<p>I've been given the task of building a new PC for my job - because there is a lot of video encoding coming up in the future and my current PC won't really hack it.</p>

<p>Now I kind of have a budget of about 1000, so i'm wondering where I should focus the money on.  I've found the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GRDS5NC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=34TJV1G9RUMB&amp;coliid=I2UL9C5HV9NLTN" rel="nofollow">Xeon 1650 V4</a> which has like 10 cores for about £600.  But then of course that leaves little money for a GPU.  But do I really need it? Couldn't I sacrifice the GPU all together and just use on board graphics, and let the processor do all the hard work with encoding? Because as far as I know anyway, there arn't really any programs that will actually utilise the GPU when encoding.  At the moment I use Handbrake for my conversion as it's quick and simple and I am quite sure that won't use CUDA or my GPU in anyway.</p>

<p>So i'm stuck with what to do really.  I've just done a build for home (i7 6700k, GTX 1070) and It's a lightning fast machine.  But is it really worth getting a GPU and spending nearly half my budget on it if the processor is going to do all the work?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-22T13:11:24.893Z
The other question you need ask is whether the apps you use for encoding use multiprocessors efficiently. So  clock speed vs № of cores is another variable. Some good info available here: https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/index.php
stib
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-22T13:15:57.057Z
Also might be worth looking at the E5-2670 CPU. They're ridiculously cheap for the performance and they're very popular with people building budget machines with lots of grunt/£. Eg: http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/
stib
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-23T04:32:56.780Z
Important question. What quality of encoding do you target? What resolution? Do you need real time encoding?
RawBean
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-27T16:43:00.023Z
The right gpu can make the encoding go lightning fast. But if this is going to work for you is completely dependent on the software you are going to be using. I would ask this question on the handbrake forum.
guus
<encoding>
Building a new PC - What should I spend money on - CPU or GPU?
Chud37
# Building a new PC - What should I spend money on - CPU or GPU?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-09-22)

I've been given the task of building a new PC for my job - because there is a lot of video encoding coming up in the future and my current PC won't really hack it.

Now I kind of have a budget of about 1000, so i'm wondering where I should focus the money on. I've found the [Xeon 1650 V4](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GRDS5NC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=34TJV1G9RUMB&coliid=I2UL9C5HV9NLTN) which has like 10 cores for about £600. But then of course that leaves little money for a GPU. But do I really need it? Couldn't I sacrifice the GPU all together and just use on board graphics, and let the processor do all the hard work with encoding? Because as far as I know anyway, there arn't really any programs that will actually utilise the GPU when encoding. At the moment I use Handbrake for my conversion as it's quick and simple and I am quite sure that won't use CUDA or my GPU in anyway.

So i'm stuck with what to do really. I've just done a build for home (i7 6700k, GTX 1070) and It's a lightning fast machine. But is it really worth getting a GPU and spending nearly half my budget on it if the processor is going to do all the work?

**Tags:** encoding

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The other question you need ask is whether the apps you use for encoding use multiprocessors efficiently. So  clock speed vs № of cores is another variable. Some good info available here: https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/index.php  
> **username_1**: Also might be worth looking at the E5-2670 CPU. They're ridiculously cheap for the performance and they're very popular with people building budget machines with lots of grunt/£. Eg: http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/  
> **username_2**: Important question. What quality of encoding do you target? What resolution? Do you need real time encoding?  
> **username_3**: The right gpu can make the encoding go lightning fast. But if this is going to work for you is completely dependent on the software you are going to be using. I would ask this question on the handbrake forum.  

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## 0 answers

