Please check my choices for new build or advise me elsewhere

[Matt_Stevens]

UPDATED on Sunday to reflect what I have purchased...

Gents, I am upgrading my 4 year old PC, which has been used mostly for video editing on Adobe Premiere Pro.

God help me, it's been 4 years since I built a system, but based upon advice I have received here and wlesewhere, here is what I have ordered:

ASUS Z97-PRO (Wi-Fi ac) USB3.1
Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4GHz (Ouch on the price)
Noctua NH-D14 cooler

Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD (MZ-7KE256BW)

Housed in...
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series PH-ES614P ATX white Full Tower Case
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 (I am future proofing as I'll eventually need a heavy dury vid card)


Porting over from my current system (for now) the DVD/BD-roms, multiple storage hdds and firewire card, plus the following...

MSI GeForce GTX460 PCI Express 2.0 (this will be replaced/upgraded later this year)

16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1333 - 4GBx4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

My only worry is are these compatible with the ASUS MB? I think yes, but I am no expert and would love to be sure.

For my current system I have two Samsung Spinpoints (best HD's ever) in a stripe RAID and two WD's in a mirror raid. I'll want to move them over to the new system, or perhaps do somerthing different. I've not decided as of yet.

I am using my Windows 7 Pro Student OS, which I have on a disc. Apparently they are 'retail' so I can switch it to a new build.

I just purchased a Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit Full Version with COA Key + 80GB Drive. The eBay seller has impeccable feedback . I will use this to re-sintall windows on the soon to be old PC and perhaps use it as a backup or perhaps sell it.

Any red flags? Please let me know. Have I missed anything?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

http://www.phanteksusa.com/products/phanteks-enthoo-pro

Above link says the case accepts up to 193 mm tall coolers; the DH-14 is 160 mm.

Noctua says this about the DH-14: "The NH-D14 is a big cooler that extends over the first RAM slots on most mainboards. The cooler offers sufficient clearance for all standard size memory modules, but you won’t be able to use memory modules higher than 44mm."

How tall is your existing RAM?

If your current Win 7 Pro disk is "retail", you can activate on the new motherboard, assuming you won't continue using the same license on your existing PC. If it is an OEM version, you may have issues sooner or later, but Microsoft may or may not enforce the OEM's supposed limitation to the original motherboard, depending on how lucky you are if you have to speak to them to complete the activation.

 

[Valantar]

What graphics card will you be upgrading to? That PSU is complete overkill for any single GPU setup. If you want to save a bit of money the XFX XTR 550W comes highly recommended everywhere that I've read and is a good deal cheaper than the SuperNova. Might not get you all the way down to your budget, but closer.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Valantar, if I am right the G.Skills are just under 41mm so I guess I am okay.

http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-10666cl9d-8gbrl

ignatzatsonic... H.264, 2k and 4k editing systems tends to draw a shitload of power when rendering. I also will have at least six hard drives inside so maybe I am trying to overkill it.

The video card I am looking at purchasing is the GeForce GTX970, which requires a 500w ps minimum when paired with a 3.2GHz cpu. So is 550w enough leeway since I will have a 4GHz cpu?

As for my Windows 7... It's a student version of Windows 7 Pro. I googled this and what I have found states these are Retail, but that they can only be in stalled on "one computer at a time" so I assume that means I have to deactivate my current Windows 😕

This says "Backup disc" but I assume I can use it to do my actual install.

 

[mfenn]

ignatzatsonic... H.264, 2k and 4k editing systems tends to draw a shitload of power when rendering. I also will have at least six hard drives inside so maybe I am trying to overkill it.

The video card I am looking at purchasing is the GeForce GTX970, which requires a 500w ps minimum when paired with a 3.2GHz cpu. So is 550w enough leeway since I will have a 4GHz cpu?

The i7 4970K cannot physically draw more than around 112W, and that's when running "power virus" type code which fits entirely into L1 cache. In the real world, you'll be lucky to actually hit the TDP of 88W for a sustained amount of time. Hard drives are 10W each, so that's another 60W. So not counting the GPU, your whole system could theoretically pull something like 200W (CPU+GPU+misc).

The GTX 970 has a peak draw of something like 165W, again only in power virus workloads. So add that to the 200W above, and you get a total peak power draw of 365W.

Under real-world stress, you're really looking at more like 300W for the whole system.

As for my Windows 7... It's a student version of Windows 7 Pro. I googled this and what I have found states these are Retail, but that they can only be in stalled on "one computer at a time" so I assume that means I have to deactivate my current Windows 😕

This says "Backup disc" but I assume I can use it to do my actual install.

The student version is indeed retail which means you can move it around between machines as much as you want. The Microsoft activation system uses a heuristic to determine if the key has been activated on a suspicious number of machines in a certain amount of time. So if you've only activated it once so far on your current machine, you should have no trouble activating it again. Worst case, you will have to call MS and do a phone activation.

EDIT: And yes, the actual physical media you use to do the install is pretty much irrelevant, they only case about what product key you use.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Hey mfenn. I always see you around here and you have helped me before, so thanks.

The Adobe guys are all telling me I need 55ow minimum and should go to 650 or more. But then again, some of those guys run completely insane setups so perhaps they just don't get that my system is not anything like what they are used to.

I already ordered to 750w ps, so I guess I may have overspent on one part. Whoops. 🙂

As for Windows 7, I re-installed it on my system maybe two years ago. So it's been activated twice. You know how Windows is. After a certain amount of time it starts to bog down. It's at that point now. Fresh installs were a yearly thing for me prior to Win7. I suppose I need to learn how to clone and save my new setup so I can just wipe and re-clone later. But that really befuddles me.

 

[Cerb]

Your actual heavy load power use should be around 250W, with half of it, or more, coming from the GTX 460 (and it being highly variable, depending on model, and if you OC it).

It's a good PSU, just overkill.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Yeah I am thinking I was kind of silly and spent too much, but sh!t happens. The difference in price was nothing too bad.

 

[mfenn]

Hey mfenn. I always see you around here and you have helped me before, so thanks.

No problem! 🙂

The Adobe guys are all telling me I need 55ow minimum and should go to 650 or more. But then again, some of those guys run completely insane setups so perhaps they just don't get that my system is not anything like what they are used to.

A lot of people who don't really keep up with technology also don't realize just how much power requirements for standard desktop-grade gear has dropped over the past 5 years. It's OK. :awe:

As for Windows 7, I re-installed it on my system maybe two years ago. So it's been activated twice. You know how Windows is. After a certain amount of time it starts to bog down. It's at that point now. Fresh installs were a yearly thing for me prior to Win7. I suppose I need to learn how to clone and save my new setup so I can just wipe and re-clone later. But that really befuddles me.

You should be fine when it comes to activation then.