Home Office - Amateur Graphic/Web Design ~ $1400

[taylorjes]

Approximate Purchase Date: Two Weeks

Budget Range: $1000 w/o Monitors $1400 w/ Monitors - After Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Office, CS5 (PS, AI, ID, DW), Handbrake

Parts Not Required:

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg, amazon

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Gigabyte, G.Skill

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments:

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P
EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1461-KR GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz
OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR

In addition to the (tentitive) above items I need a case/PSU, keyboard, mouse, and I dual monitor setup (22" widescreen).

I'm building this computer for my home office. My wife is an amateur photographer and I develop web sites in my spare time. We would like to use the machine for everything from office work (Word, Excel, ect) to some (like once-a-month maybe) handbrake. The primary reason for this new build is so my wife can use photoshop at home (rather than our real office) and so I can do some fiddling around with projects.
Because this will be our home pc I won't be overclocking, but I still want some opinions on case/cooling; we live in a studio-ish apartment, so I would like this machine to be as wuite as possible, but I'm not against fan controls for high-heat situations. This build may start simple for the time beings, but I do plan to try some creative heat/sound-control setups.
Finally, I'll keep this post updated with all the options I'm leaning to and I'll post my newegg wishlist soon.


Updates:
Dell Dual UltraSharp U2212HM 21.5-inch Widescreen Monitors

 

[taylorjes]

With the OCZ Vertex 3 on sale right now, I'm leaning towards buying rather soon.

Will a GTX 560 be necessarily for the dual monitor setup?

Updated Wishlist

 

[taylorjes]

Current Update:

CORSAIR Pro Series HX650 650W
EVGA GTX 550 Ti
G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600
Crucial M4 64GB SSD
WD Caviar Black 500GB
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
Intel i5-2400 Sandy Bridge

Total (w/o Monitors) $949.93

Changed a few items... added data drive and PSU... halved RAM (I can always get more)...

 

[g-unit1111]

With the OCZ Vertex 3 on sale right now, I'm leaning towards buying rather soon.

Will a GTX 560 be necessarily for the dual monitor setup?

Updated Wishlist

No - do not get the Vertex 3, OCZ is really hit or miss when it comes to SSDs.

560 will run dual monitors but if you want to go any further than that I'd really recommend a Radeon card.

CORSAIR Pro Series HX650 650W
EVGA GTX 550 Ti
G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600
Crucial M4 64GB SSD
WD Caviar Black 500GB
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
Intel i5-2400 Sandy Bridge

Most of what you have here is pretty good - I have most of the same components - the Black HDs are really expensive, go with the Blue - it's a bit more affordable but you won't suffer any performance decrease. The 550TI isn't the best card on the market for the money, I'd suggest going with a 560 or checking out the Radeon 6850.

I have that same Gigabyte board and it's been excellent. Try to get a good cooler as well.

 

[taylorjes]

Added: Antec 900 Case

Most of what you have here is pretty good - I have most of the same components - the Black HDs are really expensive, go with the Blue - it's a bit more affordable but you won't suffer any performance decrease. The 550TI isn't the best card on the market for the money, I'd suggest going with a 560 or checking out the Radeon 6850.

The WD Black 500s are the same price OEM and I've had issues with Blues in the past (weird issues).
I'm torn between the 550TI and 560... I don't ever plan on adding another monitor and I don't play games... ever... I think both are overkill, but...


One question? of the Gigabyte Z68XPs are there any major difference between the UD3 and UD3P? Newegg's got an open box UD3... I just read a rewview and I don't think I'll ever use the mSATA (I've got a SSD), but...

thanks

 

[g-unit1111]

One question? of the Gigabyte Z68XPs are there any major difference between the UD3 and UD3P? Newegg's got an open box UD3... I just read a rewview and I don't think I'll ever use the mSATA (I've got a SSD), but...

Don't get an open box board - there's no warranty and you won't be able to get service on these if something goes wrong.

The main difference between the UD3 and the UD3P is that the UD3P has an extra PCI-e 2.1 x 16 slot for SLI or Crossfire, and it has HDMI-out as opposed to DVI and VGA.

Added: Antec 900 Case

I had a 900 - it's really old and outdated - it lacks USB 3.0 and there's no cable management whatsoever. These would be better choices:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352007
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008

I'm torn between the 550TI and 560... I don't ever plan on adding another monitor and I don't play games... ever... I think both are overkill, but...

560 would be far better, but if you don't play games then actually I'd probably recommend getting a professional card like the Fire Pro V3870.

 

[taylorjes]

Time to pull the trigger.

Final Update:

Intel i5-2400 Sandy Bridge - Amazon: $189.99
Gigabyte GA-Z86XP-UD3P - Newegg: $174.99
EVGA SuperClocked GTX 560 - Amazon: $189.99
G.Skill Sinper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 - Amazon: $59.99
Crucial M4 64GB - Amazon: $106.99
WD Caviar Black 750GB - Amazon: $124.99
Fractal Design Arc Midi - Newegg: $99.99
Corsair Pro Series HX650 - Amazon: $118.49
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - Amazon: $26.35

I'm an amazon prime member, so sorry newegg; free shipping is free shipping.

Total: $1091.77 - w/o monitors

Dell Dual UltraSharp U2212HM Bundle - Dell: $549.99

Total: $1641.76

 

[g-unit1111]

G.Skill Sinper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 - Amazon: $59.99

Before you get this you need to check the QVL (qualified vendor list) from your motherboard manufacturer to see if they've tested it with low voltage RAM - having the wrong voltage could have the potential to be really bad later on.

I'm an amazon prime member, so sorry newegg; free shipping is free shipping.

Yeah but you have to keep in mind that Amazon doesn't sell PC parts directly - they rely on other vendors for that, and you really need to check their RMA / return policies in case something goes wrong.

 

[taylorjes]

Best answer selected by taylorjes.

 

[taylorjes]

I'm glad u mentioned that... the RMAs from Amazon sucked... 25% restock on defective good...

Thanks for the help

now we wait...