$1200 photo editing + light gaming IB PC

nui

Honorable
Apr 28, 2012
7
0
10,510
Approximate Purchase Date: May

Budget Range: 800-1200 (flexible)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: all purpose computer. Photo editing with lightroom and photoshop, gaming (mostly first person shooters), office work, web surfing. But mostly to finally have a good system that I can tinker with for the pleasure of tinkering.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers. Due to budget constraints I am planning on holding on for a couple of months before getting a GPU, but suggestions are welcome.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Have been dealing with newegg, but I'm open for others.

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Have a preference for ASUS mobo and intel ivy bridge.

Overclocking: Yes.

SLI or Crossfire: Not now. Maybe in the future

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Never had easy access to the "cool stuff" before. So this is my first opportunity to build my own from scratch and I'm obviously lost on a bunch of aspects of it. Also, after years of dealing with a screaming banshee of a notebook I would (really) like a quiet computer. Could really use some input on this.

Intel Core i7-3770K
$350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Noctua NH-D14
$85
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=47090&vpn=NH-D14&manufacture=Noctua
No PWM, but everyone seems to love this thing.

ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$285
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131818
Probably overkill, but looks awesome and packed with features to have fun with.

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-8GAB
$60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231550
I really don't know my RAMs. 8gb seems enough at this point, and I understand that I should go for some low profile because of the Noctua NH-D14. Is there a point in going above 1600? Is there a point in going for CAS 8 instead of 9?

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148525
Not sure about this one. Performance is important, but reliability is really important. Already have a second hdd that will be for holding media.

Case Antec P280 Black ATX Mid Tower
$120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129179

Corsair Professional Series Gold AX850 CMPSU-850AX 850W ATX Fully Modular 80PLUS Gold Power Supply
$176
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=53719&vpn=CMPSU-850AX&manufacture=Corsair
Also do not speak the lingo of power supplies. I will add a graphics card later on (maybe one of those nvidia 6xx still to be released) and probably some more hard drives. So I would like to have a quiet power supply that can handle later additions. Is this model good and silent enough?

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
$23
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335
No need for Blu-ray.





 

l0v3rboi

Honorable
Mar 30, 2012
723
0
11,160
That Noctua is great. You can also consider the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO for a cheaper alternative.

For RAM, you would need a low profile one. A DDR3 1600 RAM would be fine though. Anything past that and performance gained would not be worth the premium. CL refers to latency. The lower the number the better. Again, premiums may not be worth it because of the lack of noticeable performance difference. CL9 should be fine. Lastly, make sure you get one that is rated for 1.5 V.

You would be fine with a nice 650 W PSU.