PC specification for photography and video editing

[Petel]

I'm after a new PC to replace my 6 year old one which is heavily processor limited. I don't want it for gaming, but I do need processor power for video and photography work. I also want to future proof it as far as possible (eg usb3 connectivity). And it would be nice if it was fairly quiet.

My reason for choosing the case is that it seems to be the only one available with 2 front panel usb3 ports.

I did wonder about an SSD drive, but I'm not convinced that they are reliable or cheap enough at present, so I might look to upgrade with one in a year or so.

My proposed spec is:

Case:
COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6450 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x LG BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£69)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£86)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)


Any comments/suggestions?

 

[stegor]

I've got the storm enforcer. It's a nice case but it's not the quietest I've ever heard - especially when it really fires up. You may want to ask PCS which they think is the quietest.

 

[Teaz]

a really quiet pc is the Fractal which you could look into although it doesnt have the usb 3 option but it doesnt mean you wont have any since they are provided on the back of the motherboard connections.

the raven rv03, corsair 650d, antec 902v3 and haf x has us3 although the raven and corsair are perhaps more ideal for size and quietness.

if you want future proofing then you dont need the "K" as thats for overclocking so the 2600 is fine and has good power for editing and photography already.

ssd can always be added after or you can go for a small ssd like a 60gb which is pretty reasonable in price. if not you could look into a velociraptor drive, although quite pricey they are a good alternative for fast drives with big capacity size.

the psu could be lowered to a 650w unless you wish to add things to it in future for the extra breathing room on the psu.

you could go for a nvidia card option if the software you use to edit supports Cuda so it could help in the processing and performance like the gtx550ti

you could consider the sabertooh board or z68 chipset for that future proofing

Is there a budget that youre working on?

This something you should consider from the re-adjustment of the spec if your budget is comfortable with it. it still have that power and performance for editing and your needs :

Case
FRACTAL DESIGN R3 - BLACK PEARL CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, NVIDIA®SLI™, ATI®CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
1.5TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1502FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x LG BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£69)

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£72)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

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)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Total: 1083

configure it here

Ive split the drive so the 1st one is for you main use for programs and stuff minor storing while the second drive use for you main storage. you should get better balanced performance out of this

you can up the storage if needed.

 

[Petel]

Thanks for the advice. I did think about the Fractal case, but (apart from the lack of USB3 ports) I was put off by the fact that there are only a couple of 5.25" drives. Also, the door opens the wrong side for my set up and might interfere if I wanted to fit a front panel for fan control, etc. Maybe I should just wait for a few months until there is a wider choice of cases with USB3 ports.

As regards hard drive, I plan to partition the 2TB drive so that 200Gb (say) is used for the OS+, the rest for data. I'll also move a couple of drives from my old PC to give extra storage. Then, if I decide to upgrade with an SSD, I'll use the Caviar Black for data. I have heard that it can be quite a noisy drive - anybody any views?

I thought I'd go for the 2600K rather than the 2600, because it isn't much more expensive and it would give me the option of overclocking, if I should ever want to.

As regards a nvidia card, I have had some performance problems with nvidia cards and Lightroom software, which was why I thought I'd go for a cheap low spec Radeon - I can always upgrade if it becomes an issue.

I don't really know anything about the Sabertooth motherboard or the z68 chipset, but it looked as though they might be more relevant for gamers than for me?