Looking for comments/info/critique on a first time build for gaming/HD video editing/photo editing

[TripECollie]

So, this is the first system I will have built in MANY years. Already have a monitor and a lot of peripherals. Already have Sata based 3TB drives to use internally for extra storage. Planning for the pro edition SSD for the core windows and other software.

Here's the plan so far - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8DX6NG

My primary question would be is this overkill for my needs and could cost be skimped on but yield pretty much the same performance? I do NOT plan to overclock anything so consider the stock stuff here as what to consider. I don't plan on running multiple displays. I DO plan on a fair amount of multitasking between things.

In relation to gaming I know the i7 is kinda overkill. However, I've been told that i7 would be wise for HD video editing. I've also been told that 16GB of RAM is wise instead of 8GB. I went for the i7-4790K in the setup because I've been told it's a 10% performance boost compared to the i7-4790 version. Is it worth the $30 for what I've described? I need to know if the PSU, RAM and the MB/CPU are reasonable. I do want a nice system that'll last me awhile and function effortlessly for the photo editing, gaming, and HD video editing. I'm sure I'll do other things, but those are the core. My monitor isn't too fancy being a HP Pavilion 25xi and seems to affect how high I go with certain specs here. Still, it was affordable at the time and easily upgradeable in the future.

Anyways, fire away!

 

[MasterDell]

I personally think that the i7-4790k is worth the extra money over the 4790.. Only thing I would change right now would be the PSU. The RM850 is a tier 2-3 PSU. Whereas the EVGA 750W G2 is a tier 1 and is $30 less. EVGA also strapped a 10 year warranty on it which is more than a statement itself. One other nit picky thing I would change is the Blu Ray drive, I prefer Pioneer for Blu Ray drives but that is completely personal preference.

Optical Drive: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pioneer-optical-drive-bdr209dbk
EVGA PSU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr

 

[flamefire999]

You could overclock if you want to by just adding in a CPU cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (only $30), but if you don't want to you don't have to. I would recommend using a double monitor setup for video/ photo editing because it's a lot easier to have files and such on one screen and have the editing program on another so you can just drag and drop the files. Also are you going to be playing games? And if so will they be stored on the SSD? How much are you going to store on the SSD?

 

[TripECollie]

I personally think that the i7-4790k is worth the extra money over the 4790.. Only thing I would change right now would be the PSU. The RM850 is a tier 2-3 PSU. Whereas the EVGA 750W G2 is a tier 1 and is $30 less. EVGA also strapped a 10 year warranty on it which is more than a statement itself. One other nit picky thing I would change is the Blu Ray drive, I prefer Pioneer for Blu Ray drives but that is completely personal preference.

Optical Drive: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pioneer-optical-drive-bdr209dbk
EVGA PSU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr

What makes you decide on the K being worth the $30 though? Is that because you would overclock with it? Or do you think given the parameters that I listed that it would be worth it? I feel I should mention that the software that I'd be using that would relate to the possible benefit would be Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro.

I love your points about the EVGA PSU. I think I'll definitely swap based on what you've mentioned. I see you dropped me from an 850 down to a 750 too. I was wondering if I was going needlessly large. I assume that was intentional?

Funny you mention that about the BR drive! I've been waffling back and forth between the one I'd listed and the one you mentioned. My original list had the pioneer. I was moving back towards it because it comes bundled with Blue Ray software on Amazon. Thanks for pointing it out though

 

[TripECollie]

You could overclock if you want to by just adding in a CPU cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (only $30), but if you don't want to you don't have to. I would recommend using a double monitor setup for video/ photo editing because it's a lot easier to have files and such on one screen and have the editing program on another so you can just drag and drop the files. Also are you going to be playing games? And if so will they be stored on the SSD? How much are you going to store on the SSD?

I know I could easily overclock my system *even without too much risk*, but I'd rather leave things at spec just to simplify what I have to deal with overall with the rig as well as not add more cost. Getting some arctic silver and a CPU cooler are easy enough, but I'd rather not even have to go there honestly. As for the double monitor setup, that would be a consideration for the future. Right now another monitor is definitely out of my budget range. You're points are totally valid and convenient editing options.

As for playing the games I planned to store them on the SSD, yes. I won't have tons of games. I'd estimate my SSD target storage/useage size at 125GB tops. So roughly half the drive. If I end up needing more I'll upgrade the SSD in time. I'm guessing this is a good starting point though. Thanks for the response!

 

[MasterDell]

I personally think that the i7-4790k is worth the extra money over the 4790.. Only thing I would change right now would be the PSU. The RM850 is a tier 2-3 PSU. Whereas the EVGA 750W G2 is a tier 1 and is $30 less. EVGA also strapped a 10 year warranty on it which is more than a statement itself. One other nit picky thing I would change is the Blu Ray drive, I prefer Pioneer for Blu Ray drives but that is completely personal preference.

Optical Drive: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pioneer-optical-drive-bdr209dbk
EVGA PSU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr

What makes you decide on the K being worth the $30 though? Is that because you would overclock with it? Or do you think given the parameters that I listed that it would be worth it? I feel I should mention that the software that I'd be using that would relate to the possible benefit would be Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro.

I love your points about the EVGA PSU. I think I'll definitely swap based on what you've mentioned. I see you dropped me from an 850 down to a 750 too. I was wondering if I was going needlessly large. I assume that was intentional?

Funny you mention that about the BR drive! I've been waffling back and forth between the one I'd listed and the one you mentioned. My original list had the pioneer. I was moving back towards it because it comes bundled with Blue Ray software on Amazon. Thanks for pointing it out though

Yes I did purposely drop the wattage on the PSU. You should only need a 650-750 PSU for that rig but to be safe go 750W. But if you want EVGA does make a 850W version for about $20 more. As for the 4790k, I believe it is worth it because its an upgrade from the 4770k. The difference is the clock speed and the TIM (Thermal Interface material) basically the 4790k should run cooler and in turn last longer. Also there is a clock speed difference of 500Mhz which is quite significant. You dont need to OC the 4790k at all to get 4.4Ghz which is insanely fast already so you dont need to worry about OCing.

 

[TripECollie]

I personally think that the i7-4790k is worth the extra money over the 4790.. Only thing I would change right now would be the PSU. The RM850 is a tier 2-3 PSU. Whereas the EVGA 750W G2 is a tier 1 and is $30 less. EVGA also strapped a 10 year warranty on it which is more than a statement itself. One other nit picky thing I would change is the Blu Ray drive, I prefer Pioneer for Blu Ray drives but that is completely personal preference.

Optical Drive: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pioneer-optical-drive-bdr209dbk
EVGA PSU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr

What makes you decide on the K being worth the $30 though? Is that because you would overclock with it? Or do you think given the parameters that I listed that it would be worth it? I feel I should mention that the software that I'd be using that would relate to the possible benefit would be Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro.

I love your points about the EVGA PSU. I think I'll definitely swap based on what you've mentioned. I see you dropped me from an 850 down to a 750 too. I was wondering if I was going needlessly large. I assume that was intentional?

Funny you mention that about the BR drive! I've been waffling back and forth between the one I'd listed and the one you mentioned. My original list had the pioneer. I was moving back towards it because it comes bundled with Blue Ray software on Amazon. Thanks for pointing it out though

Yes I did purposely drop the wattage on the PSU. You should only need a 650-750 PSU for that rig but to be safe go 750W. But if you want EVGA does make a 850W version for about $20 more. As for the 4790k, I believe it is worth it because its an upgrade from the 4770k. The difference is the clock speed and the TIM (Thermal Interface material) basically the 4790k should run cooler and in turn last longer. Also there is a clock speed difference of 500Mhz which is quite significant. You dont need to OC the 4790k at all to get 4.4Ghz which is insanely fast already so you dont need to worry about OCing.

Thanks so much for your commentary and suggestions! So I've swapped out the PSU for the 850W version you mentioned. Giving myself a little extra room for the PSU power just in case. Gonna stick with the 4790K given what you mentioned. With a little research I found that Micro Center is selling it *but for in store pickup only* at a HUGE discount of $279.99. I'm really hoping Fry's will price match it because if so I've done really good for my build price-wise! You can see the discount here if you're curious - http://www.microcenter.com/product/434176/Core_i7-4790K_40GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
Lastly, I decided to go with the Pioneer Blue Ray Drive. However, the one I was looking at is slightly different than the one you recommended. I think the one I'm choosing is better because it comes with all the blue ray software and such included - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pioneer-optical-drive-bdr2209
You can see the bundle for it from the newegg link here - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129076&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

You can see all the changes I've made *hopefully final build* here - http://pcpartpicker.com/user/TripECollie/saved/P3YmP6

There's only one issue that I see remaining now. The fact I get a compatibility note for the RAM I've chosen. The note reads - "The Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory operating voltage of 1.65V exceeds the Intel Haswell Refresh CPU recommended maximum of 1.5V+5% (1.575V). This memory module may run at a reduced clock rate to meet the 1.5V voltage recommendation, or may require running at a voltage greater than the Intel recommended maximum."

I'm not quite sure how to fix this issue beyond extensively going through all the RAM to look up the voltage for each one. I can do it, but what a pain in the ass. I guess I'm going to have to figure out what gives me the best performance ranges for the price again after looking all that up again, but now including voltage limitations on the RAM. Any pointers on that?
Thanks again!

 

[MasterDell]

Highly clocked RAM results in higher voltage. I believe that corsair vengeance pro ram running at 1600mhz will have 1.5v..

 

[TripECollie]

Highly clocked RAM results in higher voltage. I believe that corsair vengeance pro ram running at 1600mhz will have 1.5v..

It took awhile but I went through a huge list of RAM, narrowing down to just 2x8GB sticks and ensuring just 1.5V. It looks like the highest clock I can get without surpassing 1.5V is 2133. Here's the options I'm looking at based on price:
For 2133 the CAS is 9, 10 or 11.
For 1866 the CAS is 9.
For 1600 the CAS is 7.

So my final question is - If price wasn't a factor, which would be the best choice out of all that? If I had to guess from what all I was reading I would imagine it would be the 2133 with a CAS of 9. The 1600 with a CAS of 7 seems like it would be a very close second. Thoughts?

 

[MasterDell]

Yes the 2133 with CAS of 9 would be the best.. 2133 at CAS 11 is basically the same as 1866 CAS 9. Honestly I would get the 1866 CAS 9 for bang for your buck!

 

[TripECollie]

Yes the 2133 with CAS of 9 would be the best.. 2133 at CAS 11 is basically the same as 1866 CAS 9. Honestly I would get the 1866 CAS 9 for bang for your buck!

In the end I got the 2133 with a CAS of 11 because it was only $155! The 2133 with CAS of 10 was $190 and the 2133 w/ CAS of 9 was $240. The 1866 CAS 9 was $148.50...so, going with the higher clock speed with CAS of 11 was only $7.50 more. I had many folks tell me having the higher clock speed would be beneficial for what I wanted to do. I know the calculation between the 2133/11 and the 1866/9 works out to basically be the same though. Oh well, my final purchases are all made! I ended up a little higher than I wanted to spend but that's mainly because of tax and shipping for everything (which I'd neglected to factor in from the start). Regardless I'm really excited to put it all together once all my parts arrive!

If you want to see the final list of components you can see it here - http://pcpartpicker.com/user/TripECollie/saved/P3YmP6
Note, the individual costs may look odd because I got several items at some places and just skewed the tax/shipping towards one item in the list of purchases. The grand total of $1677.15 is correct though. Thanks again for your help! I didn't feel like I was quite so blind going through the process!