New Build Advice

[Soccer55]

I'm looking to upgrade from an E8400 and would like some advice on the compnents I'm looking at

1. What YOUR PC will be used for: Mainly gaming. I mostly play MMOs, but will play the occasional FPS or RTS game. I will also do some light photo/video editing.

2. What YOUR budget is: ~$800

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from: US - local/online

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from: N/A

5. IF YOU have a brand preference: I like Intel processors and prefer Mushkin memory due to previous experience with Mushkin products (though I could bend on the memory)

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are: I am looking to upgrade CPU, motherboard, RAM, GPU, and HDD as I have everything else. I will be running Win8 on the box in case that matters.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds: default

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using: 2560x1600

9. WHEN do you plan to build it: Within the next 2-4 weeks, though I could put it off for a few weeks if it would be advantageous to do so

Current Box:
CPU - Intel C2D E8400
Motherboard - Gigabyte UD3R
RAM - 6GB Corsair (2x2GB + 2x1GB)
GPU - Asus HD4870 1GB
HDD - WD 7200 RPM 640 GB

Here are the components I'm currently looking at:
CPU - Intel Ivy Bridge i5-3570K - $219.99
Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - $119.99
RAM - Mushkin Blackline 16GB DDR3-1600 (2x8GB) - $79.99
GPU - MSI R7870 Twin Frozr HD7870 GHz Edition 2GB - $259.99
HDD - WD Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s - $99.99
Total: ~$780 (all from Newegg)

My questions:
1) Is the difference between the 3570K and 3770K worth it for my usage considering the price difference is ~$80?
2) I went with 16GB RAM instead of 8GB as RAM is dirt cheap. Does the extra 8 GB really matter?
3) The part I'm most unsure about is the GPU. I'm not looking for a dual GPU setup, so I'm debating between the 7850, 7870, and 7950. It seems like the 7870 will give me the best performance for what would reasonably fit in my price range.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[mfenn]

Overall the build looks pretty decent, what prices are you paying for the individual parts? The Extreme4 and WD Black are likely kind of high for what you need.

1) Since your applications can make use of HT and you're not overclocking, neither. Instead I'd get the Xeon E3-1230 V2.

2) 16GB doesn't matter for gaming, but it can help for photo and video editing.

3) Any of those are good price/performance, it all comes down to what will fit in the budget.

 

[Soccer55]

Overall the build looks pretty decent, what prices are you paying for the individual parts? The Extreme4 and WD Black are likely kind of high for what you need.

1) Since your applications can make use of HT and you're not overclocking, neither. Instead I'd get the Xeon E3-1230 V2.

2) 16GB doesn't matter for gaming, but it can help for photo and video editing.

3) Any of those are good price/performance, it all comes down to what will fit in the budget.

Thanks for the feedback. I added component pricing to the OP with all prices from Newegg.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I think you're paying too much for RAM, especially if you're only doing "light" workloads of photo editing. There's a nice deal on a 2x4GB in the Hot Deals forums. Go for the Xeon mfenn posted and get an H77 board (since you will not overclock) like this. Also, drop from the WD Black to a Seagate for another $30 of savings. Put those savings towards a better video card, which is important at your large resolution. A 7970 like this Powercolor will preform well; you can save $80 by stepping down to this HIS 7950.

 

[Soccer55]

I think you're paying too much for RAM, especially if you're only doing "light" workloads of photo editing. There's a nice deal on a 2x4GB in the Hot Deals forums. Go for the Xeon mfenn posted and get an H77 board (since you will not overclock) like this. Also, drop from the WD Black to a Seagate for another $30 of savings. Put those savings towards a better video card, which is important at your large resolution. A 7970 like this Powercolor will preform well; you can save $80 by stepping down to this HIS 7950.

Thanks for the advice. I'm definitely going to be getting that Xeon and dropping the WD Black to a Seagate 1 TB. I was looking at the Powercolor 7970 you listed and noticed there's a Sapphire one that is comparable.

Sapphire 7970: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202008
Powercolor 7970: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131468

Looks like the Sapphire one is an "OC" model (with a 25 MHz OC over the Powercolor) and "with Boost". Seeing as though I haven't bought a GPU in a while, does the manufacturer still matter as far as quality goes? If not, I might go with the Sapphire for the slightly higher clock and the boost up to 1 GHz clock. Thanks again for the assistance with this build.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I would definitely go with Sapphire on this one. I was just looking for the cheapest 7970 on Newegg before rebates; if you are willing to fill the rebate out, the Sapphire is not only better performing but also costs less.

Manufacturers are all pretty good. Sapphire makes good Radeons, MSI, Asus, Gigabyte make good cards for both Nivida and AMD; EVGA and Galaxy make expensive (but good) Nvidia cards. Powercolor and XFX are a little more on the budget side, but they are solid as well (Powercolor also makes a model called PCS+ which is higher end, but I digress).

 

[Soccer55]

Thanks for the info! It looks like my build will be more like:

CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1230V2 - $231.99
Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Pro4 - $98.99
RAM - Samsung 16 GB DDR3 1600 "Magic Ram" - $62.04
GPU - Sapphire HD7970 OC w/ Boost 3 GB - $379.99 ($359.99 w/ $20 rebate)
HDD - Seagate 7200 rpm 1 TB - $79.23

Total: $852.24 ($832.24 w/ $20 Sapphire rebate)

I saw the RAM in the Hot Deals forum after Sleepingforest pointed me there. Not sure if this was the RAM you were talking about, but it seems to be good ram? I also saw this motherboard and thought it might be a good compromise between the Extreme4 and the H77 board that was linked. I'm comfortable with the $30/$50 overage on the budget if this is a solid build.

 

[Sleepingforest]

The only questions are: did you not need a case or a PSU? Do you have your heart set on 16GB of RAM?

 

[lehtv]

I'd consider is just getting 2x4GB for now. Buy more if you need more; light video editing doesn't really need more.

I don't see a need for the extra USB and SATA ports on the Pro4. Asrock Pro3 should do just as well

 

[Soccer55]

I have an Antec full tower case and an Antec 800 or 850 watt PSU (can't remember and not near the box) that I am reusing from my current rig. My heart is not set on 16 GB, I just figure that RAM is so cheap, why not get 16. The only reason I thought I'd go with the extra ports on the Pro4 is that I'll probably have this rig for at least the next 5 years, so I wanted to make sure I had some extra connections in case they're needed in the future. Unfortunately, I don't get to upgrade as often as I'd like to

 

[Sleepingforest]

In that case, it does make sense to spend a little upfront now. On the other hand, you will probably be able to find a CPU/mobo combo in the future with the same or richer feature set for less. It's up to you: spend more and build less frequently, or save some money in return for your time.

You could probably do some calculations to show how much money you actually save per hour by upgrading later, but the time it would take to do so would probably nullify any savings you could potentially gain

 

[mfenn]

I don't see a need for the extra USB and SATA ports on the Pro4. Asrock Pro3 should do just as well

Agree. Realistically speaking, the extra USB and SATA ports on the Pro4 aren't going to make the difference between an upgradable machine and an un-upgradable one.

However, since the OP is getting the Xeon anyway, I think the H77 Pro4/MVP is the best choice. I built a system with one yesterday and it is damn nice, especially considering that it costs $80.