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