New desktop for good quality gaming and video editing

[colmcq]

Hi all, I've got a budget of a grand to spend (40th birthday present!!) on a new computer. I'm not a serious gamer but when I do play I want it to look the part. I also edit videos with Premiere Pro and After Effects so I need my new PC to be able to handle that particularly well if possible. With that in mind I'd love some advide if I'm choosing the right system below. I've got some spare SATA drives I was going to use for storage in the new pc so I'm not really bothered about buying extra hard drives at this point and I'm happy to use onboard sound for now I think. Unless someone suggests a better setup which allows for a sound card in the spec. The reason I've gone for the case I'e chosen is because it has a firewire port at the front which would be handy for video uploading.

IS THIS THE BEST SYSTEM FOR MY BUCK OR SHOULD i HAVE TWO GRAPHICS CARDS AND A LESSER CPU FOR EG??? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.


Case InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) AMD BULLDOZER EIGHT CORE FX-8120 (3.10GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard ASUS® SABERTOOTH 990FX - TUF SERIES MILITARY GRADE MOTHERBOARD
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
RAID NONE
DVD Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling COOLIT ECO II A.L.C ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER (£59)
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus USING MY OWN
2nd Monitor USING MY OWN - SYNCHMASTER 22B
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Total Order Price £1,014.00

 

[Rakk]

The reason I've gone for the case I'e chosen is because it has a firewire port at the front which would be handy for video uploading.

The case may have one, but is the motherboard capable of connecting to it is probably the important question, unfortunately I failed to find out (mainly cos I'm trying to make lunch whilst writing this ) - though it doesn't look like there's firewire on the back ports of the motherboard, but you might want confirmation on this if you definitely need firewire

IS THIS THE BEST SYSTEM FOR MY BUCK OR SHOULD i HAVE TWO GRAPHICS CARDS AND A LESSER CPU FOR EG???

If you're thinking about doubling the graphics cards, I reckon its always better to get one single more powerful GPU that SLIing/Crossfiring two lesser ones (less power usage, not everything makes use of SLI/Crossfire, cheaper upgrading later, some other reasons I cant remember).
Though I reckon one GTX560 would be fine for your usage anyway.

Onboard sound is fine for most people unless you need the extra ports a soundcard may provide or need it for music production type stuff.

 

[NMEBowen]

yes the motherboard can connect to the frount firewire port and it also has a firewire port on the rear aswell as plenty of other ports such as e-sata,spdif and more usb ports than you could ever need it was also designed with the bulldozer chip in mind. if you need anymore info on the motherboard feel free to ask but in general its a pretty solid spec you have there.

 

[mantadog]

Are we talking hardcore editing, or just the odd video from holidays and birthdays etc? For some mid level gaming your system will be fine, but i think you can get a better bang for your buck system if you change a few components.

Im not sure if the firewire would be connected to the front of the case, anyway you would be cheaper just adding a firewire card and getting an extention and run that from the back of your pc, thats what i do for my usb3.

That would let you drop the motherboard back down to a basic one, save yourself up to £80 that can be spent on the GPU, if you wanted to make it more futurepoof for gaming. The watercooling for the CPU can also be dropped to the tripple copper heatpipe, that more than enough if you don;t intend to overclock. With those savings i would get atleast a 560ti 1GB version if you don't plan on using multiple screens.

 

[colmcq]

Thanks guys, this is all useful input and very much appreciated. I wouldn't say it was hardcore editing that I do but it's more than just holiday clips etc. It's a (very) part time business which can get busy on occasion. I use motion graphics (After Effects) which needs plenty of poke from under the engine. Manadog's idea is interesting where he suggests I drop the motherboard down a spec or two and put the money into better graphics. I would like to futureproof for gaming (my current model struggles to play Napolean Total War - arrgh!!) so perhaps this is the way to go. I doubt if I'll be overclocking so I think I will go for a cheaper cooler, thanks for the tip. However, I would like to keep the option of multiple screens open to me. What would you suggest as a graphics card?

 

[NMEBowen]

If you can afford it, the 3Gb gtx 580 its currently the underdog due to the 7970 but a very nice card still and the nvidia cuda core technology will also help with rendering which ati cards cannot offer aswell as apparently being better at higher resolutions.
Overclocking is extremly simple with AMD black edition chips so i wouldnt throw the idea out as it maybe helpfull when you have alot of rendering to do in a short time period so i wouldnt drop any lower than the titan cooler.

 

[colmcq]

Unfortunately the 580 would push me way above budget. But I could always upgrade my graphics further down the line I suppose. I think my budget will keep me in the range of the 560 cards for now. One thing I was curious about re graphics cards was which of the following was a better buy for my requirements - a 2GB 560 or a 1GB 560ti. Obviously the latter card has half the memory of the 2GB card but it does offer more cores and a faster graphics clock. There is only a slight difference in price so I'm not sure which to go for.

 

[NMEBowen]

the higher the vram the better it will handle multipul monitors if you plan on just gaming on one with light use on the other a 1gb 560ti will be fine but if your using both for high end design i wouldnt risk anything lower than 1.5gb. as i said before the more cores the faster you can render so its a descison you would have to make.

 

[mantadog]

A better way to look at it might be something like this....

If you cram in the most CPU horsepower you can now combined with (a very solid) GTX 560 you will be able to play any game out today, providing you turn down the settings for the really modern GPU intensive games like BF3. Then if you find yourself wanting more power you could drop in a 2nd 560, or just replace the card with a higher performance model.

How many multiple screens are we talking about here? If you just want 2 then a 560 will do no problems, if you want to game over multiple screens you should get the 2GB version, to get more then 2 screens on an Nvidia card you would need to Sli a couple of 560's to get 3 or 4 screens connected. Where a top end AMD card can support 3+ on its own. Even a 580 can only support 2 displays on its own i think, the only card that lets you connect more is the 590 which you can't get your hands on anyway.

I would spend the cash on the processor here if your into video editing on a semi pro basis, because it is so much easier to upgrade the GPU later should you want to. Possibly look at upgrading the CPU to the 8150 as it is slightly faster and just behind an i7 in terms of performance. So i would now be inclined to say bump the CPU up and upgrade the GPU in future as needed because of your video editing, but it such a personal thing how you spec your PC. Thats what i would do anyway.

 

[NMEBowen]

As far as i know the 8150 is just a stock flashed 8120 but i may be wrong, i do agree with mantadog on his points though. But if you want a decent gaming machine straight away its hard to think about buying a gpu down the line. Personally for your use id go with the below spec which would allow you to add a 2nd gpu later on down the line.

Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER EIGHT CORE FX-8120 (3.10GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A99X EVO:USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, Quad CrossFireX™/SLI™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£87)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,025.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/

 

[mantadog]

As a catch all spec i would have to agree the above spec is going to perform well for gaming and video editing. All you would need to do at a later date is buy and fit a 2nd 560ti, for now the 560ti is going to play any game you already have at max and get high on just about all the new releases.

The only thing i would change about the above is the cooler, if you don't plan to overlcock that is. The tripple copper heatpipe will do perfectly fine, it's only £20 saved but unless you plan to overclock it would be a waste of money in my opinion.

 

[colmcq]

Thanks guys, you've helped answer the question for me. I'll be gaming on one monitor and editing on two. I think I'll play safe and go for the 2GB 560 card cos I want as much memory as I can get and the performance difference using Prem Pro (judging from a little googling research suggests I can live without the slight improvement the extra cores and clock speed offer on the 560ti. Very much obliged, bumps all round. Now I just need to buy the machine...

 

[NMEBowen]

as ive said overclocking is just a matter of clicking turbo mode in bios its very simple so if you plan to render alot and your strict for time it could be very usefull for your buisness.

 

[mantadog]

Glad to help.

Get it ordered asap, you wont regret it!

 

[colmcq]

So excited! This is going to be like going from black and white tv to colour. Let the good times roll. Many, many, many thanks!

 

[NMEBowen]

Np glad to be of service just make sure you post some pics when u get it as payment for our sevices

 

[colmcq]

Just when I thought I had decided...

I was absolutely convinced I should get an AMD build but have done a bit more research and come up with an Intel build for roughly the same budget. Can you guys offer any words of wisdom on which of these is the better system to go for?

THE AMD SPEC
Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER EIGHT CORE FX-8120 (3.10GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A99X EVO:USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, Quad CrossFireX™/SLI™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£87)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD


VS


THE INTEL SPEC

Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£87)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

 

[Music Guy123]

I'd go for the intel as I prefer them, both those cpus are good, when, maybe if but probably eventually they sort out the bulldozer and make it useful, it probably would be a good cpu, probably better than the i5 but the i5 does overclock and when overclocked I'd say would be better than the bulldozer, get some other opinions but that is mine!

 

[mantadog]

I wasn't born to see the switch from black and white to colour, but i can remember switching from standard defenition to HD. Does that count ?

I'm an intel man myself, but i would stick with the bulldozer. It is better than an i5 as things stand now, and it is going to perform better once a update is put out by windows i believe. I have an i5 and cant fault it, if you had selected a quad core AMD it would have been a no brainer to switch to intel but with the eight core vs an i5 i would stick with what you have.