Photo editing computer that can also occasionally game

[johnciciora]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Primary use: Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, InDesign, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere. Secondary use: gaming such as SC2, Civ5, Bioshock Infinite.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
1,300-1,500USD

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
No preference.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
2x Dell 2209WA, mouse & kb, external hds and NAS; Win 8

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
No plans to overclock, unless someone can make a compelling argument that I would stand a lot to gain.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1680x1050 (somewhere down the road will upgrade to larger monitors, probably dual 27", just don't have the budget right now)

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
Within the next 2 weeks.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
No.

Extra considerations:
I regularly work with multiple very large files at once, so Ram and fast I/O are very important to me. I'm thinking at least 16GB Ram (if not more) and possibly two SSDs, either in Raid-0 as Boot/Apps, or one as Boot/Apps, the other as Swap. For working storage, I'd like to do two fast 1TB drives in Raid-0 with a nightly 2TB backup or three 1TB drives in Raid-5. Non-working data gets offloaded to one of many external USB3 3TB HD's which is then mirrored and taken off-site.

My current rig, which I plan on keeping as a second workstation:
Q6600 Quad @ 2.4GHZ (previously oc'ed to 3GHZ)
MSI P6N SLI
4GB Corsair XMS Ram
GT610 1GB (purchased for $20 when my 9600GT died)
Boot: OCZ Vertex 3 60Gb
Working: 2x WD 500GB in Raid-0
Nightly Working Backup: 1x WD 1TB
2x DVD Burners with Lightscribe
2x Hotswap HD bays (for my collection of about 10 bare drives full of data)
Wifi, USB3, and SATA add-on cards

It's been a while since I built a computer and I'm also on the fence about how to accomplish my goals. I'm also not sure I can accomplish what I want within this price range. My goal would be for a new build to last 4 years.

I know this is little different than the majority of builds on here. I appreciate your help. Thanks in advance.

 

[lehtv]

SSD RAID 0 doesn't really make sense because you won't notice any difference to a single SSD's performance.

Other people can comment on your backup solution, I'll just go with what you had planned out.

You'll probably be fine with 2x8GB for now, although 4x8GB is in your budget as well.

This isn't the best value I could think of but it's quality all around, and it's very quiet. Too bad there are literally none of the good deals we had last week. Anyway... here u go

CPU i7-4770 $295
Cooler Freezer i30 $40
Mobo Asrock H87 Performance $100 (cheapest board with ALC1150 sound; may or may not matter to u but it's a nice board and has free XSplit software)
RAM Ballistix Tactical 8GB 1600MHz CL8 1.35V $60 x2 = $120 (or x4 = $240)
GPU HIS 7950 IceQ $215
SSD 840 EVO 250GB $183
HDD1 ST2000DM001 $100
HDD2,3 WD Blue WD10EZEX $70 x2 = $140
DVD Samsung DVD-RW $15 AP
PSU Seasonic G550 $80
Case Define R4 Black Pearl $90 + Spectre 140mm 1000RPM $12

= $1390

 

[dstevod]

^agree only one SSD is really needed.

Having said that I believe the Samsung 840 Pro is still quicker than the newer Evo suggested above, and not much more expensive.

Cheers,

S

 

[Essence_of_War]

I could see the appeal of having a Sandisk Ultra/Samsung EVO as boot + apps, and having a smaller sandisk extreme ii/ Samsung 840 Pro for things like lightroom catalogs, and a VERY fast scratch space.

If you swap the CPU to a:
Xeon 1230v3 for $255
You have enough money to add a:
samsung 840 pro 128 GB for $130
to use for LR catalogs/fast-scratch and still come in under budget.

That Xeon is clocked just .1 GHz slower than the i7, but still supports HT, and uses the same socket so it works with the MoBo lehtv found you!

Edit: Actually, the Xeon 1240v3 is clocked exactly the same as the i7, and costs $20 less. So I'd just make that swap, and you have enough in the budget for the 840 Pro. Just barely 😛

 

[lehtv]

Having said that I believe the Samsung 840 Pro is still quicker than the newer Evo suggested above, and not much more expensive.

Sure it's a little bit faster but will you notice it? http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/965?vs=665

Picked the i7 for the integrated GPU. Since you plan on using dual monitors, it's nicer to run one off of the iGPU and the other off of the GPU. I'm not 100% on this but I believe the graphics card will not downclock/downvolt properly to 2D clocks and volts if it is driving two displays