me as I could relocate this drive to another drive bay under the PSU shroud. 11
To finish, it’s time to cable the system up. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect around the back, a few zip ties to hold the cables down is all you need. I prefer to spend more time on the main side and with some CableMod sleeve extensions, the system is looking really sharp. 12
After powering on the system, we can see just how well all the components come together. The RGB from the Fractal Design cooler, G.Skill memory and the Zotac 2080 Super complement each other nicely – nothing over the top. But if RGB isn’t your thing, all can be controlled and changed to a single static colour if preferred.