Image/video Editing + occasional gaming Build (~1000$)

[doctor lo]

Approximate Purchase Date: : this month

Budget Range: 1000$ or 900€ Before Shipping . I´m flexible, just looking for the best price/perfomance ratio

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photo editing, video editing, gaming, multitasking, movies, surfing...

Are you buying a monitor: Yes (but out of the budget)

Parts to Upgrade: CPU/Mobo/RAM/Graphics/Case/Cooling/PSU. Only reusing Hard drives and a SSD

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (amazon.es, pccomponentes.es, alternate.es)

Location: Spain (I dont expect to get advice on where to buy in Spain.. I´ll handle that, just looking for hardware advice).

Parts Preferences: - Intel CPU

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: currently 1680x1050 upgrading to 1920x1200 down the road. EDIT: I´d like to use 2 screens togheter mabye even a 3rd one later on.

Additional Comments: Looking for reliabilty and quality. Good cooling and low noise.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: time to change my Q6600, want more performance.


I´m buidling this PC in Spain so you probably wont be able to give advice on which specific part I should buy on which specific shop, I mostly need hardware advice, dont worry about some parts having rebates on newegg for example since I wont be able to buy it there... (other more general price advice e.g. "if you can find 'x' for a similar price as 'y' then definitely go for 'x' " will be appreciated). Im posting the cheapest prices I´ve found on components here so you can have a rough idea.
I already have first draft, so you can also comment on it.. or give totally different suggestions, either way it will be greatly appreciated.

CPU: Intel i5-3570K (218€) / i5-3550 (182€). I would have considered i-3450 as Tomshardware gaming CPUs article suggests, but its just 2€ here cheaper than i5-3550 !!
Mobo: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (124€)
RAM: G-Skill Ripjaws 8GB 2x4GB CL9 (40€). Should I really go for 16gb now ??
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 Dual-X 2GB GDDR5 (189€). No particular reason for this, I´m happy with my Sapphire and I´ve always used Radeon graphics, the HD7850 seems like a good compromise.
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred (100€)
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (30€)
PSU: Corsair HX750W "silver" (the old one is 119€)

I already have a Sandsik SSD G25-G3 Extreme 120 GB, and 3 x 640GB Caviar blacks (WD6400AAKS) I plan to RAID 0 (I´ll have an external backup... probably soon a home NAS, but for now at least an additional 2TB internal drive just for that purpose).
As you can see the the case/psu could be a bit overkill... my idea is to keep those components for a long long time, so I take it as an investment.

Thanks for your time !

 

[g-unit1111]

Check the link in my sig - there's plenty of shops in Spain to pick from. Knowing local availability helps as well, so we can post links to specific parts if we have that.

 

[ELMO_2006]

Personally, if you a hardcore editor/gamer, ditch the i5 and get the latest/greatest i7.
Big difference in performance.

 

[g-unit1111]

Personally, if you a hardcore editor/gamer, ditch the i5 and get the latest/greatest i7.
Big difference in performance.

Editing - yes. Gaming - no. Games won't make use of hyperthreading for quite some time. You're better off putting that money in a stronger GPU.

 

[ELMO_2006]

Editing - yes. Gaming - no. Games won't make use of hyperthreading for quite some time. You're better off putting that money in a stronger GPU.

You are correct, I'm just concerned about not having enough processing power for today's HiDef footage and application requirements.

 

[doctor lo]

Check the link in my sig - there's plenty of shops in Spain to pick from. Knowing local availability helps as well, so we can post links to specific parts if we have that.

Thanks g-unit1111. Some of them I knew, other I didnt... I´ll check the prices. There shouldnt be availabilty issues in Madrid.

Editing - yes. Gaming - no. Games won't make use of hyperthreading for quite some time. You're better off putting that money in a stronger GPU.

Personally, if you a hardcore editor/gamer, ditch the i5 and get the latest/greatest i7.
Big difference in performance.

Thanks to you both. Thats the most difficult balance.. I need both, but I dont want to expend much more. I was guessing the i5-3570K was already the high end choice for my budget: 8 threads and unlocked ! Doesnt the permformance/price ratio go worse from there ?

Regarding the graphics Im more lost.. but I find it difficult to make a bigger invesntment here (I rather change the card in a couple years).

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks to you both. Thats the most difficult balance.. I need both, but I dont want to expend much more. I was guessing the i5-3570K was already the high end choice for my budget: 8 threads and unlocked ! Doesnt the permformance/price ratio go worse from there ?

Not necessarily - the i5-3450 is a perfectly good CPU. But the differences between the i5-3450, i5-3550, and i5-3570 are pretty moot - you're basically paying more money for not a lot of speed increase. The 3570K has the unlocked multiplier so you can overclock.

Regarding the graphics Im more lost.. but I find it difficult to make a bigger invesntment here (I rather change the card in a couple years).

With the price drops on the AMD 78XX series you can get a nice GPU for not a lot of money. NVIDIA is no longer a value / performance leader in this field - if you want a good NVIDIA-based GPU, you'd better be prepared to fork over some big money. The 7870 can be had for ~$250 US (190,78 €) and the 7850 can be had for ~$195 US ( 140,75 €). You can get good performance on any budget now.

 

[doctor lo]

Not necessarily - the i5-3450 is a perfectly good CPU. But the differences between the i5-3450, i5-3550, and i5-3570 are pretty moot - you're basically paying more money for not a lot of speed increase. The 3570K has the unlocked multiplier so you can overclock.

I see... but what I understand is that I CANNOT overclock a locked multplier Ivy Bridge, right ? (or not properly?). If so I guess the choice is made, it would be the 3570K, I want to overclock at least mildly.

With the price drops on the AMD 78XX series you can get a nice GPU for not a lot of money. NVIDIA is no longer a value / performance leader in this field - if you want a good NVIDIA-based GPU, you'd better be prepared to fork over some big money. The 7870 can be had for ~$250 US (190,78 €) and the 7850 can be had for ~$195 US ( 140,75 €). You can get good performance on any budget now.

[/quotemsg]

That makes sense, those were actually my 2 options right now, I think it will pretty much depend on the deals I find on each one here.



Thanks again!

 

[g-unit1111]

I see... but what I understand is that I CANNOT overclock a locked multplier Ivy Bridge, right ? (or not properly?). If so I guess the choice is made, it would be the 3570K, I want to overclock at least mildly.

That is correct. If you get a 3570K - depending on which cooling solution you go with that will allow you to achieve a mild overclock. Most of the locked CPUs do have a built in turbo boost that can be enabled with a few clicks in the BIOS but that's about as far as they'll go.

That makes sense, those were actually my 2 options right now, I think it will pretty much depend on the deals I find on each one here.

]

Try this: http://www.aussar.es/sapphire/sapphire-radeon-hd-7850-dual-x-1gb-gddr5-.html

 

[ELMO_2006]

....I was guessing the i5-3570K was already the high end choice for my budget: 8 threads and unlocked ! Doesnt the permformance/price ratio go worse from there ?

Hi doctor...

Generally speaking all the i5's have 4 cores and number of threads = 4 whereas the i7's have 4 cores and the number of threads = 8.

View here:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processor-comparison/comparison-chart.html

 

[g-unit1111]

Hi doctor...

Generally speaking all the i5's have 4 cores and number of threads = 4 whereas the i7's have 4 cores and the number of threads = 8.

View here:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processor-comparison/comparison-chart.html

The 3770 and 3770K have hyper threading which can increase the number of threads to 32 if needed.

 

[ELMO_2006]

The 3770 and 3770K have hyper threading which can increase the number of threads to 32 if needed.

+1

However; the OP mentioned the following:

"....I was guessing the i5-3570K was already the high end choice for my budget: 8 threads and unlocked !"

It is unlocked and the high end choice of the i5 series, but that series is only 4 thread capable with no hyper-threading.

Unless I'm missing something or my eyes have indeed gone bad!

 

[doctor lo]

Probably my eyes are the ones that have gone bad !! XD mixing 3570K and 3770K, just a little figure u know. Anyway I found the source of my confusion:

http://gizmodo.com/5905120/intels-ivy-bridge-the-maximum-pc-review

Thank you all guys for the info. I think I´ll go for the 3570K and overclock: I'll go with air, I think the Antec Eleven Hundred and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO should give enough cooling to go somewhere between 4 and 4,5 mhz ?


And thanks once again g-unit1111 for the link, the price is good for the HD4850 here in Spain, but I dont manage to find it any cheaper than that (and it should be, consderiing the price in $ !!!). Should I go for the 2GB version though ??

 

[g-unit1111]

Probably my eyes are the ones that have gone bad !! XD mixing 3570K and 3770K, just a little figure u know. Anyway I found the source of my confusion:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17kpbmlvu2a34jpg/original.jpg
http://gizmodo.com/5905120/intels-ivy-bridge-the-maximum-pc-review

Thank you all guys for the info. I think I´ll go for the 3570K and overclock: I'll go with air, I think the Antec Eleven Hundred and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO should give enough cooling to go somewhere between 4 and 4,5 mhz ?


And thanks once again g-unit1111 for the link, the price is good for the HD4850 here in Spain, but I dont manage to find it any cheaper than that (and it should be, consderiing the price in $ !!!). Should I go for the 2GB version though ??

You mean 7850? 4850 is like five generations old now. :lol:

And yes definitely go for the 2GB version.

 

[doctor lo]

Yes !! hahaha, not my day! Actually the 4850 is the one I have right now

 

[doctor lo]

So this is my final build:

CPU: Intel i5-3570K (214€)
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (31€)
Mobo: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (124€)
RAM: G-Skill Ripjaws 16GB 2x8GB CL9 (77€)
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 Dual-X 2GB GDDR5 (185€)
HD: WD WD20EARX Caviar Green 2TB SATA3 64MB (99€). (This is in addition to the storage I already have)
PSU: Corsair HX750W "silver" (119€)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred (100€)
Additional Case fans: Arctic Cooling F12 Pro PWM + Arctic Cooling F12 (4.8€ + 4.4€)

-----------------------
~ 980 € Including shipping (through amazon.es and pccomponentes.es)


I´m buying probably tomorrow so comments are still welcome. Thank you all for you help