Double check my build idea please

[OutlawStar]

Also, this website is pretty useful for anyone wanting to built their own machine. The hardware brands are not definitive, but its a great way to judge how much horsepower your computer will have.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

[ExtremeX]

The main thing I would drop is the gaming card... Get a proper card like a quadro recommended above.

Unless you are just a hobbyist who games.... I have never seen a professional setups built with gaming video cards. In addition to that the monitors you select will be critical for color work.

+1 on ram, 16gb is the new 4. More the merrier, ram is cheap.

I hate noise and fans... after owning 15k SAS drives for so long, I build my PCs as silent as you can these days without going into any of that water cooling nonsense.

[afteractionreport]

The main thing I would drop is the gaming card... Get a proper card like a quadro recommended above.

Unless you are just a hobbyist who games.... I have never seen a professional setups built with gaming video cards. In addition to that the monitors you select will be critical for color work.

+1 on ram, 16gb is the new 4. More the merrier, ram is cheap.

I hate noise and fans... after owning 15k SAS drives for so long, I build my PCs as silent as you can these days without going into any of that water cooling nonsense.

This is what i was trying to tell OP but looks like hes set on the water cooled system. The noctua is alot less quieter and cools a lil bit better...plus its cheaper...


Here are some benchmarks

[Mr.Caketown]

Is this for business use or weekend hobby photo editing? I'm assuming weekend hobby given the 250gb SSD and 1tb storage. Both of these drives will be just fine for an above average computer user; but most photo and video editors I know have many terabytes of storage. You might want to look into the 3-4tb "green" or "blue" model drives. They are generally cheaper due to slightly lower performance, but 4tb models are under $100, and offer a lifetime size of storage. Maybe consider two for RAID backup if one of them dies.

What kind of tabs are you keeping open at all times, why 60+? If its simple, well-built websites (like calguns) you could have hundreds open and that hardware wouldn't flinch. If they're pooly built, contain flash, and other garbage, it'll probably crash.

Someones already said, put the case on a small piece of wood or something firm, sitting on carpet will negate the ability of the fans. Is the computer on the floor in a closet or something? You said it was a small enclosed space, but to have a dozen fans moving hot air around a small enclosed space won't keep your temps down. Can you elaborate on the physical location of the computer?

Im more of a hobbyist , I do weekend photography for friends and venues so I come home with about 20GB worth of photo/vid , process it and then give it all back to them on an SD card. I dont back up work once its been turned it.

its not 60 tabs in reality but quite a few. I have quite a few youtube vids open for tuturials , of course CG will have like 5-6 tabs open and other various pages forums.

Its between the wall and the desk since its the only convenient place with some of the other things in my room. Id have to get micro ATX to put it else where or move the desk , monites and other stuff.

The main thing I would drop is the gaming card... Get a proper card like a quadro recommended above.

Unless you are just a hobbyist who games.... I have never seen a professional setups built with gaming video cards. In addition to that the monitors you select will be critical for color work.

.

What recommondations do you have for a card to handle photo editing and casual gaming? Im open to suggestions , im not set on the MSI card . Im just looking for something to do both

This is what i was trying to tell OP but looks like hes set on the water cooled system. The noctua is alot less quieter and cools a lil bit better...plus its cheaper...

Im not opposed to the Noctua , I already have a Corsair H100 in my current rig that I will be re using. Sorry i should have specified that in my original post.

[OutlawStar]

any of the current gen video cards will do just fine. If you do casual gaming, you'd be better off using the integrated graphics on the processor rather than a quaddro.

The time to process large batches of photos will be slightly longer, but it will no effect on the quality. The hardware you posted will handle all of what you posted and more. Also, if the case has fairly free flow to fresh air (imagine if you could comfortably breathe if your head was in place of the case) it'll be just fine. You're not running it under 100% load for days at a time.

[stilly]

This is why I was asking these questions here , i just picked a vid card under budget. I just assumed if it can handle games it can handle photoshop. The i7-6770k was the one I was looking at , i forgot to add the K to the models.

As far as the fans go Ill have the h100 on the top and it comes with 2 140mm upfront and 1 140mm in the rear. Im debating on putting the Corsair Sp120 Low Noise on the bottom. Will a fan or two be necessary if the comp is going on carpet?

Excuse my questions , this is my second build ever .... i usually buy store stuff. If you have any other recommendations id like to hear them. I do more photoshop/illustrator work but occasional place Starcraft 2 , Warhammer 40K and Fallout on my current computer

I have several computers for several different things. I am a professional photographer (because people pay me to be a part of their weddings and document it) and the computer I use to do my photoshop has 8 GB of RAM, a 2 GHZ Phenom 9350-e (stands for economy...) Quadcore cpu, Windows Ultimate 32 bit (oops! I know- Windows even tells me that!) with a GT 210 graphics card and onboard sound/nic, 2 Physical Hdds and a blur-ray burner and dvd burner + upgrade waiting to get installed is IBM LTO 3 tape drive + LVD SCSI card (you know, for backing up).

My game system on the other hand is an XP x86 with a Phenom 9950 X4 Black Edition quadcore, EVGA 570 video + 1 Physical drive with 8GB of RAM... Built around 2009 but with a EVGA 285 GTX graphics card at the time. It plays Skyrim, Forged Alliance and CS:GO (until they did that 3GB update now I am outta space).

Both of them share a 17' ASUS LCD monitor. (KVM)

Oh, and I also run Photoshop CS on my Laptop with 4GB of RAM...

What you are looking to do is build a game system. Quadro cards or for people that LIVE off of their work. You sound like you do not. I almost do.

Stick with a gaming system. 600w + PSU, Futureproofed by getting an Intel Skylake i7-6700K 8M (i7 6th gen) and a Z-170 based mobo or whatever it is that matches that 1151 pin cpu.

Nothing less than 8GB of DDR-4 RAM and a 970 graphics card. Total price out the door closer to about 600-800.

You can do EVERYTHING you mention with the above based system. I do not know that a Quadro based card will perform better than a 970 as far as fast rendering of games. Those Quadros are meant for accuracy of color and highly technical minute detail type of things to the best of my knowledge. 970 is a gamer card. Meant to crank out fast renderings (accurate or not) of quick gameplay that does not have to be so accurate, but let you know where the other guy is hiding AND give you the occasional BSOD with Nvdisplay.dll plain and simple.

You like to go to stores, take a drive up to Tustin one saturday morning and visit Microcenter right off the freeway. Go to their website if you want (oh yeah, you can order from them too, I forgot) but THAT store is a hard core computer store that has everything you need at your slightly less than RETAIL prices. I would listen to the people there before I listened to the nerd herd or whatever self-degrading name they are calling themselves now. They are there to perform a job and sell things and they usually can answer most questions you have. I prefer to hunt things online, but I DO go there for their cheap OEM priced dvd burners, RAM, and CPU/MOBO bundles. If you pick out a CPU you can bundle it with any motherboard that fits it for $30 off the price. They are worth it and they are the ONLY computer store that I can rely on now.

I AM looking at their i7-6700K CPU because after 20+ years of being an AMD boi I am giving the dark side a shot and I want to see what is so nice about that 6700K...

Hell, if you REALLY want to build a quiet yet performance computer, drop the cash for a 970 SLI mobo and do yourself a mineral oil build... ROTFLMAO!

No, you should stick with solid advice from folks and not do a mineral oil build. I kid with that. It is cool, but such a PITA to make...

And FOR the record, I still have NO IDEA what the hell a i7-6770K CPU is. It is MY belief that someone either does not know what they are talking about somewhere or they are getting it mixed up with the LAPTOP CPU...

I am certainly NO expert. Please enlighten me if I am wrong here. And no references to the April 1st posting please...

OP: Just about everyone else in this thread is giving you solid advice and they seem to know a bit more where to put it than you do. I strongly suggest that you look at what they are saying as far as "use" goes and take that route. Nobody here is leading you down a wrong path. There are different paths, but they are all good paths. Minus mine. I can not speak for mine, that would be egotistical and conceited. So you need to choose- would you rather game or have accurate color? HINT HINT, accurate color is WAY over rated... Starcraft is not much though but Fallout might need a game card if it is fallout 4...

http://www.microcenter.com/product/452548/Republic_of_Gamers_Z170_Express_Maximus_VIII_Hero_LGA_1151_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/product/451883/Core_i7-6700K_40GHz_LGA_1151_Boxed_Processor

Hopefully I will be able to afford these in about 2 months or less... I expect them to take my gaming into the year 2020 (with video card upgrades of course)

If it was me i wouldnt buy this. They really are useless imho... Save your money....

And you sir. Do not think your advice is not appreciated. I recognize your contributions even if the OP does not. I rarely give out advice on building your own comp because building your own comp is something that YOU are doing and when two people have the same thought or fantasy, it is rarely the same when you compare them side by side, so for that matter, Well, I only stopped in because this thread made me laugh (6 fans did it lol) and then again to follow up. I am done here.

We have shown OP the way, he must go through that door on his own... (no, I am not referencing Matrix at all...)

[OutlawStar]

I've got a 4790K, overclocked because of the AI utility suite. I'm running a triple monitor setup and now I keep about a dozen tabs open (including flash streaming) and rotating in FF, a game on another monitor, and youtube or a 1080p movie on the other. I sometimes have other programs in the background like skype or MSE, or a torrent going. With similar hardware to what OP listed, the only fan I hear the the aging video card and it hasn't faltered a bit.

I too put my case behind a monitor, its got enough air flow to heat up the room. Overall, solid advice to just build a gaming system since you don't live off your computer to edit and make photos and movies.

[Albs]

I didn't read any of this thread, just saw a GTX 970 and I had to reply.

For the price of a 970, I'd go with AMD RX 480.

[stilly]

I didn't read any of this thread, just saw a GTX 970 and I had to reply.

For the price of a 970, I'd go with AMD RX 480.

What is so special about anything AMD puts out in graphics? The last time I tried to put an AMD video card in my system I came home and found it busted into pieces and the computer wagging its finger at me. Oh wait, I cam home and found - you know what? It just sucked. OKAY?

So how is the RX 480 better than the 970? And what is the price difference? (Now Imma gonna go look up another card...) I am at the point where I saw Skyrim the other night and it looked NICE and it was on an MSI laptop and it was better looking then my AMD system from 2009...

[OutlawStar]

The RX480 is better than the 970 because it offers the same performance for significantly fewer dollars.

[ExtremeX]

I like ATI / AMD cards... but its been a while since I researched new cards.

At the time AMD cards were more efficient on power consumption and thermal output for the performance I you were getting. The Nvidia cards were power hungry room heaters.

AMD was (or still are) leading the pack on video transcribing and were the first vendor to come out with spanned multi-monitor gaming (infinity)

Both had parallel processing capabilities but had strengths in different segments of the industry...

I don't think you can go wrong with either, id buy another AMD card in a heartbeat, but I would look at the application first and pick the card that fit it best...

I don't know why AMD has a bad stigma, but I would venture to guess it took their driver sets a little more time to mature and catch up to the hardware. I was an early adopter at the time so it was a little expected but you know how online reviews and fanboys can get.

[fishmonger]

I have several computers for several different things. I am a professional photographer (because people pay me to be a part of their weddings and document it) and the computer I use to do my photoshop has 8 GB of RAM, a 2 GHZ Phenom 9350-e (stands for economy...) Quadcore cpu, Windows Ultimate 32 bit (oops! I know- Windows even tells me that!) with a GT 210 graphics card and onboard sound/nic, 2 Physical Hdds and a blur-ray burner and dvd burner + upgrade waiting to get installed is IBM LTO 3 tape drive + LVD SCSI card (you know, for backing up).

My game system on the other hand is an XP x86 with a Phenom 9950 X4 Black Edition quadcore, EVGA 570 video + 1 Physical drive with 8GB of RAM... Built around 2009 but with a EVGA 285 GTX graphics card at the time. It plays Skyrim, Forged Alliance and CS:GO (until they did that 3GB update now I am outta space).

Both of them share a 17' ASUS LCD monitor. (KVM)

Oh, and I also run Photoshop CS on my Laptop with 4GB of RAM...

What you are looking to do is build a game system. Quadro cards or for people that LIVE off of their work. You sound like you do not. I almost do.

Stick with a gaming system. 600w + PSU, Futureproofed by getting an Intel Skylake i7-6700K 8M (i7 6th gen) and a Z-170 based mobo or whatever it is that matches that 1151 pin cpu.

Nothing less than 8GB of DDR-4 RAM and a 970 graphics card. Total price out the door closer to about 600-800.

You can do EVERYTHING you mention with the above based system. I do not know that a Quadro based card will perform better than a 970 as far as fast rendering of games. Those Quadros are meant for accuracy of color and highly technical minute detail type of things to the best of my knowledge. 970 is a gamer card. Meant to crank out fast renderings (accurate or not) of quick gameplay that does not have to be so accurate, but let you know where the other guy is hiding AND give you the occasional BSOD with Nvdisplay.dll plain and simple.

You like to go to stores, take a drive up to Tustin one saturday morning and visit Microcenter right off the freeway. Go to their website if you want (oh yeah, you can order from them too, I forgot) but THAT store is a hard core computer store that has everything you need at your slightly less than RETAIL prices. I would listen to the people there before I listened to the nerd herd or whatever self-degrading name they are calling themselves now. They are there to perform a job and sell things and they usually can answer most questions you have. I prefer to hunt things online, but I DO go there for their cheap OEM priced dvd burners, RAM, and CPU/MOBO bundles. If you pick out a CPU you can bundle it with any motherboard that fits it for $30 off the price. They are worth it and they are the ONLY computer store that I can rely on now.

I AM looking at their i7-6700K CPU because after 20+ years of being an AMD boi I am giving the dark side a shot and I want to see what is so nice about that 6700K...

Hell, if you REALLY want to build a quiet yet performance computer, drop the cash for a 970 SLI mobo and do yourself a mineral oil build... ROTFLMAO!

No, you should stick with solid advice from folks and not do a mineral oil build. I kid with that. It is cool, but such a PITA to make...

And FOR the record, I still have NO IDEA what the hell a i7-6770K CPU is. It is MY belief that someone either does not know what they are talking about somewhere or they are getting it mixed up with the LAPTOP CPU...

I am certainly NO expert. Please enlighten me if I am wrong here. And no references to the April 1st posting please...

OP: Just about everyone else in this thread is giving you solid advice and they seem to know a bit more where to put it than you do. I strongly suggest that you look at what they are saying as far as "use" goes and take that route. Nobody here is leading you down a wrong path. There are different paths, but they are all good paths. Minus mine. I can not speak for mine, that would be egotistical and conceited. So you need to choose- would you rather game or have accurate color? HINT HINT, accurate color is WAY over rated... Starcraft is not much though but Fallout might need a game card if it is fallout 4...

http://www.microcenter.com/product/452548/Republic_of_Gamers_Z170_Express_Maximus_VIII_Hero_LGA_1151_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/product/451883/Core_i7-6700K_40GHz_LGA_1151_Boxed_Processor

Hopefully I will be able to afford these in about 2 months or less... I expect them to take my gaming into the year 2020 (with video card upgrades of course)



And you sir. Do not think your advice is not appreciated. I recognize your contributions even if the OP does not. I rarely give out advice on building your own comp because building your own comp is something that YOU are doing and when two people have the same thought or fantasy, it is rarely the same when you compare them side by side, so for that matter, Well, I only stopped in because this thread made me laugh (6 fans did it lol) and then again to follow up. I am done here.

We have shown OP the way, he must go through that door on his own... (no, I am not referencing Matrix at all...)

if you wait a little longer you might end up with a better deal. amd should have their new cpus out this year. amd zen was built from the ground up and should finally start to compete vs the intel at lower prices. i also believe intel is coming out with some new chips soon.

i am holding off until zen comes out to make up my mind. i really hate intel.

[stilly]

if you wait a little longer you might end up with a better deal. amd should have their new cpus out this year. amd zen was built from the ground up and should finally start to compete vs the intel at lower prices. i also believe intel is coming out with some new chips soon.

i am holding off until zen comes out to make up my mind. i really hate intel.

I have not really been up to speed on AMD vs intel but I know that every time I have looked at intel stuff that was about the same as mine the intel just seemed to be smoother, more fluid like.

I am going to look into the ZEN now but I was going to go for intel only because I think I am close to getting a heloc to transfer over bills and what not and that will give me a few hundred more a month, so I can drop about 2 months worth on new hardware for my game system.

ZEN huh? Sweet...


As for AMD vs Nvidia...

I have always hated the ATI Radeon drivers after two consecutive times they failed to update/install properly and it was a rather large mess. Then once the drivers were updated, there was STILL another update that had to be ran on some other portion. All I remember was TWO different downloads and installs for the same card... That turned me off of Radeon and that was back around 2003/2005 somewhere around there. No. I do not hold grudges... But I was very sad to see AMD buy ATI and start manufacturing the cards... I have always sported the nVidia flag since that day...


Now I am hearing awe awesome the 970 card is and how it is blowing everything away yadda yadda yadda so I figure it might be time to jump to one of those but I wanna do a lil more reading before I decide to go EVGA on another card.