Please check my parts list.

[charlietee]

Trying to build a box for a friend who has started videoing the live shows. She was going to wait until Q2 2013 for the build but MicroCenter has the Intel Core i7 3770K for $229.00.

My last build for her is 5 years old and is not really up to rendering video. I am going to use the Cooler Master case. Corsair 550 watt power supply, WD Black 640gig hard drive.

Will be adding 2 more hard drives for strach disk.

It will also be used for general office work and gaming. Not looking to build a "rendering only" box.

Upgrade parts.

Intel Core i7 3770k Processor $250 out the door.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...155_Processor#

ASUS P8Z77-V PRO Motherboard $210 out the door.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131819

EVGA 025-P3-1579-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) HD 2560MB 320-bit GDDR5 $320.00 out the door.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130687

G.SKILL F3-1600C9Q-32GXM 32gig Dual Channel Memory $110 out the door.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231569

I have busted the budget by about $150.00 but feel the 32gigs of RAM is a must have. I could save a few dollars using the ASRock Z77 Extreme6 motherboard but have no experience with them and like Asus in a "office/commercial" setting.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157295

I want to use a EVGA video card because of the lifetime warranty. Office guy has a tuff job. Plays Star Wars The Old Republic 10-12 hours a day and a couple of other games. I do not know which ones.

The video card seems to be my biggest delima. Cuda Cores, 320bit or 256bit bus, 2gigs of RAM or just 1gig, Open GL 4.1 or 4.2 support ??? Ivy Bridge performance boost with pci 3.0x16 even with a nVidia 570 series to take advantage of even 2.0x16 ???

On the video card there are several other options from EVGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...130%2D620%2DTS

Really been out of the loop for a couple of years and do not want to make a bad hardware choice given the limited budget.

The processor is a done deal and I will probably order the ram while NewEgg has it instock and with the IronEgg pricing.

Really like the AsRock board but am afraid a couple years down the road it will give me problems. Used Abit boards for a long time and hung on till the very last end with several failures and then new boards that were DOA.

Not good in a business enviorment.

Any help, suggestions, feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[T_Yamamoto]

Asrock is a spinoff of ASUS but better (IMHO) and Newegg reviews dont really mean anything since most of the people reviewing are people with problems and/or DOAs
No need for a 210 dollar motherboard when this will work perfectly fine

Also, drop down to 16gbs and add an ssd

[WiseUp216]

I certainly wouldn't pay $320.00 for a GTX 570 these days. A lot of better and/or cheaper options available.

[VirtualLarry]

If you do go with 32GB of RAM, be aware that Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit only supports 16GB max, so you would have to go with Pro. I don't know about Windows 8.

[charlietee]

Originally Posted by T_Yamamoto

Asrock is a spinoff of ASUS but better (IMHO) and Newegg reviews dont really mean anything since most of the people reviewing are people with problems and/or DOAs
No need for a 210 dollar motherboard when this will work perfectly fine

Also, drop down to 16gbs and add an ssd

Well NewEgg does have the AsRock Extreme4 for $105.00 shipped. Rave reviews and it is $100.00 cheaper than the Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293

So in your opinion the AsRock build quality is on par or better than Asus ???

[charlietee]

Originally Posted by WiseUp216

I certainly wouldn't pay $320.00 for a GTX 570 these days. A lot of better and/or cheaper options available.

The nVidia GTX 570 is listed with Adobe Systems as a video card that will use Cuda and the GPU to actually render video. I too agree that $320.00 is a bit much for a GTX 570. But it falls right into the most important function this box will be asked to do. Playing games is not really a concern of mine. Being able to render video is the most cpu, ram, drive system and in the case of the nVidia GTX 570 intensive task it will perform.

So any suggestion on a nVidia card that has 2gigs of ram, cuda and at least a 256bit bus would be greatly appreciated.

[mfenn]

I see no reason to be spending $200 or even $100 on motherboard for this machine. There's just no point in getting a "tweaker" motherboard for a machine that will be used for real work.

i7 3770K $230 @ MC
ASRock Z77 Pro3 $55 @ MC (combo with CPU)
Crucial DDR3 1600 32GB $148 - not sure where you got the $110 price from
MSI GTX 570 $230 AR - 1.25GB VRAM is enough for MPE unless you're shooting 4K
Total: $663 AR

$75 under budget and just as fast.

[T_Yamamoto]

Originally Posted by charlietee

Well NewEgg does have the AsRock Extreme4 for $105.00 shipped. Rave reviews and it is $100.00 cheaper than the Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293

So in your opinion the AsRock build quality is on par or better than Asus ???

Yup, AsRock>ASUS