System Build Recommendations

[jlp16au]

1. I am looking to replace my Core2Quad with something newer. I do light photo and video editing and would like to rip and encode Blu-ray movies.

1.5 I would like a small form factor PC if possible. mini or micro ATX. I would also like it to be quiet running. I am not sure if this is possible with my intended uses.

2. I would like to keep the total cost around $1000 (not including monitor) but could go up if necessary

3. I will order parts from the USA

5. I would like to stick with intel processors

6. I have the following parts I would consider reusing:

• Antec three hundred ATX Mid tower
• Thermaltake W0116RV 750 Watt Power supply.
• Intel 520 120GB SSD
• (2) WD green 2TB drives in Raid 1 setup.
• Windows 7 ultimate
• DVD Burner

7. No Overclocking

8. Planning on running one or two monitors at 1920x1200

9. I plan to build it in the next week or two.

Thanks
Josh

 

[lehtv]

For your intended uses and already owned hardware, I think you don't need to spend anywhere near $1000. A quiet micro-ATX setup is definitely doable, as there's nothing in your intended uses that implies high noise output. Here's a suggestion:

CPU i7-4770 $295, i7-4570 $200 is absolutely fine too given light use, I just picked the i7 because it fits your budget
HSF Cooler Master Hyper T4 $20 AR (in the BIOS, set it to Silent, or manually set it to the lowest PWM value)
Mobo Gigabyte B85M-DS3H $73
RAM Kingston HyperX Blu 2x8GB DDR3-1600 $130
SSD Reuse $0
HDD Reuse $0
DVD Reuse $0
PSU Rosewill Capstone 450W $50 AR (sell the Thermaltake or keep as backup)
Case Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 $80 (sell the Antec 300)
OS Reuse $0

= $648 AR ($553 with the i5)

What software do you use for video and photo editing? If you use Adobe, for example, you will benefit from having an NVIDIA card to accelerate encoding and applying effects. If you buy a discrete card, you can connect the main monitor to the card, and the secondary monitor to the IGP.

If you have a Microcenter nearby, you can get the CPU and mobo from there for less $.

I'm going to throw a guess that the Rosewill PSU will no longer be $50 AR in a week... it may still be a decent choice though. Same applies to the HSF

 

[jlp16au]

Thanks for the quick reply. It does not appear to me that the motherboard you call for supports raid. Would I be better off with a z87 chipset? I do use photoshop for my picture editing. As such, what video card would you recommend?

 

[lehtv]

You're correct, it doesn't. My bad. Get a H87 chipset board. Z87 has little benefit to you, usually it will only have a more extensive PCIe slot configuration and the ability to overclock, that's about it. Asrock H87M Pro4 $81

What do you use for video editing? Premiere, and what version?

What version of Photoshop do you use, Creative Cloud or older?

 

[jlp16au]

Latest versions of premiere and elements

 

[lehtv]

I doubt Photoshop Elements 12 benefits from GPU acceleration.

If by "latest version of Premiere" you mean Premiere CC, that uses the Mercury Playback Engine and benefits from NVIDIA CUDA when encoding and creating previews; a suitable card would be a GTX 570 which can be had for about $100 used on ebay. If you mean Premiere Elements 12, there's no benefit to having a discrete graphics card, that I know of.

 

[jlp16au]

Could I build this same machine with a Mini ITX case?

 

[Charlie98]

Could I build this same machine with a Mini ITX case?

I don't see why not, it will cost a little more for the same components, however.

Gigabyte B85N, $90 (or add $10 for the B85N-wifi if you want built-in wifi capability.)

There are a mess of mITX cases out there... you will have to shop around to see what would fit your needs. Depending on the case, you will have to pick your aftermarket CPU cooler carefully.

 

[lehtv]

Fractal Design Node 304 $90 runs pretty quiet. Thankfully, it is also spacious enough to fit a tower cooler like the one I suggested.

Cable routing in ITX can be a bit tough, I'm not sure how well all those cables on the Rosewill PSU would fit into it. Modularity is worth considering: Capstone 450M $70 (the only fixed cables are the main ATX and CPU power cables).

For the motherboard, I'd suggest Asrock H87M-ITX $93 (slightly cheaper in SuperBiiz)

Personally, I would not pay the premium for ITX. All in all, you pay $32 extra in this case (with the modular PSU), sacrifice some ease-of-use, two 5.25" slots, two DIMM slots, Intel LAN, two PCI slot and one PCIe x4 slot, and some onboard connectors. The only thing you gain is a somewhat smaller footprint. If you want an even smaller footprint, then you sacrifice even more in compatibility and features. Surely you can find space for a microATX setup?