This guide provides all the information you need to build a video editing PC that will be powerful enough to handle your workload—without wasting money on extraneous features you don’t need. Building your own editing PC instead of buying one pre-built means you’ll get the exact performance you require without breaking the bank.

If you’re looking to put together the ultimate video editing PC at a mainstream price, this is the guide for you! Rather than try to tweak gaming-focused builds to make them a better match for heavy Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and similar application use, just build one that’s designed for content creation from the start!

The following builds are designed to be a good baseline or jumping off point for your personal build. They have been designed with video editing in mind as the primary usage, with programs such as Resolve, Premiere, and After Effects considered.

Video editing is a demanding task for any PC, but we crafted a few builds at different price points that will do the job just fine.