The Specifications You Need for a Multimedia PC.
The equipment you use can be the deciding factor between good and great. Having a powerful computer is something most business owners do not think about, as it is a steep investment. We here at Acclaim do not want you to feel pressured into buying something you might not need, but if you are considering doing your own marketing, your own videos, your own graphics, and your own photos we would recommend purchasing a powerful machine that can handle the basic programs that most marketing agencies use.
Before diving into the specifics of what to include on your computer, make sure to take a moment and think about what you are doing for marketing for your business. Are you creating videos, editing photos, and designing templates and graphics for sales? Are you using a customer relationship management (CRM) system to email your customers? Are you uploading links and funny pictures to Facebook sometimes?
The more intense artistic bullets you have on your to-do list, the more likely you are to need a powerful computer to keep up. This insight is for a business owner who wants to up their game from simply using their smartphone to an actual machine that can handle graphically intensive programs for their business. This is what to look for when shopping for the best computer for marketing.
Benefits of a powerful Computer in General
We have all opened a large PDF and sat there waiting for the pages of the PDF to load. You might have a general understanding of computers, but what is going on in this case? Your computer is using its processor to analyze code and display it as a readable image on your screen. Something as simple as opening a PDF can become thousands of times faster if you have a computer with a powerful processor. Now, going from a one-minute wait time to a 3 second wait time might not seem important, but you will see that a powerful computer can compound this process across whatever task you are doing in your marketing campaign.
Every program you use, including your internet browser, uses processing power. The more programs you have open on your computer, the more processing power your computer must allocate accordingly. For a quick idea, press “Control + Shift + Escape” on your keyboard all at once. This will open your task manager. Then hit the Performance tab. Here you can see how each part of your computer is working in tandem with one another. Usually, these parts work together to process and render information on your computer’s screen so you can digest it visually.
Increasing the power of your machine will save you time, it will lessen the number of times a process will crash or fail, and it will allow you to see a finished project much more quickly. When using programs like Adobe Photoshop, or a CRM like HubSpot, your computer will use its resources to process information, saving you time and delivering a much more fluid experience. We are sure if we told you the difference in rendering a video on a store-bought laptop versus a custom-built gaming PC would be a difference of 6 hours… it might pique your interest.
Beyond the performance metrics, a well-built personal computer will last you much longer. Our video editor, Jake, has a PC he built over ten years ago that can still run video editing programs, and he will tell you that the return on investment for a powerful piece of equipment is more than worth it. Instead of buying a slower laptop for $500 every 3 years you could invest in a powerful desktop for $1500 that would last you for over a decade, perform better, and be able to run the most advanced programs on the market the whole time. The question becomes, do you have that money to invest?
Remember, if you have any questions on the specifications for a computer you can always reach out to us here at Acclaim.
Processing Power
“Intel, it’s what’s inside.”
-Intel Pentium Processor Marketing Slogan-
A processor does exactly what its name says it does, it processes. A processor will take binary code and collectively translate it to an image on your screen. The faster it can do that, the faster you can observe it. We know that sounds trivial but think about what that means. Once a process is complete it displays the result on your screen.
Having a computer that can process actions faster means the things you must do become much faster. Your productivity will exponentially skyrocket with editing your videos, photos, designs, even your browser will accomplish much more with a faster processor. As of July 2024, here are the best processors for the best value:
These processors offer impressive performance for a very reasonable price. The first two are lower performance for a cheaper price, and the second two are close to top-of-the-line without breaking the bank.
When you look at processors you might be sold on the speed of the processes. You might see terms like “6 gigahertz 4-core processor” which is very admirable… for 2014. When you look at processors, remember the number of cores matters much more than the processor’s max speed. Think of a core like a lane on a highway. There is a maximum number of cars that can access the lane at any moment. Adding more lanes allows more cars to pass through, much like more cores allows more data to pass through unfettered.
Requirements for Advanced Programs
The processor might be the most important part of your computer, simply because its function is tantamount to everything you do, but when you deal in marketing you need to use multiple aspects of a computer to run programs efficiently. Here are a few programs you might have seen or heard about that require a massive amount of computing power:
These programs require more than a powerful processor. They require something entirely different, a graphics card.
You will not find many laptops or desktops in a store that have a pre-installed graphics card, but you can buy already-assembled custom personal computers that can reinvigorate your marketing efforts. A graphics processing Unit (GPU) acts as a separate entity in your computer. These handle, you guessed it, graphically intense processes. Do not worry about how those sound, your computer and graphics card will do all the allocating and processing automatically after installing one, or if it is already installed you will not have to think about it all.
Here are some of the better graphics cards for reasonable prices:
- MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 3050 6GB
- PNY – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti
- XFX Radeon RX 580
- GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7600
Pay no mind to all the numbers in the names, for our purposes we are looking to make something you can use personally that will provide you the ability to use programs efficiently and last for a long time while you use this computer for your marketing endeavors. In another insight we will go into the meaning of those graphics card modifiers, but for now let us focus on your main goal, using this computer for marketing your business.
After the processor and graphics card we will need to mention random access memory (RAM) for just a second. About 8 gigabytes of RAM will do everything you need, but if you can add more, we recommend installing as much as possible. For more artistic ventures like designing logos or editing videos you want a large amount of RAM. It stores data on an internal solid-state drive temporarily while you are working on something. It makes adjusting graphics much easier and enhances your processor and graphics card. It’s not the end-all-be-all but more RAM will only allow your computer to run quicker and more efficiently. Here are some affordable options:
Taking your computer to have these installed, or looking up a YouTube video on how to do it is an amazingly simple and painless process, they pop right in.
Photo and Video Editing
We have mentioned this quite a bit in this insight, but photo, but especially video, editing are among the most resource-intense actions you can do on a computer. We would highly recommend a professional contractor for 3D modelling, but if you are genuinely interested in the specifications for a computer to 3D model you more than likely know what you need for a computer to pump out a Pixar movie.
Here are a couple of the requirements for a computer to handle photo and video editing:
- Operating System: Windows 10 (64-bit) versions 1903 and later, macOS versions 10.14 and later
- Processor: Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
- RAM: 16 GB (32 GB recommended)
- GPU: 2GB of GPU VRAM, compatible with OpenGL 2.0, requires at least a DirectX 12 compatible GPU
This is just for Adobe After Effects, and these are the MINIMUM requirements for it. Do you recognize the terminology used in those bullet points? Having these will at least allow your computer to open these programs and use them, even if very slowly.
Our video editor Jake recently built a custom personal computer and it’s specs are as follows:
- Operating System: Windows 11 (64-bit) version
- Processor: Intel i9 12900k 24-core processor
- RAM: 124 GB DDR4 RAM
- GPU: MSI Ventus 3X 4060ti with 8GB of GPU VRAM
If you are serious about attempting your own marketing, this is the kind of machine you would want to strive for. This type of machine will cost you upwards of $4,000 and will last you for well over 15 years and could handle most projects you throw at it. That is the return on investment we mentioned earlier. Having one singular machine that can do any facet of marketing for more than a decade for a couple thousand dollars.
The Best Computer for Marketing
Well, it is subjective, depending on your level of expertise and what you want to accomplish when marketing your business. If you only do a few posts on Facebook on your phone, you do NOT need a monster editing PC. If you want to start creating corporate overview videos, then you should invest in a computer that can handle that workload.
Remember, these requirements are not meant to scare you, but a marketing agency will more than likely have these types of machines ready to go. If you ever need advice on what kind of computer or laptop you might want to start creating on, reach out to us here at Acclaim.