Building a new system sometime soon - Could use input.

[actingnurse]

I haven't built a system in about 7 years. I know a lot's changed since then. I do a lot of HD video editing and photography editing in Avid and/or Adobe Programs for video and Photoshop and Lightroom for photo. I want to future proof it for a few years as well - also game occasionally.  Looking for thoughts/feedback - would like to whittle it to under $ 1500 if I can.

 

CPU -  Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)

CPU COOLER - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler

MOBO - ASUS Sabertooth Z77

RAM - G. Skill Sniper Gaming Series 32Gb (4 X 8Gb) DDR3 1600

VIDEO - XFX Double X FX-787A-CDFC Radeon HD 7870 GHz 2Gb 256bit GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 (eventually two of these)

SOUND - Soundblaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional

CASE - Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower Computer Case

HD - Seagate Constellation ES ST1000NM0001 1TB 7200 RPM SAS 6Gb/s (x's 2)

PSU - Thermaltake - SMART Series 850-Watt ATX Power Supply - Black (already own this)

 

Edited December 27, 2012 by actingnurse

[Justhavocman]

Seems OK  , though if i were you i'd get an Nvidia GTX 670  or an 7970  if you can afford it of course and i would go for a different case , say a Coolermaster HAF 932 or 922 , brilliant cases , lots of room to work on and superb airflow ! 

[90sgamer]

I have a pretty similar build. I think the Sabertooth Z77 is a great board and the 3770k is a great CPU. This combination is a solid core to your system. I don't think you can really get a better than this in a similar price range. If you wanted to drop some more money to build a truly powerful workstation, I'd say go Sabertooth X79 and the i7 3930k. 6 cores & quad channel RAM would be a significant benefit to video encoding speeds.

 

Have you thought about an SSD? They really make a difference, every little thing you do is faster. I couldn't go back to booting off an regular HDD now lol.

 

I'd recommend a faster GPU as well. I know some video encoding/editing programs use OpenCL or CUDA to use your GPU to help accelerate the process, so a faster GPU could help there too. 

 

I love my THOR V2 case. I really don't have any problems with it. Plenty of space to work around inside and an excellent Front Panel with plenty of connectors and good spacing between them. Sufficient cable management holes to work with. Its also reasonably priced. 

 

Good luck!

[VaporX]

I would consider the Extreme series from Intel and maybe start at the 3820. It gives you an upgrade path if you need as you do more work and want the extra cores plus the option for even more RAM down the road. I would also go with a cooler like the H100 or Water 2.0 Extreme to give you a lot of overclocking headroom and leave your RAM choices wide open. You could drop the sound card, now going to give you enough to justify the cost and up the graphics horsepower a little bit.

[Locutus]

I think that the NH-D14 is a solid choice, as is most of the hardware you chose.

 

You may want to consider getting faster RAM, as the Z77 boards support upwards of 2400MHz memory.

[My_Inner_Fred]

I think that the NH-D14 is a solid choice, as is most of the hardware you chose.

 

You may want to consider getting faster RAM, as the Z77 boards support upwards of 2400MHz memory.

 

+1 

 

Faster ram and a Z77 would be beneficial. The only other thing I would recommend would be a small SSD as a OS drive. 

[Shurman292]

GPU acceleration does not require an incredibly fast card, as it did not even tax my GTX 470 (until it ran out of Vram).  The 7870 should be fine.  You could even get away with a lesser card if you wanted.  Say, a 6950.  Just make sure you have at least 2gb Vram.

 

I would actually go for an i7 3930k with a 2011 board as 90sgamer mentioned.  This combo, along with at least 16gb of fast quad channel RAM will make your system scream while encoding.  The SSD is not a requirement for video editing, so even though it may be nice to have now you can just add it in later if you get some extra cash.  Dump all the money you can into CPU/MB/RAM, then see what you have left over.  Just do not spend the extra cash on any extreme edition chips, as they are a waste of money.

[VaporX]

GPU acceleration does not require an incredibly fast card, as it did not even tax my GTX 470 (until it ran out of Vram).  The 7870 should be fine.  You could even get away with a lesser card if you wanted.  Say, a 6950.  Just make sure you have at least 2gb Vram.

 

I would actually go for an i7 3930k with a 2011 board as 90sgamer mentioned.  This combo, along with at least 16gb of fast quad channel RAM will make your system scream while encoding.  The SSD is not a requirement for video editing, so even though it may be nice to have now you can just add it in later if you get some extra cash.  Dump all the money you can into CPU/MB/RAM, then see what you have left over.  Just do not spend the extra cash on any extreme edition chips, as they are a waste of money.

 

You do know the 3930 is an Extreme edition chip right?

[vandreadstriker]

[quote name=ComputerEd" post="2069688" time="1356660322]  You do know the 3930 is an Extreme edition chip right?

I always thought that the 3960/70X was the only Extreme edition 2011 chip.. That's why it's a 3930K and comes with a blue box..

 

@OP: Like some others have said, you'd probably benefit from using a 2011 system instead. It'd definitely help when you render videos. Problem is, the 3930K cost $530 alone and the 'great' boards ranges from $250-$600.

 

What I'd personally do is ditch that Soundcard and get a 3930K + ASUS P9X79 Pro + NH-D14 SE2011. Motherboards these days already have a decent onboard audio anyway... But if you still like one, then look at the ASRock X79 Extreme9 which is bundled with a Creative SoundCore3D card and cost ~$40 more than the P9X79 Pro... 

Other than that, I'd not bother with a faster RAM for now (as 1600MHz is enough) and get an SSD or two instead. I think you'd benefit from that more than from a faster RAM. Could prove useful as a Scratch disk when doing Photoshop..

 

[wevsspot]

Personally I'd stick with DDR3 1600Mhz memory in light of the fact that you are planning on running 32Gb.  The higher speed memories could be tricky to get running right at those densities.

 

A solid socket 2011 board and 3820 would be a great foundation, but then so would the 3770K and Z77 board.  Can't go wrong with the Sabretooth boards regardless.  This would be a hard choice for me due to budget considerations. You are going to sink a a bit more into the socket 2011 board over the socket 1155 board.

 

And I agree with a previous suggestion about trying to squeeze a SSD into the budget.