Building my first pc as a college bound student

[ThatGamerGuy]

Hello Toms Hardware peoples. Ive been in the market for a new pc for 2 years now. I know most people think teenagers probably arent all that smart but hear me out. I have been researching parts for a long long time and have come out with the following.

CASE: NZXT Phantom 820
PROCESSOR: Intel i7 3930k
MOTHERBOARD: Intel DX79SI Extreme
STORAGE: Samsung 840 pro 120GB SSD
Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black HDD
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866 4 sticks
POWER SUPPLY:Corsair professional 860w
CPU COOLER:CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
ODD:ASUS Blu-ray player
GPU:EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 4GB
OS:Winodws 8 Professional

There is the build. I plan on using video editing programs and rendering since this computer in college will be used in computer science/engineering/graphics design as well as some pretty hard gaming at high graphic settings. IF you guys could tell me if this looks sufficient for these things, Id be really happy. Thanks.

Additional Info:
Budget: 2,200-2,500
Games to be played: Skyrim, Mass Effect 1,2,3, Total War (All of them except rome 1) Sims City (5), and some others.
Graphic programs: Vegas, Poser Debut, Cinema 4D and probably more as I enter college later this year.

Additional info needed? ask please.

 

[slomo4sho]

What monitor are you planning on using? For the programs listed, the 680 is excessive if you plan on sticking to 1080P resolution.

 

[ThatGamerGuy]

I think the one I have is like, 1920X1080

 

[slomo4sho]

Drop down to a HD 7870 XT/LE, 7950, or GTX 660 Ti (based on your preference) and drop the PSU to a 600-750 Watt model and go with Windows 7.

Alternatively, switch to a i7 3770K with a Z77 motherboard, drop the PSU to 600-750 Watts and pickup two more monitors.


ASRock Z77 Extreme6 is a good choice for the board. SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold or CORSAIR HX Series HX750 would be good choices for PSU.

 

[ThatGamerGuy]

Are you sure that I should downgrade all of these? Im trying to kind of futureproof. With newer things coming out... it will be easier to splurge once and not have to pay to upgrade as things come out, itd be more expensive that way...

 

[manofchalk]

Other way around, its often cheaper to gradually upgrade than it is too splurge at once, and you get better performance overall. But that's if this was just a gaming rig, in this case the strong processor is justified because of the professional applications you'l be using it for.
Also by "future-proof" what do you mean? Just its a fickle concept and there are good and bad ways of interpreting it. If you think future proof means "I can max games for 5yrs without upgrading", then its outright impossible.

Case - I'm fine with overkill cases, do what you want here . Its a pretty good case for custom water-cooling (hint hint) .
CPU- Think its fine given what your doing
Mobo - Intel boards arent the best if your looking for enthusiast features, more for big business workstation rigs rather than homebuilt ones. Plus future support is uncertain, as Intel recently closed their motherboard division.
Storage - Is fine IMO, have a look at Seagate Barracuda's, often cheaper than WD Blacks especially around the 2TB mark.
RAM - Its fine, would advise getting the Low Profile version if it isnt already.
PSU - Its fine
CPU Cooler - The 212 EVO is a great cooler on the mainstream platform where it deals with CPU's putting out 77W, not so much on LGA2011 where its dealing with chips with nearly double the heat output (130W). Would look into getting a beefier heatsink like an NH-D14, especially if you want to overclock.
ODD - Do you really need BLU-Ray?
GPU - Go for the GTX670, 95% performance of a 680 for $100 less. And go for a model from Gigabyte, ASUS or MSI. EVGA uses reference designc ooling which runs hotter and louder than the custom designs the others use.
OS - Just go for plain Windows 8 64bit, you no longer need the professional edition to take advantage of 16GB+ of RAM.

 

[slomo4sho]

Are you sure that I should downgrade all of these? Im trying to kind of futureproof. With newer things coming out... it will be easier to splurge once and not have to pay to upgrade as things come out, itd be more expensive that way...

In all honesty, I would wait for Haswell.

There isn't much of a performance increase from the 3930K to the 3770K to warrant the additional ~$250-300 cost in the LGA 2011 motherboard and 3930K.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/551?vs=552

 

[ThatGamerGuy]

Other way around, its often cheaper to gradually upgrade than it is too splurge at once, and you get better performance overall. But that's if this was just a gaming rig, in this case the strong processor is justified because of the professional applications you'l be using it for.
Also by "future-proof" what do you mean? Just its a fickle concept and there are good and bad ways of interpreting it. If you think future proof means "I can max games for 5yrs without upgrading", then its outright impossible.

Case - I'm fine with overkill cases, do what you want here . Its a pretty good case for custom water-cooling (hint hint) .
CPU- Think its fine given what your doing
Mobo - Intel boards arent the best if your looking for enthusiast features, more for big business workstation rigs rather than homebuilt ones. Plus future support is uncertain, as Intel recently closed their motherboard division.
Storage - Is fine IMO, have a look at Seagate Barracuda's, often cheaper than WD Blacks especially around the 2TB mark.
RAM - Its fine, would advise getting the Low Profile version if it isnt already.
PSU - Its fine
CPU Cooler - The 212 EVO is a great cooler on the mainstream platform where it deals with CPU's putting out 77W, not so much on LGA2011 where its dealing with chips with nearly double the heat output (130W). Would look into getting a beefier heatsink like an NH-D14, especially if you want to overclock.
ODD - Do you really need BLU-Ray?
GPU - Go for the GTX670, 95% performance of a 680 for $100 less. And go for a model from Gigabyte, ASUS or MSI. EVGA uses reference designc ooling which runs hotter and louder than the custom designs the others use.
OS - Just go for plain Windows 8 64bit, you no longer need the professional edition to take advantage of 16GB+ of RAM.

Thanks a bunch. I don't really plan to overclock and I was going for air cooling. Blu-ray is not really necessary as most of my movies are normal anyway, plus I have a seperate blu-ray player as it is now. as a dvd player. GPU Wise i was also looking at the 690 and possibly even a titan, but then again, 1000 for 1 gpu is kind of ridiculous. Not sure about the mobo. Im going to buy stuff today, so a speedy answer to the motherboard problem would be great. thanks!

 

[manofchalk]

Very short for time, answer will be quick.

On the GPU, a 670 is fine for 1080p gaming at max settings. Though have a look at the 7970, its a bit better.
On the motherboard, if you really cant figure it out just get a ROG board, thatw ill ahve everything you need.