Help to Reduce the Cost of My build - Partpicker list

[timetobuild]

I'm new to building and have put together what I think is a good build (from my very limited knowledge)

Purchase date: Preferably this week

No gaming but want a dual monitor set up

Programs used Photoshop, Muse, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Lightroom, and Camtasia for recording my screen

Watch lots of streaming HD content and often have multiple browser tabs with heavy media opened at any one time along with multiple programs opened at the same time

Ideally I was hoping for a $1100 AUD build. (slightly flexible about $150 AUD or so)

Also looking for recommendations for 2 monitors up to $500 for both

What would you change or is this build completely wrong for my needs? Suggestions appreciated.

Alternative build ideas also welcome

http://

Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
ASRock Z97 KILLER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
2x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ( do I really need a GPU)
TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Total $1507.97 AUD

All this to fit in a Fractal R4 case (case, mouse, keyboard) not needed

 

[MeteorsRaining]

There you go:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/DvQY7P

Reasons for change:

The Xeon is basically an i7 without integrated graphics and it not OCable. It has the same Hyperthreading which is desirable from an i7.

You do not need a CPU cooler unless you want to OC, stock is fine for stock speeds.

1600Mhz is a better pick than 1333Mhz for not so much.

Good choice on SSD/ HDD so left unchanged.

Yes GPU will help in GPU-accelerated tasks, picked up a cheaper GTX 750 Ti for that very task.

The build won't require very high quality power supply, the PSU added is adequate both wattage and quality wise.

PS. A good monitor for the price:

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor ($194.00 @ Centre Com)

 

[flamefire999]

I don't know about Australia, but buying a 2tb HDD is cheaper than buying 2 1tb HDD's (unless you're planning on doing a Raid 1 config).

Also an i7-4790 is a locked CPU meaning you can't OC it, so you don't need a Z97 board. An i7-4790k is an unlocked CPU and you can OC on it, so you'll need a Z97 board. If you want to OC (you'll benefit from it) but can't afford the 4790k/ Z97 combo then you could get a 4770k/Z87 combo. There's not much of a difference between them, but the 4790k will run a little bit cooler.

You don't NEED a GPU, unless you are going to be doing a lot of 3D design/ rendering or you're going to be using CUDA. You could buy a GPU later if you want to play some games, but for now you don't need it.

The last issue is the PSU. The wattage is fine, but I don't see why it's so expensive (I'm in the US so the prices might vary greatly). The CX 500W (http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500m) will do just fine without a power hungry GPU and it's $30 cheaper.

If you're still above budget then you could either get less storage or drop down to 8gb of RAM. The extra RAM will really help with rendering times and actually using the programs but RAM isn't cheap. Storage, on the other hand, is pretty cheap. You could get away with a 1tb HDD for awhile and then get a good size HDD (3tb is the best bang for the buck).

 

[timetobuild]

There you go:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/DvQY7P

Reasons for change:

The Xeon is basically an i7 without integrated graphics and it not OCable. It has the same Hyperthreading which is desirable from an i7.

You do not need a CPU cooler unless you want to OC, stock is fine for stock speeds.

1600Mhz is a better pick than 1333Mhz for not so much.

Good choice on SSD/ HDD so left unchanged.

Yes GPU will help in GPU-accelerated tasks, picked up a cheaper GTX 750 Ti for that very task.

The build won't require very high quality power supply, the PSU added is adequate both wattage and quality wise.

PS. A good monitor for the price:

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor ($194.00 @ Centre Com)

Thanks for your reply it's given me somethings I want to review.


If I stuck to the first build of $1500 AUD budget Which I'm inclined to do would you still consider removing the i7? What would your ideal $1500 AUD build look like?

 

[timetobuild]

I don't know about Australia, but buying a 2tb HDD is cheaper than buying 2 1tb HDD's (unless you're planning on doing a Raid 1 config).

Also an i7-4790 is a locked CPU meaning you can't OC it, so you don't need a Z97 board. An i7-4790k is an unlocked CPU and you can OC on it, so you'll need a Z97 board. If you want to OC (you'll benefit from it) but can't afford the 4790k/ Z97 combo then you could get a 4770k/Z87 combo. There's not much of a difference between them, but the 4790k will run a little bit cooler.

You don't NEED a GPU, unless you are going to be doing a lot of 3D design/ rendering or you're going to be using CUDA. You could buy a GPU later if you want to play some games, but for now you don't need it.

The last issue is the PSU. The wattage is fine, but I don't see why it's so expensive (I'm in the US so the prices might vary greatly). The CX 500W (http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx500m) will do just fine without a power hungry GPU and it's $30 cheaper.

If you're still above budget then you could either get less storage or drop down to 8gb of RAM. The extra RAM will really help with rendering times and actually using the programs but RAM isn't cheap. Storage, on the other hand, is pretty cheap. You could get away with a 1tb HDD for awhile and then get a good size HDD (3tb is the best bang for the buck).

Thanks for your reply

I need the two 1tb hdd's. I usually keep all my work/business related files on one with nothing else and would like to have the other as a kind of anything hdd.

If I increased my budget to $1500 besides the power supply, what would be your version of an ideal $1500 build for my perposes? I will be rendering screen captures to video so RAM is important I guess

 

[MeteorsRaining]

There you go:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/DvQY7P

Reasons for change:

The Xeon is basically an i7 without integrated graphics and it not OCable. It has the same Hyperthreading which is desirable from an i7.

You do not need a CPU cooler unless you want to OC, stock is fine for stock speeds.

1600Mhz is a better pick than 1333Mhz for not so much.

Good choice on SSD/ HDD so left unchanged.

Yes GPU will help in GPU-accelerated tasks, picked up a cheaper GTX 750 Ti for that very task.

The build won't require very high quality power supply, the PSU added is adequate both wattage and quality wise.

PS. A good monitor for the price:

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor ($194.00 @ Centre Com)

Thanks for your reply it's given me somethings I want to review.


If I stuck to the first build of $1500 AUD budget Which I'm inclined to do would you still consider removing the i7? What would your ideal $1500 AUD build look like?

I removed the i7 simply because Xeon will give you similar performance for lesser price, so unless you need to OC (which may give you slight performance gains), I wouldn't include i7 because they're pricier than Xeon counterparts without quantifiable benefits (OCing aside, as mentioned above).

For unknown reasons I do not see the pricing of i7 4790K (K-SKU) CPU on the Aus PPP site, so I can't really recommend an OCable build. And I don't see any reason to increase price unnecessarily on the CPU part without par benefits, so I'd leave that alone.

There are 2 areas of improvement:

Memory: If you deal with extremely large files in magnitude of multiple GBs, more memory will come handy especially if the program you use is CPU inclined. More memory will allow faster transcoding of big amounts of data through the CPU.

GPU: If the programs you use can make use of CUDA cores (Adobe does support that well) then better GPU with more VRAM and power can enormously help with your rendering times.

If you ask me, I'd go for better GPU since the leap from 16 to 32GB of RAM is BIG and you may not really require that.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/vYFMgs

 

[timetobuild]

There you go:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/DvQY7P

Reasons for change:

The Xeon is basically an i7 without integrated graphics and it not OCable. It has the same Hyperthreading which is desirable from an i7.

You do not need a CPU cooler unless you want to OC, stock is fine for stock speeds.

1600Mhz is a better pick than 1333Mhz for not so much.

Good choice on SSD/ HDD so left unchanged.

Yes GPU will help in GPU-accelerated tasks, picked up a cheaper GTX 750 Ti for that very task.

The build won't require very high quality power supply, the PSU added is adequate both wattage and quality wise.

PS. A good monitor for the price:

Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" Monitor ($194.00 @ Centre Com)

Thanks for your reply it's given me somethings I want to review.


If I stuck to the first build of $1500 AUD budget Which I'm inclined to do would you still consider removing the i7? What would your ideal $1500 AUD build look like?

I removed the i7 simply because Xeon will give you similar performance for lesser price, so unless you need to OC (which may give you slight performance gains), I wouldn't include i7 because they're pricier than Xeon counterparts without quantifiable benefits (OCing aside, as mentioned above).

For unknown reasons I do not see the pricing of i7 4790K (K-SKU) CPU on the Aus PPP site, so I can't really recommend an OCable build. And I don't see any reason to increase price unnecessarily on the CPU part without par benefits, so I'd leave that alone.

There are 2 areas of improvement:

Memory: If you deal with extremely large files in magnitude of multiple GBs, more memory will come handy especially if the program you use is CPU inclined. More memory will allow faster transcoding of big amounts of data through the CPU.

GPU: If the programs you use can make use of CUDA cores (Adobe does support that well) then better GPU with more VRAM and power can enormously help with your rendering times.

If you ask me, I'd go for better GPU since the leap from 16 to 32GB of RAM is BIG and you may not really require that.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/vYFMgs

I see what you mean about the GPU not really interested in playing with things I don't understand ie OC. So the Xenon looks like it would suffice,

Since I have a case already should I save the $88 or invest it somewhere else in the build?

Is there a noticeable difference in the quality of the SSD between the Intel that you chose in this build and the Samsung EVO I originally opted for?

 

[MeteorsRaining]

You can save the money from the case, didn't see in your first post that you already have a case. I just chose Intel as it was quite a bit cheaper while performance was similar, and money saved is money earned

 

[timetobuild]

You can save the money from the case, didn't see in your first post that you already have a case. I just chose Intel as it was quite a bit cheaper while performance was similar, and money saved is money earned

Thanks a lot for all your help I appreciate the time that you've taken to reply to me and help me with my build.

 

[MeteorsRaining]

No worries, glad to help.

 

[timetobuild]

No worries, glad to help.

Quick last question before I pull the trigger on this

Do both these GPU's support CUDA? I understand that would be helpful for what I will use the system for.

http://Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB

http://Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB

 

[MeteorsRaining]

CUDA is developed by Nvidia and can be found on all of their GPUs.