Taking the plunge!

[Gritcake1986]

Hey there,

I'm looking to build a Desktop for multimedia software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Flash, Premier and After Effects plus Maya but also be capable of running games such as SWTOR and any upcoming mmos like Guild Wars 2, TERA etc

Would this build be much use?

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW...ge-93p1184.htm

CPU - Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.3Ghz
Cooler -Xigmatek HDT-S963
OS - Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
Memory - 8GB DDR3 1333mhz (2x 4GB)
Harddrive - 500GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Optical drive - 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics - Nvidia 9800gt (My own card, for now) Eventually I'll get a better one (Suggestions?)
Sound - Onboard 7.1 Audio
PSU - Onsite Standard 500W PSU (I also have a 500W CIT PSU)

Trying to keep within a budget of £500, the less the better but willing to take on suggestions!

Thanks!

[andy572]

You do mean buy rather than build?

I'd be looking for something more than a 'standard' power supply with nice kit like that. It's not the place to skimp!

I've been very impressed by the 9800 since I added it to this system a couple of years ago. If you're happy to tweak settings downwards sometimes, it can be considered a very capable card. Having said that, I don't play games much and the ones that I have tend to be Indie releases or older ones bought during Steam sales. The most recent that I can think of just now are Batman: Arkham Asylum, Portal 2, the two Left for Dead games and the last Railworks game. I believe that last one's known to be harsh on the system but I've either been lucky with it or it's okay here. The other games run well and look wonderful - all with a processor that's appreciably behind that i5.

Looking ahead, the processor will drive any graphics card you're able to install. I have hopes of an eventual upgrade and expect good things even with my Athlon system. The i5 will be on another level!

By the way, there's only two titles in which I've had to pare the graphics settings back! I don't have a 1080p screen, but it's still a good outcome when finding these games look and play so well.

The last little point is that I'm not familiar with the cooler. Not having looked it up yet, I'm assuming that it's a small tower heat-sink with a 92mm fan. If so, it'll be okay - better than the stock cooling, possibly not as quiet as a 120mm set-up (depending how much it's pushed). I'll leave that part for someone here that knows about clocking 2500Ks at that speed!

[dream234]

Yeah, don't skimp on the PSU. The rest of the build looks good, but might it be worth considering an SSD for a boot drive or photoshop scratch disk?

I'm not familiar with that cooler either - is it required because of the O/C'd processor? The overclocked processor won't make as much of a difference to things as an SSD would, and you could then use the stock cooler, saving you another few quid.

[sonico11]

The build overall is nice but there are a few suggestions I would make - money permitting of course =P

Firstly, although the 2500k is a fantastic CPU and great value for money, the 3570k is also very nicely priced now and runs better than a 2500k so it's something worth thinking about. The problem with that is you would have to upgrade your motherboard to support the new Socket H2 format which can set you back easily another £50 if you go for a top end board.

Secondly, if you are really into media and can find a great deal, try and plump for 16GB of high performance/ clocked RAM. Only double if you can find a great deal otherwise it isn't really that important. I recommend Corsair Vengeance memory for this. ( Although it would be nice to know the brand of the memory you have listed above =P for comparison).

Thirdly, Hard Drives really aren't that costly these days - I recently bought a new HDD for my PC to extend my storage from 1TB to 4TB (i.e. I bought a 3TB Hard Drive recently) and taking into account all of the postage and packaging costs and so on, it only set me back £120 is which extremely good value for money, so that is something worth considering. Also, in terms of storage, a 32GB SSD for booting up Windows would go down a treat - you will love those fast boot-ups

Fourthly, although the 9800GT was a very good card, I feel you really need to upgrade as soon as possible. As for suggestions for you, it really does depend on your total budget for these things - A great performance card that represents value for money would be a ATi Radeon HD 6850, or if you can pick up a second-hand nvidia GTX 560Ti, then you would be able to solidly run a lot of games at good frame rates on high-max settings, but some just wouldn't cope. I would also strongly push the EVGA GTX 670 FTW Edition. It is on sale on SCAN right now as part of the EVGA Anniversary promotion and you can pick it up for just £318 which is an absolute bargain when you consider that this card is effectively a GTX 680 so you are saving between £50 and £100. You will have to be quick to get it at this price though XD

Finally, I agree with the other 2 replies in that you really want a good quality PSU - it is not an area to skimp out on. Corsair do nice, good quality PSU's, both modular and non-modular (I would recommend non-modular for tidiness in your case, but it is possible with good cable management to tidy a modular PSU).

Right, I think that is all. Hope this helps you out man, or at least makes you think about things a little - I know you said £500 but if you put the money in now with the suggestions I mentioned, you will have yourself a PC that will last you many years running games on very high settings.