Yet another person begging for help/input

[texasnightowl]

Alright, I need help picking some parts. I actually posted a while ago - January?, but had to put everything off so I'm starting over. I'm likely going to be building 2 boxes - a desktop and an HTPC - but I'm starting with a new desktop to replace my now 4 year old system.

Here are my answers to the sticky post:

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
- primarily light use stuff...I am not a heavy PC gamer...so mainly office docs and internet. EXCEPT I want to rip my bluray collection to smaller mkv or m2ts files for storage on my WHS for use by my PS3 (streaming via PS3 Media Server) or the new HTPC build.
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
- $1000 tops
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
- USA
4. IF YOU have a brand preference.
- Intel
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
- Yes
Case: Antec Solo
PSU: Corsair Modular 520 if it is suitable (also it is 4 yrs old)
OS: Already have Win 7
HDD : Have a 320gb and a 500gb WD drive; re-use of these is a maybe depending on if I go with an SSD drive for the OS in which case I may buy at least a 1TB drive as a secondary drive.
DVDRW: Have one. I will need a blu-ray drive eventually, but for the moment I used a friend's drive to rip my current discs to hard drive, so I don't need a BR drive immediately. At the very least though, I'll be getting one when I build my HTPC system.
Keyboard/Mouse
Monitor
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
- Yes
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
- no particular plans to OC
8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
- 1680 is more than enough; last game I really played much was Civ4
9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
- September

Given my plan to do BR re-encoding, I had planned to go ahead and go with the i7-2600 even though otherwise the i5-2500 would be more than enough for me. However since my demands on the CPU are otherwise low, should I go with the i5-2500 anyway even though video encoding won't be as fast?

So, I need recs for:
CPU: i5-2500/i7-2600
HSF: Seems like stock is OK for me?
Motherboard: don't need anything special (GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3??)
Memory: ??
Video: ATI 5670? (XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR5)
PSU: re-use Corsair 520??
SSD/HDD : Considering a 64gb SSD for OS?
Optical: BR drive can wait for now and I can use my DVDRW drive in this build
Case: re-use Antec Solo
UPS: I do have enough power blips around me I should get a UPS. I do have my WHS on a UPS.

So, hit me with suggestions please!

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Try this
reuse your other parts
change the HDD to spinpoint.
cheaper ram

 

[texasnightowl]

Thanks for the link and response. I think the $250 video card listed is overkill for my usage? But I'll take a look at the board, memory, & PSU that is in that list. Thanks.

 

[Ken g6]

For your video conversions, do you think Intel's new Quick Sync would meet your needs? For compatible software, see [thread=2188464]this thread[/thread]. If that's enough for you, you'll want either a 2600k, a 2500k, or an i3-2105. (for the 3000-series built-in GPU.) If that's not enough for you, would you want to look at encoding that uses GPUs?

Next, you were kind of non-committal on some of your answers:

- "I am not a heavy PC gamer." - please list some games you play.
- "no particular plans to OC" - this matters these days - either you get a CPU that can overclock or you get one that can't.

Finally, for my thoughts on that wish list, see [thread=2188365]this thread[/thread]. In your case, you probably don't need more than an 6770 GPU, or maybe as little as the built-in Intel GPU. But that depends (mostly) on the games you play.

 

[mfenn]

From what I can gather, the $1K is just for the desktop? Given the amount of reusable parts that you have, you could get an i7 rig for quite cheap.

i7 2600 + Intel H67 mobo $390
Kingston DDR3 1333 8GB $42 AP
Probably IGP only, depends on games though $0
Force GT 120GB $195 AR
Reuse HDD $0
Reuse DVD $0
Reuse PSU $0
Reuse Case $0
Total: $627 AP

With the rest of the money, you can very nearly build a full E-350 HTPC.

 

[texasnightowl]

For your video conversions, do you think Intel's new Quick Sync would meet your needs? For compatible software, see [thread=2188464]this thread[/thread].

I hadn't really looked at QuickSync before, but it is a possibility. The concern is about which software currently implements it or which ones will soon and how much control those programs give you. It certainly gives a speed advantage! Even without QuickSync, encoding using just the CPU is as speedy as some of the GPU's (at least as given in one of those articles).

- "I am not a heavy PC gamer." - please list some games you play.
- "no particular plans to OC" - this matters these days - either you get a CPU that can overclock or you get one that can't.

Over the last year and half to two years...none. When I've had the time or inclination I've been gaming on my PS3 and not PC. So let's go with no games.

I would say an absolute no to OC'ing, except the CPU's with the best integrated graphics are the ones that you can OC with. So really I don't care about OC'ing...but if I'm going to end up with a CPU capable of it anyway it's possible I might.

From what I can gather, the $1K is just for the desktop? Given the amount of reusable parts that you have, it you could get an i7 rig for quite cheap.

With the rest of the money, you can very nearly build a full E-350 HTPC.

Yeah, I can spend up to $1k but can obviously do it for less. I hadn't really added up $$ since I wasn't sure what I was going to re-use! But thanks for the list! I guess I'm pretty out of it though - what is E-350? For an HTPC I assume I'd build around an i3.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, I can spend up to $1k but can obviously do it for less. I hadn't really added up $$ since I wasn't sure what I was going to re-use! But thanks for the list! I guess I'm pretty out of it though - what is E-350? For an HTPC I assume I'd build around an i3.

An E-350 is basically AMD's answer to Atom, but a lot better. It can handle pretty much anything except for 1080P Silverlight video (because Silverlight is both horribly inefficient and not GPU accelerated).

The mobo and CPU runs about $100-130, which is about what you would pay for an i3 by itself. Needless to say, saving $60-75 on a mobo is significant in the budget HTPC market.

 

[texasnightowl]

ahh...right...that's the Brazos stuff, right? I'll definitely have to look into it.

I've been looking over a lot of reviews and such today and trying to make up my mind. In a lot of ways, the i5-2500k would be enough for me. It would easily handle my daily activities and would be much faster than my e6750 at video encoding. But, I'm probably going to go ahead and get the i7. I'm planning on this build lasting 3-4 years (my current system is exactly 4) so an extra $100 over 3 to 4 years is nothing.

It seems like I'll be fine going with the integrated graphics initially and I can always add a video card later.

So I'm looking at definitely picking up:
i7-2600k @$315
8gb memory @$45-60

I'm torn on which motherboard to go with. On the low end, the Intel board or the Asrock Extreme3 Gen3 would probably be fine for me but: 1 my last three boards have been Asus or Gigabyte and I've had good experience with both, and 2 if I'm planning on going 3 years I wonder if I shouldn't pick up one of the boards that has more than just 2 6gb sata ports. So I'm looking at:

Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
Asus P8Z68-V Pro
Asrock Extreme4 Gen3

Then there is still the SSD decisions.

 

[mfenn]

Those boards are all pretty expensive for a marginal benefit (for your purposes) over the Intel board. Unless you think that you're going to go crazy and get 4 SSDs for the system, I don't think that the extra SATA 6Gb/s ports are going to matter. Mechanical HDDs are steadily improving, but it's going to be a while before they can even saturate a SATA 3Gb/s link.

 

[texasnightowl]

yeah, my head knows you're right...mostly ;>

OK, so let's say I've backed it down to the following 3 which are all closer to $130; do we have a favorite?

Asrock Extreme3 Gen3
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
Asus P8Z68-V LE

Too bad it would cost me over $60 in gas and almost 10 hours in a car to get to the closest Microcenter...kinda negates the savings from the prices on the i7 and the cpu/mobo combo discount.

 

[Ken g6]

Allow me to save you some money without driving anywhere.

First, if you really intend to get an i7, get this combo. (I ask if you really intend to get an i7, because with Quick Sync and any of the software listed in [thread=2188464]this thread[/thread], an i3-2105 would meet your needs just fine.)

Second, here's a good motherboard.

Edit: Stupid browser plugin suggested those two boards were the same. They're not.

 

[mfenn]

Allow me to save you some money without driving anywhere.

First, if you really intend to get an i7, get this combo. (I ask if you really intend to get an i7, because with Quick Sync and any of the software listed in [thread=2188464]this thread[/thread], an i3-2105 would meet your needs just fine.)

Second, here's a good motherboard.

Edit: Stupid browser plugin suggested those two boards were the same. They're not.

This looks good to me. I'm glad that the arrival of the Extreme3 Gen3 has pushed the price of the Pro3 down by a bit. It's quite a good deal now.