Build for my Brother

Darren

Darren

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Staff member
My brother is going to need a new build and I'm a bit rusty on getting a good list, especially if it's not specifically gaming. :D

His primary uses will be rendering, video editing, Photoshop, and some gaming of course.

His budget is semi flexible but let's say under $1,000.

Just the tower, don't need an OS.

Thanks for the help.
 
Definitely keep the NVIDIA graphics card for CUDA acceleration. This is the one regret I have with buying a Radeon.

This build is $1001.

FX-8320 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285
RipJaws-X 16GB (2x8) 1866MHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231615 (if you don't like blue, I'm sure you can find another colour)
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128508

You might also want to consider some form of aftermarket cooling so you can overclock the 8320. If need be, you could get the UD3 or the UD5 over the UD7 to make some money to buy cooling.

EVGA GTX 760 SC (2GB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130932

Corsair Carbide 300R http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011
ASUS DVD-RW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
Seagate Barracuda 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
Corsair CX600M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048

If you'd prefer an an Intel build, you could get an i5 4670K and a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H board but if you had to stick to $1000 you would only be able to afford 8GB of RAM (1866MHz).

Both setups will perform very well but I think the extra cores of the 8320 and the extra RAM will help your brother's editing, so I'd maybe go that route.

That being said, I use Photoshop and Premiere Pro with my i5 2500K OC'ed to 4.3GHz and with a 5870 and it works perfectly well (apart from Premiere can lag a bit with the AMD graphics card, so I'd stick to NVIDIA).
 
I'm going to say he'll opt for a cheaper motherboard since I don't seem him dabbling in overclocking, at least not something that would need that high end of a board. A solid 970 board would be better, what do you recommend.

Other opinions also welcome from others. :)
 
Look at the 970A-UD3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651&Tpk=970a-ud3

Or possibly look at the 990FXA-UD3 if you wanted to keep with 990: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514

$25 difference.

If you get the 970A-UD3, the cost of the rig is reduced to $910 or so with the GTX 760 and the rest of the stuff I recommended.

If you get the 970A-UD3, you could replace the GTX 760 with this GTX 770 and the whole cost of the rig would be $990: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121770

Just something to think about.
 
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/PCunicorn/saved/
This one has a 280X which is more like a 770, its on a whole different level then a 760. Even better, since you can drop the OS and there is a extra $100 there (the build is only $890 at), get a SSd, and get a R9 290. That thing is a beast. Don't drop to a lower end board, you will want it even without overclocking tbh. That 8320 is power hungry.

If your brother wants compact
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/PCunicorn/saved/1GRI
 
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I wouldn't recommend the Radeon for editing. I'm not saying they are bad cards, don't get me wrong, they are fantastic cards - for gaming.

For editing, you want to stick with the 760 or 770, just for the CUDA cores. You'll pay more, yes, but it's probably worth it - especially for the video editing.

I know Adobe's later versions of their Creative Suite have better GPU acceleration support for the Radeons, but I'd still stick with the GeForces. What video editing software is your brother using? I'm using Premiere Pro CS5.5 and with my 5870, video playback in it can sometimes lag a bit because of the lack of GPU acceleration with the Radeon. Buying a GeForce and enabling CUDA would help.

Photoshop will work fine with either AMD or NVIDIA cards, but I would stick to NVIDIA for anything which requires GPU acceleration.
 
Oops, I didn't see it was for rendering. Well that means the 8320 is great and the radeon isn't. Go ahead and get a 770, yeah. Or 680 if you can find a good deal.
 
I'll probably stick with the 970 board, I run an 8320 in one fine so he should be good to go with that.
 
Yeah that sounds fine then. I would get the 970 board and the GTX 770. He should be pretty happy with that.
 
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