My boyfriend asked for a computer build for podcasting and light gaming for Christmas. He specifically wants a custom build desktop and I wasn’t able to talk him out of going this route. We’re starting from zero so I’d need to get a tower, monitor, keyboard, mouse, mic, webcam, etc. Trying to keep it under $1300ish for the package.
What kind of specs should I target to future proof the system for podcasting in case this becomes a serious hobby for him? I’ve built hundreds of PCs in my lifetime but never had to consider audio/video production. Also curious if anyone has advice for the podcasting equipment.
Thanks ahead of time.
I would argue that podcasting doesn’t require a lot of power, and any modern CPU will have more than enough overhead to handle whatever he’ll do. Just make sure there’s adequate storage as audio files can get pretty big depending on how they’re recorded.
A raid set up to make sure there’s no loss of recordings in a disc failure would be a good idea.
I can’t help with mics, but for headphones, audio technica m40x has the best quality to price. There are Definitely better phones, but the m40x punch way above their cost.
I know future proof was a concern, but it’s worth noting that we’re at the beginning of the next gen of ram and cpu’s, so for a LOT cheaper you can get the best of the previous generation of parts and they’ll work for years. No real room for upgrading, but there won’t be a major difference between performance for another few years . I would recommend going for the best Ddr4 and AM4 setups rather than mediocre am5 and ddr5 parts that will cost a lot more. Black Friday deals on Newegg for the last gen are pretty solid.
I generally recommend AMD over Intel just because the value is vastly higher for the price, and they don’t make you get a new motherboard every time they release a new chip.
As GPU’s are going, higher video ram is more important than chip speed for editing. Nvidia makes the best but they cost a mortgage, I run AMD myself and have never been let down, but the specs on the new Intel ARC cards are crazy considering how cheap they are. I have no experience with them though, and reviews are hard to believe because they’re so new, so half of them will be complaints about driver issues that were ironed out months ago.
Monitors are all over the place. IPS, especially high speed IPS is better for gaming and all around, VA is better for movies and video editing. Honestly high end monitors are so expensive, I’d go for a 200$ IPS and assume he’ll replace it himself if he starts getting serious about video editing.
Mechanical keyboards are great, but they’re pretty loud for podcasting, unless you specifically look for a quiet switch. Monoprice makes great mech keyboards that regularly go on sale for like 30$ and have replaceable switches if one breaks, which they never really do.
Mouse’s are unique to the individual, so don’t go too high end and find out it doesn’t fit his hand how he wants it. Again, might be best to consider it a placeholder.
Get a case with lots of room for drives. Glass panels are nice, but if you don’t have one, you’ll never be tempted to fall into the rgb pothole. Unless he wants to rgb the hell out of everything. I did the lights. No regrets.
Good power supply is key and effectively permanent, so go big and get a good brand. I recommend super flower. He’ll probably never need more than 750w, but if you go for 1000 or even 1200 he can use it indefinitely. In general more wattage is more efficient and safer. This is the only part that can take everything else with it when it fails, so don’t take risks here. I’ve had two build lose mobo, CPU, ram, and actually a backup uninterruptible power source to bad PSUs.
Edit: if it interests anyone, the bad PSUs that took down the builds were both EVGA golds, one 750 and one 850. The 750 was two years old and started a fire in the case, the 850 was brand new and killed everything in a new build, including the battery backup I had it plugged into.
I’m just gonna suggest RAID is a bad idea. For gaming, it’s going to hurt performance if you’re just after redundancy. Raid is not a backup. Use backup software for that.
Could go with multiple drives and restrict RAID to a pair of drives used specifically for recording. But that’s not exactly a cheap way to do it…
I have a 32TB home server running RAID so he can use that for storage.
I suggest raid 1 for long term data storage, not for your boot drive or games. No loss in event of a disk failure, and hdds are cheap.
Your PSU recommendations are quite out of date. Modern day PSUs don’t need nearly as much power as they did 10 years ago. For example, my gaming rig with a Ryzen 5 5600x and a GTX 4060 Ti only draws ~320 Watts so I run a 500W PSU and it’s fine. I imagine for this build I’ll get away with even lower wattage.
I always suggest higher power than you need for a few reasons:
Peak efficiency is at about half load, and peak efficiency produces less heat, which is what kills components.
Long term compatibility - larger PSUs have more ports and can support significantly more specialized upgrade paths
Larger units tend to be made with higher quality parts. As I stated in the other comment, the PSU is the only thing that can take everything else with it when it goes.
As a generation of parts age, they often get more power hungry as companies start packing more chips into the same form factor. The regular CPU and GPU lines will get more efficient, so they’ll release a premium or creator line that has more cores or units.
Finally, a good power supply can be effectively permanent. Having more than you need is never a problem, and you can reuse it in an entirely new build ten years down the line when we have no idea how much wattage will be needed.
Go with either a 12th/13th Gen Intel (non-f), or a 7000-series Ryzen (do not start on a dead platform with AM4/5000-series Ryzen!). Since podcasting doesn’t need much graphical horsepower, hold off on the GPU and use the integrated graphics on the CPU to start. Use that GPU money, instead, for your monitor and peripherals - I like the Audiotechnica mics (2100X is a good budget one).
Once you do plop in a GPU, it’ll feel like you’re getting a brand new computer, again. Then you game in earnest.
I’m always a little weary of APUs, because most people will try to over game on them, and every overheat is a tiny bit slower CPU. Heat damage is why laptops eventually get shitty whether you abuse them or not. Even a low end dedicated card will save the processor a bit of stress. I run a few zen APUs at my offices and they’re great, but no one is trying to play anything more demanding than freecell on them.
Bah. Put a good cooler on your CPU and you’re fine.
I suppose it really depends on what games the guy is into. If he’s an occasional stardew guy, no trouble. If it’s call of duty, might be a problem. Although if he’s into call of duty they’ll need another whole ass hard drive to support that bloat
I believe the equipment will add up and take away from your budget for the custom PC. I would suggest going with a MinisForum mini PC with an AMD APU that has the 780M with a high TDP. For example the EliteMini UM780 XTX. The 780M APU is very capable of gaming at 1080p, especially considering FSR. The CPU side is very capable. This particular mini PC has an Oculink port which is the best port to use to add an external GPU should he wish to upgrade later.
The BenQ Mobiuz EX240 is a decently priced quality 1080p monitor. It is fast, has good color accuracy, and supports AMD Freesync Premium which will pair up nicely with the 780M during gaming.
Consider using Linux to save money on the OS. Linux Mint Edge has a familiar look to Windows and supports the latest hardware.
A keyboard that I imagine would be good for productivity is the Keychron Q1 V1. It has a knob that can be made to do anything and they keys are hot swappable so in the future he could add some nice silent switches so it doesn’t interrupt his recordings/livestreams. This keyboard also works with Linux.
I don’t know really anything about podcast recording but I know it’s audio and some people will live stream their podcasts. The program Tenacity is free and used for audio recording and the program OBS is also free and used for live streaming. Both programs work on Linux.
