Advice on my planned new system

[agiroger]

I am planning to build my first computer from scratch and I'd like to get some feedback on the components I selected. It's the first time I'm doing this, so any help is greatly appreciated!

I am working a lot with Photoshop, other Adobe products and especially I need a computer that can handle AVCHD video. Usually I don't play games.

I heard that Intel's i7 handles video encoding the best, but it's out of my budget. So I went with the following components:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955
Motherboard: ASUS M4A 78T-E AM3 790GX
Ram: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Case: Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Power supply: Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC Power Supply
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

I calculated, it would cost me about $600, which is probably the max. for me.

I'm going to reuse an old CD/DVD drive and at least for now I'm not going to get a graphics card, since I'm not planning on playing games.
Are the on-board graphics sufficient?

Does anyone have experience with these components? Do they work together well? Am I going to be fine with 550W power supply? Anything else I need to consider?

Any other comments welcome.

Thanks for the help!

 

[gkay09]

^ Good build...
Some suggestions...
1. Change the mobo to a 785G and save some money...And for your usage, they would suffice...And ATI stream should help a bit with the onboard video...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128397
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130233

2. PSU - You wont need 550W...This is what you want...
Corsair 400CX 400W PSU...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148150

3. RAM - IMO if you work a lot with photoshop, then additional memory will certainly help...Get 2 of this kit with the money saved on the mobo and PSU...It is a high quality one which can even run at higher speeds without any issues...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148150

 

[agiroger]

Thanks a lot for the good advice. I'll take it.

I just don't understand your choice of memory.

Is it the latency? It seems to have a slower speed.

 

[gkay09]

^ Those kits though have stock speeds slower, can be set to tigherter timings and higher speed without any issues...And if you plan to populate all the 4 RAM slots, then going with slower speed, tighter timings is better as they are easier to set...
But just noticed the prices...It was $96 shipped that is why I linked those...but dunno how those became $112...
Change to any of these...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010170147%201052315794%201052129233&CompareItemList=N82E16820211409%2CN82E16820231277%2CN82E16820148262%2CN82E16820148325&page=2&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True

 

[agiroger]

I think I'll go with the G.SKILL.
First I'll order one kit and the second one if needed.

Thanks again.

 

[agiroger]

Best answer selected by agiroger.