Building first comp. Need suggestions.

N

NickLee808

n00b
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Aug 26, 2011
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1) What will you be doing with this PC?
A little of everything. Focus on gaming, home theatre, and media-streaming server, with a bit of music production and painting.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$1500, but I'm willing to go up to $2000. Tax and shipping included.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Honolulu, Hawaii

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
Everything necessary in a tower (case, power supply, cooling unit, motherboard, CPU, CPU cooler, RAM, HDD and SSD, Blu-Ray read/write, GPU, sound card), OS, monitor, and speakers.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Steelseries 6Gv2 keyboard and Razer Deathadder mouse.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Still need one. Would like something big enough for two people to watch comfortably in a small living room with deep black levels.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next couple of months.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Firewire, USB 3.0, and eSATA.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No.
 
Which games do you play?

What are you using for music production and painting?

Are you willing to give up overclocking if the "savings" can be used towards better parts?

What are you using that requires FireWire? eSATA?

Do you have the funds to buy everything this weekend?
 
Okay, you're asking to squeeze quite a bit into your package (and doesn't THAT just sound wrong?) so some tradeoffs (at least short term ones) are required.

Second, you're in Hawaii. Shipping to you is nearly $200.

Here's something of what I've been able to put together WITHOUT an OS thus far.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26216726



And here's a tradeoff system that comes in under your budget with an OS.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26216846


If anyone else wants to look these over and make suggestions, feel free.
 
tiraides said:
Which games do you play?

What are you using for music production and painting?

Are you willing to give up overclocking if the "savings" can be used towards better parts?

What are you using that requires FireWire? eSATA?

Do you have the funds to buy everything this weekend?
Click to expand...

I do most of my music and painting on Ableton and Photoshop.

No, I'd rather overclock if possible.

I have various cameras and external hard drives that could use the FireWire and eSATA.

No, I won't be able to for at least a couple weeks.
 
Chas said:
Okay, you're asking to squeeze quite a bit into your package (and doesn't THAT just sound wrong?) so some tradeoffs (at least short term ones) are required.

Second, you're in Hawaii. Shipping to you is nearly $200.

Here's something of what I've been able to put together WITHOUT an OS thus far.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26216726



And here's a tradeoff system that comes in under your budget with an OS.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26216846
Click to expand...

Thanks for the list! The first one looks more appealing so far. If I do go with that one, I wouldn't mind stretching the budget a little more and just tacking on the OS to that.
 
Glad I could help.

If you're doing serious production work, give yourself a few months after the initial construction and then spring for another 8-16GB of RAM. It'll help with things like Photoshop and buffering for A/V production.

Also note that I left you on the stock cooler. So your OC'ing will be limited (at first). Again, down the road you can grab an after-market cooler as your budget allows.

Also, make sure you take advantage of the mail in rebates.

$35 isn't a LOT, but hey, it's $35 back in your pocket!
 
Do you have a Microcenter nearby?

They offer really good savings on the CPU/MB combo, often cheaper than Newegg.
 
Since you are doing a lot of graphics work I would suggest that you take a look at the LG 34UM95 34”. Its a little pricey (has been as low as $899 shipped) but the 3440x1440 resolution will give you lots of room to be creative. Also I am not sure what version of photoshop / cs you are using but you may want to take a look at CUDA acceleration for the Nvidia cards and OpenCL acceleration for AMD cards in relation to your work flow. You might be able to get a little more bang for your buck.

Because you need 1394 / firewire you are probably going to need to factor in a pci or pci express expansion card.
For the cpu the 4790k is the best but you might consider the 4690k @ $250 as a better bang for the buck. But you will loose hyper threading.

Other than that it looks like a stellar build :)
 
Is it an option two buy 2 screens? Any mothern graphics card can handle 2 screens.

You can buy a $100 23" Monitor and a 32" tv for $270. It's another option.
 
NickLee808 said:
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next couple of months.
Click to expand...
NickLee808 said:
tiraides said:
Do you have the funds to buy everything this weekend?
Click to expand...
No, I won't be able to for at least a couple weeks.
Click to expand...
I'll wait until after Labor Day to offer my recommendations. We normally recommend parts within a week or two of purchase so we could use upcoming sales and specials to reduce the overall cost.

Since you won't have the full funds for another two weeks and you're asking for a complete system build, I feel that it's better to wait until you have all of the money you need. That way, you only have to make one purchase.

NickLee808 said:
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Still need one. Would like something big enough for two people to watch comfortably in a small living room with deep black levels.
Click to expand...
Can you live with using a TV as your primary monitor? You can find a larger TV for less than you would a similarly-sized monitor.
 
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