[New Build] With i7 2600K

[lok3sh]

Hey guys,

I am planing to buy a new PC in the next week or two before my school starts again. I need this to do work at home instead of my school labs.

USE : Gaming, compositing that involves heavy rendering.

BUDGET : $930 USD.

PARTS I HAVE :
BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 OC
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2

PARTS I NEED : Everything else

-I know I want the i7 2600K - $315

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-2600K-Processor-3-4GHz-LGA1155/dp/B004EBUXSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313889494&sr=8-1

-I'm leaning towards the WD Caviar Black 500GB 7,200rpm SATA 6 GB/s 32MB buffer unless there are better ones for the price out there? - $65

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795

-I'm leaning towards the Cooler Master Storm Enforcer again unless theres something better for the price. I like having the PSU at the bottom. They have a promo going on for a free wired gaming mouse. If this is a good case, I want to get this quick before the promo ends. - $80

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119240&Tpk=Cooler%20Master%20Storm%20Enforcer

-I'm looking at the G.Skill 2x4GB Ripjaw series for RAM. -$58

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

-Motherboard, I'm looking at the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 - $160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128494&Tpk=GIGABYTE%20GA-Z68X-UD4-B3%20LGA

That leaves me with a budget of $251 Monitor and other misc things...

-I do not plan to OC right in the beginning, so if the stock CPU cooler works fine, then I don't need a different cooler.

-I do not need onboard graphics.

-I do not want an SSD. They are too expensive right now.

-I do want some of the new SATA ports.

-I do want USB 3.0 in the front and the back.

-I would like to have WiFi on my motherboard.

-I do want at least 8GB of RAM to begin with, and I will eventually upgrade to 16GB. So I think 2 sticks of 4GB for now.

I have a tiny apartment, and a very small desk where I will place my CPU. My slot for the CPU is only 18.75 inches deep. This kind of sucks because most cases are going to be quite deep. So I was wondering if there are such things as CPU stands? I do not want my CPU on the floor because it gets dusty as hell down there.

My desk slot is also only 11 inches wide. I see most cases are about 9 inches wide, so is about 1" on both sides enough space for airflow? I live in San Francisco, and its not very hot here if that helps.

Thank you in advance for the help. I look forward to my new pc!

 

[pepe2907]

You will not benefit anithing from this i7 2600K over a 2500K for rendering /except for the little difference in the nominal clock speed/. Both processors have exactly the same FP units. And you will not benefit for gaming.
Your box looks nice and shyny - good for showing it to friends. Not so good if it eats money you can spend on more important components, but I am one who uses computers mostly for work, not to look at them. I look mostly at the monitor, and so I put more money there as for the box.

 

[abekl]

Great case selection. I have the same case, and I love having two USB 3 ports up front. At 79, for it at newegg, you can't go wrong. For the motherboard, I'd suggest the Gigabyte UD4, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128494 It has the best port arrangement hands down, and at 159, offers all the amenities of a much more expensive board.

For memory, I'd pair it with G.Skill RAM (it's on the compatibility list), specifically, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428.

For a hard drive, you can't go wrong with either Western Digital black, or Seagate Barracuda. Just don't get one of those green or blue drives. You'll be disappointed with the performance.

Lastly, for power supply, I recommend the Coarsair Enthusiast series 650 watt power supply only because I have it, and it's quiet and reliable. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

 

[lok3sh]

You will not benefit anithing from this i7 2600K over a 2500K for rendering /except for the little difference in the nominal clock speed/. Both processors have exactly the same FP units. And you will not benefit for gaming.
Your box looks nice and shyny - good for showing it to friends. Not so good if it eats money you can spend on more important components, but I am one who uses computers mostly for work, not to look at them. I look mostly at the monitor, and so I put more money there as for the box.

I like the case mainly because it has a nice PSU location, enough space for it to not be crammed in there, I like the brand and yes it does look nice too. Its not terribly expensive either.

Also I would imagine that with 8 threads instead of 4, I would get a much better render rate out of my compositing package?

Great case selection. I have the same case, and I love having two USB 3 ports up front. At 79, for it at newegg, you can't go wrong. For the motherboard, I'd suggest the Gigabyte UD4, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128494 It has the best port arrangement hands down, and at 159, offers all the amenities of a much more expensive board.

For memory, I'd pair it with G.Skill RAM (it's on the compatibility list), specifically, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428.

For a hard drive, you can't go wrong with either Western Digital black, or Seagate Barracuda. Just don't get one of those green or blue drives. You'll be disappointed with the performance.

Lastly, for power supply, I recommend the Coarsair Enthusiast series 650 watt power supply only because I have it, and it's quiet and reliable. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Thanks for the help! The G.Skill RAM you linked me to does not exist anymore apparently lol.

I intend to overclock the processor in time, would this board you suggest handle the OCing nicely? For now I'll put this board into my budget for now. Is there anything from ASUS in this price range thats good?

As for hard drives, I guess any of those will do... Its really a gamble with hard drives since almost every drive has a bunch of people saying it died in a day or came DOA and other things like that... Just have to take a chance. I already have a 500GB 7,200 drive from my old build, but its not the SATA 6.0GB/s so I don't really want to use that. But for now, I'll just throw in the WD Caviar Black with the nice 32mb cache.

The PSU you suggested seems nice, plus it has a $20 rebate on right now. Will 650W be sufficient? If it will, and thats a good PSU I'll go ahead and order it now so I get the nice price.

I'm going to update my first post now...

Thanks for all the help so far!

 

[abekl]

Here's a working link to the memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

As for overclocking, that MB overclocks very easily. It's a true enthusiast level board.

As for a comparable Asus board, the closest direct competitor is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

It costs about 20 more, but it matches the Gigabyte board feature for feature.

 

[lok3sh]

Here's a working link to the memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

As for overclocking, that MB overclocks very easily. It's a true enthusiast level board.

As for a comparable Asus board, the closest direct competitor is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131729

It costs about 20 more, but it matches the Gigabyte board feature for feature.

Thanks... The RAM you linked to, was a bit too low. I'm looking at almost the same thing but as an 8GB kit.

Whats the difference between the ripjaw and the ripjaw x series? They are the same price, but the X version is on sale right now for $10 off.

The non X version has an extra "2N" on the timing. Whats the difference and which one would I want to be buying right now?

Here are links to both:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-231-426&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo

And I'm reading that the ASUS board has RAM slots close to the CPU slot which sometimes make aftermarket coolers not fit if all the RAM slots are taken... But anyway, are there any nice boards like that with onboard WiFi?

 

[abekl]

Your memory links are to 1333 memory, not the 1600 memory I had suggested. You'll want the faster 1600 memory for all the image manipulation you do, since so much of it occurs in memory. Here's a link to the 8GB kit you should get:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

The only difference between these and the ripjaws x version is the heat spreader design. Otherwise they are the same memory. The 2N should be on both memories, it's a typo on neweggs part.

As for wi-fi, no there are no Z68 boards currently that have onboard wi-fi that I'm aware of. Don't let that be a deciding factor though. Just buy a PCI wi-fi card.

 

[lok3sh]

Your memory links are to 1333 memory, not the 1600 memory I had suggested. You'll want the faster 1600 memory for all the image manipulation you do, since so much of it occurs in memory. Here's a link to the 8GB kit you should get:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

The only difference between these and the ripjaws x version is the heat spreader design. Otherwise they are the same memory. The 2N should be on both memories, it's a typo on neweggs part.

As for wi-fi, no there are no Z68 boards currently that have onboard wi-fi that I'm aware of. Don't let that be a deciding factor though. Just buy a PCI wi-fi card.

Oh I didn't notice the different speed rating... Thanks for pointing it out. So I think the Corsair PSU you recommended would be a great buy and right now I can grab one for $71. Maybe I should just buy it right away.

 

[abekl]

go for it

 

[lok3sh]

Ok cool PSU bought! Now I have the PSU and the GPU! Now to settle on a motherboard. I want to this this towards the end, so if I have a little extra money left on my budget, I want to spend it on the motherboard. So I'm still open to some more suggestions on a good motherboard with a great layout and is good for OCing.

 

[pepe2907]

You get 8 threads, but they are run only on 8 FP pipelines /same is the number of the pipelines for the 2500K - two for each core/ - so no any difference. More threads is just a mimic, and in hardware side means only doubling the program registers of the integer unit. This is good for fast switching between tasks, as it saves some stacking /memory operations/. But rendering comprises of comparatively long chains of operations on the same thread and never returning back to the previous thread /where is the advantage of HT/, and they are all performed on FP units /it's true for both 3d raytracing and video rendering/transcoding/.
But after all it's your computer and your money, and you may spend them as you wish.

 

[lok3sh]

You get 8 threads, but they are run only on 8 FP pipelines /same is the number of the pipelines for the 2500K - two for each core/ - so no any difference. More threads is just a mimic, and in hardware side means only doubling the program registers of the integer unit. This is good for fast switching between tasks, as it saves some stacking /memory operations/. But rendering comprises of comparatively long chains of operations on the same thread and never returning back to the previous thread /where is the advantage of HT/, and they are all performed on FP units /it's true for both 3d raytracing and video rendering/transcoding/.
But after all it's your computer and your money, and you may spend them as you wish.

Though I didn't completely understand, it does sound like you know what you are talking about! So if my budget starts to overshoot, I think I might go for the 2500k then. Thanks for the tip!

 

[lok3sh]

As far as motherboards go, with a budget of roughly around $200 what would be a good choice?

I've been reading up on the ASUS P8Z68-V, ASUS P8Z68-V PRO and the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3.

I can't seem to pick one as reviews show some annoying problems on all of these boards. The Gigabyte has something about a reboot loop, the ASUS boards have some kind of double POSTing and the RAM slots are apparently too close to the CPU slot which limits what CPU coolers you can use etc etc. Is there another good Z68 board out there that comes recommended?

Thanks!

 

[lok3sh]

I have just learnt that the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 has native support for PCIE 3.0 with the latest BIOS update. I think I will just go with the Gigabyte board right now. Seems to have everything I need.

 

[pepe2907]

Some additional notes /I didn't mentioned these things previously, didn't pay much attention honestly, but they are quite impotrant/:
1. For HD video edithing with heavy compositing more RAM /like 8GB/ may help. I don't know what exactly do you mean by heavy compositing. But as a rule for all such tasks it's very important to work in RAM only, without any swapping on the HDD /it realy kills performance, even if it's SSD/.
2. For serious HD video editing work this HDD size is barely enough. Especially if you want to keep some footage and sound libraries at hand. And the professional footage, even not HD comes with very low compression /and much higher qualyty as you are probably used to see/.

 

[lok3sh]

Yeah I do have 8GB of RAM in my budget. I might upgrade to 16 later. Also yes all my footage is usually very large, but for the moment, I'm doing a masters in school and most of the clips I work on don't generally go over a minute so I'm ok for now.

 

[lok3sh]

Alright ordered everything except the processor, monitor, wifi card and the keyboard. Here is what I ordered:

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $159.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $57.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" - $64.99

COOLER MASTER Storm Enforcer Case - $79.99

PSU CORSAIR|650W CMPSU-650TXV2 - $64.99

BD COMBO SAMSUNG | SH-B123L/RSBP R - $56.99

COOLER MASTER Inferno SGM-4000-KLLN1-GP Wired 4000 dpi Gaming Mouse - Free

And already have

BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 OC - $55

Tax - $36.25

Total - $576.19

Balance from $1000 budget - around $424

If I buy the i7 2600K, budget left - $109 for monitor + wireless card + keyboard

If I buy the i5 2500K, budget left - $204 for monitor + wireless card + keyboard

I plan to buy the monitor off of Craigslist for around $100 so that should leave me with like $10 for the wireless card and I can throw in some extra for a keyboard and everything will work out fine. So I can swing the i7 if I really want to. It's just that I don't know if I want to anymore. Apparently I won't see any improvement in performance while rendering and stuff... So I don't know if its worth it at all...

 

[lok3sh]

Best answer selected by lok3sh.

 

[lok3sh]

So I built my system two days ago and its been running like a dream doing exactly what I needed it to do! I'm playing Crysis 2 on highest possible settings on 1920x1200 and its running smooth as butter!

Also I am so glad I got the i7 and not the i5. This thing is BLAZING fast! It renders my VFX work so fast out of Nuke! It utilizes all 8 threads at 100% through any render and does it faster than I've been able to ever do it even on my school computer which is weird as those are dual i7s :/ ah well, I ain't complaining!

So here is what it ended up costing:

Intel Core i7-2600K Processor - $318.94

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 - $159.99

BenQ G2400WD Black 24" - $100.00

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) - $57.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" - $64.99

COOLER MASTER Storm Enforcer Case - $79.99

PSU CORSAIR|650W CMPSU-650TXV2 - $64.99

BD COMBO SAMSUNG | SH-B123L/RSBP R - $56.99

Rosewill RNX-G300LX IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Wireless Adapter - $14.99

BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 OC - $55.00

GE Wireless Keyboard - $5.00

COOLER MASTER Inferno SGM-4000-KLLN1-GP Wired 4000 dpi Gaming Mouse - Free

Tax - $37.34

Total - $1016.21

Thanks Tom's HW for all the help!