2011 Socket i-7 build, Asus WS or LS Motherboard?

[JKrollDesign]

So I'm starting a new desktop build. I'm not a big gamer, I do a lot of photo/video editing, photoshop/alias sketch, corel painter and 3-D modeling (Alias Studiotools, Rhino, Solidworks, etc) as an Industrial Designer.

I bought my case, the HAF-X (blue edition) and am now trying to figure out the motherboard and CPU.

I want to run the new 2011 socket on an Asus motherboard and am thinking of the Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz since it's only $299 on NewEgg.

As for the motherboard I'm not as sure, I'd like the ASUS P9X79 WS if I can afford it ($379)... is it worth it? The ASUS P9X79 LE LGA is half the price but I don't know enough about motherboards to know the difference. I see that it (ASUS P9X79 LE LGA) has 2 x SATA 6Gb/s and 4 SATA 3Gb/s as where the WS has 4 SATA 6Gb/s instead of just 2. Are these SATA ports for running faster Hard drives such as SSDs? I also see the WS has 2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), navy blue and 4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), blue support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10.

Can someone let me know if the extra $200 is worth it for this WS board? I plan on running 1 SSD as my primary and 2 or 3 HHDs for storage but I doubt I'll be doing RAID, unless I learn enough about it to see the worth because I'm assuming I couldn't run RAID on the LE board?

What about a Power Supply if I'm only running ONE video card. I'm thinking the EVGA 02G-P4-3664-KR GeForce GTX 660.

I'm also planning on running 32 or 64 GB Corsair Vengence RAM

Thanks

 

[Wolfshadw]

I don't see any reason for you to go with the WS board. You're not going to need the additional PCI-Ex16 slots or the secondary network port. The LE board will run a RAID configuration, which is good if you need redundancy in your system.

For a single graphic card/non-(primary) gaming system, you shouldn't need anything more than a quality 550 watt PSU. This should give you plenty of power for a good graphics card and all your components with plenty of overhead. Manufacturers that I like are Antec, Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Seasonic, and Fortran Source (FSP).

-Wolf sends

 

[JKrollDesign]

Awesome thanks for the info, that's what I needed to know, deffinately don't need the WS.

Thanks

 

[netcommercial]

If you are doing graphics and such I would recommend spending your money on a graphics card. Like an ATI Fire 'something' or a quadro 2-4000 reason is only a few GPU's deliver 32bit color via DVI. So if you are doing graphics TRUE COLoR is going to be very important. WS is needed for FIREWIRE IEEE however a plug PCI card will cover you there if ever use it. 3.0 usb and a transfer stick will give you 5gps on transfer, so.....? I was going to go big like you were with the x79ws and a 3930k with hex core 64gb of ram, yada yada yada. Umm really? I came to my cents and realized that was a lot of dollars for something that I would not even notice. Well a little not unless I was editing on a 1.5hr timeline movie with Matrix effects and greens screen etc.
Really a z77 platform will get you there with 16gb of ram 1600mhz is fine too. These benchmarks are measured in milliseconds. Defintely an SSD that handles NON compressible files well. Such as Samsung 830, 470 or 840 pro. Corsair Nuetron gtx, or plextor m5pro. Personally I read, I read a lot. I settled on a z77 asrock extreme 6 for the firewire, as I do stop animation with a camera. Usually a board with firewire gets or (supposed to get a bit more testing?) 3770k CPU and Kingston Ram 16gb to start and when I can find another 16gb for 45. or cheaper I will plug it in along with a scratch SSDof 128gb . The savings from an x79 to a z77 was about a 1000 bucks! However if you got it then get it. Yet, you best have a real GPU and Monitor to do graphics... Kinda foolish to blow your wad on a board and CPU quad core to boot and not have a real Monitor 250+ easy and a real GPU 600. easy.