Build Advice A little bit of help would be much appreciated

Hey guys, first thread created by me on Bit-Tech, and I need a little bit of help. see, the thing is that I need a new computer, because the laptop I have right now just won't cut it for what I want to do. Now I am very confident in my ability to chose parts for a computer that will work together well, but, being sixteen, my mom isn't so confident in me, so i need some help/ suggestions for this rig that i wanted to get.
The main uses that I wanted to have this computer for are: 3D modeling/rendering, Photoshop, Video rendering, gaming, game modding, a bit of overclocking, and programming.
I realize that I want to learn a lot of things on this computer, and that i cant do all of them at one, but i do want to get a start as soon as possible, and I would like to get this computer close to being finished by the time school starts. I have been very into computers for a couple of years now, and my step-dad, who passed away a couple of years ago was an executive at Microsoft from the days of NT up to the days of XP (His picture is on the cover of some computer magazine, or other) and he gets all the credit for getting into learning as much as i can about computers.

That was a long introduction, but basically I need suggestions for other components if some wont play nice together, or if there is something better for the same price, or cheaper, any help would be much appreciated!

The system in question:
Fractal R4 (White)
3TB Seagate 'cuda
MSI GTX670
NZXT Hale90 1000W (White)
Corsair K90 keyboard
Arctic Cooling MX-4
Gskill x-series (2x8gb@1333)
Asus maximus V formula
Core i7 3770k
3 corsair AF-140s
Phanteks PH-TC14PE (red)
OCZ vertex 4 (128gb
Cyborg F.R.E.Q. headset

I already have:
Cyborg R.A.T. 7 contagion
Mousepad
A copy of Windows 7 Ultimate

Thanks for any help guys!

 

Oh, and i have a monitor/ monitor cables

 

Ok... why do you need a 1000W PSU? Mouse mat? 3TB HDD?, And you really need a headset. For the headset part, I mean for better quality (especially that those are Mad Catz) brand, and sound you are better off using a good webcam and headphones.

Here is what I suggest:
-> For that CPU, get much faster RAM.. like 1600MHz should be your pure minimum.
-> 1TB HDD, but a better one like the Western Digital Caviar Black. It's a quieter drive and faster. Unless you are doing movie editing or working with huge but I mean huge projects or backing up the internet, I doubt that you need a 3TB drive. But if I am wrong, please tell me. You know your needs best. I just don't want you to trow your money.
-> I would get thhe OCZ Vertex 4 256GB, so that you can put several games on it as well as Windows, projects, and porgrams, and not be afraid of limited space
-> If you don't SLI, A 650W PSU is more than enough. Get the Corsair AX 750. It's 80Plus Gold, 90% efficient. It's actually a rebrand of Seasonic PSU's, just less because of the name that isn't there.
-> The fans... well let['s say that Corsair has a nice reputation of making loud fans. i know some people claim they are quiet, but nha.. they are noisy. If you wnat the bets of the best of fans, look at Noctua fans. While they are not the best at pushing air.. they are, in my opinion, the most efficent fans, and the quietest fans. If you set them at minimum speed, you feel like you don't even have them. That quiet!

I would also invest in a dedicated sound card. We all enjoy music when we work (ok fine, most people), or enjoy movies or get a better sound experience in gaming. A dedicated sound card is a worthy investment. No static, no interferences, sound is rich and lively. Makes everything sound just awesome, and depending what you buy as a sound card, you know that probably any speakers you plug on it, the sound will be limited by the speakers and not the sound card. Plus a sound card is not something you upgrade often... sound card easily can pass from a second computer upgrade. The only reason a person may want to upgrade their sound card are: they seek for a better sound, it broke, or the card is so old that the drivers aren't made available for the latest Windows.
Have a look at the ASUS Xonar series on PCI-E ('cause PCI is fading out.. so probably your next computer won't have the plug). Of course, the more you pay, the better the sound.. no need to go over board with 200$ cards. I am not suggesting those. But of cook at the 20-30$ market (super low end), then I'll be honest you won't get a lot of benefits. See your budget see what you can afford at the end, but i am a strong believer that anything is better than onboard sound card.

Also what monitor do you have now?

 

Wow! thank you so much for your help, off of your suggestion i have changed a few things, which i will be posting in a second. i went with a 1tb seagate drive, because the 'cuda was about $40 cheaper (on newegg in the U.S.) also, i dont know a whole lot about webcams, or good headphones, so if you could at least point me in the right direction, that would be great! as far as my monitor goes, im not exactly sure what it is, but its a dell monitor, 27" from about 4 years ago, so it has cathode lighting, as opposed to LED and such.

The system i have now is as follows (i changed mobo because it was a bit cheaper, and not red, i like blue better)
fractal R4
'cuda 1TB
2 MSI GTX 670s
Asus Xonar DX 7.1 (should i go 2.1 instead? i dont think i really NEED 7.1)
corsair AX750
corsair K90
arctic cooling MX-4
GSkill x series (black spreaders) 16GB @2133
Asus p8z77-V deluxe
core i7 3770k
3 noctua nf-p14 flx 140mm
NH-d14 (is the paste from noctua good enough to us instead of the MX-4?)
256GB ocz vertex 4

The reason for the three TB was that i wasnt completely sure about how much space those things that i wanted to do were going to take up.

 

Ah, so you are going with 2x GTX 670. In that case, just to future proof your computer for future GPU's upgrade (if you go SLI) I would get the AX 850, IF ONLY it's a few dollars more. Because I am being just safe.

2x GTX 670 consumes about 324W together, you have the rest of the system.. so you are at about... 500-600W.
2x GTX 680 consumes 437W togther. As I don't know if Nvidia will continue to the path of power efficiency 5-6 years down the line, it might be issue if you really want SLI at that time.

Seagate HDD's have a reputation of being noise drives.

For your RAM.. while G,Skill is an excellent brand, look at the Corsair which are compatible quality to a POSSIBLY cheaper price (corsair Vengeance series). Also, you want to look at timings. You want these numbers the lowest possible.

Nice fan choice. I highly doubt you'll regret them.

For thermal paste, keep your MX-4. The Noctua one isn't bad at all. They are pretty good, but Artic Silver is better. Thermal paste is not really their specialties. They are best at fans, and CPU heatsink replacement (although a bit on the expensive side)

The sound card is an excellent sound card, while not super fancy, it will provide you with a hearable difference between your onboard, and really enjoy a clean nice, sound. If anything your speakers or headphones would be limiting the card full potential. This is really good.
Don't forget that these sound card, like graphic cards, require additional power. They use the old school 4-pin floppy power connector. Don't worry, your PSU have the connector.
Pretty much all dedicated sound card mentioned "7.1 sound".. it's just a marketing thing. It just to say "Look, you can plug those surround sound speakers or surround headphones"... but if you look at the really high end, like the ASUS Essence STX, it's only 2.0/2.1 as that's what audio enthusiasts really use, and that's the market it is aimed at.

1TB HDD with your 256GB is plenty. If you need more space later on, you can always buy an HDD with an enclosure for making the HDD external, and connect it via eSATA (same SATA port inside your computer, but the plug is designed differently to hold better and easier to insert for external use), so you have the same nice speed as if it was inside your system. Yes it's faster and much less resource intensive during a requested task, than USB 3.0, as it's specially designed for data transfer.

Of course, you put the HDD inside you computer and keep it that way. Just showing possible options.

For webcam, well here the thing... my mistake actually. If you do video chat, it's worth investing. their mic isn't always the best.. but generally acceptable. Great if you do Skype a lot or alike. If you do a lot of talking only.. then perhaps a cheaper webcam, or a dedicated mic will do. Headset mic are usually OK. They can be on par or slightly superior than one in a webcam, but what kills it, is that the headset are usually poor build quality, and don't provide good sound as much cheaper headphones. And also, some are badly designed, where the mic position, make the other person hear your breathing non stop (worst case). You definitely have to check reviews. Usually you can find on youtube or on reviews site a recording of the Mic in action.

Also, it seams that you are missing a DVD Burner drive. I would get one.. so that.. you know.. can install Windows on your computer. (Although I like to do it via a USB memory key, and with that SSD (which I also have) expect a 5-7min install of Windows (the Windows install process only, this exclude anything that happens after the first reboot, and you doing the install wizard step. From 20-25min down to 5-7min if you have a high speed USB 2.0, is fun.
Anyway,

Your monitor is awesome, don't change it, high grade cathode lighting are the best back light tech (well affordable, and assuming you don't need to work with non-wide gamut color space), plus you have I think an IPS or PVA panel. So definitely keep it.

If money allows it, and IF you want an ultra quiet computer, I would look into a heat-sink replacement for your CPU. I am a little outdated on this topic.. so I am afraid I can't help you there.
Personally I have the Noctua NH-U12P.. but I think you can find better and cheaper ones. I got that one due to a bundle deal there was. Personally I like it a lot, but for my CPU I doubt I can push my CPU with a crazy overclock, assuming I want to keep all my fans at the slowest speed possible.

For headphones, I am no expert on it, but you can find a lot of knowledge people here on the topic. Just make a new thread, show your budget, mention the sound card that you'll have, and I am sure you'll get a nice selection. Personally, I use, and found the best budget headphone, and recommend it to anyone in a tight budget, the Sony MDR-XD200. In a nut shell:

Pros:
-> Inexpensive
-> Great build quality.. you can hit, drop them, they won't break
-> very long cable, you can practically walk anywhere in your room with them on your head 9unless you have a really bug room)
-> closed form, so you have some sort of outside isolation (not full), and your music is more private than open form headphones
-> Good balance. Treble, Bass and Mid range aren't all over the place (in a bad way). Example, if you listen the music, and then there is a cymbal from the drummer, it won't feel like spikes entering your ears, something that I notice on many cheap headphones.
-> Somewhat comfy. You can wear it for extra long time.
-> One sided wire

Cons:
-> Plastic movement crack as you move and adjust them.
-> Sound is obviously nothing close to 100$ ones
-> "Music and Movie" mode, doesn't do anything. It's just flaps that closes or opens inside the headphone, you need to set it on each of them.It's just marketing fluff.
-> Wire can be made of higher quality. It's not bad, but if you roll the chair on it a lot... don't expect to pass a year of usage.

But of course, if you have the money, and plan to listen to a lot of music, or plan to get a music service like the Zune Pass where you have unlimited music streaming and download (downloaded music is only playable on PC, Zune MP3 player, XBox 360, or Windows Phone 7 and 8), for like 10$ a month (99$ per year). And of course like all other services, you need to keep your membership to have your downloaded music playable. Other similar services: Rdio or Spotify, among others: you may want to invest on something better. For me It will have to wait. No budget. Got my SSDs (desktop and laptop), sound card for laptop, and planning on a new GPU (GTX 670 I have my eyes on)

 

Moved to Hardware for more eyes.

 

Thanks for the move!
@goodbytes, thanks for the advice, here is what i have now, just to keep everyone updated so everyone knows where i'm at.
as far as the DVD drive goes, we have one in another computer that i was going to commandeer for a day to install windows/ get a USB windows copy going, then put it back, because i dont use DVD drives much. if that changes ill probably end up getting an external one just because it keeps my case looking cleaner (even though it has a door) and it will be easier to reach.
For hardware everything is the same, except the PSU has been changed to the 850, and i kept the RAM because it was the cheapest at 2133 from Gskill/corsair and has the lowest timings, as far as i can tell anyway. on a related note, what do timings do exactly?

im still not sure what i want to do for sound in/out. i dont do much video chat, anyway, although i do have a couple of extra webcams laying around that should do the trick if i need one.

 

one last post for the night from me, but, i dont think i posted my budget... it's right around $2500 us
also, that doesn't include any peripherals, and such, as i can get those separately. also, if possible, i would like to keep it all in a color coordinated fashion, and my colors of choice are blue, white, red. also, i will not be using any old components, although i do have a pair of GTX 260's laying about, so i could use one for a dedicated Physx card? oh, and brown, i suppose, if you include the fans... lol maybe ill paint those at some point.

 

Looks like a good build to me, as usual GoodBytes first in with a massive helpful post....I dunno how he does it

Something you may want to consider is a water cooling unit for the CPU, like an Antec Kuhler or Corsair Hydro. If your build is that high end and you're maybe looking to overclock in the future, it could be worth it for lower temperatures, lower noise and increased overclocking headroom.

Also as I've said in a few threads recently, 2TB drives are currently the best value for money. Usually only £10-15GBP more than a 1TB drive, so you could shop around and see if you can get a better value drive.

Also if you're getting an SSD and have access to another PC with a DVD drive, make a USB installer for Windows 7 that will speed up the install process. There are several utilities available to take content off a Win7 disk and then put them onto a USB drive. You can even customise what components of Windows you want installed.

Finally, I'm not 100% sure about this so I could be wrong, but I believe that with the speed and power of today's graphics cards (especially the ones you're getting) PhysX is regarded as a bit of a gimmick. Haven't seen anyone on Bit-tech using a PhysX card for a few years now. But you should check this with someone else to make sure.

Hope this helps.

 

He's just like that, and we must be thankful for it

Also, not a lot of UK members online at 4 in the morning

 

yeah, thats a good point about the physx, as i haven't seen anyone running it either... I will look around for a better value 2TB drive as well, thanks!

 

As far as the corsair w/c all in one (h100 etc) i think i will go for air at the moment, and when i get the money in the future, i will go for a full loop, just because i'm not a huge fan of how the all in ones look, compared to a full loop. monsoon fittings, anyone?

 

For 2TB hard drives, Seagate Barracuda is going fairly cheap on Amazon at $113, with free "super saver" shipping if you choose. You could still go 3TB, $ per GB is a little bit better (using the 2TB Seagate linked compared to its 3TB model), really your call.

While on the subject of storage I'll be "that guy" to bring up backups. Depending on how your budget shakes down you could consider splashing a little extra money one something like this Synology NAS and putting in a drive or two as required to provide enough room for backing up important files, or all files, as needed. You could also just get an external hard drive enclosure+hard drive and periodically backup important files, cheaper but not as safe. It's something to consider.

On an unrelated note, it's neat to see someone close to home!

 

haha, yeah! it is, thanks for the advice on the hard drives, i was originally going to go with the 3TB, and i might do so again, as for storage backups, we have a server in another house, that will be moved here, eventually, and a plethora of old, disused computers with perfectly good hard drives, so i'm sure i can come up with a good backup system at some point. aside from that, my school uses google docs for nearly everything, that, or paper, so it shouldnt be too much of an issue if a hard drive crashes in the first month or so, and after i get the server up, ill start getting some personal "important" things going (learning, mostly, like CAD, 3d rendering, photoshop, and programming in C/C++ and so on)