General purpose + Photoshop-oriented system - Approx 2000$ budget

[Darkshado]

Hello,

I've been out of the hardware game a bit (mostly concerned about laptops as of late) and all of a sudden my girlfriend is looking at building a new desktop rig.

She's getting a bit more serious about photography and has started shooting RAW stuff as well.
Likes to game a little, let's aim at having this system maxing out Starcraft 2 at 1920x1080 without too much trouble.

Approximate Purchase Date: within the next two months

Budget Range: Approximately 2000$CAD

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Surfing the Internet, homework, RAW photo editing, gaming. There may be some CAD work related to her studies as well.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.ca, ncix.ca, have dealt with those in the past; I'm open to others as well

Country: Canada

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU only, I'm open to either nVidia or AMD for the GPU (although Photoshop uses CUDA iirc). Companies with a good track record are preferred.

I.E. my girlfriend can manage quite well on her own computer-wise, but I'd rather talk on the phone about our respective days than how to fix the **** computer again.

Overclocking: Not really.

SLI or Crossfire: I don't think its necessary here.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1200, possibly more. I wouldn't mind pointers for decent high gamut monitors. I'll take a guess at anywhere between 20 to 24 inches.

Additional Comments: A dash of pink on the case wouldn't be a bad thing.

Must have an SSD and a larger storage hard drive.

Thanks,

Darkshado

 

[g-unit1111]

Do *NOT* buy an Apevia case - and *ESPECIALLY* on a $2K build - they are flat out junk, we use them a lot where I work and they fall apart way easier than a lot of cases. Don't buy a case with a particular color in mind - the brands that make them are usually junk brands like Apevia, spend a bit more on the case and don't worry about the color - go for one that has good ventilation and air flow.

Try this:

Case: NZXT Switch 810 - $169.99
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MKII 950W - $149.99
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X79 - $319.99
CPU: 3.6GHz Intel Core i7-3820 - $309.99
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 Socket LGA 2011 Edition - $99.99
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $109.99
SSD: 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 - $179.99
HD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST - $99.99
Optical: LG BD-R Burner - $79.99
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 - $399.99

Total: $1,929.90

The case is way better than Apevia garbage - you get X79 which is perfect for Photoshop - it can run the hex-core i7-3930K for when you get into those really heavy duty CS5 large files and the extra RAM that X79 accommodates will come in handy. You may need a 7 Pro license to do away with Home Premium's RAM limitations, but that won't be a drop in the bucket.

 

[Why_Me]

Direct Canada and Best Direct Canada are affiliated (both ship out of the same warehouse in Richmond, BC) and both offer FREE SHIPPING. Any order over $50 @ Direct Canada is FREE SHIPPING and any order over $80 @ Best Direct Canada is FREE SHIPPING.

http://www.directcanada.com/

http://www.bestdirect.ca/


http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC3384&vpn=CC-9011014-WW&manufacture=CORSAIR $73.50
Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black Gaming Case ATX 3X5.25 4X3.5 Front USB Audio No PSU

http://www.corsair.com/carbide-series-300r-compact-pc-gaming-case.html <---- another look at that case along with links to professional reviews

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/239795/HCG-620M/ANTEC/ $86.53
Antec HCG-620M 620W ATX12V Modular SINGLE-RAIL 48A 80PLUS Bronze 135mm Fan Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD1852&vpn=Z77%20Pro%203&manufacture=Others $127.44
ASRock Z77 Pro 3 ATX LGA1155 DDR3 CrossFireX 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 HDMI USB3.0 Motherboard

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z77%20Pro3 <----- another look at that board along with the latest bios update

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12200BD6982&vpn=BX80637I73770&manufacture=INTEL $308.82
Intel Core i7 3770 Quad Core Hyperthreading Processor LGA1155 3.4GHZ Ivy Bridge 8MB Retail

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11130AC0554&vpn=RR-212E-20PK-R2&manufacture=COOLERMASTER $31.05
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366/1155/1156/2011 120MM

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/235861/CML16GX3M4A1600C9/CORSAIR/ $100.49
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB 4X4GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memory Kit

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530DR5213&vpn=DRW-24B1ST%20Bulk&manufacture=ASUS $17.67
ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer OEM Black

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=25350DR0783&vpn=WD1002FAEX&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD $135.00
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950DR5419&vpn=SVP200S3/120G&manufacture=Others $116.06
Kingston SVP200S3/120G 120GB SSDNow V+200 SATA 3 2.5 Solid State Drive

http://www.storagereview.com/kingston_ssdnow_v200_review <----- review of that Kingston SSD with benchmarks

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=16950BD4931&vpn=02G-P4-2670-KR&manufacture=Others $406.69
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 915MHZ 2048MB 6008MHZ GDDR5 SLI 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E DX11 Video Card

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga <----- review w/benchmarks of the gtx 670

Total: $1,402.70


http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12850SW2113&vpn=GFC-02050&manufacture=MICROSOFT $99.55
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT SP1 DVD OEM

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12850SW1556&vpn=79G-01900&manufacture=MICROSOFT $140.98
Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student English DVD 32/64BIT Retail Box

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530MN1049&vpn=VS247H-P&manufacture=ASUS $177.34
ASUS VS247H-P 23.6IN Widescreen LED LCD Monitor 1920X1080 2MS 50M:1 300CD/M2 HDMI VGA

 

[pdxalex]

Try this:

Don't get me wrong, that's a great rig - but it suffers from maxing-out-the-budget syndrome, and in the wrong areas
There's also no room for a monitor.

With no plans to overclock or run SLI, a 950W PSU is complete overkill, as is a Sabretooth board with the 3820 and the Noctua cooler.

Why_me's build makes a lot more sense... I'd just swap the following:

Substitute the 3770k with a 3770 if you don't plan to overclock anyway
I would prefer a Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 SSD

Invest in a good 24" Dell Ultrasharp IPS Panel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260020&Tpk=Dell%20U2410
Dell's Ultrasharps have a solid reputation for photo and design work.
I'm a photographer and use one myself.

I'm too lazy to adjust the pricing, but based on why_me's totals the budget should still allow for the following essentials:

Add a 1 or 2TB external HDD for backup
Color calibration hardware, something like this spyder will do fine and is very simple to use:
http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyder4express/

 

[g-unit1111]

Don't get me wrong, that's a great rig - but it suffers from maxing-out-the-budget syndrome, and in the wrong areas
There's also no room for a monitor.

With no plans to overclock or run SLI, a 950W PSU is complete overkill, as is a Sabretooth board with the 3820 and the Noctua cooler.

Why_me's build makes a lot more sense... I'd just swap the following:

Substitute the 3770k with a 3770 if you don't plan to overclock anyway
I would prefer a Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 SSD

Invest in a good 24" Dell Ultrasharp IPS Panel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260020&Tpk=Dell%20U2410
Dell's Ultrasharps have a solid reputation for photo and design work.
I'm a photographer and use one myself.

I'm too lazy to adjust the pricing, but based on why_me's totals the budget should still allow for the following essentials:

Add a 1 or 2TB external HDD for backup
Color calibration hardware, something like this spyder will do fine and is very simple to use:
http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyder4express/

I was thinking of that build more for CS5 in mind - which the 3820 and 3930K are perfect for as they're able to handle the large files and things of that nature. A 3770 would be fine if you could find one - they're selling out all over the place. However I can't stress enough how much I hate Apevia and their junk cases and PSUs - I will never recommend that anyone buy one.

 

[Darkshado]

Why_Me's build is probably much closer to what I would have wound up building completely on my own.

I know that the 3770 might be hard to get, but since there's no real specific timeframe aside from "this summer" it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I gave my girlfriend the link and she did prefer g-unit1111's choice of case though.

I also told her to start shopping around a bit. Plus she's geeky enough to be interested in learning about all the hardware and specs. (Our plan is actually to build this together.)

pdxalex: that monitor sounds like a great choice, and yeah a Spyder was part of the plan from the get go. (I recently learned about those devices because my incoming laptop has a 95% NTSC gamut AUO matte panel.)

I'd have to recheck the Kingston SSD's controller and speeds before going for that one. Otherwise the main contenders are in no particular order Samsung, Mushkin, Crucial, Corsair and Intel.

 

[pdxalex]

I know that the 3770 might be hard to get, but since there's no real specific timeframe aside from "this summer" it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I don't think there's any serious shortages currently. They've all been quite brief and the 3770 has been back in supply at Newegg again since yesterday.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502

 

[Why_Me]

Why_Me's build is probably much closer to what I would have wound up building completely on my own.

I know that the 3770 might be hard to get, but since there's no real specific timeframe aside from "this summer" it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I gave my girlfriend the link and she did prefer g-unit1111's choice of case though.

I also told her to start shopping around a bit. Plus she's geeky enough to be interested in learning about all the hardware and specs. (Our plan is actually to build this together.)

pdxalex: that monitor sounds like a great choice, and yeah a Spyder was part of the plan from the get go. (I recently learned about those devices because my incoming laptop has a 95% NTSC gamut AUO matte panel.)

I'd have to recheck the Kingston SSD's controller and speeds before going for that one. Otherwise the main contenders are in no particular order Samsung, Mushkin, Crucial, Corsair and Intel.

Both Direct Canada and Best Direct has those 3770's in stock along with the gtx 670.

If you gf likes white cases than have her check out this one.

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180AC3372&vpn=CC600TMW-WHITE&manufacture=CORSAIR $160.73
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Special Edition White Mid-Tower Case ATX 4X5.25 6X3.5INT USB 1394 No PS

http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/graphite-series-pc-case/special-edition-white-graphite-series-600t-mid-tower-case.html <----- see it here

or this one...

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/236254/CC-9011013-WW/CORSAIR/ $118.97
Corsair Carbide Series 500R Mid-Tower Gaming Case ATX 4X5.25 6X3.5INT USB 1394 No PS White

http://www.corsair.com/en/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/carbide-series-500r-white-mid-tower-case.html <----- see it here

 

[Darkshado]

Did some more shopping, here's what I've come up with. What do you guys think?

http://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=19323965