Would love advice for this ~$950 gaming/design build

[shadeobrady]

Hey everyone!

It's been a few years since I've built a PC, but I'm excited for this one and am ready to order in about a week. I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and a regular 1TB 7200 HD.

This build will be used heavily for gaming and design using the Adobe suite (Premiere and After Effects as well).I'll be ordering an H-100 after building for overclocking. I'm a little stuck on whether I'm going to bottleneck with the currently chosen GFX card and the 3750K overclocked.


Is my power OK for overclocking both the GPU/CPU (and if I want to crossfire in the future - which I hear mixed reviews about)? Should I get the 7870 or even a better GPU?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($43.98 @ Outlet PC)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $888.73

Thanks for any help and suggestions!!

 

[TheBigTroll]

here you go

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cQL4

i changed up the power supply since this one is about as good but cheaper. i also changed the case as the one i have is cheaper and has usb3

 

[g-unit1111]

Premiere and After Effects require a much heftier CPU than the 3570K - the 3770K will not be obtainable on a sub $1K build but the 2600K might be - you will make use of hyper threading with those programs. That build looks good though - there's not a lot I would change other than take that suggestion in mind. Also upgrading to 16GB of RAM certainly wouldn't hurt in your case.

 

[TheBigTroll]

oh yeah. you should consider the i7 2600k/3770k if gaming vs work is around 60-40%. a i5 3570k is suffice but i7 can really shine

@g-unit1111: was getting a i7 3770k a good idea cuz i just bought one

 

[shadeobrady]

Wow thanks a ton guys!

Just to clarify, I mostly use Illustrator and Photoshop (after effects and premiere for odd jobs, nothing too crazy).

I would say Gaming vs Work on my own computer is often 75% gaming to 25% work if that helps. I do most of my work at work =)

Do the extra cores only really get used with programs like Adobe that has hyper threading available? If I don't do much work, is it better for me to get less cores and higher GHz? What good is 4 cores if it doesn't help much?

I would consider the 2600K, looks like it'll only add ~$100 to my build. But is that worth it if I game? Maybe I should put that into my GPU...

 

[g-unit1111]

Wow thanks a ton guys!

Just to clarify, I mostly use Illustrator and Photoshop (after effects and premiere for odd jobs, nothing too crazy).

I would say Gaming vs Work on my own computer is often 75% gaming to 25% work if that helps. I do most of my work at work =)

Do the extra cores only really get used with programs like Adobe that has hyper threading available? If I don't do much work, is it better for me to get less cores and higher GHz? What good is 4 cores if it doesn't help much?

I would consider the 2600K, looks like it'll only add ~$100 to my build. But is that worth it if I game? Maybe I should put that into my GPU...

There's no extra cores on the 3770K vs. the 3570K, where the differences lie is in the ability to make use of the extra threads and higher RAM capacities - that will help speed loading large files.

If gaming is the greater focus of this build, you'll definitely want to put the difference in the GPU. If you're using CS5/6 then the GPU is important but the tasks are more dependent of the CPU.

@g-unit1111: was getting a i7 3770k a good idea cuz i just bought one

Depends on what the primary use is.

 

[TheBigTroll]

im gonna game mostly. might do some folding for fun. i bought it so that i can make use of the threads 5-8 years later since i opened my dads system and found a amd first gen athlon that is still kicking around. it should last right?

 

[daamz]

go with 3570k then. and please choose the Asus HD 7850 DCU II instead of only Asus HD 7850..

 

[TheBigTroll]

they are the same thing. asus doesnt make a reference 7850 from what i know. they might have a top edition 7850 from what i saw

 

[TheBigTroll]

from what my cousin said about msi, he found out that all their stuff doesnt have enough gold content. the last msi motherboard he had was a p67 board and that the socket was already oxidised within a year. he also didnt like his 560ti hawk. he compared it to a 560ti from asus and the asus was way better

that was my rant about msi but im sure they did something about the gold content

 

[shadeobrady]

go with 3570k then. and please choose the Asus HD 7850 DCU II instead of only Asus HD 7850..

Is this the pair you're talking about?

Asus HD7850-DC2-2GD5
HD7850-DC2T-2GD5-V2 <-- no reviews and $20 more expensive...

 

[daamz]

bro, me use Asus HD7850-DC2-2GD5 = (direct cu 2).. its up to you if you want to go with overclock version. the different is you can overclock by yourself or already overclocked (HD7850-DC2T-2GD5V2 - t mean top! direct cu II mean got 2 extra fan.. for cooling purpose and most importantly for overclock purpose..

 

[daamz]

I THINK BETTER U CHOOSE AT LEAST 650w PSU

 

[daamz]

FOR MOBO, IF ME, I PICK ONLY ASUS/ASROCK/GIGABYTE

 

[TheBigTroll]

the directcu2 top means that the chip is binned for higher overclocks. up to you if you want to spend the little extra for even more overclocking

 

[shadeobrady]

Well my original GPU says directcu2 and is $20 cheaper. The only real difference I saw was the clock rate, so I would rather get the cheaper and overclock!

 

[lockinyour]

I am very happy to be here because this is a very good site that provides lots of information about the topics covered in depth. Im glad to see that people are actually writing about this issue in such a smart way, showing us all different sides to it. Please keep it up. I cant wait to read whats next.

 

[Poltregeist]

Hey everyone!

It's been a few years since I've built a PC, but I'm excited for this one and am ready to order in about a week. I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse and a regular 1TB 7200 HD.

This build will be used heavily for gaming and design using the Adobe suite (Premiere and After Effects as well).I'll be ordering an H-100 after building for overclocking. I'm a little stuck on whether I'm going to bottleneck with the currently chosen GFX card and the 3750K overclocked.


Is my power OK for overclocking both the GPU/CPU (and if I want to crossfire in the future - which I hear mixed reviews about)? Should I get the 7870 or even a better GPU?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($43.98 @ Outlet PC)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $888.73

Thanks for any help and suggestions!!

For the GPU section, the 7870 has a noticeable difference in performance over the 7850. If you trust the company like I do (FREE lifetime warranty ) the XFX 7870 Double D is only $230 before, and $210 after rebates. If you want to spend more in the range of $300, then the 7950 is the way to go. Both these cards will take the most GPU intensive games (BF3, Skyrim, etc.) with ultra settings and use them as a chew toy. With that i5, your FPS shouldn't drop below 40. Should actually stay between 60 and 70 FPS.