Help with i7 build for video editing/gaming

[joeleeriepa]

Hi folks, I'm finally ready to build a new system and could use some guidance. I picked up a i7 920 at Microcenter for $229, so now it's time to fill in the rest.

The computer will have a dual usage- Video editing/encoding and Gaming. The Video aspect is the more important of the two, but I would like to play Diablo 3, Star Craft 2 etc. with ease when they come out. I'm not looking to squeeze every last frame from Crysis though. I edit and encode quite a lot of HD footage, and use Adobe's suite of software like crazy. Keep in mind I've been doing this on a single core P4 3.03ghz PC with 1 gig of RAM for the last few years, so anything is going to feel like a jump to lightspeed. That being said, I don't want to skimp, and would like to spend around another $1,500 to $1,700 after the cost of the i7.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[xthekidx]

Here is a mid-range i7 build I put together a while ago, I update it about every week or so. It has a PSU that allows for another GTX 260 to be added on later in SLI. It also has a good cooler for you to OC, which I highly suggest you do. I have a computer very similar to this one OC to 3.5. Only difference is my ram and I have a different branded PSU and GPU, but with the same specs.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14386287

Since you already have the CPU, that takes $290 off the price.

Since you do a lot of editing and such, I suggest you get some storage drives, a couple of them to run raid 1, you might also add another of those 640gb drives I have there and run them in Raid 0 for super speed
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

So that should put you at about $1400, a little over if you add on that other drive for raid 0.

Do you have a monitor already? If not, take a gander at this one, best one at 24" for the price IMO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001309&Tpk=2433bw

 

[joeleeriepa]

xthekidx, thanks so much for your help. Truly appreciated.

You read my mind with the monitor, I forgot to include that in my original post. I had been looking at that Samsung, good to know it's recommended.


In terms of the hard drives, are you recommending the 640 caviar drives running in raid 0 for the OS and such, or the 1TB ones in Raid 1 for storage?

 

[xthekidx]

Yes, Raid 0 will give you fast read/write times for you applications and OS, then Raid 1 will give you a secure place to store your important data and your work that you have done.