My 1st Build.... That needs to be a bit of everything!!

[stemas9]

Hi All!
Am loving the PC Specialist website, very easy to use and full of well specced/priced kit too!

I'm trying to build a PC that blasts through all my usual duties and still covers me for possible future upgrades and changes of usage. I have zero experience in buying PC's really, i tend to pick one up through work on the cheap and add/remove bits i need and make it last... My last Core2Duo machine finally died a month or so back after 9 years of use and 2 upgrade phases!

I've been reading and researching for ages but just keep managing to tie myself in knots with this new one - the missus is going to kill me if i dont pick a PC soon....

I edit small amounts of video - I'm talking home video (but it's all HD).
I actually have a 2TB drive knocking around that i plan on adding to this PC for use purely to house my raw video files and as a working drive for my video projects. The 4TB is just a Media Tank - I share my media drives and stream them to various devices in the house - so the PC is on most of the time ticking away, possibly with some media server running. My whole film, music, photo collection is plonked on this main PC drive and backed up semi regularly to an external drive.
None of my previous PC's have been used for gaming - with 4 kids i just dont get time, but my eldest lad wants to play PC Minecraft now and i suspect he might get bitten by the gaming bug. Hence me looking at a board where i can install a decent GFX card at a later date and boost up the RAM substantially if needed (plus this wont hurt my video editing if i ever manage to start doing it in earnest).
It isnt unusual for me to have a lot of stuff running simultaneously - downloads running, loads of browser tabs, bits or work in spreadsheets and Wrod docs on the go....

So, a bit of an odd build really!! I'm trying to future proof myself and also allow for upgrades that will change who is using the machine and how!
For audio i plan on attaching a soundbar as i dont have the space to setup a 5.1 or similar speaker system. For the monitor i'm trying to find a larger display (around 32") that doesnt cost an absolute fortune as i love a lot of screen real estate and want to be able to watch movies in my man cave/study away from my army of kids!

Please take a look and i'll take any advice/criticism - constructive preferably!

Cheers - Steve.


Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6500 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st Hard Disk
4TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD4004FZWX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

 

[ubuysa]

That looks pretty good for what you want to me. I'd be tempted to upgrade the power supply to the Corsair CS 650W, the CS series are quieter, modular (so fewer cables) and you'd have lots of headroom for adding a graphics card in the future. In fact, on my recent build, I did exactly that. I think also that you might upgrade the CPU cooler, perhaps to the Dragonfly, simply because I hear that the stock Intel cooler is quite noisy.

 

[Stephen M]

Looks good but if you are spending that much it is worth considering the Silver Warranty, it is only a fiver and gives you a year collect and return, rather than the month of the Standard.

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

Forgetting budget just for a moment there are a couple of suggestions I have. Firstly for many video editing packages the graphics card can be used to reduce render times. Even a quite modest card makes a big difference. Bringing budget back into the equation, it's probably not worth spending some money on a card now that ultimately is only going to be a one year stop-gap.

For data storage in the home I think a home NAS is the way forward. Rather than have your PC on all the time and running media services you could have a home NAS do all of that for you. Most also allow you to access your digitised movies and files outside the home via a phone app. It will draw less power than using the PC and probably be quieter. PCS have a few options and some of the basic ones aren't much more expensive than the 4TB internal disk you have opted for.

I also would recommend an aftermarket cooler for the CPU as the Intel one will become noisy under a full load and generally as it gets more dusty. Any of the aftermarket options in the build would be fine.

With regards to PSU the 350W would be fine for now but might have to be replaced when you add a graphics card. The 650W is a better quality one but I appreciate it's quite a lot more. I would say get at least the 450W as this will cope with cards like the GTX1060 and RX480, which are both decent gaming cards and good at video editing. The 350W might be a little lightweight for these cards.

Frank100

 

[stemas9]

Thanks for the comments, all much appreciated. To be honest I hadn't even noticed that the PSU was such a low rating.... I think I will upscale that somewhat. I do also like the idea of a NAS but have been put off in the past by cost, I'm paranoid as hell about my data so I'd want to RAID/mirror it.... wouldn't that be incredibly expensive?
Also I have zero experience of setting one up and configuring/maintaining it... is it all pretty simple and GUI based nowadays?

I'll see about switching out the cooler and upping warranty too - thanks.

I'm right in the upper end of my budget here so the screen and soundbar, mouse and keyboard will need to be dumped on a 0% credit card I think!!

 

[Frank100]

Hi,

A NAS is more expensive but there's not a huge price difference these days. They are also very simple to setup (GUI based). You can get 2 disk NAS devices where you can mirror the drives, PCS may even have one or two options in their build options but there are other ways of protecting your data. A cheaper option is to have a single disk NAS and a USB hard disk and just back that data up fairly often.

This could be a good option from the point of view of power and noise, rather than a 2 disk NAS running 24/7 it's a 1 disk NAS running 24/7, you only run up the USB disk for an hour or so once a week or whenever you feel necessary. This can also be good in the event of a Ransomware attack where malicious software encrypts your files, including on a network connected NAS (depending on setup). The software can't touch your USB disk if it isn't plugged in.

Even in my home I think of disaster recovery in the unlikely event of a fire/flood/hurricane etc. I managed to pick up a small fire safe for £20 from a second hand sale of office equipment and I keep my USB drive in there. I have too much data for a reasonably priced cloud storage subscription. So my (2 disk) NAS is not being used for redundancy as well, because I have a backup in a 'safe' place, (if you'll pardon the pun!).

I do think it is the say forward and computers will mostly have disks just intended for the OS and programs. Perhaps it is something to target having next time you are purchasing a computer in a few years but I wanted to suggest it now because I think it is more useful solution.

Frank100