Need advice for any newer parts for my i7 video editing rig

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E4g1e

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Now that I have completed the business system build, I am turning my attention to my auxiliary i7-920 system. I will be using this system for editing in another room in the house, especially when my main rig is busy encoding other videos or recording TV shows as a DVR.

I already have most of the parts for that rig. I just need additional parts.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Video editing (Premiere Pro CS5), Photoshop, Web browsing, limited gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$250 maximum ($300 to $350 if buying a new PSU)
3) Where do you live?
Chicagoland area
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Hard drive(s)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Intel i7-920
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU HSF
6GB DDR3-1600 memory
1TB WD Black WD1001FALS SATA hard drive
SATA DVD burner
1GB GeForce GT 240
Intel DX58SO motherboard
Cooler Master Elite 335 case
Antec EarthWatts 650W or Corsair HX520 PSU
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes (to around 3.7 to 3.8 GHz)
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
19" 1440x900 LCD (currently on my main system, will upgrade main system's monitor to a 23" or 24" 1920x1080 LCD - monitor not included in the price)
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Between now and February
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
N/A
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 64-bit (either Home Premium or Pro)


Which of the two PSUs should I be going with? Or a new one?

My current WD Black will be used as my system drive for that rig. I will need additional hard drives for this rig. I am thinking along the lines of these:

$140 - 2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (for media and projects)
$100 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (for output files)

Any opinion(s) on my choices? I would really appreciate the response(s).
 
While that system will run just fine on the Corsair 520HX, its age is a little offputting to say the least. I'd go with the Antec in your case.

HDD wise, your planned purchases seems very solid to me
 
You seem to be on the right path (though others will probably be wondering why you didn't go with an SSD).

You may also want to consider "swapping out" your 6GB tri-channel kit for a 12GB tri-channel kit. (I chose that one for the promo code, not the looks.)
 
tiraides said:
You seem to be on the right path (though others will probably be wondering why you didn't go with an SSD).

You may also want to consider "swapping out" your 6GB tri-channel kit for a 12GB tri-channel kit. (I chose that one for the promo code, not the looks.)
Click to expand...

Thanks. If I were to go with an SSD, it would replace the Samsung F3 as the system drive in my main system and the Samsung would be used for non-critical programs and miscellaneous documents.
 
Since your priority for the moment is on more storage space, go with your current plans.

The RAM may or may not help matters, depending on whether you try to use all of it with your video editing or you reserve part of it for use as a RamDisk swap file.
 
Finally got the build running with the parts that I mentioned - but with my two 1TB Seagate 7200.12 drives that I pulled out of my main rig instead of the two 1TB Samsung F3 drives. However, I picked up the two F3 drives anyway from Microcenter, but they went into my main rig (to replace the Seagates) instead of my auxiliary editing rig.

Given the lesser use of the auxiliary rig anyway, I decided to forego the fourth HDD (and instead use either my system drive or an external eSATA HDD as the output files drive). Instead, I will be concentrating on getting the RAM amount up to 12GB or 16GB since CS5 loves RAM.

P.S. Those Samsung drives are at least 10 MB/s faster on the outer tracks than my Seagates - and nearly 15 MB/s faster each overall than the Seagates. The Samsungs reach or exceed 140 MB/s maximum and approach 115 MB/s average. The Seagates, on the other hand, despite also using two 500GB platters fail to even reach 130 MB/s on the outer tracks and barely top 100 MB/s average. In fact, the 1TB 7200.12 is actually slower overall (sequentially) than the latest version of the 2TB 5900 RPM Barracuda Green (with three 667GB platters) from the same company (Seagate) as well as the 2TB 5400 RPM Samsung F4EG!
 
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Danny Bui said:
Oh Seagate, what has happened to you?
Click to expand...

They've not had anything particularly noteworthy (in either performance or value) for the past several years now (the lone exception these days is the latest USB 3.0/2.0 version of the external 2TB GoFlex Desk, which is currently the fastest pre-assembled external USB hard drive that's widely available). And as fast as the 2TB Barracuda Green is, it has to spin at a slightly faster 5900 RPM just to equal the performance of the 2TB Samsung SpinPoint F4EG (5400 RPM).
 
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E4g1e said:
They've not had anything particularly noteworthy (in either performance or value) for the past several years now (the lone exceptrion these days is the latest USB 3.0/2.0 version of the external 2TB GoFlex Desk, which is currently the fastest pre-assembled external USB hard drive that's widely available). And as fast as the 2TB Barracuda Green is, it has to spin at a slightly faster 5900 RPM just to equal the performance of the 2TB Samsung SpinPoint F4EG (5400 RPM).
Click to expand...

True. Plus the fact that they cut down their warranty from 5 to 3 years and the whole 1.5TB drive fiasco kind of killed them as a good manufacturer to buy from IMO.
 
By the way, the $40~$50 Coolermaster budget Elite series cases are a tad cramped on the inside -- but at least the cable management is better than average, making working inside of those particular cases fairly easy. An almost completely toolless design is a plus, especially if you often swap parts in and out of the case.
 
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