New PC as multi use and blu-ray editing and burning

[johdic]

Been playing around with a spec for a week or two- aiming for £2000 but seems just a liitle more may be worth it- but where do you stop?
Seem happy with ASUS P6X58D, 12GB DDR3, 1536 NVidea GTX480
Twin iTB Caviar SATA 6 Gb/s
24 dual layer and blu-ray writer
Extra 2 x USB3- Firewire
Ultimate 7 64 bit

The missing link it seems is the processor- Think it should be i7 but there the thoughts stop- quad core 930- add a bit for the 960 or go to a 6 core. Not a gamer- haven't yet found the time so if only advantage of 6 core is multi tasking maybe that isn't necessary?

Would I see a £200 benefit from the 960 3.2 GHz do you think?

A decision taken only every so many years so trying to get it right.

ANy guidance appreciated.

Thanks guys

 

[Sleinous]

If not gaming, why the GTX 480? A spec of blu-ray editing? Pfft

If you're lashing out on all these lavish parts then yes, the 960, although the 930 woul be fine for now, obviously the 960 is going to be even more future proof.

 

[johdic]

Thanks for your view on the 960.

If not gaming, why the GTX 480? A spec of blu-ray editing? Pfft

If you're lashing out on all these lavish parts then yes, the 960, although the 930 woul be fine for now, obviously the 960 is going to be even more future proof.

FRom another thread I see that the Samsung rather than Kingston RAM is more stable. You seem to pose the thought that I'm wasting money on an uneccessarily complex build? Last spec saved below- what would you change maybe?

ANTEC 900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£79)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-960 (3.20GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D PREMIUM: DDR3, USB 3.0 & SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI

Memory (RAM)
12GB SAMSUNG DDR3 TRI-DDR3 1333MHz (3 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
1536MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX480 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£98)

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 850W PSU (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£100)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£62)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

USB Options
2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI EXPRESS CARD

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Firewire & Video Editing
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD

TV Card
NONE

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£148)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Monitor
IIYAMA E2472HD 24" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£179)

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI Cable
1 x 2 Metre DVI Cable (£5)

GeForce 3D Vision
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£16)

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (Special Offer £6)

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

Quantity
1

 

[Sleinous]

the Samsung is more stable (but not really noticeable) Ive never had any stability issues with my Kingston yet.

I think i'd change the following:

Move that 6GB/s SATA drive up to the 1TB 64mb Cache version, just below it.

Leave the CPU, thats good future proofing.

Change case to something with good airflow to increase lifetime of parts, especially expensive ones.

If you're not gaming, a GTX 470 will be more than ample especially as your motherboard supports SLI so you could always add a 2nd later if you suddenley did want to play majorly powerful games (bare in mind that at the moment I max out GTA IV, Battlefield Bad Company 2 etc etc on my GTX 470 @ 1920x1080) so the GTX 470 is still an absolute beast and plenty for some blu-ray editing.

The HDD will give you some extra hi-speed storage when you're playing with your vids, and you could pop your other HDDs in the case if you got a HAF 922 or 932 for e.g. (The 932 has 5 HDD bays, im currently using 3, you could pop your other HDDs in there, its just a matter of slotting them in, screwless design ftw.

What else...motherboard is great, ummm.......

SPeakers are fine, same as what I have I think
Windows 7 Ultimate is fne too
The PSU is fine
The DVD-RW isnt necessary as the Blu-Ray drive does all that the DVD drive does, I even asked if it burnt dual-layer DVDs - it does. So you can save some money there.

Unless you want to copy from one disc to the other simulatenously or something I guess.

EDIT: I see you have the 1TB sata 6gb/s there already actually, WITH the 640GB, might as well swap that 640 for another 1TB, as theyre so cheap nowadays, and its only a tiny bit more for the extra storage.

CPU cooling, well water cooling, hmmm, again no gaming so no real need, unless you plan on doing some major major overclocking. You could just go for a lovely Titan Fenrir, thats what im using atm, nice and quiet and keeps everything cool

Thats about all I can think of right now

 

[johdic]

That's been really helpful, thanks alot. I'll play around and see how the price changes- would be good to stick at the £2k budget.

 

[Sleinous]

Oki dokes, no probs The DVD RW should save you a bit already, you could possibly save a bit on the OS, depends what you intend to do with the OS, I have Ultimate because I specifically need Ultimate, and you may too, i'd suggest double-checking the differences between the versions to make sure you need atleast one of the features thats not in say, Home Premium, or, Professional version.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx

 

[PCS]

Some great answers there sleinous

My only advice is...wait another few days before ordering, because within a week you might find a better/cheaper option on our website. I can't say anything yet, so it's up to you if you're prepared to wait...

 

[Sleinous]

What PCS means is... there's new toys coming soon ... I think... ^.^

 

[LDUK]

Some times, we just can't wait. Hell, I'd be waiting forever if I wanted the best lol.

 

[PCRepair]

If your looking to buy now then I would say go for the 970 if your budget can stretch to it, tie that with a GTX460 and 12GB of Kingston and your blu-ray editing system should rock. Just about all video editing software can take advantage of multi-treaded processors and the 6 cores would give you a performance boost. If you looking at using the CUDA part of the GPU then a GTX480 would give you a boost but is it worth the extra cash needed for the card??? I personally wouldn't think so.