$700-900 CS6+semi gaming build advice

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saudor

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Apr 27, 2013
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Hey all! First off, Im still quite new at all this so bare with me:

Approximate Purchase Date: In 1-2 weeks

Budget Range: 700-900 after everything, the lower the better of course.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Adobe CS6 Suite (mostly photoshop+illustrator, and occasional video editing in premiere/after effects, some gaming (diablo 3, starcraft 2, etc)

Are you buying a monitor: Currently have a 23" IPS display, might add another cheap 2nd monitor down the line.


Parts to Upgrade: complete new nuild

Do you need to buy OS: No. Already got Windows 8 Pro / Windows 7 ultiimate from my school

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon.ca / tigerdirect / newegg.ca but flexible

Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: AMD is fine for CPU (feel free to point me in the right direction if this is a problem. )

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe but not that big of a deal

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments:

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Replacing a 15" 2010 Macbook Pro with 120 GB SSD (intel 320 series) + 1 TB WD Blue, 8 GB DDR3

I'll also probably bring the SSD over.

Here is what i have so far. It probably stinks. haha.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/TlIz


Any help is greatly appreciated - thanks!
 
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The AMD FX is geared more towards gaming. If you are doing actual work on your computer, then you will greatly benefit from hyperthreading. Especially for PS and video editing. An Intel CPU might be the better choice for you. The i5 does not have HT, so you will need to get at least an i7 2600 or 3770. Since you are not overclocking, you don't need the "k" series which also means you can get a cheaper motherboard as well such as an H77. The system as a whole will be a little more expensive, but for what you are using it for it will be worth it.

You will also benefit from a nice video card. Out of the box, Nvidia GPUs are geared more towards professional use while AMD, again, is geard toward budget gamers. And, as with Intel, Nvidia...
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The AMD FX is geared more towards gaming. If you are doing actual work on your computer, then you will greatly benefit from hyperthreading. Especially for PS and video editing. An Intel CPU might be the better choice for you. The i5 does not have HT, so you will need to get at least an i7 2600 or 3770. Since you are not overclocking, you don't need the "k" series which also means you can get a cheaper motherboard as well such as an H77. The system as a whole will be a little more expensive, but for what you are using it for it will be worth it.

You will also benefit from a nice video card. Out of the box, Nvidia GPUs are geared more towards professional use while AMD, again, is geard toward budget gamers. And, as with Intel, Nvidia beats AMD in both gaming and pro use. For your price range a GTX 650ti or above will be perfect since CUDA cores will enhance your rendering and editing much better than the Stream processors.

HDD - you have a $90 1TB drive selected. I know that is Canadian, but I've seen 2TB WD HDDs on newegg.com for $90 after rebate.

With the GTX 650ti, 3770 CPU and H77 motherboard, the total build cost will most likely be closer to $900 than $700. But, there are new CPUs and GPUs coming out in a few months and newegg always has rebates, you just have to catch them at the right time. I always check dealigg.com which shows all the good deals online and the daily deals and email deals on newegg.com. I know newegg canada is different, the only have weekly specials. You might find better prices on newegg.com but may have to pay a bit more in shipping.

If you buy these items together right now, you save $45 plus get $75 coupon for games from Nvidia and $30 subscription to something from Intel:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236404
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121686
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131826
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502

The total is $643 minus a $10 mail in rebate. So, if your extreme limit is $900, you have $267 to spend on the RAM, case and PSU.

Also, for a limited time, this Blu-Ray burner is $59

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136250&nm_mc=AFC-C8JUNCTION&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JUNCTION-_-EMC-042613-Latest-_-BluRayBurners-_-27136250-L0C&PID=2138476&SID=dl%2D1252113&AID=10440897

With the other components you already selected, including the Hyper 212 Evo, WIFI, case, PSU and RAM, the total is $908 + shipping in USD. I'm sure you can find all these parts on newegg.ca for the same price.
 
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saudor

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Thank you for the response! I guess that explains why my mac with i5 (HT) and geforce 330 gt has worked decently well given its underpowered stats. But i know the bottleneck in my mac is the GPU and somewhat RAM since mountain lion eats memory like a lion lol

You're right about the HD.. since i am going to be installing a SSD, i probably dont need to go with the Black series and just go with any random old 2 TB disk.

The other option i had in mind was a prebuilt one: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-h8-1559-desktop-pc-amd-fx-8350-2tb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-8-h8-1559/10238818.aspx?path=b95143590e3af3088fe7be28028185baen02&SearchPageIndex=1

For 599 it seems like a good deal but like you said, it has the ATI and the same FX cpu. I just assumed the 8 cores would make up for the lack of hyperthreading.
 
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That is a good deal, but again, it is more of a gaming PC. If time is valuable to you, the 3770 or 3770k will actually be cheaper in the long run. It is much faster when editing and rendering. Check this test:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2012/-34-Adobe-Premiere-Pro-CS6,3171.html

In a generic CS6 test, the 3770k took 23 seconds less than the 8350 to encode a 2 minute long 720p blue ray video on CS6 premier. Imagine if that was a 2 hour video. It would save about 25 minutes off the total time. The differences are the same across the board in most editing and rendering programs. not only is HT an advantage, but core for core, the 3770 is much faster. If it were an 8 core CPU, it would be 125% faster. The 3770k is only $25 more and if you overclock it will demolish the 8350.

 
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Another thing, I don't like pre-built systems because they usually lock the BIOS so you can't upgrade it or overclock it. Although this system comes with a discrete GPU so it might not be the case. Do a little research on that. I have an old Pentium 4 HP and they removed the video card slot and locked the BIOS to prevent upgrading. The same goes for the OS. Sometimes you can only use the OS that the PC comes with, i.e. you can't install Linux or Windows 7 pro if you want. The HP I have allows me to upgrade the OS though I'm not sure about this one. They do this so you can't stretch the life of the PC and will be forced to buy a new one from them in a few years.
 
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saudor

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Yeah i actually upgraded another HP computer in the house with an Radeon 6770 (had to change the power supply as well) and like that system, this one appears to use a standard ATX power supply and PCIe slots as well so upgrading the GPU shouldnt be an issue

in terms of the i7, http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-envy-h8-1409-desktop-computer-intel-core-i7-3770-1tb-hdd-10gb-ram-windows-8-h8-1409/10225559.aspx?path=3ebe25101bec52a0968003beaaf24e2aen02&SearchPageIndex=1

looks somewhat promising. The graphics can be swapped with the NVIDIA one that you mentioned although total price will be higher so in that case, it's probably better to just build what you pasted me earlier


That being said, i was tempted by the 599 prebuilt one since even though I do some video editing, it doesn't happen a lot so that extra time isnt that big of a deal breaker (after all, i did manage to put up with this clunker with an apple logo on it!). Most times Im just in photoshop which doesn't use CPU too heavily even on my i5 520m @ 2.4. Another benefit of switching over back to PC is if my mac breaks, repair costs are going go through the roof

 
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That HP is a good setup and a very good value. The GPU is fine and a big improvement over the Macbook Pro. The only downfall is there is only one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot on the motherboard. But, you could always swap the 7570 for a better card and sell the 7570. Just read the fine print of the warranty first as it may void it. 10 GB RAM is an odd number, I'm guessing they are using 2x 4 GB sticks and one 2 GB stick. If you ever decide to upgrade the RAM, you'll have to get rid of the 2 GB stick. Everything else is nice for the price. It has WIFI built in. The Beats Audio "sound card" is bull----. That isn't a sound card. It is just a sound equalizer program. I can't believe they list it as a sound card...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beats_by_Dr._Dre#Computers_and_mobile_devices
 
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