What do you think of this for photo editing (no gaming)

I am building a new PC because my old macbook just won't cut it anymore. What do you think of this build? Any suggestions? I'm already pretty much maxed out on my budget, so recommendations of things I don't need or could be replaced would be more appreciated than things for me to add that will make it more expensive. The computer will be used for photo editing, word processing, web browsing, email, and watching movies by both myself and my wife.

Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6811139012


GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6813128545


CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6817139010


Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6819116501


SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820147188


Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6822136533


Crucial 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT51264BA1339 (4 sticks)

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820148346


ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6827135204

That's a pretty good list of components, although I'd personally go for an 840 Pro or similar over the TLC 840 standard. I haven't looked at the differences in performance in depth in a while though I am running the 840 Pro as my system drive and a Crucial M4 for other applications (some games), LR4 catalog, etc. The 840 isn't bad but if it's your main rig I'd spend the extra on the speedier pro.

The one thing I would definitely change is at least get DDR3 1600 RAM, not 1333. You're spending too much on your processor, and you're going to be relying on its internal GPU. Even if you're not gaming, overall 1600 is the standard speed and from real world use & benchmarks I've seen, you might as well get the 1600. If you're lucky you won't spend any more for it although RAM has been bouncing around a lot since I bought some a few months ago (I got 1866 for the same price as 1600 at the time).

Also, if the Gigabyte board doesn't offer anything specific you have to have, the ASrock Extreme 4 is a great board that will save you some money. I'm running the 3770K with 32GB DDR3 1866 on one now and it's been exemplary. The enormous amount of reviews and high rating on Newegg are also a pretty good indicator.

750W is WAY overkill. Get a good 400W supply, that's more than enough. 200W would probably do it. Don't bother with the K CPU unless you know you're going to overclock.

From what I've read 1333MHz RAM is fine. Going to 2000MHz gives you a 5% gain in benchmarks, but nothing in the real world. Read some reviews yourself to work it out.

If you may go to 32GB ram later get 2x8GB memory.

Up the amount of RAM, 4Gb is way too little. Say to at least 12Gb or more, then you can turn off paging file. Ooops, just seen its 4 sticks of 4Gb ram

You seemed to have forgotten the graphics card

tim wrote in post #15881697
750W is WAY overkill. Get a good 400W supply, that's more than enough. 200W would probably do it. Don't bother with the K CPU unless you know you're going to overclock.

From what I've read 1333MHz RAM is fine. Going to 2000MHz gives you a 5% gain in benchmarks, but nothing in the real world. Read some reviews yourself to work it out.

If you may go to 32GB ram later get 2x8GB memory.

I personally think 500W is a good baseline for most builds. Just get at least a good 500W and you're set. True under load my system draws well below that but it leaves room for any spikes plus at 500 watts you have a lot more options for quality power supplies than you do at lower wattages these days. 750 is definitely overkill, somehow I missed that.

I would also go with 2x8 over 4x4 as well, just in case.

If you can get the 3770k on sale like it has been a few times lately, I see no reason not to, but otherwise you are paying quite a lot for things you don't need if you aren't overclocking. The extra 100MHz is otherwise not a terribly big deal.

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #15881720
You seemed to have forgotten the graphics card

The Ivy Bridge has enough GPU onboard for most things, Photoshop certainly doesn't use the GPU enough to make a big difference. He's not gaming so it would suffice.

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #15881720
You seemed to have forgotten the graphics card

The CPU has graphics in in.

Colorblinded wrote in post #15881743
I personally think 500W is a good baseline for most builds. Just get at least a good 500W and you're set. True under load my system draws well below that but it leaves room for any spikes plus at 500 watts you have a lot more options for quality power supplies than you do at lower wattages these days. 750 is definitely overkill, somehow I missed that.

I don't think 500W is much more expensive than a decent 300W PS, so sure, why not. Mine's 520W and I just do basic stuff, just because it was good quality and reasonably priced. I wish I had a modular supply, but they were too expensive here when I purchased. Also wish I got a full power case, easier to cool I think.

tim wrote in post #15881779
I don't think 500W is much more expensive than a decent 300W PS, so sure, why not. Mine's 520W and I just do basic stuff, just because it was good quality and reasonably priced. I wish I had a modular supply, but they were too expensive here when I purchased. Also wish I got a full power case, easier to cool I think.

Full tower you mean? Honestly those are huge, I've never had more than a mid tower and can't say I'd want a full tower. Many good mid towers can manage decent cooling, quietness and plenty of drive bays. I know my Fractal Design Define R4 is not supposed to have the best cooling capacity without adding more fans but I have two in the front, one in the rear and it's quiet and my temperatures are not at all a concern. I also have two SSDs behind the mobo tray and four hard drives in the front and room for more.

I have three hard drives and two SSDs, it's just a bit of a rats nest. I have a cooler master silencio case, a massive Noctuna heatsink (CPU never gets hot), but that hard drives get a bit warmer than i'd like despite a fan being right beside then. I guess with a full tower the problem is getting cables to reach places.

Thanks for all the input. I did have the 840 pro SSD originally, but switched it to lower the price of the build. I think I will stick with the standard one for now and possibly get the pro as a second SSD down the line. I could also add a seperate graphics card later. Like I said, I will not be doing any gaming on it so from what I heard the integrated graphics should be fine. I will not be overclocking right now, but it is a real option in the future so I think I will stay with the k processor.

The reason I went with the power supply I did was that I heard not to cheap out on the power supply as its the base for everything else and If I get a good one now, I will not have to replace or upgrade it for a long time. I realize 750W is more than I need, but the Corsair HX series only comes in higher wattage. Do you think this is a good power supply? It will save me almost $100 which would definitely be nice.

CORSAIR CX500M 500W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6817139050

Also, I will switch the ram to 2x 8gb 1600.

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS8G3D1609DS1S00

http://www.newegg.ca …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820148540

This is my first time building a computer so thanks for all the input.

I mentioned in another thread people often overbuy on power supply capacity and underbuy on quality. I'd rather have a good 500 watt in your build than a cheap 750 watt. It just so happens you picked a good 750 watt (the same I have) but it really is almost twice what you'll realistically need.

From what I've seen all the Corsair supplies are fairly solid, some are better than others. The CX are supposed to be good mix of performance and value. I haven't seen anything that leads me to not recommend any of them yet.

tim wrote in post #15881824
a massive Noctuna heatsink (CPU never gets hot), but that hard drives get a bit warmer than i'd like despite a fan being right beside then.

You want fans in the front/bottom sucking in and pushing cool air over the drives while fans in the rear/top should be pushing out the heat. Being beside them does nothing as you have to force the air on the drives to actually cool them. But with such a large kitchen sink in your case it's hard to get good air flow unless you use push pull fan config on the Noctua. And for your cabling my old system was clean as a whistle without modular, no zip ties and no panel in the back. I could find a pic if you want to see how I was able to overcome the birds nest with an average mid tower case.

isoMorphic wrote in post #15884140
You want fans in the front/bottom sucking in and pushing cool air over the drives while fans in the rear/top should be pushing out the heat. Being beside them does nothing as you have to force the air on the drives to actually cool them. But with such a large kitchen sink in your case it's hard to get good air flow unless you use push pull fan config on the Noctua. And for your cabling my old system was clean as a whistle without modular, no zip ties and no panel in the back. I could find a pic if you want to see how I was able to overcome the birds nest with an average mid tower case.

My front fan sucks air in over the spinning disks, and the rear fan pushes it out. The heatsink has two fans, it just takes up a lot of the case so probably impedes airflow - not too much though. It didn't occur to me to put cables under the motherboard, plus it's a small space and short cords made it more difficult. Plus all the cords from the non modular power supply.

tim wrote in post #15885579
It didn't occur to me to put cables under the motherboard, plus it's a small space and short cords made it more difficult.

I just ran everything around or under the lip edges of the board rather then behind it. Then tuck the leftovers in a bit of space just above DVD drive, in drive bays or behind the drive tray itself. The biggest pita is the 24 pin cable but it just barely fits along the edge of the drive tray. It takes a good hour to do good cabling even with newer cases designed to hide the wire.

I have the Obsidian 550D. It's a nice case. Keep in mind that all the sound proofing comes at a cost of decreased airflow. I've got a Noctua NH-D14 heat sink with 2 fans just like Tim with 1 x 120mm rear exhaust fan and 2 x 120mm front intake fans on the case. The case has excellent cable management so it's easy to keep the inside nice and neat. You can always take off the panels or put in more fans to get better airflow.

I have my i7-3770k overclocked to 4.2Ghz. I am getting decent temps. Very stable.

I've got a Corsair CX500 semi-modular 500w PSU. To give you an idea of how much stuff it's powering, here's what I have:

• ASRock Extreme6 Z77 Mothorboard
  
• i7-3770k
  
• 32GB RAM
  
• 3 x 120mm case fans
  
• 2 x 120mm Heatsink fans
  
• Asus HD 7850 Video card.
  
• 3 x SSD and 5 x HDD
  
• 1 x Optical Drive