New Build for Friend

[Hippo08]

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would get some advice as to what to build here. I want to build it with quality components, but still and try to keep the price down a bit. I do not have a budget to work with.

The computer will be used to do everything internet with light video editing and light gaming. They want to be able to transfer AVCHD from their video camera to their computer. They also want ample HDD space for their videos/pictures.

Anyone want to try and throw together a PC? I am struggling to decide whether or not to get them a quad core or a dual core and how powerful of a video card and whether or not to get them a OS HDD and a storage HDD.

Any input would be greatly appreciated,

Thank you,

Hippo

[pam123]

It's hard to give any definite pointers without a budget but here goes.

AMD or Intel ?
Quad core will help with video editing and is the "future proof" option.
What size monitor?
You won't need more then a mid-priced video card, say $150 or so, unless you get a monitor with insane resolution so think twice about 27" jobs.
For AMD dual memory get 8 rather than 4 GBs of RAM.
If you decide to go Intel your minimum will be 6 GBs of RAM.
Video is best with a scratch drive, where you do the actual editing, and a separate storage drive. The boot drive makes 3.
How large the drives are depends on the definition of "light".
You are also going to need a back up solution of some sort, hard drives die.
Power supply, 650 watts will cover every thing and give your friends upgrade room.
An SATA optical drive, Blu-ray if the budget will stretch that far, but not strictly necessary.
Headphones/speakers, ask specifically about this.
Win7 Home Premium, 64 bit.

If your friends have any aspirations to networking find out now.

[Hippo08]

Hey pam,

So when I say light I mean like, they are home movies and that is it. Their monitor I think is a 22 or 24". I was thinking of a 5770 for them.

I want to go with Intel and was thinking about 8 gigs of RAM for them(just so they never get bogged down).

Also, I just built a Server Box that will be sporting the new WHS2011 OEM(will be here on Friday) and I am giving them one of my CAL's. (Should be a good Backup Solution - here's hoping!)

Should I do like a 320gig OS/Programs Drive and 2x 1TB drives?

I think I want to keep it to like 600dollars(they dont need ANY peripherals and they are supplying me with an OS). So its around 600 dollars for the machine and the machine only. Hope that helps a little with the budget.

Thank you,

Hippo

[glc]

For 600 bucks you are going to have to cut back the expectations quite a bit. I can get you down to $600 with a single hard drive, 4gb ram, and onboard Sandy Bridge video.

Newegg.com - HEC 6C28BB8S Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1339

[Hippo08]

Hey there glc,

So that i5-2500k is definitely the way to go? Maybe I will have to get back with them and see if they really need a video card(but they said they wanted to edit their home movies just slightly, so I would assume they need something in there).

Should I try a lower model i5 that is still a quad core? I mean, they are still pretty much a home user, not a workstation by any means. Most of the time will be spent on just the internet(facebook/youtube/games for kids/etc).

Thank you,

Hippo

[glc]

The reason I suggested the "K" is it has a more advanced onboard video than the others. It should be quite capable of handling that use, and as I said, a card can always be added later if more graphics performance is found to be needed.

The -K series onboard video performs on a par with a Radeon 5450, and depending on several factors, can perform significantly better.

[Hippo08]

Thank you so much glc,

I did not actually know this about the -k processors, that is extremely useful information.

I will probably end up getting the 8gigs of RAM even if I have to throw in some of my own money for it. They are great people and deserve a machine that will not slow them down.

I will talk to them about getting the parts!

Thank you again for the awesome insight,

Hippo

EDIT: Do you think they need the WD Caviar black drive? Or should I go for more storage with another drive?

[Hippo08]

Hey guys,

Finally placing this order, but would like you guys to look at it first, had to make some modifications because of price/whatnot. I know we say stay away from Gskill, but it was the only 8gb module that seemed to be in the QVL of the motherboard. Thoughts?

Case: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Note: He wanted a window on it, sorry glc! lol

PSU: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M EVO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-533-_-Product

RAM: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL

ODD: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-/+R 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support (Retail)

OS: Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

He already has a mouse, monitor, keyboard and speakers. We are going to try with no video card to start out. If it ends up not working out we will add a video card.

Thank you in advance,

Hippo

[Sourtop]

Switch that ram for some Crucial, Corsair, or Kingston. You don't need 8 GB as there are currently no high end games that even use the full 8 GB. 4 GB will be more than enough and if your friend wants more ram they can get another 4 GB kit down the road. That's just my suggestion though!

[David M]

You said your budget was not fixed. You may want to consider something closer to what Pam described so you are not disappointed.

[glc]

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - ADATA Premier Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model AD3U1333C4G9-DRH

Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

[Hippo08]

Hey everyone,

Thank you for the recommendations, but still have a couple of questions.

Will 500W be enough to add a graphics card down the line if they want one?

That motherboard doesn't have a PCI-e x1 slot, he is a big sound junkie and I am sure at some point he will put a sound card in there. Are there adapters or something for this?

Thank you guys,

Hippo

Note: I know its not recommended, but some of the changes were because I could save them money, like I could get that motherboard with that Corsair PSU for less and more wattage out of the PSU. Sorry to ask so many questions, I am just curious as to the "why".

Edit 2: The budget isn't fixed, but I am trying to save them money where I can. And we are going for what I think they need and if they need more we can always add onto it, hence my PSU/motherboard questions. I want it to be upgradeable if they need it

[glc]

The CX series Corsairs are questionable. 500 watts is plenty for any low to mid range video card. However, if you want more power, this is only $5 more:

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

You can put a PCI-Ex1 card into the second x16 slot. You can also use a legacy PCI sound card. However, the Evo really isn't that much more expensive.

[Hippo08]

Alright so here is the final build, let me know what you think!

Case: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

PSU: Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M EVO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

HDD: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX 750GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

RAM: Newegg.com - ADATA Premier Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model AD3U1333C4G9-DRH

ODD: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-/+R 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support (Retail)

OS: Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

How does it look? Links are for things I switched out!

Thank you again everyone,

Hippo

[Jeri]

I realize cases are very personal – but have you looked at the Antec Three Hundred Illusion? It normally sells for $69.99 but is on sale today for $54.99. This is the exact same case as the highly rated Antec Three Hundred but comes with 4 fans instead of 2. I just built 2 units with similar specs to yours and used this case (at the $69.99 price), and I’m really happy with it.

I read that having 4 fans on low will allow for plenty of air flow but also keep those fans as quiet as possible. Someone please correct me if I am wrong! I can tell you that my 2 recent builds are truly whisper quiet.

I have 4 more rigs to build (yea!) so I’m going to jump on 4 more of these myself.

Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

[Hippo08]

Hey Jeri,

I do like that case, I just built a system in it and I have an Antec 900 myself. The one thing that my friend wanted was a see-through side window! Thank you for the price update on those cases, I may pick me up an extra one!

Thank you,

Hippo

[Jeri]

Right – missed the window part!

I have my eye on that HDD too, but there seems to be quite a bit of negative feedback - even though most of the blacks receive positive. Can anyone comment on this?

[David M]

With a fan controller, two fans can pump as much air as a single fan at full speed by turning the two fans down AND they will be much quieter than the single fan.

There is nothing wrong with the WD Blacks other than a little extra noise which may or may not be bothersome.

[Hippo08]

I will let you know when I get mine Jeri,

The thing about those reviews is:

1. Some of them gave bad reviews because they can't understand when they order a 750gb drive, it doesn't actually come with 750gb.

2. DOA's - To me, a "DOA" could be a lot of different things. A lot of people don't understand how fragile those drives are and toss them around or could have been bounced a bit too hard while shipping. Doesn't necessarily refer to the drive itself.

3. Most people who have great things to say, don't ever post back. You are reading a lot of negative with a little positive. The positive ones say the drive is awesome and fast, the negative ones say its loud and slow. Take it with a grain of salt.

Just my 2 cents!

Hippo

EDIT: Ty for those good facts on the fans David. Are the Antec 3-speed switches sufficient enough to use without a fan controller or would you still get one? Have any suggestions for a bargain that works well? Don't need a whole lot of bells and whistles, just something to control the fans!

[Jeri]

Thanks for the feedback David!

Hippo – did you see that those HDD’s are part of the 48 hour sale ($54.99)? I think I will grab them too.

Also – those fans in the Antec 300 – I don’t think they can be controlled except manually – can they? I don’t see any way to plug them into anything other than power – unless I’m missing something?

[Hippo08]

Hey Jeri,

So I think you can use something like this to plug them into a fan controller or something. I think its possible with either a splitter or adapter from molex to power fan connector.

Newegg.com - Rosewill 12" PWM Splitter Model RCW-FPS-401

Don't know if that is the exact thing you need, but its something like it?

Hope it helps,

Hippo

[Jeri]

Oh - I like that!

Hippo - I'm worried that your list of parts is not being commented on because of my adding questions to your thread.

[Hippo08]

Lol, nah, we have just been over the list a lot. I didn't really change much about it and I added in the parts they told me to. The PCMech gods are watching over us, even in this thread.

And thats what the boards are for, is to fuel discussion! Asking questions is always good if its related!

I think this thread is done for, though, lol!

Thanks to all who have helped, I will get parts on Monday!

Hippo

[Hippo08]

Sorry to bump this up once again, but I do have a concern about my motherboard I have chosen. I did some reading about the Sandy Bridge chipsets, H67, P67 and Z68. From what I can tell, the H67 have onboard graphics enabled. P67 has overclocking enabled and the Z68 has both of them enabled. I got an H67 board because they will NEVER overclock the i5-2500k I bought them, but they did want to try out the video that comes with the "k" line of processors. However, when I read the articles, there seems to be a slight implication that the motherboard is carrying the onboard graphics.

From what I think I know, it is the processor that has the on-board graphics and the motherboard is what enables it to run. Is this the correct way to think about this? Did I make the right choice?

Thank you so much again,

Hippo

[glc]

From what I think I know, it is the processor that has the on-board graphics and the motherboard is what enables it to run. Is this the correct way to think about this? Did I make the right choice?

Yes.

[Hippo08]

So, when I put the build together everything went on right, posted right at startup. I have some things I am concerned about.

1. That blu-ray combo/dvd/cd reader ODD WOULD NOT recognize boot media. It lit up, I could hear/feel it spin up, it would just not recognize it. Is this because I got the retail version and not the OEM? I installed Windows 7 with a known ODD and it went on fine. I installed the blu-rays drivers and it could read discs. Does the Retail version not come with boot support? Should I RMA this?

2. So the reviewers weren't joking about how loud that drive is. It sounds like a someone drilling into something. Should I just run diagnostics on it to see if everything is sound? It kind of worries me that it really is THAT loud. And also some of the reviewers said that drive was quiet, which really starts to worry me that it might be a bad drive! Should I RMA this?

Thank you guys again for your continued support,

Hippo

[glc]

RMA it and don't get another Samsung if you can help it. That's just about the only brand of optical drive I will NOT buy. I apologize for not saying something before you placed the order.

[Hippo08]

Hey glc,

No worries, I read this board enough to know that you don't recommend the samsung ODD's. The thing is, he works for Samsung and is one of the only requests he actually made for me to get specifically. So I will have to get another Samsung(unless I get 2 duds in a row)!

Just making sure I should RMA that black drive too, right? It really does sound like someone is working on the side of my house, haha. But the system has stayed running for awhile now with no errors, I just don't think he would want something that noisy.

Something to note also, the motherboard BIOS says my CPU is running at 50 degrees celsius, but when I run a diag on the computer, it says its running at 28 degrees celsius. What is going on? I am 99.9% sure I installed the HSF correctly, and there are no loose HSF pins around it. Should I uninstall the HSF and put some AS5 on it? They won't be overclocking, but that seems too hot if its the correct reading. When I turn off the computer and put my hand next to the bottom of the HSF I don't feel any heat coming from it(don't know if this means anything).

Let me know about the black drive and I will begin the RMA process, thank you guys so much again!

[glc]

Black drives are a bit noisy, but they shouldn't be that noticeable.

The heatsink should be quite warm to the touch - if it isn't, it's not doing its job.

[Hippo08]

To tally it up, I had to RMA the HDD the ODD and Mobo. Need some feedback on the new board to get.

Decided to RMA the m-evo board because it has defective ports on it. I was thinking of getting this board as a replacement. Is this a good or bad idea? I noticed a post that said you couldn't use on-board video with the Gigabyte board, is this true? I thought the z68 meant it could overclock and use onboard video and has extra features unique to the z68 chipset itself.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Do you have any other suggestions? I was also thinking of just getting the h67 pro from ASUS, but thought I would ask on the Gigabyte board first! The reason why he I am thinking of getting the z68 now is because he is thinking of gaming. If I get the Z68 he won't have any problems trying to overclock or upgrade.

Thank you everyone,

Hippo