Friend Wants to Build A New PC

kbrady1979 · 08 Jan 2013

essenbe said:

Nice list, Kelly. But, I think he has already said he had picked a Gigabyte Board. But, that's a very good list.

OK.....Gigabyte makes good boards too. I wasn't sure if he was locked into a board already or was just considering one.

Richardc269 · 08 Jan 2013

kbrady1979 said:

Essenbe hit the nail on the head with his parts list. I'll give you a list with links to the parts I would use for such a build.....this is not a definitive built list, just some high quality parts that will do the job.

CPU: Intel i7-3770K

MOBO: Asus Z77 Sabertooth

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB Kit

GRAPHICS CARD: EVGA GTX 660Ti

PSU: Corsair AX750

SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB

That is a very basic list of components. If he plans on overclocking at all, consider a closed loop water cooler. The case is more subjective and maybe he has a certain look he wants, or needs to be silent. As far as a sound card, any Asus Xonar would probably be more than enough. Like I said before, that is just a list of quality components I came up with and there are plenty of other good options besides what I have listed.

This will be a good list. Now I just need some links for a good DVD/Bluray Reader/Burner combo. Are there any Bluray/DVD reader/burners in 1 drive? Or will he need 2 separate ones? He will also need a PC case with a good cooling system, no doubt. Could you do me a small favor and give me a link to a list of cases that would be good with cooling? They can pick the case themselves. I won't be the one building the PC (unless they want to bring all the parts to my house from LA (lawl) and have me do it here and then pick it up later or something, or unless they know someone else who would do it in LA).

As for the hard drive, I'm not entirely sure how much space he'll need for Audio/Video editing. 256gb might not be big enough. Anyhoo...thank you for the list! I'll give him the list as soon as I get the case list & DVD/Bluray thing.

How about a good sound card? I know that the onboard sound (even todays) aren't as good as a slotted sound card. I think Soundblaster is still good these days, aren't they? I used to have the Audidy 2, and only one game I owned didn't like it out of all the other games I played. He'll need a really good sound card for audio editing.

Edit: He hasn't bought anything yet. This is just a list I'll recommend to him so he CAN buy the parts for the PC he wants for his younger brother. Neither of them, I don't think are very PC literate when it comes to hardware & putting one together. Since he knows that I can put a PC together and am competent with hardware, he's asked me as a favor to get him the list of parts.

essenbe · 08 Jan 2013

As far as cases any of these would be a good coice. Probably the 932 or HAF X are the best.
These are good cases too.

kbrady1979 · 08 Jan 2013

I had spent 30 minutes typing a response with links to hardware and was just about to push Submit Reply and the power blinked out.

So here is the short version.

Case: Any of the cases Essenbe linked to will work just fine. I like the Corsair cases, and I am recently starting to appreciate some of the Fractal Design cases. Many people who do video/audio editing are sticklers for quiet PC's, so you might want to ask him if that is something he is interested in.

DVD/Blu-Ray: Find out if he needs something to READ blu-ray discs or something to BURN blu-ray discs. For a DVD/Blu-Ray reader, I'd go with this one: LG Blu-Ray Drive

Hard Drive: Seagate 2TB The OS and programs will go on the 256GB SSD and his video/audio files, along with pictures and documents will go on the 2TB HD.

Sound Card: I would tell him to use the onboard HD Audio and see if that fits his needs. Onboard Audio has came a very long way recently and sound cards aren't as important as they used to be. If he does need a sound card, have a look at something like this: Asus Xonar DX

CPU Cooling: Video/Audio editing is very CPU intensive and he will need something to keep his temps under control. A good closed loop water cooler will be very beneficial in keeping his CPU cool, and will be very quiet as well. This component will largely depend on what kind of case he decides on. There are several options including single 120/140mm Radiator, and dual 120/140mm Radiator designs.

The main decision is whether or not he will want a "quiet" editing machine because that will dictate what case/cooler solution he needs. Hope that answers some of the questions you have.

Kelly

bobafetthotmail · 08 Jan 2013

the Gigabyte Sniper m3 has the best integrated sound in town, it uses a Creative chip, the ones used in sound cards and has audio-grade capacitors. Its PCB is very very tidy and the sound PCB area is protected by a small EMI shield so there is very little interference on that audio. It should be cheaper than Sabertooth while more or less the same. PCIe slot positioning is kinda weird for a mATX case, but as long as he isn't using two GPUs in a mATX case it's a non-issue.

kbrady1979 · 08 Jan 2013

bobafetthotmail said:

the Gigabyte Sniper m3 has the best integrated sound in town, it uses a Creative chip, the ones used in sound cards and has audio-grade capacitors. And its PCB is very very tidy so there is very little interference on that audio. It should be cheaper than Sabertooth while more or less the same. PCIe slot positioning is kinda weird for a mATX case, but as long as he isn't using two GPUs in a mATX case it's a non-issue.

I knew there was a motherboard with a Creative chip, but for the life of me I couldn't remember which one it was. All of the higher-end motherboards have the audio hardware isolated on the motherboard, which helps tremendously. One that comes with an onboard chip or the Asus with SupremeFX IV is probably the best in terms of Audio. I would still let him run with the onboard HD audio regardless of what motherboard he ends up with, to see if he actually needs a better sound solution. I wouldn't spend the money until I had a legitimate need to.

bobafetthotmail · 08 Jan 2013

technically there is also its bigger sister, the Sniper 3, that has the same sound hardware and setup, although it's debatable that anyone would really need 4 PCIe 3.0 8x slots anyway and dump so much cash for it.