First build for video editing/music production/graphic design

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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I'm not a computer expert but this is what I've come up with so far. I will be using this for professional level graphic design and music production and I want to do video editing as close to

professional quality as possible. I want the computer to keep up when inspiration strikes. I would like it to be as quiet and dust free as possible. If any of what I've chosen is limiting me please

let me know. Also, if I can save money from what I have right now, of course I would like to. Thanks!

Approximate Purchase Date: within the next 3 months

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Video editing (as close to pro quality as I can get), Music Production, and Graphic design (photoshop, illustrator, possible 3d rendering)


Do you need to buy OS: Yes


Location: Kansas City


Overclocking: Maybe


Additional Comments: I need the PC to be fairly quiet for music production. I will also have a audio interface/midi controller connected. I plan on running the apps/os from a SDD and storing my

files on a regular internal drive.

CPU - Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 Six-Core Desktop Processor
Price: 539

Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 LE LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS
Price: 239

GPU: Galaxy 57NKH3HS4GXK GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Price: 220

Power: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Price: 140

HD - Western Digital Red WD20EFRX 2TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Price: 125

SSD - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Price: 205

Optical drive: Just some 20 buck deal

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL
Price: 88

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Price: 163

Case: Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower
Price: 130


Total cost: 1869

:bounce:
 

TimeLass

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Feb 11, 2013
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Overkill on CPU... i7-3770K is more than enough for your needs...
that PSU is not bad but you don't need 850W for your system...go for 650W...
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FEFp
added a sound card in since you're into music production...that PSU is very reliable and is also fully modular... no problem for professional level video editing/rendering/encoding/graphic design and music production...
 

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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So you don't think the i7-3930k is worth the extra money? The reason I chose that power source was in case I decide to upgrade/addon in the future. Basically I just don't want to have to rebuy all these parts in the distant future if I can just spend a little extra now. Is this not worth it?

Also will I need a sound card if I have an external audio interface?

Anyone know of any cases that are cheaper that arej just as quiet, cool, and keep the dust out?
 

TimeLass

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Feb 11, 2013
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not worth it... all right then... go for this
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-x850

yes adding a sound card in will be good because you're into music production too... however you can still add that in in the future...

this case is good...
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/fractal-design-case-fdcadefr4wh

you should consider getting a GTX 600 series GPU instead of 570...
 

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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What makes you choose that more expensive power supply over the one I chose?

What is the difference between the GTX 570 and the 600?

I'm still kind of new to building computers. This will be my first build.

Thanks
 

TimeLass

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Feb 11, 2013
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although that Cooler master PSU is not bad... but you can get a more reliable one by adding a few more dollars in... if you want to get a cheaper you can get this
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-power-supply-st85fp
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1850bnlg9
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu850txv2

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Seasonic-X-Series-850-W-Power-Supply-Review/1169/10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_600_Series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_500_Series
 

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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Awesome,

Thanks for the info.

Would I have any trouble with this case?

Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with Five Fans, window side panel, top HDD dock

I can get it quite a bit cheaper than the other cases. Will this work as good for me as those other cases?
 

TimeLass

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Feb 11, 2013
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i don't think so... you can also go for other cases like this
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-300r
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc692akkn5
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-sgc1000kwn1
 

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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Ok, here's where I'm at right now with everthing. From what I've heard the GTX 680 graphics card is good, but I've also read that gaming cards are made for frame rate as opposed to accuracy. I would like Photoshop to run quick and smooth, but it's also important to me that it's displayed accuratly and the colors show up correctly. Will this card be ok for this?

CPU - Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Price: 230

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Price: 80

GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 16x Video Card
Price: 470

Power: SeaSonic X Series 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Price: 160

HD - Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB Internal Hard Drive
Price: 100

SSD - Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk MZ-7PD256BW
Price: 230

Optical drive: LG 24x Super Multi Internal SATA DVDRW DL Drive - Bare Drive
Price: 16

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL
Price: 88

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Price: 163

Case: Rosewill BLACKHAWK mid atx
Price: 80


Total cost: 1617
 
doctorfunk_15,

In my view your original component choices are excellent and I would only make a couple of comments and suggestions.

As regards the CPU, while most applications are woefully single-threaded and only use one core of the CPU, rendering is one of the few tasks that can use all the cores available. Many rendering programs- even the free Maxwell plug-in for Sketchup- allow you to assign the number of cores to rendering. If you're rendering in the background, you can assign half to that and work on something else, if you can let it run at lunch or at night, assign all the cores. For that reason, I would stay with your idea to use the Intel Core i7-3930K for it's 6-cores. Because I'm preparing to do a large rendering project, later today I'm adding a second CPU to my Dell Precision T5400 so that I will have 2X Xeon X5460 @3.16GHz -and 8 cores / 16 threads total. That's the magic of Xeon- multiple CPU's. someone doing video editing made a computer with 2X Xeon E5-2867W 8-core CPU's ($3,800) so as to have 16 cores / 32 threads. There are Xeon 10 core processors- the E7-4XXX and -8XXX series that can be used in 4 and 8 CPU machines. Very expensive machines that is- an E7 10 core averages about $3,500.

The motherboard is a good one, the ASUS P9X79 is often seen high on benchmark lists drives- the WD Red has 6GB/s and 64MB cache. A little detail- I see on Newegg often that people assembling ASUS motherboard system complain of bending the pins when inserting the CPU. I don't know SSD well- except that from reports and user reviews I worry about reliability and longevity, and the Samsung 830, along with some Intel models have the better records. As you are probably using the SSD for the OS and applications and the WD Red for Data, you might make a partition on the WD to store a backup system image and if the SSD fails or hiccups, you can run a recovery disk and quickly use the system image to get back to work.

For music production and video editing in the professional range, you need a good sound interface and especially is you are recording, I would recommend looking into Pro Tools cards and applications and consider an external USB or Firewire card/interface like MOTU. Pro Tools used to be horrendously expensive, but no longer. You probably already use mastering, mixing software and it's worth reading reviews of cards recommended by the maker of the software you use.

Lastly, but by far not leastly, video editing can take a lot of video RAM- a common prof'l video editing card is the Quadro 6000 with 6GB GDDR5- also $3,600. You might consider the GTX 580 in the 3GB version- 384-bit, excellent memory bandwidth- or even two of those.

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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BambiBoom,

I bought the i7-3770k and the asrock z77 extreme 4 yesterday as I saw them on sale. Ended up getting both of them for about 300 dollars. What kind of proformance will I get out of these components. Will I see large slow downs when editing? If you could give me some examples of how they would preform that would be great. I originally wanted to go with more cores, but if I can do the job smoothly for 500 less I would like to.
 


___________________________________________

Doctorfunk_15,

I did a search on Passmark Performance Test baselines and the i7-3770K can score very highly. The top system rating for that combination is 6628, using anASUS Maximus V Extreme+ Radeon HD7970, 16GB RAM. The High 2D score for the 3770K is 1428 and on the above system, the High 3D score is 9527- the highest 3D I've ever seen, on a Gigbyte Z77X-UP7 +32GB RAM + a GeForce Titan- the new Tesla card that's only been available a few days- 6GB and $1,000+.

1. Doing a search for i7-3770K + ASUS P8Z77 >

#1 Highest rating is 6369 using GTX 680 /8GB Intel Volume 0, with 2D=1135 / 3D=7397
#2 is 6022 using HD7970 2D/3D= 1154 / 5581 OCZ Vertex 4 (SSD)
#3 is 5552 using GTX 690 2D/3D= 1031 / 6662 Intel 520

2. There was only 1 example for i7-3770K + ASUS P8Z77 + GTX570 >

R=5000 2D/3D= 946/4720 w/16GB and Transcend 550 256GB SSD

-and this was the #20 highest rating in the i7-3770K + ASUS P8Z77 search

3. For i7-3770K + ASUS P8Z77 + GTX580 >

R=5171 2D/3D= 1001/5407 with 8GB and Corsair Force GT

4. Best i7-3770K + ASUS P8Z77 + Quadro (specialized workstaion cards optimized for 3D CAD, Adobe CS6, etc.)

R=5202 2D/3D= 1076/2003 using a Quadro 4000 (about $700), 32GB, and OCZ RevoDrive

OCZ RevoDrives, which are SSD's used in a PCIe slot-a kind of data direct injection- are prominent in the Passmark Top 100 systems.

5. The Top 10 systems using i7-3770K + ASUS P8Z77 used the following graphics cards >

1. GTX 680
2. Radeon HD 7970
3. GTX 690
4. GTX 680
5. GTX 670
6. GTX 660
7. GTX 660Ti
8. GTX 580
9. GTX 680
10.GTX 680

The GTX 680 is used in the highest scoring system of all and the dominant card in the Top 100 performers too. Note the GTX 580- a card I thought you might consider, at #8.

While I think of it, as you're editing sound and video, look into reviews of computer cases for sound and roominess. The configuration, material, and the fan quality varies the sound parameter. My Precision T5400 is amazingly quiet- and also weighs 30lbs- a very heavy chassis and case. I don't know if it's quiet, but I would prefer simple styling with lots of ventilation >

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112388

Probably a case with a door on the front would be quieter and (from reviews), a big tower is apparently much easier to do the assembly inside. Don't get a cheap or compact case.

You can download Passmark Performance Test and use it for 30-days. Go to "manage Baselines" and enter the CPU, motherboard, video card, and Drive, and you can check performance of any combination you like. You can click on the rating to get the highest overall, then separately, check the highest 2D / 3D, CPU, Memory, and Disk ratings.

As this is your first system build, there are many, many YouTube videos of doing this- of a very wide range of quality and usefulness.

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 

Doctorfunk_15

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Feb 24, 2013
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Awesome, thanks for the info Bambiboom, I appreaciate the time you put in to help me. After considering everything with my limited knowledge it seems like the second build I posted would be best for my situation. I think the I7-3930k would be better, but I think from what I've read the I7-3770k will be great as well and I can't justify an extra 500 for what seems to be a marginal increase in performance. (If I'm wrong please warn me now while i have time to return the I7-3770k lol).

Couple other random questions. Will the Blackhawk Mid be an ok case for my purposes? I got it cheap for around 60 bucks. I can return it if need be. I just want to make sure I'm not going to have any issues with this stuff. I just want everything to run smoothly when I get into the creative processes of what I'm doing. System hiccups at that point can be a real headache.

Also, is there any advantage to even building a computer when I can get a prebuilt hp or something with the I7-3770k already in it?
 


_______________________________________________

Doctorfunk_15,

Taking your last question first, I think it's possible to get far better results from a home-build for the cost than buying a Dell or HP, especially when you're using demanding applications like 3D CAD, Adobe CS,rendering, and video editing. There are some higher end Dells and HP's with good performance, but overall, factory PC's are conservative to make them reliable- that is, not have warranty claims, plus they assume the buyer is not interested in the internals- they're sedans for people who don't want to "get under the hood" whereas you're after more of a hot rod- faster and just the way you like it.

I shouldn't list a lot of potential problems and things to think about all at once, but some research and planning will save frustration, time, and money later. The problem with a home build is when everything does not so smoothly. If you're not experienced with problems, the diagnosis is difficult and frustrating if you depend on that system for work. For example, before buying the RAM memory, you may want to consult ASRock as to compatible brands and speeds as incompatible RAM might be difficult for you to diagnose. Also, look into the way the RAM is organized -pairs, triple or quad in which case you'd want to buy in sets and judge whether you might want to increase the amount in the future and what the maximum the motherboard allows. If you need 16GB today but might want to someday have the maximum 32GB and there are four RAM slots, buy 2X 8GB rather than 4X 4GB which would have to all be replaced. Also, some aspects like good cable routing that is easy to deal with later needs consideration. You might want to assemble everything and measure before buying the cables so there's not big coils jammed in the side. Often, the case will have a lot of the appropriate length cables included, wait until you have the case before buying cables. One reason I mentioned having a full tower case rather than mid tower, is that a common complaint in user reviews is clearance problems when routing cables. Of course a factory PC will have cables cut to exactly the right length, but you have to buy standard lengths. Finally, spend some time considering the cooling situation and make sure you're getting good air flow and cooling capacity. I had a scare last weekend when I discovered the RAM in my computer was reaching 95 C- 192F! I cleaned it up, reconfigured with some higher quality RAM (and added +4GB to have 16GB) and the temperatures are now staying below 72 C- still high, but better.

But, I'd say take your time, one thing at a time, and it should be fine. I's a very satisfying experience and helps understanding of the computer when there's trouble, and makes upgrading smoother and more logically planned. Keep your current computer in place for use so you're not under pressure to finish the new one. The quality varies tremendously, but it's worth looking through YouTube videos which will help demystify the process- the sequence for assembly, terminology, and setting up for example.

As for the CPU, if a quad core is what you need, the i7-3770K is the best choice now. I'm adding in the next couple of days, a 2nd quad core Xeon (x5460 @ 3.16 GHz) to my computer as I can use the 8 cores for rendering of 3D models, but it's not essential. If the case you bought is the Rosewill Blackhawk, it looks fine, has a lot of cooling fans, and room for extra drives. It doesn't look incredibly roomy, but the reviews are very positive. May or may not be the quietest solution.

Have fun and let us know how it goes!

Cheers,

BamibBoom