Building my new PC!

[Hevlex]

Greetings, MMO-readers.

I am planning on buying a new computer, (hope this is the right place to post), so here we go:
I am a student on a communication and multi-media design study so i will use my pc for;

-Gaming (from world of warcraft up to the latest high end performing games)
-3D programs, (Modeling, sculpting, rendering).
-Video editing, (Everything)

So i need a all around strong pc (not only for gaming).

Budget: €1050,- (MAXIMUM!)
has to include: full pc + case
exclude: Operation system software (got still a windows 7 cd + license available to install)

I live in the Netherlands and will build the pc myself (never did this before, but i got some friends that can/will help me who did it several times and know their way around the block)

Additional information:
Monitor - 27 inch full hd led monitor. 120 hz, 1080P (Think my graphic won't have problems with it?)
Mouse / keyboard: Not needed


My list:

CPU
Intel Core i7 3770 Boxed_______________________€ 267,-
Motherboard
Asrock Z77 Pro3_____________________________ € 78,45
VideoCard
MSI GTX 660Ti Power Edition____________________ € 283,02
Intern hard drive disk
Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST2000DM001, 2TB_____€ 86,75
Processor cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO____________________€ 25,91
Fans -
Cooler Master Silent Fan 120 SI1 , 120mm x 2______€8,10
Memory -
Corsair Vengeance CML8GX3M2A1600C9 Low Profile__€ 35,45
Power supply
Cooler Master GX-Lite 700W_______________________€ 61,90
SSD
Samsung 830 series 128GB________________________€ 86,10+
_______________________________________________€945,-

Do you guys got any suggestions for a better build? A case? Maby 16gb ram since i do alot video editing etc?

[chazus]

I've heard mixed reviews on RAM for video editing, but it's so cheap, there's really no harm in being safe.

Expect to get lots of "You don't need 16gb ram" and "You don't need an i7" posts, by people who didn't read the post regarding video editing.

[Deleted]

you want a i7 3700K if you want to overclock, either way I'd recommend a 3570k instead, it's cheaper and you won't need hyperthreading.

Nevermind, read your post but didn't think you did a lot of video editing (people say they do, but it's never really A LOT). I'd still pick the 3570k though, unless you definately want the 3770(K)! <-- remember K if u want to overclock with hyper 212.

[Hevlex]

I've heard mixed reviews on RAM for video editing, but it's so cheap, there's really no harm in being safe.

Expect to get lots of "You don't need 16gb ram" and "You don't need an i7" posts, by people who didn't read the post regarding video editing.

Yeah, for gaming purposes only i would get an I5 with 8GB. But since it is for school also and i will use it ALOT and for video editing and 3D software i think
i feel safer with an I7 and 16gb. Especially since 8gb more would only be another 30 bucks yeah. But what about the total setup? Would some parts work better
if replaced by others etc etc. Maby something equal for less the price.

[Deleted]

If you want something that's very close but cheaper, you could go with a z68 board with an i7-2600k. It's cheaper than ivy bridge and still gets the job done.

[BruceG87]

Will you be overclocking your CPU anytime soon?

[inux94]

Change the HDD to a Western Digital Caviar Blue/Black, Seagate HDD's are atrociously bad.

[torrmar74]

Don't forget you are gonna need a dvd or blu-ray disc drive. Other than that very nice build.

[inux94]

Why would you need that?

I haven't used one in about 2 years.

[Deleted]

Cooler Master 212 EVO is a very good choice as a CPU Cooler, I currently use one. You should pay some attention to the case you buy, it is pretty tall.

[BruceG87]

Normally, I am hesitant to "build" anything for others. Since no one has built a sample yet, I figured I would give it my best shot. Inux94, perhaps you can look this over as well in case I made any dramatic errors.

EDIT - Removed build due to prices not accurately adding up.

Gaming is simple, so focusing on video editing..
-i7 3770k for as much CPU power+HT which will benefit video editing depending on what programs you are using to do it. This can be dropped to a the i7-3770 if you are not planning on doing any overclocking.
-16GB of memory, the cheaper option of the decent memory modules was actually a 2x8GB kit. This leaves you with room to expand in the future(If needed)

As far as the video card goes, I know nvidia cards are preferred for video editing. However, for 3D model/rendering.. Quadro cards are generally recommended. For your budget the listed nvidia card should be fine. If anyone knows otherwise, feel free to intervene here.

EDIT - A last note, I read that when it comes to video editing people generally recommend larger cases that are thermally sound. I'm not the most experienced when it comes to heat heavy builds. However, my last build was in an arc midi and it does quite well in a room that normally runs quite hot and it handles heat like a champ.

[inux94]

Your PSU & DVD drive doesn't have a price.

Antec Earthwatts 430w

[BruceG87]

Oh wow, I completely missed that. One moment.

[Dysko]

With the 660ti and a 120hz you should be fine with most games. There is the chance you might not be able to go max on settings if you want full 120fps.

Change the HDD to a Western Digital Caviar Blue/Black, Seagate HDD's are atrociously bad.

Why is that?
All the seagates I've had over the years were just as good as the WD's I've owned.
Also goes for all the users/servers/NAS stations at work.

[inux94]

With the 660ti and a 120hz you should be fine with most games. There is the chance you might not be able to go max on settings if you want full 120fps.




Why is that?
All the seagates I've had over the years were just as good as the WD's I've owned.
Also goes for all the users/servers/NAS stations at work.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1161...placement.html
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Seagate...vice/m-p/39164
http://www.consumercourtforum.in/f44...d-drive-66714/
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/FreeAge...ms/td-p/149167
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/0...e-fiasco-grows
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop...e/td-p/1492383

Basically the problems started in 2009, and they continued until early 2012, when a HDD manufacturer is having big time issues with their products, you know somethings' wrong.

You also can't be sure the HDD you get is a Q2 2012 version.

[BruceG87]

Pcpartpicker was giving me grief.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€275.95 @ Amazon Deutchland)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€41.98 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (€99.89 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€76.85 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (€90.89 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€75.81 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (€214.98 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case (€95.98 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (€63.52 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (€22.35 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Total: €1058.20
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

Tried my best, but with those previous invisible prices showing up.. it completely changed everything.

Note the HDD change from 2TB or 1TB. The difference being the 2TB WD Caviar Black, the cost comes out to €1136.62, which is over the requested budget. Unless the OP can save a bit more for the build, I'd recommend going the route of a 1TB HDD for now, and purchasing another 1TB Caviar Blue HDD at a later date. Otherwise, to meet the requested budget would require some dramatic changes.

Another option is dropping the SSD to 64GB, and increasing the HDD to the 2TB Caviar Black, which would bring the cost to €1117.58. I wouldn't do it, but it's an option.

Otherwise it'd be time to shop for a different processor/motherboard.

PCPartpicker's options for your currency seem rather limited.

EDIT - Alternate route, if you were willing to drop the i7 to an i5. The i7 is definitely preferred for video editing/3d rendering. However, it'd still work. The change would allow you the larger SSD and the 2TB HDD.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€195.61 @ Amazon Deutchland)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€41.98 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (€99.89 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€76.85 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€154.23 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (€90.89 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (€214.98 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower ATX Mid Tower Case (€95.98 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (€63.52 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (€22.35 @ Amazon Deutchland)
Total: €1056.28
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

[Dysko]

http://www.macworld.com/article/1161...placement.html
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Seagate...vice/m-p/39164
http://www.consumercourtforum.in/f44...d-drive-66714/
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/FreeAge...ms/td-p/149167
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/0...e-fiasco-grows
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop...e/td-p/1492383

Basically the problems started in 2009, and they continued until early 2012, when a HDD manufacturer is having big time issues with their products, you know somethings' wrong.

You also can't be sure the HDD you get is a Q2 2012 version.

this is good to know. I think i got super lucky with my home machine then, or just got an older one. I wonder if this applies to their server grade drives, those have been the only ones we have bought for work this past year.

thanks.

Completely derailed.. haha..

[Deleted]

I dont think getting a 660ti will be any good for editing. I would go for an AMD card, the 7950 boost costs the same and is a bit better for gaming. http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/31933...6-16-20g).html

Befor you do however, check what programs you will use and if they are more based on CPU or GPU. The AMD cards are better in computing this generation than the nvidia ones. afaik the 7870 is better/just as good as the 680 regarding computing. Also other stuff like the membus might be limithing with editing.

I dont have any experience with editing, but i would look at that. Other than that, as far as gaming goes it looks good

Seeing as you live in Holland, check tweakers.net for the cheapest prices

[Rhyseh]

this is good to know. I think i got super lucky with my home machine then, or just got an older one. I wonder if this applies to their server grade drives, those have been the only ones we have bought for work this past year.

thanks.

Completely derailed.. haha..

I'm not sure if the Constellation and Momentus drives are affected, I would like to think that they aren't but cannot confirm. I'm pretty sure the SAS Cheetah drives are unaffected.

OT: BruceG87 put together a pretty decent list. I would go with his recommendations. I highly recommend the Samsung 830 SSD.

I dont think getting a 660ti will be any good for editing. I would go for an AMD card, the 7950 boost costs the same and is a bit better for gaming. http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/31933...6-16-20g).html

Befor you do however, check what programs you will use and if they are more based on CPU or GPU. The AMD cards are better in computing this generation than the nvidia ones. afaik the 7870 is better/just as good as the 680 regarding computing. Also other stuff like the membus might be limithing with editing.

I dont have any experience with editing, but i would look at that. Other than that, as far as gaming goes it looks good

Seeing as you live in Holland, check tweakers.net for the cheapest prices

Depending on what video editing applications you are using you may find that one manufacturer is better than the other. Generally nVidia have less problems with some rendering applications due to a number of driver partnership advantages, however I am not sure if this overflows outside of the Quadro cards. I definitely would not recommend a Quadro for gaming though. It's not worth the extra expense.

Also take into consideration how much video editing and rendering you will be doing. Also consider the scale of you operation. If you are editing, encoding and rendering large videos and models on a daily basis then the i7 is a good buy. If it's something you do once a week then the i7 is wasted. Sure your render may finish 20 - 30% faster with an i7, but is it really worth the extra expense to change your render time from 15 minutes to 12 minutes? Realistically you are the only one who can assess this, however remember that the i5 is FAR from a bad CPU. If you are encoding on a regular basis or with very large objects then I would definitely advise grabbing the i7.

[BruceG87]

I dont think getting a 660ti will be any good for editing. I would go for an AMD card, the 7950 boost costs the same and is a bit better for gaming. http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/31933...6-16-20g).html

Befor you do however, check what programs you will use and if they are more based on CPU or GPU. The AMD cards are better in computing this generation than the nvidia ones. afaik the 7870 is better/just as good as the 680 regarding computing. Also other stuff like the membus might be limithing with editing.

I dont have any experience with editing, but i would look at that. Other than that, as far as gaming goes it looks good

Seeing as you live in Holland, check tweakers.net for the cheapest prices

Wrong. Cuda Acceleration, Mercury Playback Engine use tech from Nvidia. While it is possible to heavily mod and run CUDA and MPE on some ATI cards in some instances, it's glitchy and does not always work. More then likely the OP uses programs that would benefit more from an nvidia card.

Anything built on this budget will run games. The focus here is helping the OP get the most bang for his buck in terms of video editing/3d rendering.

Stop blindly telling people to get 7950. Do some research before you offer people here advice. You have inexperienced builders who may just follow your advice down the wrong road.

EDIT - While Quadro cards are still ideal for video editing/3d rendering, they are in fact terrible for gaming as stated by Rhyseh. All Nvidia cards do in fact have the ability to utilize that tech though.

---------- Post added 2012-10-18 at 04:34 PM ----------

Because I strive for perfection.. also insomnia and boredom. Both have an i7 3770, 2TB Caviar Black HDD, 128GB Samsung 830 SSD, 16GB Ram and an Nvidia GTX 660 card. This was all made under the assumption that you are not overclocking your CPU. If you are looking to overclock, then obviously these would need to be revised further.

€1041.05 Mid ATX build without aftermarket CPU cooler, at stock temps the stock cooler is fine.

€1051.63 Micro ATX build with aftermarket CPU cooler.

These are the final two builds I present you with for now, heh.