First Build EVER - Music, Video Editing and Gaming - Need Your Precious Help.

[G1ma]

I looking to build my 1st PC ever and i looked over the web and found that there's a lot of stuff available which can be confusing at times. However i manage to make a list of what my future PC could be. I would appreciate comments and recommendations from you .

Currently i use Reason 4 & Ableton Suite 8 for music making with a Konnekt24D Sound Card from TC Electronics. For video editing, i use AfterFX from Adobe. That would be the main things i use and need to be compatible & efficient with my build. I run multiboot Win7 64x & Win7 86x.

So after looking i found those:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
Mobo: MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD
Case: Coolermaster Storm Scout Black ATX Towercase 5x5.25
Rosewill Wind Knight Gaming ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Corsair TX750w ATX 12v 60a 24Pin ATX Active PFC 140mm Fan
GPU: Sapphire HD5850 1GB GDDR5 PCIe
HDD: ?
RAM: ?
DVD Drive: ?
LAN: ?

Help me find the missing parts and tell me if you think there are better options than the one i put.
Thanks in advance and may God bless you all!

[G1ma]

Oh! i forgot about the budget make that around 900 - 1000$.

[flanzig1]

HD: WD Black
DVD: Lite-On/Asus/LG
Ram: Corsair
Lan: it should be on-board unless looking for wireless
For a motherboard would look to Asus.

[Force Flow]

For the professional grade software, I would highly recommending going Intel rather than AMD. Intel tends to play better with the software (it has to do with the instruction sets on the CPUs)

[G1ma]

Originally Posted by Force Flow For the professional grade software, I would highly recommending going Intel rather than AMD. Intel tends to play better with the software (it has to do with the instruction sets on the CPUs)

Which similar cpu would you recommended me with Intel and why?
Will all these components be compatible?

@ flanzig1 thx for your comment. I will definetly go for some WD Black HDD.
Regarding the MoBO why Asus and which one do you recommend?
As for the DVD drive its not really a concern. I`ll look at those you wrote but i think ill go with a lite-on.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by Force Flow For the professional grade software, I would highly recommending going Intel rather than AMD. Intel tends to play better with the software (it has to do with the instruction sets on the CPUs)

Intel processors tend to work better with professional grade software because the software is optimized for Intel (and rarely for AMD as well) rather than because Intel has more or different instructions sets than AMD (you'll notice that all SSE and other instruction sets are available in both AMD and Intel processors due to cross licensing). A lot of developers tend to optimize for Intel due to the fact that they have higher market share and not because Intel has better or more instruction sets than AMD.

[G1ma]

thanks Masaki for the info.

I would like to know if it really makes that big of a difference to pick an Intel cpu over an AMD.
I would tend to believe that the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is a great cpu and a damn good bang for the buck. Is that right? If not what would be a greater choice? and which motherboard do you suggest me to go with it taking into account the other components?

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by G1ma thanks Masaki for the info. I would like to know if it really makes that big of a difference to pick an Intel cpu over an AMD. I would tend to believe that the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is a great cpu and a damn good bang for the buck. Is that right? If not what would be a greater choice? and which motherboard do you suggest me to go with it taking into account the other components?

You should be able to find comparisons online that show the difference in performance between the Phenom II X4 965 BE and other Intel processors. If you are comparing the Phenom II X4 965 BE to the Core i5 750 or higher, than the Intel processors will be quite a bit faster (at least 20% faster than the Phenom II X4 965 if comparing to the Core i5 750); however compared to the Core 2 Quad the Phenom II X4 965 BE is as fast or faster; When I bought my computer I paid about $400 for the processor (Q9550) and I built a computer for my friend about 6 months later with a Phenom II X4 940 which cost $200 and other parts similar to mine; after doing testing for a variety of games and programs (mostly encoding programs) I found the performance to be almost identical to mine.

For the type of computer you are building, I would either go with a Phenom II X4 965 (or maybe even lower if the next step down is a good amount less), a 770 based motherboard (I use Asus, Gigabyte and MSI in my AMD builds) and either DDR2 or DDR3 ram (which ever is less expensive; make sure the motherboard supports that type of ram as you can get motherboard with either type of memory support); the above is good if you are trying to keep costs down.

If you want better performance and don't mind paying a bit extra, a Core i5 750, a P55 based motherboard (I use Asus, Gigabyte, Intel and MSI in my Intel builds) and DDR3 ram (make sure it's in the motherboard's compatibility list as Intel is quite picky about ram)'; the above will work well.

[G1ma]

ok after a bit of research and comparing between my first choice , the AMD Phenom II X4 965, and the i5 750 from Intel i had a change of heart due to the OC abilities of the i5 750.

I've found comparisons and benchmarks test between the i5 750 OC at 4.13GHz, Intel Core i7 960, Intel Core i7 920, Intel Core i5 750 at 2.66GHz, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 & AMD Phenom II X4 965. Here at http://www.techspot.com/review/193-i...750/page5.html

Now i need to find what mobo ill need for it. i'll take a look at them P55!

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by G1ma ok after a bit of research and comparing between my first choice , the AMD Phenom II X4 965, and the i5 750 from Intel i had a change of heart due to the OC abilities of the i5 750. I've found comparisons and benchmarks test between the i5 750 OC at 4.13GHz, Intel Core i7 960, Intel Core i7 920, Intel Core i5 750 at 2.66GHz, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 & AMD Phenom II X4 965. Here at http://www.techspot.com/review/193-i...750/page5.html Now i need to find what mobo ill need for it. i'll take a look at them P55!

I would like to suggest you read this review front to back, you will then be easily able to choose the board. I hope this helps. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...oard,2494.html

[Khalil]

I use some of the best Sound and Video editing software on the market and I use AMD!
That AMD Phenom II 965 will serve extremelly well for whatever purpose you dish out on it.

[G1ma]

ok ive done research on the p55 mobo and still i dont know which one would be my best bet for now.. so ive decided to list my needs.

Here they are :

- want to OC the cpu to 3.8GHz to take full advantage of it so mobo needs to be "OC efficient"
- firewire ports for my Konnekt24D Soundcard
- good amount of usb ports
- possibility of crossfire or sli the gpu in the future (PCIe)
- eSata available
- 8gb ram compatible (if possible)

Ive read about the OC genie that are available on MSI mobo and since ive never done OCing i thought MSI would be a good choice. is it worth it?

Well these are the things i absolutely need so what are you guys would pick for an i5 750?

[Masaki 7-11]

I use MSI in some of my builds and for the most part they work well; however don't go buying a motherboard for features like OC genie; they work nowhere as well as custom tweaking in the bios and can cause your system to crash because a lot of the software like that is poorly done. Also if you will be overclocking, the overall stability of your system will be lower (it may occasionally crash unexpectedly even if you properly stress test the overclock), and you will need to get a good aftermarket cooler to handle the additional heat produced by overclocking. Regarding which motherboard to pick, pretty much any mid-priced P55 motherboard will have the all the features you need - except for crossfire/sli, however if you ever get to the point of needing more GPU power it almost always better to get a better card than a second one - ( Intel motherboards may have trouble overclocking as they used to - and may still - block overclocking on their boards).

Here are some board to take a look at that don't cost too much and have the features you are looking for (except for SLI/Crossfire as that doesn't seem to be available for P55):
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813131404
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813128404
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813130246

[G1ma]

Ok here is the new revised version of the pc i want to build.
Is this looking good? Is everything compatible?
Is the PSU enough or too much?
What do you think guys?

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU: Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3
GPU: SAPPHIRE 100283-2L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
RAM: OCZ Gold 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad kit
DVD Drive: Samsung | SH–D163B / SH-D163A - SATA - Kreon Drive (Samsung | SH–D163B - SH-D163A

Cost: 991$ + Tx + Shipping

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by G1ma Ok here is the new revised version of the pc i want to build. Is this looking good? Is everything compatible? Is the PSU enough or too much? What do you think guys? CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case PSU: Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 GPU: SAPPHIRE 100283-2L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 RAM: OCZ Gold 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad kit DVD Drive: Samsung | SH–D163B / SH-D163A - SATA - Kreon Drive (Samsung | SH–D163B - SH-D163A Cost: 991$ + Tx + Shipping

You'll need to change the ram to DDR3 as intel's new sockets don't support DDR2, something like this will work (it's on their compatibility list for memory): http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820231179

You can lower the PSU a bit as well since you won't need anywhere near that much power, something like this will work: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16817371016

Other than that, everything else looks good.

[gordintoronto]

You also need to add a hard drive or two. If you do much video editing, you'll soon find that a terrabyte is just not enough.

[Kidd]

Originally Posted by Khalil I use some of the best Sound and Video editing software on the market and I use AMD! That AMD Phenom II 965 will serve extremelly well for whatever purpose you dish out on it.

Thanks! I built my first computer this year, and built it around the MSI Mobo above, and caught nothing but flak from the gallery for going with AMD. It has been a great machine, not a single problem yet.