New high-end PC build: Up to €3,000

JoePie

1. What is your budget? say... max €3,000.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Development, video work, most likely audio recording down the line, probably will be nearly always on for some house related reason, some gaming.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Nope.

5. Do you need a monitor? Nope.

5a. If yes, what size do you need. N/A

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Might look into getting a HDtv or high-spec monitor, but intend to run 2 monitors.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Card reader

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Visa Debit/Credit Card/PayPal/Bank transfer

9. When are you purchasing? Not for a while yet. Just sizing up my options

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Nah.

I say €3k budget, but we're talking extremes here. If I could get a beefy, sort of future-proofed build for less, that'd be nifty.

So the main work I'll be doing will be dev work, and video editing. The computer will more than likely, be nearly always on, so I guess I'll need decent cooling. I plan on running two monitors, and I was considering crossfiring two graphics cards. I'd like both monitors to be HDMI, and I guess I'd be looking for at least 1 higher-end graphics card, if not two, since there'd be little benefit to crossfiring a high and low-end card. A second tier audio card would be nice too.

My current laptop can occassionally struggle using an i5 processor and 6GB's of RAM, so I guess I'd be looking into an i7 processor and at least 8 GB RAM. Overclocking is something I'm aware of, but not something I know anything about, so I guess if I was to know more about it I could be persuaded to try it, if needs be.

Also, in terms of motherboards, I was looking at the ASUS Rampageboards, but I wouldn't really know what any decent alternatives would be.

Hardware isn't my town, and I'm trying to learn as I go, but I don't feel comfortable picking stuff myself and just not being entirely sure that there'd be compatability with other parts, form factor, etc.

Storage, I'd probably be looking at an SSD of around 220GB, and maybe a 2/3TB HDD. Also, I've been reading about these new SSHD drives Seagate came out with today. Best of both worlds apparently. Would it be worth looking into one of those?

I can grab my own copy of Windows at a later date, and I'll probably petition some of the SSD for a Linux distro.

Any help would be great. Cheers.

Serephucus

Without knowing exactly what you're doing, would your work benefit enough to warrant six cores? You certainly have the budget for it.

If yes, add the following to the main items:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7-3930K Retail, ohne Kühler, LGA2011|€510.24
MSI X79A-GD45 (8D), Intel X79, LGA2011, ATX, DDR3|€170.60
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€699.83

If no, add the following to the main items:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7-3770K Box, LGA1155|€289.42
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€121.79
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€430.20

Main items:

Item|Price
Corsair Professional Series Platinum AX760i, 760W, ATX 2.31|€172.59
Crucial M4 Slim 256GB SATA 6GB's 6,4cm (2,5")|€189.90
WD Red RD1000S 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB|€98.69
WD Red RD1000S 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB|€136.49
16GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL10-10-10-27|€87.05
Corsair Graphite 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€147.14
ZOTAC Geforce GTX 670 OC, 2GB DDR5|€342.08
2 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M (schwarz)|€528.30
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1721.23

I also chucked in two high-end monitors as well. I don't know if you were looking for 2560x1600 or similar ones, but as you can see, you still have a lot of wiggle room considering your maximum budget.

I'd also suggest looking into watercooling with that budget. It will give you a lot of room to overclock, keep things extremely quiet, and the vast majority of it can be carried over to other builds.

Now, some of this will change:
The case in there is a stop-gap (though it is a very good one, I have it). It depends on if you want to look into watercooling, and generally what your preferences are.
The SSD in there probably won't be there by the Summer, as Micron/Crucial are due to launch their M500 line, which promise to be priced a lot more competitively that current drives.
I also threw in a 2TB storage drive, and a 3TB backup drive for both the SSD and storage drive. With that budget, I'd highly recommend this. I started doing it when I built my first rig, and I can't stand not having everything backed up any more. It's wonderful piece of mind.
In either build, RAM can be doubled if needed/wanted.

JoePie

Cheers buddy. Much better than what I was trying to put together. Can't say I've ever heard of Zotac, but the card seems to have favourable reviews. And it's hardly worth waiting around for Intel's Haswell chip is it?

Now, would I be right in saying that my disk drives and CD drives share the same space inside the case? Just that I'd like to plop a blu-ray burner in there as well.

Water-cooling is another thing I only know about in passing, so I'll give that a look up. I suppose one question, and maybe it's obvious, but I assume it's done internally, hence why you mentioned the case as a placeholder. Like the look of that case though.

In terms of extras, like card readers and wi-fi adapters (unless it's already on the motherboard and I missed it), is there any preference or reasons I would get internal components over external?

I've been eyeing up those monitors too. They're certainly tasty. Had them down as my back up in case I couldn't find the right tv.

Serephucus

Zotac are good. I've had a few of their cards, and they've been fine. For €0.16 more though you could go with EVGA, if that helps.

http://hardwareversand.de/2048MB/59077/EVGA+GeForce+GTX+670%2C+2048MB+DDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

I had thought of Haswell at first, but probably not. Haswell is more of a laptop CPU. Wonderfully power efficient, with great IGP, not much use to desktops. I'm sure they'll be a bit of a bump in power over Ivy, but I don't think it will be earth-shattering.

If you mean do the HDDs and DVD drives go in the same place, then no, they each have their seperate bays, but that case has tonnes of both. If you mean do they go in the same places relative to your old case, then yes.

You can use external radiators - I was using one for quite a while - they're big, meaning you only need very low-speed fans (quiet), and they offer tonnes of room for expansion. The only negative is that some people (myself) like everything to be all tucked away in one package, etc.

Nope, there isn't a card reader, forgot that one. As to external/internal, it doesn't really matter, whatever you prefer. This is a cheap external one:

http://hardwareversand.de/Accessory/40745/LogiLink+Mini+Cardreader+USB+2.0%2C+extern%2C+All-in-1.article

JoePie

I'm a fan of tucking it all away as well, so I'd probably be looking at internal cooling. Which means I'll look for an internal card reader as well.

Ah, I'm not a manufacturer fanboy. But cheers all the same for the EVGA card. Nice to have options.

BloodBath

Good build but I'd make some changes. I don't know why people are still recommending Crucial M4's when there are far far better ssd drives on the market for the same money. Change the SSD to this. It has double the performance of the M4 in most areas. It also has a free copy of AC3.

I'd pay a bit extra and get a card with a decent cooler as well. The zotac and evga use the stock cooler which is piss poor in compassion to most 3rd party coolers. Something like this would run cooler and quieter.

Alternatively you could pay €75 less and get this which has similar performance.

Instead of 2 monitors you could get 1 large 2560x1600 monitor if you wanted. Something like this.

Review here.

You can pay an extra €45 for a pre checked pixel perfect version.

Serephucus

The reason I don't recommend the 840 Pro more is that it's reliability hasn't been gauged too well yet, as it just hasn't be around long enough. No question that it is a great performer though.

The reason I threw a reference card in is that he's considering watercooling.

It is a nice monitor, I just didn't recommend it because I really don't like the mile-wide bezel the thing has.

BloodBath

If we all bought based on proven reliability records then there wouldn't be much innovation.

We would still be using pen and paper. You don't have to wait 3 years to decide if it's reliable enough. It has a 5 year warranty.

The guy knows little about custom water cooling. If he wants to dedicate a good few hours to learning then sure. It's still not a practical solution for most people as much as you love it.

Serephucus

It's times like this I just love generalisations.

I didn't suggest anywhere that he should wait three years. We're quite a few generations into SSDs at this point, and yet we still manage to have truly astounding ****-ups like OCZ's Agility 3 series. I trust Samsung far more than I do OCZ these days, but still.

This is of course assuming that anyone is going to actually notice the difference between specs in general use. (I don't need contradictory reviews on that one, I'm sure both cases exist, just making the point)

BloodBath

There are no contradictory reviews. The samsung pros have over double the IOPS performance and double the write speeds + a 5 year vs 3 year warranty and a free game. There is no comparison and no reason to buy the crucial drive over it.

Serephucus

Maybe I'm just used to being rather paranoid about my data. Wooptidoo performance and all that, but I'd be happy with 70% performance and not having to worry as much.

In this instance though you're right.

BloodBath

Well you should be backing up anything important anyway. A drive failure is a pain in the ass, especially your os drive but those Samsungs have been selling like hot cakes and there aren't horror story's pouring in so I'm sure they are ok. If you are unlucky at least the 5 year warranty is there.

I have an OCZ agility 3 btw Hasn't failed yet. Fingers crossed.

ahnowbrowncow

Why are you recommending the 670 when the 7970 is a better performer for the same price, especially at higher resolutions and multiple monitors?

Serephucus

I've been buying hard drives in pairs for years now. :P

And point taken RE Agility 3.

And I suppose the extra warranty is a factor. Then again, given how fast SSDs are evolving, are people really going to keep them that long? I happened to find a good use for my old 32GB SSD, but three years down the line when ultrabooks are shipping with 1TB SSDs as the standard, 128GB 840 Pros are going to feel small.

Edit: browncow, because if I had the choice, I'd take smoother over faster. I also tend to prefer NVIDIA drivers. Personal preference though, and BloodBath has already linked him to what I'll assuming is a 7950 RoyalKing?

BloodBath

I'd take a 7950 over either of them. An overclocked 7950 is only 5-8% off a 7970 at the same speeds and they will do the same speeds.

For value the 7950 is the best high end card. Nvidia has better frame latency but there's only a few games you would notice that in if you don't mind paying a premium for it. Although if you go for the 2560x1600 monitor I'd take 1-2 670's or a titan.

JoePie

Sorry for dragging up old threads. Didn't think it made sense to start a new thread for the same problem.

So after my car deciding to eat my money over the last while, I'm almost in a position to buy. Cost has come down a bit, mostly due to having less money thanks to my lovely, crap car and the price comparison website that'll knock a bit off the price.

I'm still planning on going with 2 monitors, but I don't really need them both running through HDMI, so I cut out a graphics card. I'll be using whatever keyboard/mouse/monitor I have lying around at home for now, until I can sort out more cash.

This is hopefully what I'll be ordering from Hardware Versand soon:

Item|Price
Intel Core i7-3770K Box, LGA1155|€286.89
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€120.74
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€113.35
WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA 3 8,9cm(3,5")|€72.36
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Dual Fan, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€329.72
ASUS Xonar Essence STX, PCIe x1|€152.27
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Pro Blau PC3-14900U CL 9-10-9-27 (DDR3-1866)|€71.61
Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced Window, USB 3.0 - schwarz|€75.26
Seasonic P-460FL, 460 Watt, 80PLUS Platinum|€126.54
Samsung SN-506AB/BEBE schwarz|€64.89
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€14.28
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1446.90

Can anyone see any room for improvement, or something I can cut out?

Also, I was wondering about the financing. I assume it's Germany only? Because I'd nearly order the thing now if financing is available to Irish customers.

BloodBath

You can get the same performance for a lot less. Significant savings here before the discount. I upgraded to 16gb of ram and added a good cpu cooler.

The xeon listed here is practically identical to the 3770k except it runs 100 mhz slower, doesn't have an igp or an unlocked multiplier. It can still be overclocked to 4.1ghz though.

Went for the normal 840 samsung ssd. The pro's aren't worth the extra imo. The reads aren't much different, only the writes are faster and 90% of the ssd work should be reads.

Those wd blacks afaik are old models and the newer blues are actually faster.

Saved some monies on the case and psu as well. The case is better while the psu is silver rated instead of plat. It would be a low power consuming pc anyway.

The dvd drive you listed is a laptop drive.

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v2, boxed, LGA1155|€203.22
ASRock ZH77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€69.18
16GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9|€103.49
Samsung SSD 840 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€85.52
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€56.82
Cooltek Antiphon Black, ohne Netzteil|€63.00
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.80
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Dual Fan, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€351.74
ASUS Xonar Essence STX, PCIe x1|€166.99
LiteOn iHAS124-04 schwarz SATA|€16.37
TP-Link TL-WN951N, 300Mbps PCI-Adapter|€22.14
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.54
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1240.80

JoePie

My bad on the disc drive. Cheers for the DVD drive, but I'd like to get a blu-ray drive if I could. Any recommendations?

BloodBath

I'm trying to find out more info about the xeons. Someone here said you can do the limited overclock that you can do on the non k chips but I can't find anything online about it for the xeons.

If you want higher overclocks you may still be better off with the 3770k but you should go with the cooler I listed.