Sanity Check on PC Spec

Russ77

Russ77

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Russ
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I made a post a few months back about spec'ing up a new PC for Photo editing and maybe a little video editing.

I've decided to use PC Specialist and this is the spec I've come up with:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 311 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st Hard Disk Partitions 90/30

2nd Hard Disk
2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk Partitions

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
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
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
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £983.00 including VAT and delivery.
Click to expand...

I'm going to order a Dell 24" Ultrasharp from Amazon to go with it and will also install another 2TB HDD that I already use as a backup.

Any other comments & suggestions would be great before I take the plunge.

Cheers

Russ
 
With that spec I'd probably double the SSD drive for all that it would cost you.
 
Are all the USB's USB2?
While most things it doesn't make much difference you might consider one of the accessible ones on the front USB3 even if you don't have anything to use in it now.

You will love that monitor, but be aware it won't have onboard sound.
You may have speakers already but you have none listed.
If sound quality is less important than neat desk a sound bar clipped below it might do.
 
I'm seeing this as the USB port spec for that motherboard on the ASUS site:

ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller : *7
2 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue)
Intel® Z77 chipset : *7
4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)
Intel® Z77 chipset :
10 x USB 2.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, black, 8 at mid-board)
 
gman said:
With that spec I'd probably double the SSD drive for all that it would cost you.
Click to expand...

It bungs another £100 on the price........ Even if I can only run the O/S and Lightroom/Photoshop caches on it I'll be happy. I don't intend using it for much else other than photo editing.
 
4wd said:
Are all the USB's USB2?
While most things it doesn't make much difference you might consider one of the accessible ones on the front USB3 even if you don't have anything to use in it now.

You will love that monitor, but be aware it won't have onboard sound.
You may have speakers already but you have none listed.
If sound quality is less important than neat desk a sound bar clipped below it might do.
Click to expand...

I've got over 100 quids worth of Play.com vouchers so will get my keyboard, mouse and probably a 2.1 speaker set up from there :)
 
Just another thing while I think about it..... when adding the 2TB drive I already have, I guess I'm going to need a SATA data & power cables to hook it up with?

The last time I added a new HDD, IDE was a new thing :lol:
 
Russ77 said:
Just another thing while I think about it..... when adding the 2TB drive I already have, I guess I'm going to need a SATA data & power cables to hook it up with?
Click to expand...
Take the SATA cable from where it is now. As to power, I would very much doubt that you'd need a spliter - I'd expect there to be a spare SATA connector available form the PSU.

Spec looks fine. Depending on what you mean by "video editing" you MAY want to see if your s/w has graphics h/w acceleration. You MAY want a better video card (although the 210 will do just fine...).
 
arad85 said:
Take the SATA cable from where it is now. As to power, I would very much doubt that you'd need a spliter - I'd expect there to be a spare SATA connector available form the PSU.

Spec looks fine. Depending on what you mean by "video editing" you MAY want to see if your s/w has graphics h/w acceleration. You MAY want a better video card (although the 210 will do just fine...).
Click to expand...

The drive I'll be adding I currently connect to my laptop using a USB3 caddy/dock. The more I think about it, the more I'm considering hooking it up to the new machine using that method. What this means is that I'll import my images from my backup drive on to the 2TB drive installed in the machine and use that as my "working" drive. I would then add new images to the installed drive and back up to the 2 TB drives via the dock, one will be kept in a nice safe place in my house, the other will be in safe place at my parent's house.

By Video editing I mean taking some clips taken on my 7D and perhaps joining them together using Windows Movie Maker and adding some music......... certainly nothing more than than on a regular basis anyway :lol:
 
Last edited:
Russ77 said:
By Video editing I mean taking some clips taken on my 7D and perhaps joining them together using Windows Movie Maker and adding some music......... certainly nothing more than than on a regular basis anyway :lol:
Click to expand...
The 210 will be fine then :)
 
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