First Build! Advice appreciated.

rhubarbular

Hello everyone,

I'm currently in the process of figuring out what parts to buy for my first build. I mainly use my PC for photoshop/illustrator and sometimes flash/after effects. I can end up with quite large files in photoshop, and my current machine makes it impossible to draw on any reasonably large PS canvas with my wacom. I also tend to amass a lot of very large files because I like to store extremely high-res versions of my work for making prints. I'll probably want to use it for a bit of gaming on the side, but that's not the main focus of the machine.

My ideal budget, excluding the monitor is somewhere around €700.
I initially decided to build a machine myself to save money but it's very difficult to not automatically pick the shiniest looking thing from a list of components! The advice I'd really like is whether or not I'm overspending on something I don't need and it's total overkill for what i'm using the machine for, or if I've overlooked something really obvious like things not being compatible.
These are the parts I was thinking of getting, and I've included what the items are priced at on komplett-

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - €97
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H -ATX -€97
Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 - 3.2GHz -€182 (includes cooler)
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD7770 - 1GB - PCI-E €107
Power supply: CoolerMaster Silent Pro M II - 620 Watt - ATX - €82
RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz - €32 x2
SSD/HDD: Crucial m4 - SSD - 128 GB, 2.5" SATA-600 - €100
Crucial m4 - SSD - 32GB, mSATA, SATA-600 -€50
Western Digital - HDD - 500GB 2.5" SATA-300 -€50
(OS/app disk, Scratch disk and Storage disks respectively)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX 650M - 650W - €91.55
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B5ST - €21

:pac: thanks for having a look!

BloodBath

You are overspending in some areas. A 8350 or 8320 would be a better processor for that type of work as well. I went for the 8320 as it allows you to get a good cooler and overclock for around the same price. You should be able to get to the 4.5 - 5ghz region. It's a good cooler and overclocking board.

Do you really need a scratch disk? Can this not be done on the larger 120gb ssd? Windows will only use about 15gb.

Went for a larger 2tb hdd as you said you can use a lot of space storing high res copies but drop it down if you think it's too much.

If you think you might get a meatier graphics card down the line then consider a 550 - 600w psu as an overclocked 8320 is pretty power hungry.


Item|Price
8GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€53.18
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€102.28
Cooltek Antiphon Black, ohne Netzteil|€64.00
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 450W|€50.76
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€154.49
Gigabyte GA-970-UD3, AMD 970, AM3+, ATX|€85.04
Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€81.89
Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition, 1GB GDDR5, lite Retail|€101.24
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.83
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.18
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€758.88

Case also comes in silver and white.


If you're after a large high quality monitor with a lot of screen space on a budget then this is a great screen for around €350.

It has a great swivel stand that allows you to go to portrait as well.

multimate

rhubarbular wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I'm currently in the process of figuring out what parts to buy for my first build. I mainly use my PC for photoshop/illustrator and sometimes flash/after effects. I can end up with quite large files in photoshop, and my current machine makes it impossible to draw on any reasonably large PS canvas with my wacom. I also tend to amass a lot of very large files because I like to store extremely high-res versions of my work for making prints. I'll probably want to use it for a bit of gaming on the side, but that's not the main focus of the machine.

My ideal budget, excluding the monitor is somewhere around €700.
I initially decided to build a machine myself to save money but it's very difficult to not automatically pick the shiniest looking thing from a list of components! The advice I'd really like is whether or not I'm overspending on something I don't need and it's total overkill for what i'm using the machine for, or if I've overlooked something really obvious like things not being compatible.
These are the parts I was thinking of getting, and I've included what the items are priced at on komplett-

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 - €97
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H -ATX -€97
Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 - 3.2GHz -€182 (includes cooler)
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD7770 - 1GB - PCI-E €107
Power supply: CoolerMaster Silent Pro M II - 620 Watt - ATX - €82
RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz - €32 x2
SSD/HDD: Crucial m4 - SSD - 128 GB, 2.5" SATA-600 - €100
Crucial m4 - SSD - 32GB, mSATA, SATA-600 -€50
Western Digital - HDD - 500GB 2.5" SATA-300 -€50
You.
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX 650M - 650W - €91.55
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B5ST - €21

:pac: thanks for having a look!

In my opinion that a lot to be spending on a case for a total 700 build, but its up to you. You could probably be able to use a 500w psu, for about 50 quid, you shouldn't need the enthusiast series.

Serephucus

You have two PSUs in there.

I still took that budget of €940-ish though, and this is what I came up with:

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Define R4 Titanium Grey|€97.00
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€82.94
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€207.02
Super Flower 400W Golden Green Pro 80plus|€60.24
2 x 8GB G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9|€98.46
Samsung SSD 840 Pro 128GB SATA 6Gb/s|€114.90
SanDisk ReadyCache SSD 32GB 6,4cm (2,5")|€37.17
WD Caviar Green 1TB, SATA 6Gb/s (WD10EZRX)|€57.74
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.18
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.83
Scythe GentleTyphoon 120 mm Lüfter 1150 rpm|€12.21
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 OC, 1GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI|€98.09
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€931.77

Same case (good choice) but I went with a lower wattage, more efficient power supply. I also doubled up on the RAM. Depending on how large the files you're working with are, you might not need this, but it's there anyway.

One of the biggest changes is an overclockable CPU. It's dead easy, extremely safe, and you can easily get yourself an extra 40% performance with a few minutes' work. To help with this, there's an after-market cooler in there (which will do wonders for noise as well) and a decent fan to go with it.

I also went with a different graphics card, because I'm reasonably sure both Photoshop and Illuminator take advantage of CUDA, which is an NVIDIA feature, meaning you'll want an NVIDIA card.

I went for different storage options well. The 840 Pro is a faster SSD than the M4, and I opted for a full SSD as a scratch disk rather than an mSATA drive. You lose a SATA port anyway, so there's no real reason not to have one. I also threw in a 1TB storage drive, just 'cause.

Hope that helps.

rhubarbular

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'll be checking out all your recommendations and hopefully ordering things this weekend! Much appreciated.