Please critique my computer build

Thank you to everyone for your advice! I finally placed the order for His And Her PC's The components:

Case: Corsair 600T

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77

Power Supply: Seasonic M12II 620w Bronze

Memory: 16GB Corsair 1600 DDR3

Video Card: Not needed

Storage SDD: 128GB Crucial M4

Storage HDD: 1TB Seagate

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD Burner

Cooling: 4 120mm fans mounted on mesh side panel

Monitor: Asus VS229h-P 21.5" IPS LCD

Sorry, to post another build thread. I really wish the forum had a STICKY that touched basis with all the essential parts for those looking to DIY build or purchase a new pc. It's when I start looking for a specific piece that I become overwhelmed with the amount of choices available / my lack of knowledge. We are now on our 4th laptop in 7 years and ready to switch over to a more powerful system.

The new PCs will be used for pp'n still images using LR4 & PS CS3 / uploading to the web. Looking to build identical systems for myself and the lady of the house. We have no plans to shoot video.

Your pc is extremely overkill for photo processing. To save money look at a lower spec motherboard based on the AMD 3 platform and a triple or quad core AMD processor. You should be able to get a good case and quiet 600w PSU for less than you are quoting. 16gb of memory will be more than enough for your usage. Look at 1TB internal H/disc and an external usb h/disc for backup.

You will need a Graphic Card (video card) as the CPU does not have a video out capability. I recently built a pc that can do everything that you require and far more (including handling Blueray video extremely quickly) in the uk for £600 inc windows 7 pro, which equates to approx $900.

To be honest, the highest spec components are not necessary for your purpose. Go for something more mid range

Look for a case/power supply combo, you dont need more then 600 watt supply, will save you $150+
Motherboard: Look at an Asus H77 board ~$150 max
CPU: i5 3450 ~$200 (not K or S because you wont use it)
Video Card: ATI 7750 chipset or nVIDIA GTX 550 ~$100-125

Everything else looks good though.

As far as memory goes - if you're using Windows 7 Home Premium, you can only access 16GB of RAM - you have to upgrade to Pro or Ultimate, or whatever the next step is to support 32 GB.

Get the newer Ivy Bridge processor, it's the same price and slightly faster, I think.

Four 120mm cooling fans on the side of the case seems a bit much. I have front intake, rear exhaust, PSU, and CPU fans. Also go for something high quality like Noctuna to keep it quiet.

Otherwise it looks good. I'd ignore Craig Lawrance, LR is very very CPU hungry and you want the fastest processor you can get for processing a lot of images.

a 2 x 8GB RAM will let you upgrade to 32 GB later. It's unlikely you'll really be constrained by the 16GB for the next two years though.

craiglawrance wrote in post #14455489
You will need a Graphic Card (video card) as the CPU does not have a video out capability.

As long as the mobo has a video adapter (VGA, DVI, HDMI) the OP doesn't need a graphics card.

tim wrote in post #14456463
Get the newer Ivy Bridge processor, it's the same price and slightly faster, I think.

Four 120mm cooling fans on the side of the case seems a bit much. I have front intake, rear exhaust, PSU, and CPU fans. Also go for something high quality like Noctuna to keep it quiet.

Otherwise it looks good. I'd ignore Craig Lawrance, LR is very very CPU hungry and you want the fastest processor you can get for processing a lot of images.

The IB has the updated Intel 4000HD compared to the 3000HD on the SB. Also there's a nice reduction in TDP on the IB over SB (77 compared to 95 W, I believe). I'd pay the extra dollars to get the IB over SB.

I agree with everything mentioned above - your PSU/Mobo choices especially are overkill. Personally, I prefer the Micro ATX form factor - and I don't see that ATX provides any advantage for your purposes. On that basis I'd go for:


Case: Silverstone Temjin / Lian-Li PCA04 / any other mATX tower($100)

Power Supply: Corsair 650 TX ($100)

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4-M ($110)

CPU: Intel 3570K ($240)

Memory: 16GB DDR3 ($90) - 4x4Gb

Video Card:Not needed

Storage: Crucial M4 ($140) Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB ($120)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD Burner ($18)

The above prices are from Newegg but it pays to shop around - the CPU/Mobo combo can actually be had from Microcenter for $189.99 + $59.99. I'd also consider getting a Blu-Ray burner simply for the additional storage option.

Ivy Bridge is very nice, and is well worth it to go with that route now. Power requirements are also very low for most of the new processors in that line, which means making a low noise system is a lot easier without giving up your number crunching.

If you are going with a ton of main memory in your system, then remember to check your settings. LR appears to have had a default of only 4 GB cache compared to my 16 GB of ram.


Full sized towers are a wonderful thing to work with, if a tad bulky and heavy. If you have the space in your office, then I strongly suggest going full sized. Your micro and midsized cases have two critical flaws: 1. They are smaller and more cramped, leading to more skinned knuckles while working with them. 2. They`re smaller and more cramped, leading to less drive storage space. (And can be a pain to use with some "Full sized" expansion cards due to the hard drive mounting brackets extending into the expansion card speced volume.)

I run an older Antec P-180 (Their newer versions of this line have apparently gone way down in build quality.) and I have 2 optical drives, 5 hard drives, and an SSD in here. I'm not limited by physical space to add more at this point, as I still have lots of slots open. I'm actually limited by having run out of SATA ports on my current mother board.

The only time I suggest small cases are when they aren't going to suit your work area, or are for very simple light use systems that aren't going to see any need for upgrades.

I want to thank you all for the input. I have taken all the information provided into consideration and have made a couple changes:

Power Supply: NEW CHOICE: Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W ($90)
Old choice: Corsair HX850 ($155) (possible overkill)


CPU: NEW CHOICE: Intel Core i5-3570k Ivy Bridge ($240)
Old choice: Intel Core i7-2600k Sandy Bridge $300) (possible overkill)

I am going to keep everything else as is. With the 2 modifications this will be a savings of $250 between the 2 systems.

Probably get Home edition of Windows 7. After doing some reading, it appears 16GB of RAM will be sufficient.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

The power supply is a better choice, but stick with the i7.
It is $60 faster than the i5, the extra overhead lets you batch out of one program while working on a single file in another and if you ever move onto a 5D or similar res camera that extra performance is noticeable in Lightroom.

To get the most out of it you do need to use a multiple HDD set up.
Ideally 3 drives, 1 for the OS and Programs, one for your images and one for the Cache and previews.
Ideally the cache and previews would go on an SSD.


Anyone who thinks it is over kill has never processed a large volume of images professionally where time is important. You'll easily make back the difference in price in time saved and invested in other things like sales and marketing.

Though of course go for the new i7 3xxx if you go that way, not the 2xxx. I don't know if it's faster, or how much, but I got the fastest available at the time because the price wasn't much different really.

Well, just bought 2 systems. I decided to go with the i7-3770K processor.

Figured what's another $200 when we're talking about buying (early next year) matching 5DIII's

Thanks again to all of you for your input! I am looking forward to putting it all together (my first time)

Buy . COM SUCKS!!

Just received a call from buy dot com that my order for 2 intel i7-3770K is on backorder and there is no estimated time of arrival for the cpu's. It's funny because you can still order the 3770k on buy . com as of now, which ships from TigerDirect. But, they won't fulfill my order that I placed on Monday

Both Tigerdirect and Amazon are going to charge shipping + tax for the processors! No way in hell am I paying tax for buying online. Sorry, just not going to do it!

With that being said I just placed an order for the i7-2600k processor on newegg! Oh, and

BUY.COM SUCKS!

I love Newegg for computer parts, hands down best place.
They ship out extremely fast, have never had a single order go bad! And my standards are pretty high when it comes to online stores I rarely recommend one but Newegg deserves it with their service.

i have to pay sales tax with them because they're in my backyard but its worth it because I get everything over night, even the cheapest ground shipping gets to me the next morning

Also recently I've gone over to Linux, being a long time windows user I must say it's head over heels better.

maverick75 wrote in post #14472098
I love Newegg for computer parts, hands down best place.
They ship out extremely fast, have never had a single order go bad! And my standards are pretty high when it comes to online stores I rarely recommend one but Newegg deserves it with their service.

i have to pay sales tax with them because they're in my backyard but its worth it because I get everything over night, even the cheapest ground shipping gets to me the next morning

I also have purchased from newegg several times with nothing but great service.

maverick75 wrote in post #14472098
Also recently I've gone over to Linux, being a long time windows user I must say it's head over heels better.

Are able to use LR & PS with Linux? I really do not need Windows as the pc will be strictly for pp'n! As a matter of fact, the only Micorsoft program I use is Excel and that's at work...