Building a computer for the first time

[d_rock]

Hi all,

I'm trying to put together a nice computer, mainly to edit videos. Here is what I've come up with so far. Please let me know if you have any comments or see things that I can improve. The prices are mostly from TigerDirect. Let me know if I'm getting ripped off!

--Intel Core i7 920 Processor ($280)
--ASUS P6T SE Motherboard ($190)--I don't need SLI support
--Cooler Master’s Centurion 534 ($39)
--Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply ($60)
--Corsair XMS3 CMX6GX3M3A1333C9 Tri Channel 6GB PC10666 DDR3 Memory - 1333MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) ($197)--Should I just get 1600MHz memory and overclock? Is it easy to overclock the memory? Will it generate a lot of heat?
--Western Digital WD5001AALS Caviar Black Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200 rpm, 32MB, SATA-3G ($59)--I'm going to get two and put them in a RAID stripe configuration and then back up regularly to a 1TB external USB hard drive that I already have.
--ATI Radeon HD 5770 ($160)--Are there certain manufacturers that have better support (e.g. updated drivers) than others? Is having a graphics card that supports DirectX 11 important for reasons other than gaming?
--Lite-On IHAS22406 Internal DVD Writer ($30)
--Windows 7 Professional ($150)

Will I be alright with the stock CPU fan, the graphics card fan, and the case fan if I don't plan on overclocking my CPU?

Thanks in advance!

D_rock

 

[enzo matrix]

1. You can find cheaper 1366 boards that will meet your needs.
2. Why are you purchasing an aftermarket cooler? The intel CPU comes with one. It is good enough for the CPU unless you intend to do some major overclocking.
3. Memory is the least of your worries. worst performance gain per price increase of any component in your system. Just get the cheapest 1333 memory from a reputable manufacturer. Like corsair. And that price seems normal. Just go with that. Why would you overclock your ram? Same thing, not much performance gain at all. But no. Even the heatspreaders that come on most ram is overkill.
4. Raid 0 for speed or raid 1 for mirrored data on both drives? Those are good drives and it is good to know that you back up regularly. You might want to just take that external out of its enclosure and put it in your computer system as a slave to increase the speed of your backups though. USB 2.0 is slow.
5. I doubt you will need something that powerful for video editing, although I am not very knowledgeable in the field. I'd look into a radeon 5670 at the most. Maybe do some research as to how much your programs can make use of GPU acceleration.
6. Windows 7 home premium should have all the features you need, unless you are choosing pro for some specific feature. Make sure you get 64-bit.
7. Get a quality brand power supply like corsair. 500W should be more than enough for your system.

To your last question: yes. And now that I realize you have no intention of overclocking, ditch the aftermarket cooler. All GPUs have their own fans that are designed for them, so of course they will be able to cool them enough.

I am a bit biased towards AMD. You could get similar performance with a phenom II 965 ($180) a good asus AM3 motherboard ($100) and 2x2GB of good mushkin silverline DDR3 memory ($110)

 

[Lmeow]

I agree with enzo on most of the points, a Phenom II X4 or X6 would be a better buy than the Core i7 unless you plan to use heavy video editing programs which seem to favour Intel's architecture or ones which can use more than four threads, like Sony Vegas 9 for example.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Homebuilt Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[foxmulder13]

actually the 1156 is a better choice then 1366 and an i7 860 is better then the 920
and I would go with the 5850 at video card