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yesterday716
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first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:28 pm

Hi - building my first new build PC in a few years. Been building these things since the old 80286 days (when a 40MB IDE drive was all you needed and a 14.4 modem to get on to the local university's Internet connection was screaming fast to do ARCHIE searches and browse Gopher sites, never mind that whole new Lynx program using the pesky useless HTTP protocol....). I'm creating a new machine to put a few of my machines to one box. I have a Mac Mini with terrible performance for Adobe Lightroom and other Mac-y things, and a Dell Latitude E6520 for a lot of office work. I want to build a new power-enough workstation that will run Windows 7/8 and boot to a hackintosh as well. Also, there will be some Ubuntu linux.

Windows will be the primary OS and I'll run photo editing (Lightroom), general office stuff, VirtualBox for consulting gigs, VisualStudio for dev work, iTunes, &tc. Nothing TOO crazy and I am not a gamer.

Here is my proposed build based on NewEgg parts in addition to a couple others that I am getting elsewhere. Can you guys tell me if there are any easily noticed pitfalls / issues or if there are ways to improve the build for approx the same cost?

Thanks in advance....

- processor - already bought this at MicroCenter for freaking $219 today - Core i7 3770k 3.5GHZ LGA 1155 Processor

- CPU cooler fan - Thermaltake Frio CLP0564

- thermal paste - Arctic Silver 5 High-Density

- Motherboard (this is important to me for hackintosh-ability - so if I'm crazy tell me!) - GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

- CASE AND POWER SUPPLY HAVE NOT BEEN DECIDED YET - want a Mid-tower case with some ventilation (nothing crazy) and a modular power supply

- Memory - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

- SSD Boot Drive - OCZ Vertex 3 Series - MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal

- Internal HD (buying two of these - Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

- Video - (again - important to get one that will hackintosh well...) - MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

- Monitors - Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black IPS Panel 24" 8ms Pivot, Swivel & Height Adjustable LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor - getting two of these guys. I am not a hardcore pro photog so this should do just fine.

Other than that, I'll be adding two random DVD burners, a front panel 40-in-1 card reader, a camera and mic, and sound card. Oh yeah - anyone have a decent reasonably priced sound card option?

I do not plan on overclocking, I don't think.

So, given the general purpose use of the machine, does this look like a good build? I was thinking of making the order for parts tonight once I have decided on a case and power supply and checked to be sure all the hardware is compatible with my needs and each other. Seems pretty common and easy-ish, right? Am I missing any large pieces / parts? This thing doesn't need any sort of water cooling, as it isn't a high powered video or gaming rig, right?

Sorry for all the easy questions - thanks in advance for any advice!

- B
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:09 pm

yesterday716 wrote:
Hi
Welcome to the Tech Report!
Have you read the System Guide?

yesterday716 wrote:
- Memory - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
I strongly recommend 2x8 GiB instead of 4x4 GiB. Look for PC3-14900 (DDR3-1866) or PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600) that runs with CAS 9 at 1.5 V.
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
DPete27
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:28 pm

1) Didn't notice a budget given
2) Have you considered going with a microATX motherboard? mATX boards are generally a bit cheaper and most people find the 3 available expansion slots perfectly sufficient. Plus it gives you access to slightly smaller cases.
3) What are you looking for in a case and how much do you want to spend? Personal requirements such as front panel USB3.0, size, noise dampening, high cooling performance, fan filters, etc can influence our recommendations
4) You'll need at least 460W in a PSU for the build listed. Power Supply Calculator
5) Not sure if you're partial to Dell, but the Asus PA248Q is the equivalent of the U2412M.
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Fri Dec 07, 2012 1:08 pm

Lightroom on Windows or OS X?

Your choices will be constrained by what can be hackintosh'ed. How much Mac-y stuff do you do anyway? I don't know enough about the requirements with hackintoshes to tell you which components are good or not. It may be more trouble than it is worth?
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Arclight
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Fri Dec 07, 2012 1:12 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Lightroom on Windows or OS X?

Your choices will be constrained by what can be hackintosh'ed. How much Mac-y stuff do you do anyway? I don't know enough about the requirements with hackintoshes to tell you which components are good or not. It may be more trouble than it is worth?



Frankly i doubt there are many on TR that would know. I think one of the editors did such a build at some point, OP, you might wanna dig up that article, might help you out. Anything other than the author chiming in and helping you, i think you should address the questions on a more specialized site concerning DIY hackintosh
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DPete27
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Fri Dec 07, 2012 1:30 pm

Arclight wrote:
I think one of the editors did such a build at some point, OP, you might wanna dig up that article

Yeah, I hesitate to suggest core components for this same reason. (cases, PSU's, Monitors, optical drives, and hard drives(?) are all compatible regardless) Here are the aforementioned TR articles.
Part 1
Part 2
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
HTPC: A8-5600K, MSI FM2-A75IA-E53, 4TB Seagate SSHD, 8GB 1866MHz G.Skill, Crosley D-25 Case Mod
 
yesterday716
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:57 pm

DPete27 wrote:
1) Didn't notice a budget given
2) Have you considered going with a microATX motherboard? mATX boards are generally a bit cheaper and most people find the 3 available expansion slots perfectly sufficient. Plus it gives you access to slightly smaller cases.
3) What are you looking for in a case and how much do you want to spend? Personal requirements such as front panel USB3.0, size, noise dampening, high cooling performance, fan filters, etc can influence our recommendations
4) You'll need at least 460W in a PSU for the build listed. Power Supply Calculator
5) Not sure if you're partial to Dell, but the Asus PA248Q is the equivalent of the U2412M.


1. already bought the CPU so that isn't part of the budget - don't want to spend more than another $2000 or so on the rest (with shipping and NYS + Erie County tax of something like 8.75% here...)

2. yes, I considered it but I may want to add a firewire card and a couple other things in the future so I figured that a full size board can't hurt

3. I think I found a great case for what I'm looking for. It has a top-mount drive bay which can come in use for backups / tech support of others' drives. Here is the case and power supply I'm thinking about:
NZXT H2 H2-001-BK Black Steel / Plastic Classic Silent ATX Mid Tower Chassis
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

4. I think the 700w I put above should more than do the trick!

5. I run a Dell shop at work, but thought that the Gigabit motherboard I selected is pretty common.

And in response to the hackintosh posters - I checked this hardware list on a couple other hackintosh parts lists and they seem okay. I've built one or two of these in the past so I know the pitfalls. I'm a half PC / half Mac user so would like this ability but still have my Macbook for any Mac specific things. The Lightroom I will be running will be on the PC.

Probably going to place the order tomorrow (Sat) from NewEgg - I think it comes to about $1900. Seems like that is MORE than enough to pay for a great system with future expand-ability / upgrade-ability. I run a bunch of servers / workstations for dev / tech support work in VirtualBox so this guy needs to support these things better than my current setup.
 
yesterday716
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:59 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
yesterday716 wrote:
Hi
Welcome to the Tech Report!
Have you read the System Guide?

yesterday716 wrote:
- Memory - CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
I strongly recommend 2x8 GiB instead of 4x4 GiB. Look for PC3-14900 (DDR3-1866) or PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600) that runs with CAS 9 at 1.5 V.


Thanks - replaced the ones I had on my list with these:
G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
 
chuckula
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:14 pm

- processor - already bought this at MicroCenter for freaking $219 today - Core i7 3770k 3.5GHZ LGA 1155 Processor

Good deal :-)

Recommendations:
As others have already posted, go for 16GB of RAM, you won't regret it.

For the SSD: See if it is possible to snag a deal on a Samsung 830, not very long ago the 128 GB models were going for less that $100 (I took advantage of that deal for a system build I put together for my fiance's work).

If the Samsung 830 is not doable: See if you can squeeze a higher-end SSD into the budget. 128GB should be enough for a system drive, and in day to day use the SSD is a big part of making the machine feel snappy. Plus OCZ's track record in reliability is not always the best.
4770K @ 4.7 GHz; 32GB DDR3-2133; Officially RX-560... that's right AMD you shills!; 512GB 840 Pro (2x); Fractal Define XL-R2; NZXT Kraken-X60
--Many thanks to the TR Forum for advice in getting it built.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:00 pm

As mentioned, the Samsung 830 is the drive to get, if you can still snag one for a good price. The next best alternative is to pony up the extra for an 840Pro

I would be tempted to try an OCZ Vector myself, but OCZ are not the sort of drive I recommend to others. Corsair's Neutron is also too new for me to suggest when the 840Pro is a similar-performing drive with Samsung's backing. They fix problems rapidly, and historically, before the drives are available at retail.

If you can't find an 830 deal around, and you don't want to pay extra for the 840Pro, then the Intel 330's seem to be selling cheap at the moment. Here in the UK, the unusual 180GB variant is actually offering the best cost/GB of the 330 series at the moment, and I also think that's a good size.
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yesterday716
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Sun Dec 09, 2012 1:09 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
As mentioned, the Samsung 830 is the drive to get, if you can still snag one for a good price. The next best alternative is to pony up the extra for an 840Pro

I would be tempted to try an OCZ Vector myself, but OCZ are not the sort of drive I recommend to others. Corsair's Neutron is also too new for me to suggest when the 840Pro is a similar-performing drive with Samsung's backing. They fix problems rapidly, and historically, before the drives are available at retail.

If you can't find an 830 deal around, and you don't want to pay extra for the 840Pro, then the Intel 330's seem to be selling cheap at the moment. Here in the UK, the unusual 180GB variant is actually offering the best cost/GB of the 330 series at the moment, and I also think that's a good size.


Thanks - I got rid of the OCZ and found an 830 - 128mb for $134.99. I plan on building the system like this - Windows 7 Pro boot to the SSD drive and use the 2tb hard drive for data - and then a 2nd 2tb drive for backups of that data. I'll run VirtualBox for XP, Windows Servers, Linux, &tc. I'm going to add a third 2tb drive to boot to OSX when I'm all ready to start the hackintosh aspect of the system.

Holy crap I forgot to order an OS - oops! Glad I thought of that just now!

Thanks for all the suggestions - I can't wait to start building the thing!
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: first new build in a looong time - advice appreciated

Sun Dec 09, 2012 1:16 pm

yesterday716 wrote:
Chrispy_ wrote:
The Samsung 830 is the drive to get.
I found an 830 - 128mb for $134.99.

$109.00 with free shipping from B&H Photo Video Pro Audio
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2

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