• Help me optimize a build! I'm moving out and looking to make my own desktop.
    11 replies, posted
Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I've been using craptops for about 10 years now. I'm moving out on my own at the end of this summer and I'm looking to get a nice desktop rig for myself. Money is not my biggest concern, I would just like to get the most bang for my buck as well as a rig that will last me a while. I went for a computer that could play games at maximum settings, edit photos, as well as quickly compile and process code (computer science major here), and stay cool (my biggest problem with laptops is that they turn into a fireplace). I have been out of the desktop game for a long time and using pre-built laptops hasn't helped, so I'm hoping somebody could take a look through this build and help me keep a comparable performance level to what this would put out and drop the price as low as possible. The build as it stands: [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Sc7m]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Sc7m/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Sc7m/benchmarks/]Benchmarks[/url] [b]CPU:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637i53570k]Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor[/url] ($189.99 @ Microcenter) [b]CPU Cooler:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2]Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler[/url] ($29.98 @ Outlet PC) [b]Motherboard:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77extreme4]ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard[/url] ($134.97 @ Outlet PC) [b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cml16gx3m2a1600c10]Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory[/url] ($116.99 @ Amazon) [b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7td120bw]Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk[/url] ($89.99 @ NCIX US) [b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm001]Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive[/url] ($97.98 @ Outlet PC) [b]Video Card:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn670oc2gd]Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card[/url] ($379.99 @ Newegg) [b]Sound Card:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-sound-card-xonaressencestx]Asus Xonar Essence STX 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card[/url] ($184.99 @ Amazon) [b]Wired Network Adapter:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-wired-network-card-expi9301ctblk]Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI-Express x1 Network Adapter[/url] ($24.02 @ SuperBiiz) [b]Wireless Network Adapter:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-wireless-network-card-rnxn180ube]Rosewill RNX-N180UBE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter[/url] ($20.98 @ Newegg) [b]Case:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc922mkkn1gp]Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case[/url] ($82.00 @ Newegg) [b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu750hx]Corsair Professional 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply[/url] ($119.99 @ Newegg) [b]Optical Drive:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-optical-drive-bc12b1stblkbas]Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer[/url] ($55.43 @ NCIX US) [b]Total:[/b] $1527.30 [i](Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)[/i] [i](Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-21 20:10 EDT-0400)[/i]
I would go with a different motherboard (MSI or Gigabyte), a different GPU (like an HD7970), drop the discrete sound card (unless you're an audiophile) and drop the discrete NIC (most motherboards these days have at least one or two integrated that work fine.)
Asrock is fine. But you dont need a soundcard or wired network adapter.
Also, any reason for 16 GB of RAM? Unless you're going to be doing video editing, 8 GB is more than enough.
[QUOTE=bohb;40373700]I would go with a different motherboard (MSI or Gigabyte), a different GPU (like an HD7970), drop the discrete sound card (unless you're an audiophile) and drop the discrete NIC (most motherboards these days have at least one or two integrated that work fine.)[/QUOTE] What are your concerns with the mobo? I do like crisp sound, would you recommend a different sound card? [editline]22nd April 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=wickedplayer494;40376805]Also, any reason for 16 GB of RAM? Unless you're going to be doing video editing, 8 GB is more than enough.[/QUOTE] I had planned on it. Do you think you can get away with 8 GB and still edit videos without it being painful?
[QUOTE=Namaste;40379939]What are your concerns with the mobo? I do like crisp sound, would you recommend a different sound card? [editline]22nd April 2013[/editline] I had planned on it. Do you think you can get away with 8 GB and still edit videos without it being painful?[/QUOTE] You can, but for 1080p RAM preview - it hurts a bit.
[QUOTE=Namaste;40379939]What are your concerns with the mobo?[/QUOTE] I've worked with ASUS motherboards for 15 years and not once have I come across one that wasn't garbage. ASRock is basically the lower end of ASUS (both companies were founded by the same person) and the few that I've worked on of ASRock had all of the same idiotic problems as its big brother. I will never recommend people buy either of those brands, along with SOYO, Soltek, IWill, AOPEN and several others. Thankfully the latter companies have all gone defunct or at least no longer manufacture motherboards. [QUOTE=Namaste;40379939]I do like crisp sound, would you recommend a different sound card?[/QUOTE] I can't really recommend any sound card because I don't see a need to waste $150 on something that integrated audio can do mostly fine. I switched to integrated audio around 2006 because I was disgusted with Creative Labs. First their drivers were this monstrosity of several hundred megabytes, and second they were complete garbage. Problems ranged from system instability to purposely crippled features in the driver that were advertised on the product box. Someone started making custom Creative drivers at some point (think his name was DanielK or something) that were a thousand times better, but CL sent him a C&D which promptly blew up on CL with thousands of customers sending angry letters and nearly bringing down their forum with all of the people making new accounts just to tell them they suck. I think they withdrew their C&D later, but the damage was done. What was funny was that I had a set of CL 5.1 surround sound speakers, but the center channel never worked (was always garbled static.) I thought the channel was bad until I tried them on my integrated audio and I was surprised it worked.
Oh wow. Thanks for the rough reviews. So what motherboard would you recommend then?
MSI Z77A-G45 or GD55
Gigabyte makes some good ones, im currently running the UD3H with absolutely no problems, they have great software to install drivers and such. Built 2 machines with it and have had no noticeable problems.
Sorry that this isn't too relevant, but your build is almost identical to my build.. :o Oh and it runs like a charm :P
It's not irrelevant. What is your build if you don't mind?
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