Help - which motherboard do I need / is best for my setup

jnzane

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
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10,510
Hey guys - I am working as a Video Editor on YouTube since two months now and a new PC is in dire need to here is the build I came up with:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bdsqhM

Now - I have no idea what I need to look out for when choosing a motherboard. I don't want anything fancy just a motherboard that supports my parts and performs well. I don't plan on overclocking anything so something like that doesn't have to be supported either. I would appreciate 1 USB 3 port but thats not a must have. Shouldn't be too expensive but I won't say a maximum price here so try to keep the price as low as possible without neglecting the above mentioned points.

Thanks for any help it is very much appreciated.

Oh also is 630 Watt enough for this system? Don't wanna make another thread for that question.
 
Solution
Yes you have plenty, with your rig, you'd need a good 500 so having extra leaves you open to future upgrades or use in another rig, the BeQuiet you list can handle basically any single GPU card rig you can put together ;)
No you can go with that, others enjoy it well. Looking it over I WOULD suggest you get a SSD as the OS Drive, and ask why your getting 3 - 1TB drives? Are you planning to put them in RAID 3 hot swapable?? As your doing video editing, I would suggest just getting a 4TB drive instead as storage, then a ext 4TB as backup. Also for video editing more RAM is always good for encoding/decoding in realtime, so if you could spring for 32GB instead (I think the max for the z87) and this is your JOB, then it would only benefit you more to do so (as this is your work related tools, hold all receipts and speak to a Business Tax Specialist, as the cost of this PC can be refunded in part on your taxes).
 

jnzane

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
8
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10,510


Hey Tom, thank you very much for your answer.
I know that SSDs are all the hype nowadays but I never used one and they get kinda pricy GB/€. I think a usual HDD works fine for me. My PC also runs 24/7 so not knowing much about SSD's I was also worried about the lifespan but I guess that doesn't really reflect reality.

I use 3 seperate hard drives because this is suggested for working with Adobe Premiere Pro CC - that is unless I want to invest in even more HDDs to run a RAID system. Basically one HDD runs the OS and Programs, one is for Premiere Pro cache and media files and one is for Premiere Pro Previews and Exports. So I was just looking for quick HDDs for a good price.

Currently I am working on a system with two 500GB HDDs and I hardly run out of space because the kind of work I do is quite specific. After a video is done it gets uploaded onto YouTube and after it is published there is no reason for me to keep most of the related files much longer so I imagine even 1TB is more than enough.

RAM wise 16 GB is already an upgrade to me. I never had more than 8. Do you think 32GB is worth it? I might want to consider that then.

Also I am kind of scared because I know that the Motherboard supports the new haswell refresh processors (mine) but only at a certain BIOS version. So the disaster scenario would be that the PC doesn't run because the mobo isnt shipping with that version.
 
SSD: No Hype, actual performance assistance does incur especially for applications and OS layers. I was suggesting a simple OS booting one, say 250Gb usually around $100US. Load the OS and your applications (not games) onto this as your C, and you will have almost instant 'click load' applications, with OS load times around 7-15seconds LITERALLY (I have had mine for couple years now). As time does cost your money, I would HIGHLY suggest this.

3HDDs: mmm I think this is overkill, because honestly you wouldn't use a whole 1TB as a cache drive, since all three drives are still connected to the single I/O chipset, so there is no performance benefit splitting among the larger drives (your 500GBs are doing fine your saying) and would only SLOW / Impact your system more having to scan across a large HDD for small data over multiple drives. Hence why I asked about RAID (minimum drive configuration is 3 drives, 2 used for the RAID one used for data integrity). As your worried about 'disaster scenarios' (as you SHOULD BE!) then RAID would be the better answer, as you want to ensure 100% data integrity AND availability 24x7, if you go single drives and ONE decides to start failing, all sorts of 'issues' may occur which do NOT say 'drive is failing' but give false 'problems' all because where the data resides is corrupt/failing. With RAID and being 'hot swap-able' your ensuring data integrity with the 3rd drive, as well as being able to 'immediately' swap out a bad drive while working (no downtime) and it will auto restore the data across the drives. I would recommend this HIGHLY, even if you did go 3 1TBs and didn't need that much space, the benefits still outweigh the 'excess'.

Honestly every Video Editor whose posted to the forums says the same thing over and over, More RAM GOOD SYSTEM. So if you can splurge for it I would personally, as this is your business, the more money you invest the more capability to make more money (think of it this way, who makes more, a Taxi company with 16 Cabs or a Taxi company with 32 cabs? Still same amount of people out there, but more cabs, means more 'opportunities' to do more work for more people out there).

As for the 'Refresh', I wouldn't invest in it, I would stick with the 4770 unless your planning NOT to use this as a work system but as a geek enthusiast system to test and BREAK with with OCing. Note http://wccftech.com/motherboard-manufacturers-may-allow-intels-devil-s-canyon-cpu-support-on-z87-motherboards/ says the suggestion on the Z87 being usable is ONLY A RUMOR of only a couple days ago. Personally I go with tried and true then higher risk if I am dependent on it (like work or my 'main system'). I would just pair the Z87 with a 4770 and call it even.

 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
I'd look for a Z97 to pair with your CPU selection, which will also give you an upgrade path to the Broadwell CPUs when they come about, something like th Asus Z97-A a good solid mobo, nd if you change you mind down the road will be able to run a Broadwell K model for OCing in the future...also the Z97s run cooler than the Z87s (I have the Hero in both Z87 and Z97 Heros) - Also on the DRAm rather than two sets of 2x4GB, go with a single set of 2x8GB sticks (like the GSkill Snipers), less stress on the MC (memory controller) with two sticks rather than 4 and ever so slightly faster than 4 sticks
 

jnzane

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
8
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10,510


Alright so you convinced me that I should go with a set of 2x 8 GB RAM for starters and upgrade maybe next month or later down the road to 32 GB.

As for the storage setup maybe I need to try SSD's then since I can't find a smaller - faster HDD than the ones I chose.
a good 120GB SSD barely costs more than the HDD I chose so I think

DISK 1: 120GB SSD - OS Programs
DISK2: HDD 1TB - Adobe Premiere Media Files, personal files, games
DISK3: 120GB SSD - Adobe Premiere Media Cache

might be a better solution then? But I still don't like the idea of an SSD dying faster than a HDD.

Changing the CPU to the 4770K also sounds logical. To be honest - the difference between the two is very small anyway as far as the information I found online says so it might not be worth the risk. Considering the K version doesn't cost much more than the non-K version I would also be good to go for overclocking in the small chance of me ever wanting to try that.

Thanks for helping me out further.
 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
SSDs are great - big thing with them (even the newest) is to set them up properly to reduce 'wear and tear'. i.e. no indexing on them (they don't need it anyway ;) ), redirect the page file, temp/cache files/directories, etc to a platter drive, that type of thing, I have one SSD RAID 0 (a pair of older SATA II drives) I created in 2010 and have moved from system to system and used for testing on other rigs that is still running strong and think it will for a few years yet to come
 
120GB is too small for Disk 1, as Windows with just Office together consumes almost HALF the drive space, and you haven't done anything else. Is why I recommend a 250Gb. No I wouldn't use the Disk 3 as a SSD as that would likely die as your worried about, as SSD are ill suited for constant read/writes like that, and better if you took one of your 500GB wiped and use it as the cache drive.
 

jnzane

Honorable
Nov 11, 2013
8
0
10,510
Well thanks again for all the help - I am upvoting your posts already but I doubt that that is very useful as a "thank you".

I think I know what I am looking for now and am fairly confident in the overall build.

Except for the Power Supply Watt question. Is 630/650 Watt enough for such a system?