help with new build please

[bwh21]

Hey guys, I'm a pc building noob and would like some input on my first build. I'm fairly good with electronics, have replaced HDDs and RAM before and researched the topic, but have never actually built a pc from scratch.

This desktop will primarily be for HD video editing with Adobe Premiere and some general office work. I've decided to build a system around the Intel i7 cpu running Windows 7. I used this article as a guide - http://compreviews.about.com/od/tutorials/a/DIYBudgetPC.htm

Is it overkill for my needs? Anything I'm missing? I appreciate any comments and/or suggestions you can provide on the following setup. I'm trying to keep it under $800 without the monitor.

EDIT: I just saw the sticky - video editing and basic MS Office work, no overclocking, prefer Intel, buy parts in U.S. , $800 max

Case - Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply - PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W High Performance 80PLUS Silver SLI CrossFire ready
Motherboard - ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Processor - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)
Optical Drive - ASUS 24X DVD Burner SATA

 

[DominionSeraph]

There's a $20 promo on the 650W PC Power and Cooling PSU and it's way more than you need. (Seriously. With no video card your rig will pull like 140W under load.)

You want DDR3-1333 RAM, not 1066. This combo will do ya'

For video editing you probably want to go with RAIDed hard drives. (Someone who knows more about video editing please chime in)

 

[bwh21]

There's a $20 promo on the 650W PC Power and Cooling PSU and it's way more than you need. (Seriously. With no video card your rig will pull like 140W under load.)

You want DDR3-1333 RAM, not 1066. This combo will do ya'

For video editing you probably want to go with RAIDed hard drives. (Someone who knows more about video editing please chime in)

Thanks for the suggestions!! I'll make the changes you mentioned.

I've been looking into the video card and from what I've read I think I need to go ahead and buy one. Do you think the 650W PSU be enough with an add'l 1 GB card?

 

[Ken g6]

650W is still more than enough. Since you have Premiere, you might want a moderately fast nVIDIA card to hack. I don't know how much cash you have left over, though. Skipping over the <1GB 460 and the SE (Slow Edition) 460, here's a good one for $140AR.

 

[bwh21]

650W is still more than enough. Since you have Premiere, you might want a moderately fast nVIDIA card to hack. I don't know how much cash you have left over, though. Skipping over the <1GB 460 and the SE (Slow Edition) 460, here's a good one for $140AR.

Do you think it's ok to drop down to the i5 and use the cash I save for the GPU? I can't tell from what I've read what's more important to video editing - the CPU or the GPU. I'm kinda hesitant to drop down to the i5 due to the rave reviews the new i7 has been getting.

 

[DominionSeraph]

I've been looking into the video card and from what I've read I think I need to go ahead and buy one. Do you think the 650W PSU be enough with an add'l 1 GB card?

Yes, it'll handle any card. (Although the $700+ GTX 590 or 6990 would be pushing it)

It looks like the GTX 570 is the cheapest video card available that Premier officially supports. It's $320, putting it out of your budget. (Dropping to a i5 2500k would put it close. I don't know which combination is better from a real-world standpoint, though -- i7 2600k + integrated graphics or i5 2500k + GTX 570. You need someone with video editing experience to chime in.)

Edit: Oh, there's a used GTX 285 on sale in FS/FT for $145.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2193336&highlight=gtx+285
It's little expensive for the gaming performance level it's at especially given that it's used, but it is officially supported for Premier. (It'd be equaled by $140 new cards like the GTX 460 in gaming, but that's not officially supported by Premier)
But again, someone with experience needs to chime in.

 

[Ken g6]

As far as I know, Premiere should work fine with any 1GB Fermi card, once you hack it.

Yeah, I wouldn't drop to the i5; hyperthreading really helps video encoding. Options:

1. $300: Don't get the k. The k is just for overclocking.
2.a. $265: Since you are getting a video card, you should be able to use a .1GHz slower Xeon without onboard graphics.
2.b. $265: Or you can just get a .2GHz slower Xeon with onboard graphics if you're afraid you'll be without a working video card at some point.
3. $240: Or, you can get a .2GHz slower Xeon without onboard graphics.

 

[bwh21]

Another thought on the HDD. Does it make sense to run the OS and programs on an SSD and then all of the files on an external drive? Price-wise it's more, but it would be much faster on boot, right?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

no
SSD is pricey
an external HDD is MORE expensive than a internal HDD (doesnt make it faster)

 

[mfenn]

As far as I know, Premiere should work fine with any 1GB Fermi card, once you hack it.

Yeah, I wouldn't drop to the i5; hyperthreading really helps video encoding. Options:

1. $300: Don't get the k. The k is just for overclocking.
2.a. $265: Since you are getting a video card, you should be able to use a .1GHz slower Xeon without onboard graphics.
2.b. $265: Or you can just get a .2GHz slower Xeon with onboard graphics if you're afraid you'll be without a working video card at some point.
3. $240: Or, you can get a .2GHz slower Xeon without onboard graphics.

The Xeons aren't listed as officially supported on that mobo though.

 

[mfenn]

Do you think it's ok to drop down to the i5 and use the cash I save for the GPU? I can't tell from what I've read what's more important to video editing - the CPU or the GPU. I'm kinda hesitant to drop down to the i5 due to the rave reviews the new i7 has been getting.

For most of what you will do, the CPU is far more important. A CUDA-capable GPU can improve the editing experience though. As Ken suggested, a GTX 460 will work fine if you're comfortable editing a single text file.

With regard to your original build, here are the main issues:
- The PSU is incredible overkill. Even with a GTX 460, you're going to be drawing less than 300W maxed out. The 430CX is plenty.
- Since you're getting an H-series mobo, there's no real need for a K CPU. Get the normal i7 2600 instead.
- You only have 1 HDD and it's too expensive for what it is. Get two Samsung F3 1TB drives and set one up as a dedicated scratch drive.
- This isn't an issue per se, but I'd rather have CAS 9 DDR3 1333 over CAS 7 DDR3 1066. The effective latencies will be very similar, but the DDR3 1333 will have more bandwidth.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

if you can, go with DDR3 1600

 

[Ken g6]

The Xeons aren't listed as officially supported on that mobo though.

OK, maybe not. Whether they work together seems to be one of those things a lot of people ask but few people answer. But anecdotally they work on most/all 1155 boards, including the ASRock H61M.

The closest thing to official support I can find is that this mentions the Xeon and an H61 chipset together.

 

[mfenn]

OK, maybe not. Whether they work together seems to be one of those things a lot of people ask but few people answer. But anecdotally they work on most/all 1155 boards, including the ASRock H61M.

The closest thing to official support I can find is that this mentions the Xeon and an H61 chipset together.

I can imagine that they will work (maybe with CPUID weirdness), but that's not quite the same thing as being supported. That may or may not matter to the OP though.