Advice on first time desktop build

J

Juswinn

New Member
I'm planning a desktop PC build for primarily photo editing. There will also be some lightweight video editing. There will be little (if any) games played. I will mostly be using Adobe PS Lightroom 3, Adobe Premier Elements 10 & and Nikon Capture NX 2. My budget is $1000 and I already have monitors, keyboard, mouse & speakers. This is what I've come up with;

Case - Cooler Master HAF 912 or Corsair Carbide Series 400R
Mobo -ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX or
ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

CPU - Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155
PSU - SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR31600
CPU cooler - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2
HD - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC (SSD)

I thought I would try out the new HD integrated graphics card before investing in a dedicated unit.

Any advice on whether this is overkill, underkill or about right would be very helpful. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the input. Seems like not too bad a price for that GPU. Any thoughts on the choices of case and Mobo? On both I could save money by choosing one or the other. I just don't know if I'll be losing too much by choosing the cheaper.
 
For your purposes that looks like a really awesome system. Since you chose a Z68 board, I'd say at this point stick with integrated graphics and only upgrade by adding a discrete GPU if you need it, you can always add new parts.

I'd personally go with the Corsair carbide 400, just because I'm a fan of Corsiar, but for the price, and your purposes the HAF 912 may be the better option. It also has great cable management.

With regards to your motherboard, I'd would go with the cheaper of the two assuming those are your only two options...

By the way, for a few more answers before making your decision. I'm by no means an expert on the matter; wait for more experienced users to reply before finalizing your decision.
 
Last edited:
the HAF912 is an amazing case for the price. I would go for it.

For GPUs, I would stay away from the intel HD. Mainly because I don't like integrated. A GTX550ti is a good option, or a HD6770 or HD6870 in the same price range. I will not take a guess on performance, but I will say I prefer Nvidia always.

For the CPU, spend a couple of extra dollars and get teh 2500k. It is a better processor, and has easier overclocking, meaning that it can be used for a lot longer than the 2500 can.

everything else looks good to me.
 
wolfeking said:
the HAF912 is an amazing case for the price. I would go for it.

For GPUs, I would stay away from the intel HD. Mainly because I don't like integrated. A GTX550ti is a good option, or a HD6770 or HD6870 in the same price range. I will not take a guess on performance, but I will say I prefer Nvidia always.

For the CPU, spend a couple of extra dollars and get teh 2500k. It is a better processor, and has easier overclocking, meaning that it can be used for a lot longer than the 2500 can.

everything else looks good to me.
Click to expand...

+1 on the CPU

Especially due to the fact that you're getting (for the money) a very good aftermarket CPU cooler.
 
For the GPU, if you're just doing mostly photo editing, a 6450 would be fine, and a heck of a lot better than the integrated. If you want to do any gaming at all, go with what wolfe said.
 
Nvidia is awesome if you plan on doing AutoCAD, or Photoshop (more so AutoCAD) IF you do not want to pay the extra bucks and get the cards you should be getting. Firepro's are way too expensive for your build.

The HAF is quite awesome, I have the storm sniper, they are built well and have very high air flow like the name suggests. I like the control panel on top of the storm sniper better, but overall the HAF912 is much nicer looking!
 
Thanks much to everyone for the input, really helpful! Wolfe, you think the 2500K is worth it even if I don't do overclocking? Moose, can you think of other options for a mobo for my purposes? I'm sorry, I mean Mr. Moose!
 
it is worth the extra. The unlocked mutiplier means that later on, years down the road, you can extend the life of the desktop by overclocking it. Not only that, but it may have a bit more resale value.
 
If you're only doing photo and light video editing drop the ram down to 4gb, get a cheaper case, drop down to dual core, and invest in a quality high storage hard drive. Spend the rest of the money on setting up for multiple monitors. It helps big time when editing and multitasking and your setup in the op is overkill imo for what you're looking to do.

You're not going to need a quadcore or the extra 4gb ram and you're not going to overheat anything just working on a/v editing if it's not intensive video.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top