First computer build help

Well after spending as much as I have on my camera gear and gathering up a nice kit for what I shoot, I feel it's finally time to put some money into a good photo editing computer to get the most out of my gear that I can. I honestly have no clue when it comes to selecting internals for a computer so I appreciate any help/advice. My dad did go to school for computers yrs back so he knows how to assembling one but, he's very out of date when it comes to component selection and doesn't know much about whats needed for photo editing. Budget for the computer is $1000-$1200 not including the monitor. Computer will be strictly used for photo editing, I use my iPad for everything else and I'm not interested in video or gaming. Thanks!

Take a look at this system:

Reference

I'd just go with an i7 instead.

How does this build look?
Case: cooler master haf 912
power supply: ocz modxstream pro 700w
Processor: Intel i5-3570k
SSD: Intel 520 series Cherryville 120gb
Hard drive: WD black 1TB 7200 rpm
Motherboard: Asus P8z77-v
Memory: Corsair vengeance (2x4gb)
Disk drive: Asus Blu-ray burner

Total comes to $915 not including mail in rebates

Only thing I'm unsure about is what graphic and video card to go with? Any changes you would make to this? Anything else major I'm forgetting? Have a dell ultra sharp monitor already and will be going with windows for an OS but, I'm not including that in the cost of building the tower.

Thanks!

I'd switch that to an i7 processor/ASUS MB combination. You will not be sorry you did.

Use the video built into the processor, unless you're gaming or doing video work. Drop the power supply to a good quality modular 300-400W supply, 700W is massive overkill. Get a 2TB drive as they're not much more expensive. i7 is faster in a few situations like parallel exports or video rendering, but the i5 is as fast for many things.

A good monitor is what will help you get the best from your photos. I use a Dell IPS monitor, far from top of the range, but calibrated it works well for me.

Yup, you don't need a killer-watt PSU, unless you're planning on adding like 5 extra HDDs later and a power-hungry video card; and even then, 700W might be overkill: a 500W Seasonic would do nicely.

HDDs take about 10 watts each. PSU calculator.

After reading your suggestions how's this look?

Case: cooler master haf 912
power supply: cooler master extreme power plus 500w
Processor: Intel i5-3570k
SSD: Samsung 840 pro 128gb
Hard drive: WD black 2TB 7200 rpm
Motherboard: Asus P8z77-v
Memory: Corsair vengeance (2x4gb)
Disk drive: Samsung cd/DVD burner
Video card: evga super clocked gtx 660

Total comes to $1075

Thanks!

I'd still go with an i7 but that's just me. I love the fact that after POST my computer boots up in about 25 seconds. With POST about 35 seconds.

IDK if 8GB of RAM is going to be enough either unless all you're using is Lightroom and PSE. Every once in a while I like to make a video with photographs and the rendering is pretty quick with 16 GB RAM.

Right now all I use is LR4 and PSE, but I could upgrade to 12 or 16gb of ram.

Dont forget to add one more HDD for backups.

I can't seem to find it but I'll add in that you don't need a video card unless you are gaming or video editing. Especially a GTX 660. The HD4000 built in will work.

Drop the video card, especially if you're going with a K series CPU and I'd think about upgrading the RAM to 16GB. It's cheap enough these days. Also, I'd go with a better brand of PSU. Corsair, Seasonic, Antec are all good ones.

Ok so for a final build plan how's this?

Case: cooler master haf 912
power supply: corsair builder series 500w
Processor: Intel i5-3570k
SSD: Samsung 840 pro 250gb
Hard drive: 2) WD black 1TB 7200 rpm
Motherboard: Asus P8z77-v WiFi ready
Memory: Corsair vengeance (2x8gb)
Disk drive: Samsung cd/DVD burner

Total comes to $1050 so nicely in my budget.

Change that builder PSU for a TX series if your going to keep it for a few years.

tim wrote in post #15755910
Use the video built into the processor, unless you're gaming or doing video work. Drop the power supply to a good quality modular 300-400W supply, 700W is massive overkill. Get a 2TB drive as they're not much more expensive. i7 is faster in a few situations like parallel exports or video rendering, but the i5 is as fast for many things.

Would an i7 be better for LR4 which is CPU intensive?