Build for a buddy. ~$1200

[JustAnAverageGuy]

Build will be mostly used for hobby-level video / photo work. Some gaming on the side.

Trying to keep it under the $1200 mark. Max $1500. Cheaper is obviously better though.

Parts in USA.

Not a brand fanboy.

Will be reusing peripherals - mouse/monitor/keyboard/speakers/etc.
Extra hard drive from other computer may be coming for the ride as well.
Already have an OS. (Win7 Pro 64-bit)

Gone through a few other threads with similar criteria.

Will be doing some mild overclocking. Nothing hardcore though.

Monitors are currently 1600x1200. Planning on updating to 1920x1200 later.

Probably purchase towards the end of August / early September

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.

Bring on the pain.


Other:
Quiet/noise is a main concern.
No interest in SLI/xfire.

• Intel Core i5-2500K - $220
• ASRock Z68 PRO3 - $120 + $8 S\H
• MSI R6870 Hawk Radeon HD 6870 1GB - $217 - $20 MIR
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) - $55 - $10 AC
• 2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB - $120 ($60x2)
• Intel 320 Series 120GB - $240
• ASUS DRW-24B1ST - $21
• Antec Three Hundred - $60 - 13 AC Fractal Design Define R3 $110 + 18
• CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W - $60 + $3 S\H - $20 MIR

Comes in for a total of ~$1150 shipped.

My main concerns:
Case - Have a little bit of a budget to work with. Anything better noise wise? Possibly a Fractal Design Define R3?
SSD - Would prefer to stay with Intel / Crucial. I've had bad experiences with OCZ drives. Seen quite a few good deals with Kingston V+ drives recently though (96GB for $99). Worth it to look into?
Vid card - MSI's 6870 tends to review pretty well (Noise-wise) and I've had good luck with them in the past. Seems like their 6870 is taking some time to fall in line price wise with the other brands though? Maybe it'll drop closer to buy time

 

[mnewsham]

looks fine to me, maybe bump the GPU up a bit as you have the funds. Add some more RAM if needed for the video/photo work. And if it is "real" video/photo work (by real i mean it makes you money and time = money) then possibly bump up to the i7-2600K

 

[T_Yamamoto]

i would go with 16 gb of ram, two sticks of 8 gb ram (can upgrade to 32 gb later if you wanted too)

 

[mnewsham]

i would go with 16 gb of ram, two sticks of 8 gb ram (can upgrade to 32 gb later if you wanted too)

seeing as 8GB dimms are around 150 bucks each i will say that going with 4x4 GB is going to be cheaper.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

seeing as 8GB dimms are around 150 bucks each i will say that going with 4x4 GB is going to be cheaper.

oh. i didnt look at the prices. sorry bout that.

 

[mfenn]

Overall, the build looks good to me.

My main concerns:
Case - Have a little bit of a budget to work with. Anything better noise wise? Possibly a Fractal Design Define R3?

The Three Hundred is a very good basic case. The R3 is better/quieter. If noise is a big concern, I would go with it. Otherwise, stay put.

SSD - Would prefer to stay with Intel / Crucial. I've had bad experiences with OCZ drives. Seen quite a few good deals with Kingston V+ drives recently though (96GB for $99). Worth it to look into?

The Kingston drives are really cheap for a reason. Namely, they're not that good.

Vid card - MSI's 6870 tends to review pretty well (Noise-wise) and I've had good luck with them in the past. Seems like their 6870 is taking some time to fall in line price wise with the other brands though? Maybe it'll drop closer to buy time

If your buddy is a big Adobe CS5 user, I'd suggest an Nvidia card like the GTX 560 or GTX 570 though (for CUDA).