first intel build

[gtochad]

not sure how but i deleted the first post in the other thread so mods can delete that anyways heres the improved list of parts

the pc will be used primarily for gaming and photo editing of RAW files in lightroom, as well as 1080p video editing

my budget is around 1300 but if theirs a component that's totally worth the extra im willing to stretch it to 1500 (but id rather not

id like this pc to age better than my current pc which is about 6 years of gaming without to much trouble on the frame rate side of things, this last year or two have shown me its time to build new (along with my 7900gs dieing to put a nail in the coffin)

someday id like to hook my pc up to a 1080p tv primarily for steams big picture for console ports

id also like tri monitor gaming/desktop environment ive had dual for the longest time and i love it

need at least 6 usb spots most being usb 3.0 preferred (although not critical)

Case

i already have this antec 900 two mid tower case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129058 which has a giant 200mm fan on top 2 intakes in the front and 1 exhaust with an optional side fan near the acrylic window

CPU/MOBO


id like to do overclocking, enough to keep me movin and grooving over the years (which may mean higher than 1080p editing/rendering) i was thinking the 3570k overclocked http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
-$189 at microcenter
as well as this ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard which has all the usb ports id need and as well as the ability to update my audio to HT quality with the optical audio http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293 -84.99 at microcenter (deal is z77 with intel processors is 50$ off)

GPU

evga gtx670 ftw 2gb, id honestly like more vram for future proofing but i have heard it comes at a cost of framerate not to sure. comes with borderlands 2 which id be happy to get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787 -$407

PSU

just a power supply with enough plugs power and stability, efficiency is somewhat important to keep the electric bill down (but the other features are more important specially stability) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139022 -$135 on sale

SSD/HDD
hdd i was thinking maybe this seagate drive but unsure as i cant seem to find a popular fast (7200rpm) drive without horror stories behind them for a good price. im looking for 1-3 tb for under $150 and no slower eco drives i want 7200http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840


the SAMSUNG 830 256gb ssd is one of the most exciting pieces in this build as its been the pc bottleneck for ages. important to be fast and stay fast, longevity/quality is important here as well as support from the company and owners incase a problem occurs (its popular so i doubt id have to much trouble finding help)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147135 -$218 on sale and comes with adapter bracket

Ram

ram is something im weak in deciding as i dont know how to read what good timings and speed are so let me know about this one in particular CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233246 -$90


DVD/Blu ray drive


dvd drive just has to work without a hitch and burn without problems, considering a blu ray drive for backups and to watch a box collection of harry potter in the future but other wise not a huge movie buff but i want to be immersed in visuals if i do become one. but for now just for harry.
lite on drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106276 -$20

and a cable for it and the hdd http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270093 -$3.50

OS

windows 7 64 bit pro as i dont want to be limited to much in functions by windows especially since id like to learn more about operating systems as i would prefer a career in computers someday (although not sure what role to play yet) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992 -$140

Cooling

i picked the antec kuhler 620 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209049 -$68 out of fear and horror stories of the corsair h80 so i could use help deciding on this one as i know the h80 is better when it works properly

i was also thinking of getting some Arctic Silver 5 and was wondering your thoughts on Arctic Silver Arcticlean Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier to get the compound off the waterblock http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100010

 

[Knufire]

If you can, I'd step up to a 2700K or 3770K, the Hyperthreading will help with the video/photo editing.

You want to stick to NVIDIA for CUDA acceleration, but you do want 3GB+ of vRAM for triple screen gaming.

You don't need a liquid unit if your worried about reliability.

 

[gtochad]

i have thought about the 3770k but couldn't easily find comparisons in video/photo rendering and the ones i did the performance is a very slight difference and its $100 more. unless im missing something thats where i see a point of diminishing returns that i cant accept

what do you mean about the liquid cooling? as in the liquid cooling will fail? or its overkill? i do plan to overclock eventually

 

[Knufire]

The sealed liquid units aren't considered "true" water cooling, their performance levels and noise levels are more or less the same as high end air heatsinks. They tend to have higher DOA rates, but have the advantage of no RAM compability issues and mounting flexability in small spaces.

 

[Metlcub]

good pick on the board. I'd step up to the i7 if your gona do video editing. The Extra Cach and HT will improve. I use the H100 and have had no issues yet. I think any bugs that the H80/H100 had they worked out by now.
I got my 2600k at a nice OC to 4.2ghz and low voltage with that board.

 

[PolePosition]

I for one will vouch for the sealed water cooling units, although I would suggest the H80 for stock usage and the H100 for high performance cooling.
If you can spare $150 more on a motherboard, I would suggest taking it a step further and jump into the X79 LGA 2011 platform for video rendering and true upgrade potential for 6 cores and 64GBs of RAM, although that much RAM is useless at this time. You'll pay about the same for a 2600/3770k CPU as you would a i7 3820, which won't need to be overclocked.
Regarding the SSD, I would drop to a 120GB SSD and use the money saved to get a Western Digital 10,000rpm HDD since the 120GB SSD is plenty enough space to use as an OS drive and you won't notice any lag in performance.
All around, you'll be set for anything you choose to do with this computer, now, and into the future, where you can upgrade the CPU to 6 cores once prices drop instead of scrapping your motherboard and starting over to meet new demands.
A few extra dollars spent now saves a whole lot later.

 

[gtochad]

oh man why did you have to do this to me ahhhh choices. i like the idea of 2011 being more future proof (how many new chips architectures are planed for it? ) as i bought my current pc at the very end of a sockets life.

 

[Knufire]

oh man why did you have to do this to me ahhhh choices. i like the idea of 2011 being more future proof (how many new chips architectures are planed for it? ) as i bought my current pc at the very end of a sockets life.

Ivy Bridge-E in Q3 2013. Pretty sure it's dead after that. Just hexacore versions of the current IB CPUs.

Haswell (quads, new architecture) are going to be out a bit before then, but that's on a new unreleased socket. Not 1155, I think it's 1150?

I think you'd appreciate 2011. More RAM and more cores, things that would help in your intensive editing tasks.

 

[PolePosition]

It there anything beyond 2011 proposed out there currently?

EDIT: I guess it boils down to immediate needs to get up and running. I would trash the triple screen idea and settle for a less expensive GPU for now, since as Knufire says, they are constantly being outdated and prices drop rapidly. Not only that, it is much easier to change out a GPU than a motherboard. The question is, is gaming more important than the other stuff?

 

[Knufire]

Don't know of Intel's future plans for the enthusiast segment.

@op, throwing some stuff together, probably can't do LGA2011 unless you drop the GPU to something cheaper, but then you'll lose the vRAM you need to push triple-screen gaming. You can still go with the triple setup for editing, but you might be stuck to single-screen gaming if you want to push high settings. This is looking at the $1500 budget, not the $1300.

Probably need about $1800-1900 to do the triple screen gaming + HD editing right.

 

[gtochad]

the computers intensive work is going to be %70 gaming %20 photos and probably 10% video. so it defiantly is more of a gaming rig than anything else so dropping the video card is a big no no for me.

hd video editing may go up if i get into it more. the biggest thing i liked about the 2011 idea was not being at the end of a sockets life but in all honesty if this pc lasts 6-7 years like i expect then upgrading it would be kind of pointless

 

[Knufire]

 

[gtochad]

well at least some of the parts i picked are in that list lol

how about this cooler it cheaper and copper

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118003

 

[Knufire]

Zalman heatsinks are known for looks more than performance...I wouldn't be surprised if a Hyper212+ outperformed that.

 

[PolePosition]

see, that is what I don't get, spending more on a video card than the CPU and motherboard combined, but whatever, you can bet this (1155) IS at the end of its socket life come next year, and $150 more for a motherboard in comparision to spending $400 for a GPU.......
That is the ONLY difference I see in money spent, and you'll be wishing you had.

 

[Knufire]

Because the majority of the people here are gamers and GPU performance is WAY more important in games than CPU performance. Paired with a good GPU, my OCed 920 from 2009 can max out every game. You don't have to upgrade your CPU that often in gaming. If you have a three year old GPU like I do though, only nets me medium settings, and about 30FPS.

And for his needs, that's not even enough GPU power. If he wants to push high or ulrta settings on three monitors, he'll need two of those 670s.

 

[PolePosition]

Zalman heatsinks are known for looks more than performance...I wouldn't be surprised if a Hyper212+ outperformed that.

Does the Zalman really show up that bad in these test results?

http://www.rwlabs.com/article.php?cat=&id=545&pagenumber=6

Granted, I didn't see the 9500 listed, but simular models were.

What we talkin, a ten degree swing or less?

 

[Conumdrum]

10C is a LOT.

And if the 9500 isn't listed, then you don't know. Zalman makes from junk to okay heatsinks.

 

[gtochad]

i never was a fan of sli unless it was an ultimate setup, but it makes more sense now with added vram for multimontor. im fine with not high or ultra with tri displays in games like maybe bf3 or more demanding games in the future. i can always knock it down to one monitor for that

but yeah the cpu should still leave enough breathing room for a card upgrade in the future if i really needed it.

whats wrong with the mobo? is it quality or is it features that is your concern?

 

[Knufire]

The three listed there are some of the better Zalman heatsinks. The 10x and 11X are tower style, the 9900Max is the weird circle heatsink but is MUCH larger than the 9500. Never realized how big the 9900Max was until I saw it in real life.

The hexacore wasn't going to help you much in gaming either way, since games don't really take advantage of much more than four cores. Even the 3570K will game about the same as the 3770K. The benefit you get from the better CPU is more evident in the photo and video editing than it is in the games.