Advice needed

[skyline605]

Hey all...I've built several PCs in my time, but I've been out of the game for years and am feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the MB options out there. Advice would be appreciated...

My wife is a programmer and will be using the desktop as her work station while at home.

My main interests are blu-ray/HD video and audio.

Most of my gaming is done on consoles these days, so I don't need the latest and greatest as far as that's concerned. I won't be playing anything more extreme than Starcraft or any other new RTS that might catch my eye. We're just looking for a powerful and reliable desktop for our office and are looking to spend anywhere between 600 and 1000 for the full setup. Lower the better, of course.

I couldn't care less about having a MB with integrated audio or video unless you really think there's something that will be worth my time. I had planned to buy a separate video/sound card.

Can anyone recommend some good all around performers that might suit my needs?

Thanks!

 

[denis280]

this should help you.http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

 

[coffeejunkee]

That's pretty generic advice in that thread.

OP, how powerful exactly? Lots of compiling? Video-encoding? In that case an i7 is preferable. Willing to overclock? You'll need an Z87 mobo + K cpu. Never going to overclock? H87 or B85 mobo will suffice.

For gaming you'll need a decent videocard but not necessarily a GTX 770. Many cheaper cards that still perform quite alright. Also depends on monitor resolution. And I wouldn't bother with a soundcard, most mobo integrated audio is fine.

 

[skyline605]

That's pretty generic advice in that thread.

OP, how powerful exactly? Lots of compiling? Video-encoding? In that case an i7 is preferable. Willing to overclock? You'll need an Z87 mobo + K cpu. Never going to overclock? H87 or B85 mobo will suffice.

For gaming you'll need a decent videocard but not necessarily a GTX 770. Many cheaper cards that still perform quite alright. Also depends on monitor resolution. And I wouldn't bother with a soundcard, most mobo integrated audio is fine.

Thanks. It doesn't have to be mega-powerful. We just want something that will be beefy enough that we can get a couple of years out of it without concern. There will be lots of photo editing, compiling of code, and movie-watching, but nothing ultra-demanding.

As I said, my gaming will be light-to nonexistant. My old laptop can handle most RTS games, so I doubt that most modern videocards are going to have any problems. I have a PS3 and PS4 so that's where most of my gaming occurs. My biggest concern regarding the video card is that I can watch blu-rays or other HD videos competently.

As for the sound, my research is proving you right regarding audio. I have an external DAC and headphone amp, so my biggest concern is that I'm able to get a good clean audio signal to my DAC via USB and/or SPDIF. I've been looking at Z77/Z87 boards that have both optical and coaxial audio outputs for the flexibility it offers me in the world of DACs.

Thanks for the reply, and any specific models that you know to be reliable would be helpful. I'm finding the newegg reviews downright worthless. There are so many people bashing MBs on there for arriving with problems, but I'm guessing that those are often the minority, so I'm having a hard time getting an accurate picture for the quality of a lot of these boards.

*EDIT* Forgot to mention that I really have no interest in overclocking unless it's just dead simple and pointless not to.

 

[piasabird]

If you are programming sometimes what is most important is to have a computer with the same hardware as what the programs will be running on or close to it. Some people also like multiple monitors. If you like movies you might just hook it up to your TV with HDMI. I think some of the Gigabyte B85 boards had a DAC with a separate Clean power circuit for a USB Headphone or whatever. However, there may be some sound cards that will give better results. I just use integrated HDMI video and audio.

Example:
MITX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128680

Also some motherboards have been using some kind of higher quality sound amps. I don't know if it makes much difference?
Gigabyte Sniper B5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128674

I think I also saw something like this for MSI motherboards also.

2 other options are Sound Cards or maybe an external Sound Amplifier which is popular with HDTV's and theater systems.

 

[skyline605]

0&user=u00000687"]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128680[/URL]

Also some motherboards have been using some kind of higher quality sound amps. I don't know if it makes much difference?
Gigabyte Sniper B5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128674

Funny you should post this, because I just ran across this MB about 5 minutes ago and was coming here to ask for opinions on it.

To be perfectly honest, the on-board DAC and OPAMP are irrelevant for me. I've got external versions of both. My biggest concern is that the usb and SPDIF outputs are as noise-free as possible so they can pass a clean signal to my external gear.

Anyway...this board seems reasonably priced and it has optical AND coaxial SPDIF outputs which is nice.

Thoughts? Is this going to limit me in any significant way?

 

[coffeejunkee]

Ok, that sounds like a s1150 i5 will do. Overclocking really is very simple, but it will take time, first to read guides and get acquainted with bios settings, then testing and possibly adjusting settings. Most mobo's also have some form of automatic oc-ing but it might not work and if it does it's usually not optimal.

Problem is obviously that you will have to pay extra wether you will overclock or not. You'll need Z87 instead of H87 and a K cpu. Another question is if it's smart to oc a work pc, you don't want your compile crashing at 99% when you're facing a deadline.

For H87 I'd probably go Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H which has s/pdif output. For Z87 Gigabyte too, Z87X-D3H. MSI Z87-G55 is nice too. I use Asus myself but I think their H87/Z87 boards are a bit too pricey.

As for gaming, if it really was non-existant you could just use the cpu's igp. It's fine for 2D and movie viewing but you can't really game on it. Else 7770/7790/R7 260X are nice entry cards or GTX660/R9 270 if you want more power.

 

[skyline605]

Thanks, guys. I'm really liking what I see from Gigabyte, so here are the three choices I've narrowed it down to. It really just comes down to B85 v H87 v Z87.

Overclocking doesn't interest me.

So, of the following, then:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128674 - $99.99 - B85

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128603 - $99.99 - H87

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128591 - $129.99 - Z87

Is it completely vain of me that I like the black/green color scheme of the Sniper?

Here's my wallet...spend my money, please.

 

[coffeejunkee]

You seem more serious about audio quality than me so probably the B85 Sniper. I like the extra usb ports on the H87 though.

Your choice.

 

[skyline605]

You seem more serious about audio quality than me so probably the B85 Sniper. I like the extra usb ports on the H87 though.

Your choice.

I'm leaning that direction. Just concerned about some sort of bottleneck in the system at some point.

This is probably a completely unreasonable concern since I don't game much, but the former teenage gamer in me is drawn away from things designated as "business" class.

If I went the Sniper route, quick thoughts on CPU/memory?

I'll also have to check out the graphic cards you mentioned...

 

[skyline605]

Alright, guys, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I don't want to hog the MB forum with a bunch of discussion related to other parts, so I posted my entire build for advice here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=35980627#post35980627

Cheers!