My Planned Build

[shinigamidaiko]

You have got a point indeed, most software only handle 8 logical core / threads. And concerning the SSD, it will be only used for the storage of the OS and software, i have two USB 3.0 HDDs and i'm gonna get more, along with a NAS.

 

[e2850252]

8 Core CPUs doesnt make sense. A lot of software out there to convert media files still doesnt support that amount of cores. An AMD Phenom II x4 /x6 or an Intel core i5 / i6 CPU is absolute sufficient.

Since I own an i7-860 with HT (8 logical cores) the x264 encoder scales usually from 50-90% CPU-load.
So I thought, one might improve encoding-power by useing 6 or 8 physical cores, especially since AMD has lower prices.
In general - yes, you mostly won't be in need for more than 4 cores. ;)
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Respect to HatoriTakaya for wirting all that stuff. I didn't want to read everything due to it's lenght so i just want to respond to some little details:


A PSU with 750W ist highly oversized for shinigamidaiko's use.
My system contains the former mentioned i7-860, an AMD 5850, fully stocked RAM-Slots, 4 Fans, 8 Harddrives.
I use an old BeQuiet! 530W PSU. To be honest - sometimes i think, it has to work a lot, but it never made problems.
Most PSUs have a power range with the best efficiency, mostly between 60% to 90% load if I'm not completly mistaken.
So if you use a 750W PSU for a system without dedicated graphics card, the system load will be under 25% all the time when idle. I you think this is a good thing - wrong :)

If you want to do it right, buy a quality brand PSU (BeQuiet!, Corsair, Enermax ... they are more expensive) with cablemanagement and think about upcoming connection standards and on what you would like to upgrade in the future.

Cablemanagement is something, I don't want to miss anymore today, since i never had problems expanding my setup, but it doesn't come for low...
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I'd recommend to use the 3770K without OC if not needed, because it has its own turbo-mode and will adjust to normal use.
However if you have special tasks and you want to encode a whole day, just OC for this day.
With ASUS MB and the K-CPU it will be very easy to OC. If you want to stay silent, buy a big tower-cooler for like ... 40-50$ max.
More important it is how big your chassis-fans are and on what rpm they run.

I recommend 120mm+ fans @600-1200 rpm.
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SSD: Samsung SSDs are good. Usually 64GB should be enough for 64Bit Win7 and most software, since gameing is not a factor.
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Motherboard: Don't pay too much for things you never use. I wouldn't tell you to buy a $75 low-price noname board, but you don't have to pay $200+ for something you don't need, since it won't improve your performance in the end.
It's always a wise idea, to think about future expansion slots.

Important are SATA, PCI-Ex1/x4 slots.

And yes - you should not buy the ASUS MAXIMUS V FORMULA MB. It's too expensive and has slots and features you'll never use :D

 

[Madmunchkin]

You have got a point indeed, most software only handle 8 logical core / threads. And concerning the SSD, it will be only used for the storage of the OS and software, i have two USB 3.0 HDDs and i'm gonna get more, along with a NAS.

Make sure you convert files from your SSD and story them at you external hdd after encoding. This will speed up the progress of converting. The ability of fast I/O of a SSD is amazing!

 

[shinigamidaiko]

Make sure you convert files from your SSD and story them at you external hdd after encoding. This will speed up the progress of converting. The ability of fast I/O of a SSD is amazing!

i didn't know about this, thank you for this tip. Indeed it makes sense that with the blazing speed of the SSD, the encoding will be much more faster.

 

[shinigamidaiko]

I think that i will get a certified gold 500 PSU since i think it would be enough. I totally forgot about the turbo mode of the CPU, it sure will be handy. And for the mobo, i think about sticking with my original choice, the Asus B75M-A (which costs only $100), since it offers 6 SATA ports (4 SATA II & 2 SATA III) and all the features i need. Its only bad aspect is the lack of DIMM slots, but since i'm getting 2 * 8GB modules, it won't be a problem (i don't think that i will need more than 16 GB for the next 3-4 years).

 

[FinalPyre]

I think that i will get a certified gold 500 PSU since i think it would be enough. I totally forgot about the turbo mode of the CPU, it sure will be handy. And for the mobo, i think about sticking with my original choice, the Asus B75M-A (which costs only $100), since it offers 6 SATA ports (4 SATA II & 2 SATA III) and all the features i need. Its only bad aspect is the lack of DIMM slots, but since i'm getting 2 * 8GB modules, it won't be a problem (i don't think that i will need more than 16 GB for the next 3-4 years).

I haven't read absolutely everything, since some people decided to write their thesis in this forum
But if you are overclocking a chip, you won't really have the turbo mode. The turbo will be whatever you OC it to (which is generally much higher than the stock turbo).

16GB ram should be LOTS for now, unless you plan to go into doing 3d renders or something. And even then, 16GB sticks are becoming a thing (if the mobo supports it), so even a few years down the road an upgrade would still be possible without swapping mobos.

I would agree that since a GPU is not a focus with you, 500 Watts should be plenty in a PSU. Gold will be nice for efficiency. :)

And just to put it here again, to anyone mentioning AMD to you, do not go for AMD if you are looking at processor work. They simply can't compete with intel. Last I checked the 8 core AMDs were still slower than 4 core intels.

 

[shinigamidaiko]

Well concerning the RAM, the mobo i'm planning to get supports only 16 GB at max, but i'm not going to change my usage of the computer (not 3D rendering or such...) so i think it should be good for the years to come :)

 

[LT Smith]

why are you choosing an xeon over an i3/i5? xeon's have a slower clock speed and they have a locked multiplier (you won't beable to overclock them despite the motherboard chipset). also you don't really need more than 8gb's of ram if you're not going to be running demanding tasks such as video encoding.

just wondering, what are you going to be using your build for primarily?

 

[shinigamidaiko]

Well i have advised to get an I7-3770K instead of the Xeon so that issue is solved. And concerning the RAM, since i'm probably getting a mobo with only 2 DIMM slots at max and that i'm not gonna upgrade the build in at least 3 years. And concerning my usage, here are the tasks that i'm gonna do on my future build :

- Convert files from Lossless Formats (FLAC,WAV) To Mp3
- Watch 10-bit 1080p anime and Blu-ray music videos
- Decompress huge files
- Convert M2TS blu ray files to high quality MKV rips

 

[e2850252]

I just read somewhere, that the upcomeing generation "haswell" is soon to be released.
So maybe if it isn't urgent, you might want to wait for the i7-4770K.

Furthermore the 500W PSU should be ok. I don't think, it's necessary to be gold-status. If you can save some money, take silver and buy a PSU with cable-management. :)

In the moment i have 16GB RAM. Usually i never used more than 4GB. Sometimes when browseing and having a game running behind, i'm slightly over 4GB. So I decided to use 4GB formatted as Harddrive. This heavenly (yes, it HEAVENly :D) increases speed for unrar packages, since it's several times faster than SSD.
I wouldn't base my buying decisions on that fact, but however, if you can, you might ;)
Having 32GB RAM and useing about 20GB as Harddrive ... seem's nice to me.

 

[shinigamidaiko]

I just read somewhere, that the upcomeing generation "haswell" is soon to be released.
So maybe if it isn't urgent, you might want to wait for the i7-4770K.

i heard that Haswell is gonna be released in June, but i have 2 questions :
1) Wouldn't the price of the 4770K be much higher than the 3770K ?
2) Is it safe to buy a mobo with Z87 chipset while there isn't any feedback about them ?

Furthermore the 500W PSU should be ok. I don't think, it's necessary to be gold-status. If you can save some money, take silver and buy a PSU with cable-management. :)

I have heard that not all PSU avaliable in the market right now are compatible with Haswell, do you mind giving me some advice about a decent silver certified model with Haswell compatiibily ?

Having 32GB RAM and useing about 20GB as Harddrive ... seem's nice to me.

Are you talking about RAM-DISK ? How can i set up this feature ?

 

[LT Smith]

why would certain psu's not be compatible with Haswell lol? did you know it's possible to use a modern power supply to power a pentium 4 build? xd all they do is convert AC current to DC current and distribute it to the components. it is rumoured that Haswell processors will have a lower TDP aswell.
also, you really don't need an i7 tbh since a large fraction of programs don't take advantage of hyper-threading. hyper-threading just doubles the amount of cpu cores virtually, you don't actually get a 50% performance increase; in reality, you only get a 5-10% performance increase since most programs aren't programmed in a language modern enough to even know what a hyper-thread is, in other words they aren't concurrent. therefore, you could probably save 100 quid by buying an i5 3570k which is the same as the i7 3770k but without hyper-threading; cpu prices will probably decrease aswell due to the fact the haswell is going to get released soon.

if your budget is around $500-700, take a look at http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZDW6 - i didn't include the graphics processor because idk if you're going to be using ur pc to game or not.

 

[shinigamidaiko]

Thank you for the through explanation. And i will sure take your advice into consideration :)

 

[LT Smith]

Thank you for the through explanation. And i will sure take your advice into consideration :)

you should plan your builds on pcpartpicker before you buy them to make sure the components will function when combined with others. it also can help you decide on what you need specifically.

 

[FinalPyre]

The problem with waiting for the next gen for something like this is that there is always a next gen coming out. :P
I guess if you aren't in a hurry, might as well. :P