i7-2600k or i7-3770k
- Thread starter Mike
- Start date
Very few 'everyday', to (in reality) no applications are going to use 32gb of Ram.
You could save yourself a few dollars there and go for a larger SSD.
A clean windows install, drivers and the fact SSD's only offer up about 85% - 95% of the space it says on the side of the box means you'll be close to sub 70 gigs on the SSD after installing windows. Fine for the operating system but not that much if you plan to run applications off of the SSD. The performance of them is amazing though - I go from power off to windows fully loaded in under 30 seconds.
There is little point paying for an 3770k unless you're planning to overclock it, that's what the 'k' bit means'. The new range of ASUS Z77 boards have a windows based auto clock feature - push a button, wait, you're at a stable 4.0 - 4.3 overclock. (25% over stock for free).
The other two components you've not mentioned but are important is CPU cooling if you're planning to overclock, which you should be if you're paying for an i7 k processor and power supply.
You'll be fine on air cooling and a quality 750w to 850w PSU will keep it all running. (Don't be a cheap fucker on the PSU and paying $30 more for the modular one will save you hours of building time).
Here is the system I just built:
Asus P8Z77-V (motherboard)
Intel Core i7 3770K
Noctua NH-D14 (CPU Cooling)
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory
GTX 680 4GB (three screens so 4GB)
Corsair 750W HX Modular PSU
2x OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD (will take my own advice on size next time)
Overclocked to 4.8GHz.
I didn't know any of this geek shit before building it but ASUS and NewEgg do some awesome youtube clips explaining it all.
INB4 apply fagboy.
Don't forget about backup drives. My main 1.5t died a month ago and it's taken me till yesterday to get my data back
Did you buy from hardwareversand.de? Those Germans are dirt cheap and they assemble for an extra €20
You said you want to do photoshop and adobe shit then get as much ram as you can afford. 32gb is dirt cheap now days, do it. I have 24gb in my i7-920 and 12 in my 950, always nice to be able to run VM with high ram, and photoshop at once, etc.
I'd swap out the SSD for a 830 or 840 which are coming out within a month, and a lot "faster" (spec-wise) than the Crucial M4. Real-world you probably won't notice it much, but the price should be within the same as the 830 which is already faster than the Crucial M4.
If you plan to use Photoshop a lot and other software at once have you looked at the 6 Core CPUs ? If you don't plan to use photoshop to the max (lots of images open or large RAW) then I'd stick with the 3770 or 3770k based on price. If you are a casual photoshop user then the i5- is the best overall price/performer.
I really like the Corsair Obsidian Series 550D case, can't go wrong in my opinion built well.
If you don't play games at all then get a passively cooled video card, and a PSU that shuts the fan off when not needed. Your system will be silent practically.
Storage:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Cache-Enterprise-Drive/dp/B003SARYDK/ref=pd_cp_e_3]Amazon.com: Western Digital 250 GB RE4 SATA 3 Gb/s 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Enterprise Hard Drive - WD2503ABYX: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
You can RAID them if you need too.
I'd swap out the SSD for a 830 or 840 which are coming out within a month, and a lot "faster" (spec-wise) than the Crucial M4. Real-world you probably won't notice it much, but the price should be within the same as the 830 which is already faster than the Crucial M4.
If you plan to use Photoshop a lot and other software at once have you looked at the 6 Core CPUs ? If you don't plan to use photoshop to the max (lots of images open or large RAW) then I'd stick with the 3770 or 3770k based on price. If you are a casual photoshop user then the i5- is the best overall price/performer.
I really like the Corsair Obsidian Series 550D case, can't go wrong in my opinion built well.
If you don't play games at all then get a passively cooled video card, and a PSU that shuts the fan off when not needed. Your system will be silent practically.
Storage:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Cache-Enterprise-Drive/dp/B003SARYDK/ref=pd_cp_e_3]Amazon.com: Western Digital 250 GB RE4 SATA 3 Gb/s 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Enterprise Hard Drive - WD2503ABYX: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
You can RAID them if you need too.
Yep, that's exactly where I bought most of it from but they didn't have the cooler I wanted in stock and it was holding up my order, so I got that Noctua one from overclockers.co.uk, but it didn't fit, so I had to have another shipped down.
hardwareversand.de is cheap in comparison to the rest of Europe, but it's still not as cheap as, say, ncix.com in Vancouver.Take the motherboard I bought as an example and once you do the exchange on it to CND it's about $40 more in Germany. It's roughly 10-20% more expensive.
Just got this last week
Newegg.com - Gateway DX4870-UR11P (DT.GDDAA.002) Desktop PC Intel Core i7 3770(3.40GHz) 10GB DDR3 2TB HDD Capacity Intel HD Graphics Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
i7 10gigs of ram, 2T hard drive
cheapest I could find for the configuration, but then again I do video editing.
Newegg.com - Gateway DX4870-UR11P (DT.GDDAA.002) Desktop PC Intel Core i7 3770(3.40GHz) 10GB DDR3 2TB HDD Capacity Intel HD Graphics Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
i7 10gigs of ram, 2T hard drive
cheapest I could find for the configuration, but then again I do video editing.
We're lucky they even take Paypal now, usually they want EU bank transfers which are a pain in the butt. Credit Cards just aren't that widespread in Germany.
Still running my old i5 after a year and a half. I think it will be time to upgrade in the next few months. I only play BF3 and it's nice to see SSD prices coming down. 480GB is reasonably priced these days, don't want the hassle of moving things around all the time.
That computer uses on-board graphic, i think you will need to buy a graphic card if you want the video editing to be smoother.
This thread came at a good time, as I'm about to build my new setup soon too.
Been ages since I read up on the latest and greatest - but to my surprise, it seems AMD cpu's are lagging behind Intel now, is that true overall?
AMD used to be the #1 brand for geeks and builders some years ago. Having heard about their new 8-core series I was like daaang, I gotta have that! But then I read some comparisons with the quad-core Intels and was like.... meh (about the AMD's). Seems the i7's are all the rave these days.
Thoughts?
Been ages since I read up on the latest and greatest - but to my surprise, it seems AMD cpu's are lagging behind Intel now, is that true overall?
AMD used to be the #1 brand for geeks and builders some years ago. Having heard about their new 8-core series I was like daaang, I gotta have that! But then I read some comparisons with the quad-core Intels and was like.... meh (about the AMD's). Seems the i7's are all the rave these days.
Thoughts?
only gonna chime in here for a second Mike after looking at your preferred specs, which looks great -
that being said, be careful of SSD's. More specifically, make sure you get the latest generation technology in SSD. I've struggled with 2-3 different SSDs one in a server and 1 (and a replacement) in a desktop. Ever few days it would cause BSOD's and sometimes just a hard crash. Other times weird issues.
to be clear - im ALL ABOUT ssd's think they are great for desktop operations overall, but don't skimp on them. and sacrifice storage to get quality if you have to.
that being said, be careful of SSD's. More specifically, make sure you get the latest generation technology in SSD. I've struggled with 2-3 different SSDs one in a server and 1 (and a replacement) in a desktop. Ever few days it would cause BSOD's and sometimes just a hard crash. Other times weird issues.
to be clear - im ALL ABOUT ssd's think they are great for desktop operations overall, but don't skimp on them. and sacrifice storage to get quality if you have to.
It's annoying that they don't take cards but I don't think it's so much about cards not being popular as it is about fraud. I bought a new laptop this week from a UK seller and because I wasn't in the UK they wouldn't let me check out with a card, I had to wire them too.
It's not that bad if you have decent online banking. I just login to my bank, set them up as a payee, and wire them the finds. They usually have the cash by morning and ship that day.
Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.33GHz LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80613I7980X
"...........designed to handle the most intense compute and visualization workloads you can throw at it.
............ Hyper-Threading technology effectively doubles the output of your six physical cores, giving you unmatched data processing."
In other words, you can assign just 1 core to your VM and it will have two logical cores.
So, you could say run 4...... 1 core/dual logical core VM's and still have a dual core main system with 4 logical cores.
Combine that with 32 or 64 GB of RAM and your VM's would/could have 6/12GB of RAM each and your Host system would still have 8/16GB of RAM.
Of course the Video card/cards is where you'd have to do some tweaking to get peak performance for your Host & VM's.
Seriously, just go for it man. There will be no regrets once you have it built and running. Any overkill now just amounts to a longer life before you need to upgrade next time.
This is what I just bought and got setup last week...
Intel Core i7-3820, LGA2011
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE, Socket 2011
16GB-Kit Corsair Dominator Platinum PC3-19200U CL9-11-11-31
Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB
Intel SSD 520 Series 60GB << scratch disk for Photoshop, video editing, 3DS Max, etc.
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D
Corsair Professional Series Gold AX850, 850 Watt
NOCTUA Fan NF-P12 PWM x4
I had also ordered the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 but it didn't fit over the massive ram heatsinks properly, so I went with the Xigmatek Dark Knight cooler with Noctua fans added.
It's also got 2 x 1tb drives in it that I already had in my last machine in RAID for storage.
Bios is set to XMP. Quad channel memory is running at a stable 2400mhz. CPU running smoothly at 3.8ghz. So far it hasn't choked on anything I've thrown at it except it ran out of memory once when I had just about every Adobe application open along with all the other usual suspect, 2 or 3 browsers, FTP, email, text editor, etc. because I have my paging file turned off.
BF3 and Guild Wars 2 are pretty sweet looking running everything maxed out at 60-100fps. Unfortunately I haven't got time to play games for a couple of weeks
Here's a pic:
Nice. Mine I just recently built:
We overdid it on the PSU. sweet ass psu regardless. I also have the 670. I have the 3570k running 4.4 stable. water cooling next time for sure.
Also, OP get the 3770k for sure, or wait until april and intel has a new chipset coming out.