Help with Gaming/Video Editing Rig ($1,500-$1,800)

Hey all, just signed up, I've been lurking for awhile and decided now that my bonus came through and I can finally bite the bullet and make a purchase. I've been wanting to get into building a PC for awhile, my main purpose is a solid, semi future proof build for gaming. But I also do some semi heavy video editing/ photography work. Think outdoors stuff, Go Pro.

I'll be needing everything, Windows, mouse, keyboard, and screen. Speaker system I'll worry about in my own time. I have some cheap ones that will do for now. I would like a dedicated sound card though.

I live in El Paso, TX so there isnt too much around but we have a Best Buy, and a Tiger Direct in town. I'd prefer to just go buy all the parts I can. But I can order if prices will be significantly cheaper.

I havent made too much of a decision on overclocking yet, I would like to have that option, same with SLI in the future though. I want this to be something I can continuously upgrade and play with. Watercooling is something I would like to play with in the future also. As far as cases, I really like the look of the big square cases over the towers. Space isn't a real issue for me. And I only intend to run one monitor for now.

I can bump my budget up to $2000 if needed. Id prefer to not hit that though.
Thanks for the help!

You will definitely want to get an i7 4770k Intel CPU for overclocking and hyperthreading (faster video editing). What kind of games do you want to play? What resolution?

Games, all the modern ones, I dont really do any MMO's though. BF3 (4 when it hits), The Witcher 2, Dark Souls, Crysis 3. I want to run with 1080p.

Okay. Then you'll want to look at the GTX 680, 770, 780 or AMD 7970. Do you have a preference?

I've been looking at the GTX series, Havent really made a decision on which yet. Nvidia just seemed the better choice for me, but I am open to suggestions. The reason I posted was because I wasn't sure what my best option would be for what I'm wanting to do. I appreciate the help.

What software do you use to video edit? Whether to go AMD or NVIDIA is a rather software-specific decision.

Do you have any more ideas on the speaker system you plan to have? If you plan on getting a pair of high end headphones, a sound card is worth it. However, if you go for more of a home theater setup with a receiver...you'd want to bypass the sound card straight to the receiver. And whether you need a sound card with a headphone amp vs without, etc.

For gaming I was intending on a nice headset, for the videos though I was intending on a speaker system. If you think its not super important I can wait and upgrade later on with future paychecks. Its not something I need now

Software you use?

Ah my bad, premier and after effects mainly, basically anything adobe

CS6 suite or a previous version? CS6, AMD might be an option (have to look into it more), CS5.5 and before is definitely NVIDIA.

CS6, my company gets the newest versions for me every release

http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2012/05/gpu-cuda-opengl-features-in-after-effects-cs6.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2012/05/opencl-and-premiere-pro-cs6.html

Those two links describe the specific features in After Effects and Primere that NVIDIA can do but AMD cannot.

Also note that Primere Pro only enables CUDA acceleration with a Quadro card in...there's a hack you need to force it to enable CUDA.

For reference:
CUDA - NVIDIA's proprietary acceleration
OpenCL/GL - Open standards that AMD and NVIDIA cards work with.

So do you think that AMD might be a better choice?

Depends. In compute performance, the 7970 tops everything except the 780 and Titan, and overclocks better. Which one is best is a combination of how much you're willing to spend + willingness to overclock + whether you use NVIDIA/CUDA specific features in your program.

I haven't run the numbers yet as I'm out of the house, but just guessing based on the $1800 cap, 780 is probably the way to go. But it never hurts to read up, check the facts about what card does what, and just make sure you're getting the best solution.

Alright, ill take a look at them, gamingiis a big portion of what I do, but I figured if I built for the video editing then gaming won't be an isssue. I will need help with everything else though. I've read the stickies but I honestly dont know what to pick and how to match all the components for the best performance. So a list whenever you or anyone had time would be amazing. I really appreciate this. I just don't want to spend near 2grand and screw up somewhere

Well one thing I can say is definitely grab this right now. It's flash sale and it's either going to sell out or go up in price in a matter of hours: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151107. It's a very high quality PSU and usually runs above $100.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($167.86 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($87.64 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($349.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Switch 810 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($145.47 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Acer H236HL bid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Storm Quick Fire Pro Wired Gaming Keyboard ($74.99 @ TigerDirect)
Mouse: Logitech G400 Wired Optical Mouse ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (Yellow Heat Spreader) Model TLYD316G1600HC10ADC01 ($99.99)
Other: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR240GB 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ($169.99)
Total: $1932.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-10 19:56 EDT-0400)
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It's a tad over budget, but I think it's worth it for several reasons:
1. The CPU cooler is a rather unique product, the way it comes, it is a fully sealed, zero maintenance water cooler for the CPU. However, it is designed with a powerful pump so that it is very easy to add more radiators and blocks when you want to watercool the graphics cards too and go with a full custom waterloop
2. The rather expensive case is great for watercooling without needing major modifications
3. Monitor/PSU/GPU choice were all chosen with upgrading to multimonitor in the future. (Slim bezel, enough PSU power to run a 2nd 7970 in the future so you have the horsepower to run 3 monitors)
4. High quality keyboard and mouse, because I feel that a powerful rig is useless if you don't have the peripherals to match.

Sweet, I very much appreciate it. And I did go ahead and order the psu. because its slightly over budget I got to wait a week or so for a paycheck, but otherwise its perfect. Ill post up a build thread once all the parts come in for some help building if I need it. I think I night change to Razer peripheral, as I'm a big fan, but ill take a look. It looks like everything I wanted with room for upgrades.

Will the rest of the system be fine just air cooled?

Rest of the system is more than fine aircooled. I was going to put a CPU air cooler, but the H220 just makes the transition to full custom liquid easier.

Razer stuff is nice when it works...but I've read multiple times that they're not the most reliable. Mice are mice, mostly personal preference. Keyboards, I would highly recommend getting a mechanical keyboard, of which Razer only has the Blackwidow line.