Please help me build a new PC

Thanks for sharing your specs. It's very timely because I am also thinking of
building a Sandy Bridge system without a graphics card.

One thing I am not clear about is whether your ASUS motherboard allows you
to use two monitors or not. Does it?

ggold321 said:

I think you have gotten some great advise here. I am not a gamer either, and recently ordered a new system (see below - I am getting it from AVADirect). You might want to consider adding a USB 3.0 card reader to help you download your photo files quicker.

Also I don't think there is any benefit for you to buy any video card. I am starting without one, as its a very easy component to add, and it seems that the onboard video on these latest chips are good enough to handle the photo editing.

I have not been an over-clocker, but I do plan on overclocking this system as it seems to have gotten so simple.

I have not received my system yet, but I can say communicating with AVA has been great, very responsive.

ANTEC, Performance One P183 V3 Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU

CORSAIR, TX650 V2 Power Supply 650W, 80 PLUS® Bronze, 24-pin ATX12V v2.31 EPS12V 2.92, 2x 8/6-pin PCIe

ASUS, P8Z68-V PRO, LGA1155, Intel® Z68, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 32GB 4, PCIe x16 SLI CF 2, SATA 3Gb/s RAID 5 4, 6Gb/s 4, VGA+DVI+HDMI, USB 3.0 4, HDA, GbLAN, FW 2, ATX, Retail

Core™ i7-2600K Quad-Core 3.4GHz, HD Graphics 3000, LGA1155, 8MB L3 Cache, 32nm, 95W, EM64T EIST HT TB VT-x XD, Retail

Mugen 3 (SCMG-3000) CPU Cooler, Socket 1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, Polysynthetic Silver
16GB (4 x 4GB) HyperX Blu PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
120GB 510 Series SSD, MLC, 450/210 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, Retail

WESTERN DIGITAL, 2TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD2002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
SONY, AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
KOUTECH, RCM630 All-in-One Card Reader, 3.5" Bay, USB 3.0 2
MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
--

D90, 300F4, 17-55 f2.8, 18-200VR, Tokina 12-24 f4, 50 f1.8, 18-35, SB600, SB28, N80
G2541 / RSS BH-40

Click to expand...

LordOfThirds said:

Thanks for sharing your specs. It's very timely because I am also thinking of
building a Sandy Bridge system without a graphics card.

One thing I am not clear about is whether your ASUS motherboard allows you
to use two monitors or not. Does it?

Click to expand...

I am not sure, but I think you can, using different outputs. Z68 V-Pro comes with 1 of each DVI, VGA and HDMI. I am only using 1 monitor at this point, so that was not a concern. If I want to add a second monitor, I would probably add a video adapter, which I am planning to in the future.

I believe in the near future versions of Lightroom it will be able to take advantage of the cuda processing and might help speed up photo processing.

Best,

LordOfThirds said:

ggold321 said:

I think you have gotten some great advise here. I am not a gamer either, and recently ordered a new system (see below - I am getting it from AVADirect). You might want to consider adding a USB 3.0 card reader to help you download your photo files quicker.

Also I don't think there is any benefit for you to buy any video card. I am starting without one, as its a very easy component to add, and it seems that the onboard video on these latest chips are good enough to handle the photo editing.

I have not been an over-clocker, but I do plan on overclocking this system as it seems to have gotten so simple.

I have not received my system yet, but I can say communicating with AVA has been great, very responsive.

ANTEC, Performance One P183 V3 Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU

CORSAIR, TX650 V2 Power Supply 650W, 80 PLUS® Bronze, 24-pin ATX12V v2.31 EPS12V 2.92, 2x 8/6-pin PCIe

ASUS, P8Z68-V PRO, LGA1155, Intel® Z68, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 32GB 4, PCIe x16 SLI CF 2, SATA 3Gb/s RAID 5 4, 6Gb/s 4, VGA+DVI+HDMI, USB 3.0 4, HDA, GbLAN, FW 2, ATX, Retail

Core™ i7-2600K Quad-Core 3.4GHz, HD Graphics 3000, LGA1155, 8MB L3 Cache, 32nm, 95W, EM64T EIST HT TB VT-x XD, Retail

Mugen 3 (SCMG-3000) CPU Cooler, Socket 1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, Polysynthetic Silver
16GB (4 x 4GB) HyperX Blu PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
120GB 510 Series SSD, MLC, 450/210 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, Retail

WESTERN DIGITAL, 2TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD2002FAEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
SONY, AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
KOUTECH, RCM630 All-in-One Card Reader, 3.5" Bay, USB 3.0 2
MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
--

D90, 300F4, 17-55 f2.8, 18-200VR, Tokina 12-24 f4, 50 f1.8, 18-35, SB600, SB28, N80
G2541 / RSS BH-40

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--

D90, 300F4, 17-55 f2.8, 18-200VR, Tokina 12-24 f4, 50 f1.8, 18-35, SB600, SB28, N80
G2541 / RSS BH-40

Wow I'm very happy that I asked for help from you guys. I just came back from shooting double wedding this weekend and logon to find these great input from you guys. I appreciated them all.

I have gone back to drawing board. I 'm now looking at getting SSD drive, I'm looking at a different mother board from Asus, different power supply and I'm also thinking about over-clocking.

I will post my final spec and see if you guys will give me a go-ahead.

Just build a new PC last week with;

Cooler Master CM690 11 advance case
Coolermaster Silent Pro M500 powersupply
Gigabite GA-Z68AP-D3 motherboard
Intel Core i7 2600 . 3.4 Ghz
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Cooler
Corsair Vengeance 8 GB
Asus EN210 Silent/DI/1GDR/V2 (LP)
OCZ Vertex 3 Series SSD 120 GB
2 Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2 TB harddiks in rail one
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S DVD
and a wireless Logitech keybord and mouse
Its perfect for photoshop and thats what I do most on it.

--
Ed Agter The Netherlands

AVADIRECT Total: $1526.06

• INTEL Core™ i5-2500K Quad-Core 3.3GHz, HD Graphics 3000, LGA1155, 6MB L3 Cache, 32nm, 95W, EM64T EIST TB VT-x XD, Retail

• SCYTHE Mugen 3 (SCMG-3000) CPU Cooler, Socket 1155/1156/1366/AM3/AM2, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
• SERVICE Mild Overclocking, 10-20% Performance Increase

• ASUS P8Z68-V PRO, LGA1155, Intel® Z68, DDR3-2200 (O.C.) 32GB 4, PCIe x16 SLI CF 2, SATA 3Gb/s RAID 5 4, 6Gb/s 4, VGA+DVI+HDMI, USB 3.0 4, HDA, GbLAN, FW 2, ATX, Retail

• MUSHKIN 8GB (4 x 2GB) Enhanced Silverline PC3-10666 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

• VISIONTEK Radeon™ HD 6770, 1GB GDDR5, PCIe x16 CrossFire, VGA + DVI + HDMI, Retail

• OCZ 180GB Vertex 2 SSD, MLC SandForce SF-1200, 285/275 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, Retail
• SONY AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
• ANTEC Performance One P183 V3 Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU

• COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M 850W Power Supply w/ Modular Cables, 80 PLUS® Bronze, ATX12V 2.3 EPS12V 2.92, 6x 8/6-pin PCIe, SLI® Certified, Retail

CyberPowerPC Total: $1340

• CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)

• CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced Mid-Tower Gaming Case (Black Color) [+0] More Color ...
• 750 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+0]

• (All Venom OC Certified) Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan

• HDD: 120 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0G/s Gaming MLC Solid State Disk [+182] (Single Hard Drive)

• MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module [+0] (Corsair or Major Brand)

• MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX/SLI] Asus P8Z68-V Pro Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ BT GO! LucidLogix Virtu and Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 4x SATA-III RAID, 3 Gen2 PCIe, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+116]

• VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by AMD)
• Asus BC-12B1ST 12X Blu-Ray Combo DVDRW Drive (BLACK COLOR) [+0] More Color ...

I will go with cyberpowerpc. They about $200.00 cheaper. I will add more memory later from newegg.

Your 2 quotes don't seem apples to apples, as I believe the Antec case and larger SSD cost and are worth more, as well as the larger power supply. Also the AVA system should be quieter and faster (as they are overclocking it for you). BTW I recently ordered a custom build from AVA with the Antec 183 case after much research. I also considered Cybercomputers, but as my last step, it was to actually call on the phone to speak with each of them. My experience with Cyber was not good at all, they were not helpful, which was the opposite of my experience with AVA, they have been very helpful and easy to communicate with every step of the way.

Also if you are concerned about transfer speed for your photo's you might want to consider a USB 3.0 card reader. I ordered the Koutech 630
--

D90, 300F4, 17-55 f2.8, 18-200VR, Tokina 12-24 f4, 50 f1.8, 18-35, SB600, SB28, N80
G2541 / RSS BH-40

I recommend you buy the components and build it yourself. That way, you will be able to diagnose, and repair if something goes wrong in the future. There are lots of forums for building and overclocking your system. My favorite is HardwareCanucks.com I usually search for the components from newegg, directcanada.com, canadacomputers.com, etc. and then buy from ncix with price matching.

Yeah I just noticed the differnce in SSD drive and I also I agreed on phone support. The one thing I like about Cyperpower is that I can use Billmelater. I will toss a coin.

ggold321 said:

Your 2 quotes don't seem apples to apples, as I believe the Antec case and larger SSD cost and are worth more, as well as the larger power supply. Also the AVA system should be quieter and faster (as they are overclocking it for you). BTW I recently ordered a custom build from AVA with the Antec 183 case after much research. I also considered Cybercomputers, but as my last step, it was to actually call on the phone to speak with each of them. My experience with Cyber was not good at all, they were not helpful, which was the opposite of my experience with AVA, they have been very helpful and easy to communicate with every step of the way.

Also if you are concerned about transfer speed for your photo's you might want to consider a USB 3.0 card reader. I ordered the Koutech 630
--

D90, 300F4, 17-55 f2.8, 18-200VR, Tokina 12-24 f4, 50 f1.8, 18-35, SB600, SB28, N80
G2541 / RSS BH-40

Click to expand...

You don't need water cooling for what you're doing.

Not necessarily following your budget, and just throwing out some ideas from my experience, here's what I'd suggest you at least look at.

Stick with the 2600K. It's a really good processor, and I'd couple it with the Asus Sabertooth P68 motherboard. It will run an auto-clock with your processor and RAM and set a very reliable turbo mode speed. I've been running this for weeks and it's very solid. I am using Corsair Vengeance RAM (16GB).

I'm using a GTX580, but you don't really need that. If you're serious about gaming and drive a large screen, you could look at the EVGA 570 with the 2.5GB ram. Don't discount the 400 series cards either. For photo work they're all good.

For power supplies, I like the Corsair Gold series. The smallest is 700W and is plenty, but the 800W is only slightly more money and will let you drive multiple GPU's. These are solid power supplies that should last you a very very long time.

I cool my processor with a Noctua NH-D14. I run my processor hard and this does plenty. There's no need for water cooling for me as I just run very minimal overclocking set automatically by the BIOS.

Avoid OCZ SSD's like the plague. Firmware and support is flaky. If you go SSD, stick with the Intel 510. SSD will make the largest impact on drive performance. If you want fast disks, just stripe (RAID 0) a couple of 10k RPM's and call it a day, but it still won't be as fast.

For a case, I went with the Silverstone FT02, because it has good airflow and it's a solid well built case. It will last me many years and many motherboards. It also holds a lot of drives and is easy to work and tinker around in.

I'm not suggesting you buy all of this, as it pushed me a bit over $2400 if I recall, but just use a guide to pick and choose. I'm very happy with the components in my current system (except for the OCZ, god I wish I could return that piece of junk).

amobi said:

Ok it looks like I will need to trim some stuff down. On SSD drives I don't think I can afford them and I need a big drive to load my OS and all my Adobe programs. I do not play games at all. This machines is strictly for editing pictures. I shoot average of 22 weddings a year. I need a lot of space. Also, no over clocking.

My goal is to get the price down to $1300. I will go back and try again. Thanks .

Click to expand...

If you're spending over 1000, the SSD should be a given. Something in the 120gb range coupled with a 1-2 tb hard drive.

If you're just doing photo editing, lose the external graphics card and use the one built into the processor. It's better on the k models than the non k. (and you can always add a video card later). To the other person's question, yes you can drive two monitors. But motherboards come with a wide variety of vga, dvi, hdmi, and dp connections, so pick a good match for you.

Liquid cooling is silly on the sandy bridge processors, which run cool to start with. Even if you change your mind and do want to overclock, most people get pretty good boosts without resorting to complicated cooling systems.

I like gigabyte motherboards. I see them as reliable as asus these days, and they seem to offer a feature set more in tune with what I want.

definitely focus on the power supply.

Case fans do matter - bad ones are noisy. That P193 case should be pretty good in this regard.