[Crystallization]

I'll keep this simple. I'm considering a second build for my large-scale art projects and I need some recommendations on a budget-friendly build. Also, I do plan on doing some overclocking some time in the future and will purchase the replacement cooling then. Thanks in advance for the help.

• Budget ~$1000 USD
  
  Hardware
• Mobo: ? (Asus P8Z77-V LE Plus?)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
• RAM: ?
• Case: ?
• SSD: SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 128GB
• GPU: ?
• PSU: Corsair CX Series 430 Modular
  
  Software
• OS: Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit OEM

[malmental]

sticking to Intel and not looking at the AMD FX-8350 as an alternative.?
just a question, not a recommendation..

[malmental]

also you should look into the usage of OpenCL vs CUDA in the newer versions of Adobe.
that will help you decide on the GPU..
with the newer GTX 6 series being able to run triple screens like the HD Radeon, that levels that issue.

and it would be a dual channel kit of RAM anyways since the 3770K is a dual channel controller.
so technically if you got a quad channel kit, it's on a 16GB dual kit..
just pointing that out.

[Judas]

• Budget: ~$1350 USD
  
  
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
• CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
• GPU: HD7770 or better (depends on remaining funds)
• RAM: Patirot Viper 3 Mamba 2x8gb PC18000 (2133mhz)
• Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V Pro
• SSD: Samsung 840 240gb (or 2x120 raid 0)
• PSU: Corsair 650-750watt Gold
• Case: Coolermaster 690 II Advanced USB 3.0 Rev4

Always... ALWAYS.. get the LARGEST possible supported Memory modules for ram. Never quad up small ones....

And of course since the video related tasks aren't going to be Extensive... Spend what you can on the critical components and then determine what you have left and use it to purchase the best video card you can. an HD7750 is still pretty decent though if you must drop a smidge...

I'd also suggest investing in a UPS... from APC would be best... Something in the 600-800VA range or MORE depending on how much stuff you plan on running off and attached to the computer that require additional power.

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by malmental

sticking to Intel and not looking at the AMD FX-8350 as an alternative.?
just a question, not a recommendation..

Hi. I just never took it into consideration. I've long been planning on purchasing this particular Intel processor, though. Based on some quick comparisons of the reviews from this site, it appears that the Intel CPU that I chose outperforms AMD in pretty much every way. There's also a considerable difference in power usage under load with AMD's CPU really getting up there.

Originally Posted by malmental

also you should look into the usage of OpenCL vs CUDA in the newer versions of Adobe.
that will help you decide on the GPU..
with the newer GTX 6 series being able to run triple screens like the HD Radeon, that levels that issue.

Sounds good. Based on past information, I thought that I'd be stuck with using The nVIDEA cards. I prefer the Radoen card anyway.

Originally Posted by malmental

and it would be a dual channel kit of RAM anyways since the 3770K is a dual channel controller.
so technically if you got a quad channel kit, it's on a 16GB dual kit..
just pointing that out.

-_- I should have known that. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Judas

• Budget: ~$1350 USD
  
  
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
• CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
• GPU: HD7770 or better (depends on remaining funds)
• RAM: Patirot Viper 3 Mamba 2x8gb PC18000 (2133mhz)
• Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V Pro
• SSD: Samsung 840 240gb (or 2x120 raid 0)
• PSU: Corsair 650-750watt Gold
• Case: Coolermaster 690 II Advanced USB 3.0 Rev4

Always... ALWAYS.. get the LARGEST possible supported Memory modules for ram. Never quad up small ones....

And of course since the video related tasks aren't going to be Extensive... Spend what you can on the critical components and then determine what you have left and use it to purchase the best video card you can. an HD7750 is still pretty decent though if you must drop a smidge...

I'd also suggest investing in a UPS... from APC would be best... Something in the 600-800VA range or MORE depending on how much stuff you plan on running off and attached to the computer that require additional power.

I'll be checking all of those items out. I'll also look in to the UPS. I hear shipping is free this time of year. I'm kidding I'm kidding. I don't plan to run very much off of it. Just one video card and the Intel CPU. Everything else is pretty low in the power-consumption area.

[malmental]

Originally Posted by Judas

• Budget: ~$1350 USD
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
• CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
• GPU: HD7770 or better (depends on remaining funds)
• RAM: Patirot Viper 3 Mamba 2x8gb PC18000 (2133mhz)
• Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V Pro
• SSD: Samsung 840 240gb (or 2x120 raid 0)
• PSU: Corsair 650-750watt Gold
• Case: Coolermaster 690 II Advanced USB 3.0 Rev4

looks good to me.
the only question is what is the better GPU...
nice build for the allotted pricing.

[Crystallization]

I'm almost done deciding on my final components for my new computer! \o/ I thoroughly researcher and decided on most all of the recommendations you gave, Judas. Thanks! I do have a few concerns, however.

Regarding the PSU, I decided on a Cooler Master GX - 650W 80 PLUS Bronze. I've read good reviews on it and I also found a pretty decent sale. How would you compare it to the Corsair PSU that you recommended?

Also, I totally left out the fact that I'll need to upgrade my OS from Windows XP to Windows 7 if I want to take full advantage of the 16-32GBs of RAM. So as a result, I'm scaling back the GPU for now until I can afford something better in the future. Are there any recommendations for GPUs in the $100 USD range that would work fairly well for my large art projects?

Thanks again to both of you for the help.

[Judas]

Keep in mind.. that if you get windows 7 x64 home premium.... you can only use 16gb of ram...

you need to have either windows 7 x64 PRO or higher

OR

Grab windows 8 x64

(the standard windows 8 x64 supports up to as far as i can see.. 128gb of ram)

windows 8 x64 pro is unnecessary.

As for the $100 USD..... the 7750 should fall within range of that price.... i'd still recommend 7770 1gb model if possible though as it's a very nice boost above.

And i've been mostly happy with the coolermaster lineup of psus.. they are clearly much cheaper and aren't nearly as powerful/good as the corsair models with the same "power" rating i find..

My 3770k is powered by a 750 GX coolermaster...

If you want to shave a few dollars... the Stock 3770k heatsink does quite fine if your have no intentions of overclocking your cpu at all. It can always be replaced later too.

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by Judas

Keep in mind.. that if you get windows 7 x64 home premium.... you can only use 16gb of ram...

you need to have either windows 7 x64 PRO or higher

OR

Grab windows 8 x64

(the standard windows 8 x64 supports up to as far as i can see.. 128gb of ram)

windows 8 x64 pro is unnecessary.

I decided on Windows 7 Professional because I remember reading that the Home Premium edition only goes up to 16GBs while the Professional and above go up to 192GBs.

As for Windows 8, I'm still skeptical about it. I want to customize my OS the way I like it and also make it as light weight as possible. (I've got Win XP using only 84MBs of RAM - all drivers loaded - No cache/virtual memory enabled). And I'd probably disable that entire tiles interface altogether.

Unfortunately, I no longer have my original XP CD. So where does that leave me in terms of which edition of Windows 7/8 to purchase? Other than Windows 7 Professional, for nearly $300 on Amazon -_-, everything else seems to be for upgrades.

Originally Posted by Judas

As for the $100 USD..... the 7750 should fall within range of that price.... i'd still recommend 7770 1gb model if possible though as it's a very nice boost above.

If I go for the 7770, which manufacturer do you recommend? Other than EVGA cards I'm not sure which is the next best thing.

Originally Posted by Judas

And i've been mostly happy with the coolermaster lineup of psus.. they are clearly much cheaper and aren't nearly as powerful/good as the corsair models with the same "power" rating i find..

My 3770k is powered by a 750 GX coolermaster...

Well, I've got a few days before I start making purchases. I'll look into the Corsair models again.

Originally Posted by Judas

If you want to shave a few dollars... the Stock 3770k heatsink does quite fine if your have no intentions of overclocking your cpu at all. It can always be replaced later too.

I might just have to do that for now. But the sooner I can overclock my computer the better.

[Judas]

Personally i stick to Sapphire Cards and HIS cards.....

As for buying windows 7 pro x64.... don't buy a retail copy... purchase a OEM Installer copy.... they are about half the price.

There is ZERO advantage to having a retail copy, the only thing anyone can come up with as an advantage is being able to move the retail key to another machine more than once... but i argue that being that i have moved several windows vista and 7 oem copies to more than one machine up to 3 times without microsoft so much as giving me a hint of issue to it.

[CDsDontBurn]

Originally Posted by Crystallization

IIf I go for the 7770, which manufacturer do you recommend? Other than EVGA cards I'm not sure which is the next best thing.

EVGA is an NVIDIA partner only, so you will not find any AMD based cards with them.

PowerColor, HIS, Sapphire, and (mostly) XFX are all the dedicated AMD partners. MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte are the big three companies that have both AMD and NVIDIA products.

Originally Posted by Judas

As for buying windows 7 pro x64.... don't buy a retail copy... purchase a OEM Installer copy.... they are about half the price.

There is ZERO advantage to having a retail copy, the only thing anyone can come up with as an advantage is being able to move the retail key to another machine more than once... but i argue that being that i have moved several windows vista and 7 oem copies to more than one machine up to 3 times without microsoft so much as giving me a hint of issue to it.

+1

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by Judas

Personally i stick to Sapphire Cards and HIS cards.....

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

EVGA is an NVIDIA partner only, so you will not find any AMD based cards with them.

PowerColor, HIS, Sapphire, and (mostly) XFX are all the dedicated AMD partners. MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte are the big three companies that have both AMD and NVIDIA products.

Sounds good. I think that I'll go with the HIS Radeon HD 7770 1GB.

Originally Posted by Judas

As for buying windows 7 pro x64.... don't buy a retail copy... purchase a OEM Installer copy.... they are about half the price.

There is ZERO advantage to having a retail copy, the only thing anyone can come up with as an advantage is being able to move the retail key to another machine more than once... but i argue that being that i have moved several windows vista and 7 oem copies to more than one machine up to 3 times without microsoft so much as giving me a hint of issue to it.

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

+1

So if I purchase the OEM edition I should still be able to install it on both my desktop and my laptop without having to purchase a separate license? Also, if I want to gut the OS, discard useless features and services, and create an ISO disc out of it, can I still do this?

And regarding SDDs, if I have two setup in RAID0 configuration (for programs and games) and I want to setup two more lower capacity SDDs in RAID0 to act as a cache for a 1TB drive (for media), is this possible? and how important is the capacity of the drive if it's to be used as a cache to a HDD?

And lastly, what are some other miscellaneous items I should pick up for my computer build? I can't think past some thermal paste and one of those anti-static wrist bands.

[CDsDontBurn]

Originally Posted by Crystallization

So if I purchase the OEM edition I should still be able to install it on both my desktop and my laptop without having to purchase a separate license? Also, if I want to gut the OS, discard useless features and services, and create an ISO disc out of it, can I still do this?

And regarding SDDs, if I have two setup in RAID0 configuration (for programs and games) and I want to setup two more lower capacity SDDs in RAID0 to act as a cache for a 1TB drive (for media), is this possible? and how important is the capacity of the drive if it's to be used as a cache to a HDD?

And lastly, what are some other miscellaneous items I should pick up for my computer build? I can't think past some thermal paste and one of those anti-static wrist bands.

Legally, you can't do that. However, as Judas indicated, Microsoft won't care until about the 3rd install of the operating system. When the day comes that you get to the installation that Microsoft finally cares about using that particular disk / key, it will probably want you to call in to Microsoft during the installation process. I've just told them that the system's HDD died or that the computer had a virus on it and windows needed to be reinstalled. The person on the phone will then just give you a long winded number and that's it.

With your programs and games SSDs in RAID 0, good idea. The second two SSDs in RAID 0 as cache, probably not needed. If anything, I'd say get another 2x 1TB HDDs - preferably all identical, or at least same specifications - and put all three in a RAID 5. That way you have both data integrity / security, and some performance benefits out of the HDDs.

Thermal paste, I say pick up some Arctic Silver 5. Wrist straps, I've never used them. Just be sure to touch any metal surface on the chassis first before touching any of your components and you'll be good.

[blibbax]

I'd take the Corsair PSU over the CM one any day. Had a few bad experiences with CM's less-than-top-of-the-line stuff of late. Also, 600W+ seems way overkill. A Corsair CX430 or XFX 450W would be (much) more than adequate.

Regarding the video card, what makes you prefer the 7770 to, say, the GTX650? If there's a valid reason, fair enough, but keep in mind that the GTX650 will accelerate Adobe software far better than the 7770 (which will do pretty much nothing at all).

[CDsDontBurn]

Regarding PSUs, keep the 650w. It will grant you more headroom for upgrades and / or more component add-ons in the future. That, and the PSU won't need to work as hard to provide power to the whole system.

[blibbax]

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

Regarding PSUs, keep the 650w. It will grant you more headroom for upgrades and / or more component add-ons in the future. That, and the PSU won't need to work as hard to provide power to the whole system.

Depends what kinda future OP sees for this rig imo. A 430W will be below 25% load with the proposed system for the overwhelming majority of the time, and over 50% load close to never, so I don't think its lifespan will be impacted. Even if it did, Corsairs have a 5 year warranty.

If OP does foresee future upgrades, the 430 would be fine for most advisable CPU+GPU setups, though multi-GPU or 300W cards could ofc be an issue.

[CDsDontBurn]

Originally Posted by blibbax

though multi-GPU or 300W cards could ofc be an issue.

This was more of what I was trying to get at.

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

Legally, you can't do that. However, as Judas indicated, Microsoft won't care until about the 3rd install of the operating system.

That's kind of crazy to think that I'd have to spend nearly $400 to get Window on both my desktop and my laptop. My next OS will have to be a MAC. By the way, how might the OEM edition be affected by re-installations and BIOS updates? Will I have to bother with a phone call then?

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

With your programs and games SSDs in RAID 0, good idea. The second two SSDs in RAID 0 as cache, probably not needed. If anything, I'd say get another 2x 1TB HDDs - preferably all identical, or at least same specifications - and put all three in a RAID 5. That way you have both data integrity / security, and some performance benefits out of the HDDs.

I want top notch performance out of my SSDs but I'd also like a boost to my HDDs even if they're not as fast. Would it make sense to have the two SSDs in RAID0 and two HDDs in RAID5?

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

Thermal paste, I say pick up some Arctic Silver 5. Wrist straps, I've never used them. Just be sure to touch any metal surface on the chassis first before touching any of your components and you'll be good.

The thermal paste has been added to the list. I'm not too concerned about the wrist strap either. I've been building computers just fine without it.

Originally Posted by blibbax

A Corsair CX430 or XFX 450W would be (much) more than adequate.

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

Regarding PSUs, keep the 650w.

Originally Posted by blibbax

Depends what kinda future OP sees for this rig imo.

There may not be much any significant changes to my rig in the near future. I might upgrade my GPU to a more powerful one in the future but I don't plan on needing more that one. I also plan on expanding my RAM to 32GBs several months from now. Other than those two things, I should be good.

Originally Posted by blibbax

Regarding the video card, what makes you prefer the 7770 to, say, the GTX650? If there's a valid reason, fair enough, but keep in mind that the GTX650 will accelerate Adobe software far better than the 7770 (which will do pretty much nothing at all).

Well since I haven't bought the GPU yet, there's still time to change it. I want something that will boost most graphics editors in general, not necessarily just Photoshop, but other than some technologies like Open GL or GPGPU, I'm not entirely sure what other features I should take into consideration. Also, there's a budget to consider. So a GPU in the $150 USD range should do fine for now and than I'll think about upgrading it a year or two from now.

[blibbax]

If you're not gaming at all, a GT640 could be everything you need - computationally it's very close to the 650 and 7770. And a few programs (most notably Adobe CS) support Nvidia GPGPU acceleration that don't support AMD GPGPU acceleration.

Regarding Raid 5 on two drives, you can't do that. If you think about it, it's impossible.

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by blibbax

If you're not gaming at all, a GT640 could be everything you need - computationally it's very close to the 650 and 7770. And a few programs (most notably Adobe CS) support Nvidia GPGPU acceleration that don't support AMD GPGPU acceleration.

Interesting. It didn't realize that there was any significant differences between the GPGPU of nVIDEA and AMD GPUs. How important is the number of GBs on a GPU when it comes to acceleration for graphic editors? Will opting to a 3GB GPU make any difference?

Originally Posted by blibbax

Regarding Raid 5 on two drives, you can't do that. If you think about it, it's impossible.

Well, to be honest, I know very little about RAID configurations beyond RAID0. I've never actually got a chance to use RAID especially on my current clunker. -_-

[blibbax]

Originally Posted by Crystallization

Interesting. It didn't realize that there was any significant differences between the GPGPU of nVIDEA and AMD GPUs. How important is the number of GBs on a GPU when it comes to acceleration for graphic editors? Will opting to a 3GB GPU make any difference?

I don't know for sure, but I suspect 3GB would be OTT.

Originally Posted by Crystallization

Well, to be honest, I know very little about RAID configurations beyond RAID0. I've never actually got a chance to use RAID especially on my current clunker. -_-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_5#RAID_5

[Crystallization]

All I need now is a bit more clarification on the GPU. When it comes to general all-around performance boosts to graphics editors, should I go with the Radeon HD 7770, nVIDEA GTX650, nVIDEA GT640 or other?

It's worth mentioning that I'll probably be upgrading my GPU again in the future.

[blibbax]

Besides Adobe CS, which benefits somewhat from Nvidia cards (and the 650 not much more than the 640) and not at all from AMD cards, what software will you be using?

Also, why do you expect to upgrade in the future, and will you be gaming at all? The 640 may be ideal for Adobe CS, but it will struggle in most modern games to some degree.

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by blibbax

Besides Adobe CS, which benefits somewhat from Nvidia cards (and the 650 not much more than the 640) and not at all from AMD cards, what software will you be using?

Besides Adobe Photoshop, which I plan to purchase at a later date, I'll also be using graphics editors like GIMP, Paint.NET, and Inkscape (vector graphics). From what I understand, vector graphics can be hardware accelerated by the GPU.

Originally Posted by blibbax

Also, why do you expect to upgrade in the future, and will you be gaming at all? The 640 may be ideal for Adobe CS, but it will struggle in most modern games to some degree.

I don't plan on doing any gaming right away but in the future there may be a game that peaks my interest and I'll probably have to upgrade my GPU to fully enjoy the game then.

----------

BTW, I've made a few more changes to what it is that I'm going to purchase for this rig.

I'm changing my PSU choice from the regular Corsair Enthusiast Series to the Corsair Enthusiast 650-Watt Modular Series. This should help with cable management quite a bit.

I've also decided to go with a different case. Instead of the Cooler Master 690 II Advanced Mid Tower, I'm going with the Corsair Carbide Series Black 400R Mid Tower.

And lastly, due to budget constraints and the fact that I may not even benefit from AMD's GPU offerings, I'm going with the cheaper EVGA GeForce GT 640 2GBs.

Feel free to weigh in on what you think of this final(?) setup:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
• CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
• GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 640 2GBs
• RAM: Patriot Memory Viper 3 Series DDR3 16GB 2133MHz
• Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V Pro
• SSD: SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series 128GB
• PSU: Corsair Enthusiast 650-Watt - Modular
• Case: Corsair Carbide Series 400R Mid Tower
  
  
• OS: Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM
• Misc: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound Paste

[blibbax]

Ok, so I've three main points with that (generally pretty decent) proposed build:

1) The GT640 is not fast enough to make use of >1GB of VRAM. If you can get a 1GB GT640 for less money, I think you should.
2) 650W still seems like significant overkill for me. There are cheaper high quality modular power supplies (e.g. CX430M).
3) Why does this need to be full ATX? You're using very little hardware indeed, and putting it in a massive great case, which means spending more on the case and motherboard than you would do with MATX. Unless you're going to use more than two expansion cards in the future, I don't see the need for a full size motherboard. There is no performance advantage.

[Crystallization]

Originally Posted by blibbax

Ok, so I've three main points with that (generally pretty decent) proposed build:

1) The GT640 is not fast enough to make use of >1GB of VRAM. If you can get a 1GB GT640 for less money, I think you should.

I'll see what I can find.

Originally Posted by blibbax

2) 650W still seems like significant overkill for me. There are cheaper high quality modular power supplies (e.g. CX430M).

I'll try going for the CX430M as you recommended. And should I need more power in the future, I'll upgrade and put the CX430M in one of my older computers. Thanks!

Originally Posted by blibbax

3) Why does this need to be full ATX? You're using very little hardware indeed, and putting it in a massive great case, which means spending more on the case and motherboard than you would do with MATX. Unless you're going to use more than two expansion cards in the future, I don't see the need for a full size motherboard. There is no performance advantage.

I will also me adding a sound card in the PCI slot for now and than later replace it with a PCIe soundcard, one other SSD, two HDDs, one Blu-Ray drive and possibly one CD/DVD-ROM (specifically for EAC ripping). And than, in the future, should I want to upgrade this to a more worthy gaming machine, I won't have to purchase a brand new build but instead just upgrade to one really powerful GPU or two depending on the games and their requirements.

[CDsDontBurn]

With the PSU, I'd say save yourself the money and time later by staying with the 650.

[blibbax]

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

With the PSU, I'd say save yourself the money and time later by staying with the 650.

If you (OP) are ever going to want a dual-GPU setup, or a high-end setup with a workstation CPU, it is true that the 430 won't be enough.

[CDsDontBurn]

it's essentially future proofing your system.

[Crystallization]

Thanks for the info. I might still stick with the CX430M only because I have a PSU from another computer that's on its last leg and it may need a replacement soon. The only two items that I'll be adding immediately along with the items that I'm going to purchase are a soundcard and a HDD.

I decided to switch out the GPU again from the EVGA GT 640 to the EVGA GTX 650. They both consume around the same amount of power, the GTX 650 outperforms the GT 640 in every way, and most importantly, they cost around the same price.