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Need help with my first custom build!

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March 31, 2014 12:44:00 AM

Hey everyone! I'm building a new computer (this will not only be my first custom computer, but my first Windows PC), and I thought I'd ask for your input. The new system will primarily be used for visual effects and filmmaking, including 3D modeling, simulations (rigid body, smoke, fluid, etc), rendering (sometimes raytracing), compositing, editing, and color grading. After a long discussion on the Video Copilot forums, and some back and forth emails with an IT guy I know, I've made a list of the best parts that I think look good. Here are my selections:

Case:
IN WIN Dragon Slayer Black 0.6mm SECC MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case (My main concerns are A) Whether this case is a good choice in terms of ease of use, functionality, and airflow and B) Whether my parts will even fit inside it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108236

Power Supply:
Rosewill CAPSTONE-650 650W (The Newegg power supply calculator told me I needed something like 647 W, which is cutting it close with 650 W, so I don't know if I should get something with a little higher wattage or if this is a fine choice... or whether 80Plus gold is worth it.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182071

Motherboard: (This motherboard seems great, but one reviewer said that his RAM didn't work with it. Should I be concerned about that? The RAM I selected is not on the supported RAM list that the employee responded with, but I don't know if those are just recommendations or actual requirements. If that's the case, I may need to go with a different motherboard.)
ASRock X79 Extreme6 LGA 2011 Intel X79
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157289

CPU:
Intel Core i7-4930K Ivy Bridge-E 3.4GHz LGA 2011 130W 6-Core (I'm almost positive this is the CPU I'll be getting, so no questions here.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116939

CPU fan:
Undecided, but maybe this?
Cooler Master Hyper T4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103182


GPU:
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 770 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125462

RAM:
Team Elite Plus 16GB (2 x 8GB) (I'm on the fence about whether I should start with 16GB or go right to 32GB. I think I'm gonna go right to 32GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313430

Boot Drive:
SAMSUNG 2.5" 120GB SSD (Obviously the boot drive is for the OS and all my apps. I think 120GB should be enough.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147247

Temp Drive:
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 2.5" 240GB SSD (The temp drive is for whatever project I happen to be working on. 240GB should be enough, and when I'm finished with that project, it goes to the storage drive. My IT guy recommended that I get two really good HDDs and put them in RAID, but the people on Video Copilot told me that I'll see the single biggest speed increase in my work come from SSDs, and I've read that SSDs are faster than HDDS even when in RAID, so I'm leaning towards SSD, but I'm not positive yet.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226371

Storage:
Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM HDD (Still debating on whether I even need this, since I already have 1.5 TB on an external WD drive.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

Disk Drive:
ASUS 24X DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Monitor:
Acer S Series 23" 1920x1080 (The monitor is just something cheap I picked out that will get the job done until I can get a better monitor.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009417

Windows 8.1:
Windows 8.1 (Some have said that I should go with Windows 7, but I don't know, I feel like it's better to be all up to date)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416778

I'm also thinking about getting THIS sound card, in case i need to do any recording into the computer.

That's it! Thanks for bearing with me while I figure all this out. Am I missing anything? Funnily enough, the things I'm having the most trouble deciding on are the smaller details like the case and the CPU fan. I'd love to hear your feedback/suggestions/recommendations.


EDIT: I forgot to mention my budget. My budget is at an absolute maximum of probably $3000, but I'd like to keep it somewhere around where it is now, or lower, if possible.

More about : custom build

March 31, 2014 7:12:35 AM

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums,
I've only got a few things to note. The socket 2011 Motherboard features quad channel ram capabilities, I'd say start with your 4x8GB (a quad channel kit is best but pricy)
The on-board sound card is better than the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE but the use of a dedicated sound card will offload some work the CPU would otherwise do - a better sound card may be an option
This PSU calculator is far more accurate than NewEgg's http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp although I think I would recommend a 650W PSU for that system with a single graphics card anyway
I personally am a big fan of InWin cases, I've built in a few and all have worked without issues but the Dragon Slayer will not fit a full ATX size motherboard (it's limited to µ-ATX boards)
Hope it helps some
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March 31, 2014 3:55:08 PM

C12Friedman said:
Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums,
I've only got a few things to note. The socket 2011 Motherboard features quad channel ram capabilities, I'd say start with your 4x8GB (a quad channel kit is best but pricy)
The on-board sound card is better than the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE but the use of a dedicated sound card will offload some work the CPU would otherwise do - a better sound card may be an option
This PSU calculator is far more accurate than NewEgg's http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp although I think I would recommend a 650W PSU for that system with a single graphics card anyway
I personally am a big fan of InWin cases, I've built in a few and all have worked without issues but the Dragon Slayer will not fit a full ATX size motherboard (it's limited to µ-ATX boards)
Hope it helps some


Thanks for your reply! Would I see a significant performance increase by going with quad channel kit? Also, is it better to get 8 x 4GB sticks or 4 x 8GB sticks? Or does it make no difference at all? I read that the speed of the RAM doesn't matter so much as the amount of RAM. I know from experience that After Effects and Blender 3D are huge RAM users.
Thanks for the info about the sound card and power supply. I'll look into those.
So correct me if I'm wrong, but ATX motherboards will fit into both full ATX cases and mid ATX cases? Anyone have any recommendations as far as cases go?
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March 31, 2014 9:26:45 PM

Ram performance advantage? I'm not so sure about that (I've not really researched quad channel benchmarks or anything) I'd guess somewhere on the order of 10-20% over dual channel. There is no advantage to loading your memory slots completely and a few disadvantages. Fully loading the ram banks puts a lot of stress on the memory controller and extra cooling would probably be needed for the ram, the 4x8GB kit would be the way to go.
Virtually all full tower cases and most Mid-Towers will fit full size ATX motherboards but there are a few Mid-Towers that are not set up for a full ATX board (such as the Dragon Slayer)
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March 31, 2014 11:50:45 PM

C12Friedman said:
Ram performance advantage? I'm not so sure about that (I've not really researched quad channel benchmarks or anything) I'd guess somewhere on the order of 10-20% over dual channel. There is no advantage to loading your memory slots completely and a few disadvantages. Fully loading the ram banks puts a lot of stress on the memory controller and extra cooling would probably be needed for the ram, the 4x8GB kit would be the way to go.
Virtually all full tower cases and most Mid-Towers will fit full size ATX motherboards but there are a few Mid-Towers that are not set up for a full ATX board (such as the Dragon Slayer)

Alright, got it. I'll go with the RAM I have now. And thanks for the info on the case. Still not sure which one to go with, but at least I have more info about what I should get.
Anyone have any other general suggestions?
What about SSDs vs. HDDs in RAID? I'm pretty sure I'm going with SSDs but I just wanted to check. The SSDs I picked were the fastest/cheapest combination I could find, though maybe I could do better..
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April 1, 2014 1:54:05 AM

I like the Mushkin Enhanced Chronos SSD's, I have a 240GB in my lappy and a 120GB in my gamer but I'm considering that this could be one instance that a Hybrid Drive might be appropriate, perhaps in RAID 0. I don't know if that even works but for some reason, I'm still thinking it's a viable option. I guess it does work, here's an article I found about hybrids in RAID http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/hard_drives/hybrid/seagat... although the article is about a specific hybrid drive, I would think it would be fairly accurate for most hybrid drives
InWin does have the GT1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... which may be a viable option (there's a window version and a mesh version)... Sorry, I try not to push cases too hard as it is mostly an aesthetics thing... cases I like may not appeal to you at all
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April 7, 2014 11:48:34 PM

i have a thermaltake level 10 and i LOVE it. secondly, if you but from newegg, you but at your own peril. my bank does not consider them a trusted merchant, and their products are usually D.O.A.
i got 4 asus z77 deluxe boards from them... all bad. had to get my bank to refund to my card. i do not recommend them
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April 8, 2014 12:02:38 AM

jim3888 said:
i have a thermaltake level 10 and i LOVE it. secondly, if you but from newegg, you but at your own peril. my bank does not consider them a trusted merchant, and their products are usually D.O.A.
i got 4 asus z77 deluxe boards from them... all bad. had to get my bank to refund to my card. i do not recommend them


Thanks for the reply! That case looks like it's out of my price range, unfortunately. Wow, that sounds bad. Is there a site other than newegg you recommend? Newegg looks like it has the best prices, and it can't be too bad, being as popular as it is.
How about the rest of the build? Everything look alright?
Also, an update: I've selected this heatsink for the CPU, as it turns out that the CPU I selected doesn't come with one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
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April 8, 2014 10:51:06 AM

jim3888 said:
...if you but from newegg, you but at your own peril. my bank does not consider them a trusted merchant, and their products are usually D.O.A...


This is interesting, I've purchased well over 200 products from NE and have only had one product come DOA (WD Caviar Black of all things). I used to use TD, but I've come to use NE virtually exclusively over the past few years. I'd think if their products are "usually DOA", either they wouldn't be in business or their reviews would reflect that.

And yeah the Hyper 212 EVO should work for the socket 2011 CPU at stock speeds

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April 9, 2014 1:36:19 AM

Alright, thanks!
How about Amazon? They seem to sometimes have slightly better prices, and they have a better return policy than Newegg (actual refund for a CPU rather than replacement only, for example).
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