PC for photo editing and gaming?

I plan on building a computer in the next few months for gaming and photo editing. I was just wondering if this would be a good setup if not what would you change? I'm trying to save up at the moment but hope to have a budget around $3200 to fund the build.

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($379.99 @ Micro Center)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming GT ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($259.99 @ Micro Center)

Memory: G.Skill TridentZ Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($249.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($329.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($196.99 @ Amazon)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card ($727.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-

Modular ATX Power Supply **(all ready own this power supply)**

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Full (32/64-bit) ($199.99 @ B&H)

Keyboard: Corsair K95 RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard ($207.99 @ B&H)

Mouse: Logitech G502 Wired Optical Mouse ($64.99 @ Newegg)

That’s a hell of a PC wish a have the spare money to get me one.
Go for it.

Looks like a great setup. Multi monitors, 4K, curved, sorry I didn't see any monitors listed.

zerovision wrote in post #17841165
Looks like a great setup. Multi monitors, 4K, curved, sorry I didn't see any monitors listed.

Will probably stick with my Nec 23" 1080p monitor for now. Hopefully will try to pick up a 4K display and use the 23" as a second monitor. The 4K monitor I was looking at is this one.

Monitor: NEC EA275UHD-BK-SV 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($949.00 @ B&H)

good choice.

speed88 wrote in post #17841234
Will probably stick with my Nec 23" 1080p monitor for now. Hopefully will try to pick up a 4K display and use the 23" as a second monitor. The 4K monitor I was looking at is this one.

Monitor: NEC EA275UHD-BK-SV 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($949.00 @ B&H)

Personally I'd go with a 24" or 27" PA series (non-UHD) monitor with SpectraView instead if your main use is photo-editing. If you aren't looking for a wide gamut, color critical monitor then I'd sure the EA275UHD will be great, although I feel some of the new Dells at the same price point will give you a better bang for the buck.

Nice build, I'm building a similar system. Hopefully you plan to overclock the 6700k, otherwise you could save a few dollars here and there. My build will have custom watercooling, but AIO watercoolers are a decent option. Not really a fan of the Hybrid GPU's but that's more personal preference than anything.

Depending on what games you play, a 4K monitor can really tax even a 980 Ti for playable frame rates. Personally I would prefer something like the PG279Q, it's a good combination between gaming and photo editing @ 2560 x 1440 on a 100% sRGB IPS panel.

I'm out of the loop for gaming, but that Video card costs more than most PCs. Is it a reasonable expense?

From an editing P.O.V. where I am more comfortable, it will not be any better than a card costing 1/14th what that one does.

HD: I assume the 4TB is data storage. Personal choice, but I'd buy a pair of the same drives and RAID 1 either with on-board chipset or with Windows built in RAID. Don't consider it back up, but it will keep you up and running if you have a hard drive failure.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #17841554
I'm out of the loop for gaming, but that Video card costs more than most PCs. Is it a reasonable expense?

From an editing P.O.V. where I am more comfortable, it will not be any better than a card costing 1/14th what that one does.

HD: I assume the 4TB is data storage. Personal choice, but I'd buy a pair of the same drives and RAID 1 either with on-board chipset or with Windows built in RAID. Don't consider it back up, but it will keep you up and running if you have a hard drive failure.

With today's high resolution/high refresh monitors if you want to achieve playable frame rates in the latest Triple A Titles at high quality settings you will need a powerful GPU. I would consider a 980 or 980 Ti a must for 4K gaming. Reasonable expense will depend on the usage. For a strictly gaming rig I would go with a lower cost CPU and less RAM to offset the 980 Ti. In a dual purpose rig like this the configuration looks good if you can afford it.

Makes sense Dave. Gaming has always been the driving force behind the GPU race.

Thanks for your help guys. Will hopefully be able to pick up a NEC PA272W-BK-SV 27" sometime next year instead of the 4K monitor. Please let me know if that sounds like a good choice? Cyberdynesystems that sounds like a great idea. Will definitely have to add another hard drive and run them in RAID 1.

speed88 wrote in post #17842381
Thanks for your help guys. Will hopefully be able to pick up a NEC PA272W-BK-SV 27" sometime next year instead of the 4K monitor. Please let me know if that sounds like a good choice? Cyberdynesystems that sounds like a great idea. Will definitely have to add another hard drive and run them in RAID 1.

The choice of monitor really depends on what you are going to primarily use it for. Very few of the high-end Nec/Eizo monitors for color critical work are 4K and those that are are really expensive ($2800+). However, there are certainly very good 4K monitors out there in the $1000 range that would be great for photo editing.

My personal choice would be to take a NEC PA (non-UHD) monitor over any of the similarly priced UHD monitors currently available. But that's only because I don't need UHD (it's a "nice to have" for me, not a must). If I really needed 4K then I'd look at Dell or others.

the video card is great over kill for photoediting by a long shot and probably over kill for gaming. It will cost you twice as much compared to the 970 gtx for only a 10-15% improvement http://gpuboss.com …TX-980-vs-GeForce-GTX-970 for that price you could go sli and get two 970 like wise the Samsung pro is only marginally better then the 850 evo and not worth the premium I am getting a 2 tb 850 for around 700. It sounds like you have money to burn and just bought everything off the top of the list with computers that buy you better performance yes but twice the cost for 10-15 better performance is not worth the premium. btw here is a suggestion for your case instead of the one you picked

http://www.newegg.com …ne-_-11-163-185-_-Product

dashotgun wrote in post #17846712
the video card is great over kill for photoediting by a long shot and probably over kill for gaming. It will cost you twice as much compared to the 970 gtx for only a 10-15% improvement http://gpuboss.com …TX-980-vs-GeForce-GTX-970 for that price you could go sli and get two 970 like wise

Usually Single card > Dual card plus you get 6GB of VRAM vs 4 that the 970 SLI offers.

And don't use GPUBoss for comparisons. Using GPUBoss is like using snapsort.com to find out which camera is better over another.

Overkill. I would:
- Take the CPU down to a midrange non-K model unless you plan to overclock. Performance won't suffer much and cost should drop
- Get a standard motherboard, not gaming. Just make sure it has the ports you want, USB-C, SATA6, etc.
- Drop the liquid cooling unless you're going for a massive overclock - in which case keep the K processor.
- 16GB RAM sufficient unless you work with huge numbers of large RAW files or video
- SSD you can get away with 120GB if you just want it for OS/cache/catalog, but if you want games on it you'll need the big one. Partition it so the OS/programs are on the first partition, catalog and cache on the second, games on the third. That way you can run an image that will back up OS and important software and have a small image file. Macrium reflect free.
- No comment on video card, other than if you can reduce the resolution/quality a bit or you can save a bunch of money
- PSU is over spec'd but no harm in it