Take my PC build virginity

[TyGuy91]

What's up everyone,

For the last 3 months I've been slowly acquiring parts to build my first PC. I don't really do online gaming but I'm sure that after I finish this thing I'll become addicted (I have an incredibly addictive personality). It's primarily going to be for photo/video editing and web design but like I said, I'm a very addictive person by nature so this way I can try all kinds of advanced programming and design hobbies.

I've been putting a lot of time and research into the parts that I've been selecting but of course all of the trolls online get me all worried about parts that appear to be good to me. It's very important to me that the build looks clean and color coordinates with Red/Black/White (serious case of OCD and ADD here lol).

Anyway, here's what I have so far (NO MOBO YET, that's why I'm here) :

Intel i7-4770k
G Skill Ripjaw 1866 (2 x 8GB)
Kingston V300 SSD (120GB)
WD Black 1 TB HDD
Corsair CX750M
Corsair H100 liquid cooling
Corsair Carbide 500r
ASUS 24x DVD RW

Motherboard: I love the VI Formula but don't know if I can justify spending another 100 on it. It's pretty much between the Hero and Sabertooth. Thoughts?

GPU: Okay, major questions. I'll be running 2 Dell S2340M's when I finish the build and then eventually adding a third. Since I'm not going to be doing much gaming what level graphics card should I be looking at? From what I've read I should stick with Nvidia for all of my Adobe programs. Is this accurate? I've been leaning towards ASUS's GTX660-DC2O-2G​D5. Is 660 too small? Too old? What if my plan down the road is to add a second and go SLI?

Any thoughts, criticisms, opinions are appreciated. I will say, I regret my PSU selection. I think I went too big (750watt) and too cheap (cx series). Any accuracy to that?

Thanks guys!

[kkn]

never cheep out on psu. its the heart of your system.
and no dont think smal. think big.
a psu dont pull more power then what the system pulls so.
i would say go whit 750 for one graphic card or sli do 850+

[Dr__Zchivago]

I went through two CX750M PSUs before picking up this Seasonic Platinum SS-1000XP.

They both made this God-awful hissing/failing cap noise, and the general public consensus was that the sounds were normal - obviously, unacceptable. Plus, it hiccuped over and over on my new rig, which includes two graphics cards in Crossfire, loads of fans, platter drives, etc. - and that still without the addition of the water loop.

Check out this page http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx and see what the manufacturer says about your power requirements. If I'm not mistaken, the general advice is to add 150 W to whatever result the calculator gives you.

On the motherboard, I have always used AMD - after my Pentium 2 MMX - but, I have heard many good things about the Maximus boards.

Dr. Z

[LukeeVassallo]

If you want a corsair psu, go with an HX or AX series.. or check other brands such as seasonic or pc power and cooling and other brands (those brands I had in the past and were reliable) ...

The formula is a great mobo (the best good looking too in my opinion lol), the extreme can support up to 4 way sli ( Nvidia ) as the formula supports only 2 way for nvidia.... Also many from my point of view the formula is a basic board, whilst the extreme has got some tweaking for advanced users, but that's just me haha! Benckmarks, they are both on the same level

[TyGuy91]

Thank you both,

I've read similar things about the cx750m from corsair. I'm looking at returning it to amazon right now actually. What do you guys know about the RM series by Corsair? I want to get something fully modular so it looks like that leaves me with the AX or RM series.

Regarding the AMD vs. Intel aspect. Since I already have the 4770k I'm going to stick with Intel. Like I said, this is my first go around with building my own PC and my last two notebooks have been Mac's. The next build I try will definitely be AMD though.

What do you think about a GPU selection? I know that for what I'll be doing my RAM is more important than my Graphics Card but I feel that I have to put something in the build. Is a GTX660 too old? I've also read that Nvidia card prices will be dropping this quarter due to new models coming out soon.

[Dr__Zchivago]

TyGuy91 wrote:
What do you guys know about the RM series by Corsair? I want to get something fully modular so it looks like that leaves me with the AX or RM series.

I use a modular RM 650 in my PrimeNet machine, which I have mounted in a home-made test bench (completely open). When the computer is just idling in Windows (almost never), I can hear the same hissing noise; although, it is MUCH quieter, and the noise would be inaudible if the PSU was mounted in a closed case (it sits on a mini-refrigerator right next to my desk). The PSU's fan, however, only comes on when it is under heavier loads (I think above ~30% to 40%), and so it never spins up under the current configuration.

All-in-all, the RM 650 is rock solid, and it ran my C5F-Z + FX 8320 w/ 2 HDD's and one Radeon HD 7850 with zero problems for two months (prior to the Seasonic), and it was QUIET; but, it began to hiccup a little when I added a second card in Crossfire.

Z

[kkn]

TyGuy91 wrote:
What do you think about a GPU selection? I know that for what I'll be doing my RAM is more important than my Graphics Card but I feel that I have to put something in the build. Is a GTX660 too old? I've also read that Nvidia card prices will be dropping this quarter due to new models coming out soon.

depends on what games you are going to play and resolution.