Solve : First Desktop Build Recommendation and Help Needed?

1.	Solve : First Desktop Build Recommendation and Help Needed?
Answer» Hi everyone I am a graphics and interior designer. I do video editing and work with programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, etc and do heavy gaming as well as light. I'm looking to build a desktop computer (capable for gaming and design works) and my budget will be around $800-1,100 USD for just the computer alone. Here is what I have so far: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JgBrBm Credits to Quantos _______________________________________ _______________________________________ ______ CPU Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory Storage -Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive -Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card Case Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case (If possible, I'm looking for one thats thin/narrow yet fits everything) Power Supply SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply Optical Drive Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer _______________________________________ _______________________________________ ______ I was WONDERING if someone could check if everything here is compatible with each other or if there's anything I could take out to save money. Also, if you have a better recommendation than the mentioned above component, please let me know. Is there any component I could take and use from my old PC such as the optical drive (DVD Super Multi drive with Label Flash), tower, power supply, etc to save some cash? Here is the image or Speccy of what my old PC have http://prntscr.com/7hai2b A fast running computer and having it cool (no heat) under 20+ hrs a day is very important to me as well as having the best green component that doesn't require too MUCH energy in general. What monitor should I get for graphic designing as well as gaming? I heard that IPS panel is a must for graphic designer? My budget is around $100-150 USD (it's okay if it reaches over the minimum) and would like the screen size to be more than 23inch. Lastly, when is a good time to buy all of these component + monitor and where (upcoming Independence Day Sale—4th of July?) Or when is not a good time to buy them? Thanks in advance! Well, I am not an expert on gaming. Still, here are two concerns. The optical drive is now a vestigial organ. You don't need it. Why use an ATX case? Do you have a crowded work work room? A full size case may run just a bit cooler. Quote Case Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case (If possible, I'm looking for one thats thin/narrow yet fits everything) My recent build for gaming rig with 8-core AMD 4Ghz AMD FX-8350 I decided to go with an mATX case and ran into issues fitting in a large gaming video card. I ended up making it work, but i had to remove all the guts and take a dremmel and cut out a portion of unnecessary 3.5" drive bay area where you could stuff like 3 hard drives in the mATX case. I then had to make sure that all the small metal filings/dust was gone, and then assemble the system back together. So it does run cool since I have 3 x 80mm fans + the power supply fan for proper airflow and it does save space vs a full height tower ATX case, but it would have been way easier to just go with a ATX case vs trying to cram it all into a mATX case. So as far as smaller goes, you will want to be cautious that your not going to have a case that is going to have a spatial relation conflict like I did with my latest gaming build. Reason for me wanting to have it in a small case was because I wanted to cut corners in build cost and reuse a mATX case, however looking back at the time needed to pull this off, I should have just spent the money to buy a new larger case for the gaming build. Additionally inside the case is cluttered with the cables and not very pretty.Looks pretty good, only thing I would really change is the SSD to something from Crucial or Samsung, would just be a bit better than the Sandisk ones which are pretty basic SSDs. I would definitely recommend an IPS monitor yeah, something like a Dell Ultrasharp would be a great option. BEAR in mind that if you go massive but keep at a fairly standard resolution like 1080p, stuff can become really massive on the screen. I'd either look at a 1920x1080 (or better, 1920x1200) one in the 22-24" range or if you can afford it, get a high resolution one such as 2560x1440 in the 25-27" range. Quote from: DaveLembke on June 15, 2015, 01:30:28 PM My recent build for gaming rig with 8-core AMD 4Ghz AMD FX-8350 I decided to go with an mATX case and ran into issues fitting in a large gaming video card. I ended up making it work, but i had to remove all the guts and take a dremmel and cut out a portion of unnecessary 3.5" drive bay area where you could stuff like 3 hard drives in the mATX case. To be fair, that isn't really a limitation of mATX cases in general, your case was probably not designed for a high end system and was more aimed at an office type PC. If you spend more you can get mATX cases with tonnes of drive bays and 120mm fan mounts - Literally all you lose is a couple of slots. I've seen plenty of systems with dual video card setups running great in mATX cases, you just need to explicitly pick a case designed for what you plan on putting inside it. Quote from: gamergirl on June 15, 2015, 12:07:57 PM Is there any component I could take and use from my old PC such as the optical drive (DVD Super Multi drive with Label Flash), tower, power supply, etc to save some cash? To add to camerongray's recommendations which I second, you could reuse the optical drive assuming it's a SATA drive (it almost certainly will be), you could reuse the RAM, you may be able to reuse the case (though it might be less effort to buy a new one, save having to rip everything out and then rebuild it, plus if it's an older case it might not be great for cooling etc) and possibly your power supply depending on make and model (again though you might be best buying a new one as that Seasonic is great QUALITY and at least you'll have piece of mind, warranty and so forth). Also, by not gutting your old PC you're then left with a PC rather than a bunch of parts, which you can then use or sell on more easily than rebuilding or selling the parts alone, if that makes sense.

Answer»

Hi everyone I am a graphics and interior designer. I do video editing and work with programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, etc and do heavy gaming as well as light. I'm looking to build a desktop computer (capable for gaming and design works) and my budget will be around $800-1,100 USD for just the computer alone.

Here is what I have so far:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JgBrBm

Credits to Quantos

_______________________________________ _______________________________________ ______
CPU Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage -Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
-Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card

Case Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case (If possible, I'm looking for one thats thin/narrow yet fits everything)

Power Supply SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Optical Drive Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer

_______________________________________ _______________________________________ ______

I was WONDERING if someone could check if everything here is compatible with each other or if there's anything I could take out to save money.
Also, if you have a better recommendation than the mentioned above component, please let me know.

Is there any component I could take and use from my old PC such as the optical drive (DVD Super Multi drive with Label Flash), tower, power supply, etc to save some cash?

Here is the image or Speccy of what my old PC have
http://prntscr.com/7hai2b

A fast running computer and having it cool (no heat) under 20+ hrs a day is very important to me as well as having the best green component that doesn't require too MUCH energy in general.

What monitor should I get for graphic designing as well as gaming? I heard that IPS panel is a must for graphic designer? My budget is around $100-150 USD (it's okay if it reaches over the minimum) and would like the screen size to be more than 23inch.

Lastly, when is a good time to buy all of these component + monitor and where (upcoming Independence Day Sale—4th of July?) Or when is not a good time to buy them?

Thanks in advance! Well, I am not an expert on gaming.
Still, here are two concerns.
The optical drive is now a vestigial organ. You don't need it.
Why use an ATX case? Do you have a crowded work work room?
A full size case may run just a bit cooler. Quote

Case Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case (If possible, I'm looking for one thats thin/narrow yet fits everything)

My recent build for gaming rig with 8-core AMD 4Ghz AMD FX-8350 I decided to go with an mATX case and ran into issues fitting in a large gaming video card. I ended up making it work, but i had to remove all the guts and take a dremmel and cut out a portion of unnecessary 3.5" drive bay area where you could stuff like 3 hard drives in the mATX case. I then had to make sure that all the small metal filings/dust was gone, and then assemble the system back together.

So it does run cool since I have 3 x 80mm fans + the power supply fan for proper airflow and it does save space vs a full height tower ATX case, but it would have been way easier to just go with a ATX case vs trying to cram it all into a mATX case.

So as far as smaller goes, you will want to be cautious that your not going to have a case that is going to have a spatial relation conflict like I did with my latest gaming build.

Reason for me wanting to have it in a small case was because I wanted to cut corners in build cost and reuse a mATX case, however looking back at the time needed to pull this off, I should have just spent the money to buy a new larger case for the gaming build. Additionally inside the case is cluttered with the cables and not very pretty.Looks pretty good, only thing I would really change is the SSD to something from Crucial or Samsung, would just be a bit better than the Sandisk ones which are pretty basic SSDs.

I would definitely recommend an IPS monitor yeah, something like a Dell Ultrasharp would be a great option. BEAR in mind that if you go massive but keep at a fairly standard resolution like 1080p, stuff can become really massive on the screen. I'd either look at a 1920x1080 (or better, 1920x1200) one in the 22-24" range or if you can afford it, get a high resolution one such as 2560x1440 in the 25-27" range.

Quote from: DaveLembke on June 15, 2015, 01:30:28 PM

My recent build for gaming rig with 8-core AMD 4Ghz AMD FX-8350 I decided to go with an mATX case and ran into issues fitting in a large gaming video card. I ended up making it work, but i had to remove all the guts and take a dremmel and cut out a portion of unnecessary 3.5" drive bay area where you could stuff like 3 hard drives in the mATX case.

To be fair, that isn't really a limitation of mATX cases in general, your case was probably not designed for a high end system and was more aimed at an office type PC. If you spend more you can get mATX cases with tonnes of drive bays and 120mm fan mounts - Literally all you lose is a couple of slots. I've seen plenty of systems with dual video card setups running great in mATX cases, you just need to explicitly pick a case designed for what you plan on putting inside it. Quote from: gamergirl on June 15, 2015, 12:07:57 PM

Is there any component I could take and use from my old PC such as the optical drive (DVD Super Multi drive with Label Flash), tower, power supply, etc to save some cash?

To add to camerongray's recommendations which I second, you could reuse the optical drive assuming it's a SATA drive (it almost certainly will be), you could reuse the RAM, you may be able to reuse the case (though it might be less effort to buy a new one, save having to rip everything out and then rebuild it, plus if it's an older case it might not be great for cooling etc) and possibly your power supply depending on make and model (again though you might be best buying a new one as that Seasonic is great QUALITY and at least you'll have piece of mind, warranty and so forth). Also, by not gutting your old PC you're then left with a PC rather than a bunch of parts, which you can then use or sell on more easily than rebuilding or selling the parts alone, if that makes sense.

Solve : First Desktop Build Recommendation and Help Needed?

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