New Ivy Bridge Work Build $1,500

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josejones

josejones

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Oct 27, 2010
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New Ivy Bridge Work Build $1,500

We need a new computer mostly for work (personal as well). We use Adobe CS, Word, Photo Shop, Office, XSite Pro and more almost everyday. We have to build our own websites create our own product description videos and DVD's and do fairly large uploads to our manufacturer.

I'm a bit confused with some of the new stuff out now and not sure what to get that would be best for our needs at a decent price. I don't know which would be best for us at this point between Intel or the AMD F1 or APU thing or what.

In following the article *How To Ask For New Build Advice*:

Purchase date: around June/July 2012 (after the bios, drivers and bugs have been worked out on the z77 & Ivy Bridge)

Budget Range: $1,000 to $1,500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: For work - Adobe CS, Office, Word, Photo Shop, XSite Pro, powerpoint lectures, making/rendering HD videos and music, watching movies, occasional minor online gaming.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers... We got a new Asus VH222 monitor 1.5 years ago. 500g HD 6 months old but, would love a new SSD.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg is fine

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Unsure, I think I want...

Case with removable dust filters, great air flow, quite
at least a quad-core CPU
8g minimum preferably 16g DDR3 1600 RAM

Overclocking: We will never overclock anything, we want a long lifespan.

SLI or Crossfire: We will never use more than one GPU

Additional Comments:

Quite, low energy consumption (we're always working), low heat &/or great air flow, reliable PC with no compatibility or downtime issues, lots of multi-tasking capability. It would be great if we could network between the desktop & a laptop (don't have laptop yet) at some point. We will need a laptop to do powerpoint lectures across several countries at the end of this year.

Price is an issue, I might be able to stretch to $1,500 max by July if it's really worth it (I'm curious about Ivy Bridge)... we'll see. I wanted the new, next generation hardware i.e. USB 3 (pretty standard now) and PCIe 3.0 (still not available by AMD). I was hoping for a mobo that included all gen 3 features and lose all the USB 2, PCIe 2 sata 2 etc and go all gen 3 since it's all backwards compatible but, that may not happen until Haswell.
 
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Meet the new system:

CPU: Ivy Bridge i7 3770
HSF: CM 212 Evo
MB: Gigabyte z77 UD5
RAM: Mushkin 8g DDR3 1600
SSD: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe - DX 240g
HD: WD Black 1T 64mb cache
PSU: Seasonic X-750w
Case: Antec One Illusion (w/4 fans)
OS: Windows 7 Pro, 64-bit
 
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What about the GPU?
 
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Thanks for your help, Proximon, very much appreciated.

On the GPU, I wanted the NVidia 660 Ti, which isn't out yet but, I was going to give the HD4000 a good going over to see if it would suffice until then. Since we're not gamers or overclockers and this system is really for work - mostly with Adobe CS I wasn't sure if I really, REALLY needed a GPU or not. What do you think?
 
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If you are not gaming at all, then I fully expect the HD 4000 graphics to suffice. If, however, you find the computer is used for some lightweight gaming, or that for some reason the HD 4000 graphics are not performing well enough, then would think that even getting an nVidia 640 or AMD 7750 for ~$100 would still be fine for your uses.

If you find that to be the case then here are my top GPU brands:
XFX and EVGA come with lifetime warranties (with XFX you have to register then card on their website to activate the free lifetime warranty). They are usually my first two choices, in that order.
ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE all make top quality products and usually have some nice after market cooling options installed on their cards. They would be my next choices. I've never had to buy a different brand of card in years, but as a rule of thumb I try to stay away from ECS and PNY.
 
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Yes you wouldn't need 2GB VRAM for your usage.

Just use it. If you find yourself moving around inside a large image, zoomed in, and had trouble with the screen refresh then you can think about a discrete card...

Of course, with no video card you are never going to break 200W 😛 a bit of a waste of the 750W PSU.
 
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^ Hey, I needed that - since I've never really been a serious "gamer" or overclocker etc. I needed to know what signs to look for that suggest I really do need a GPU. I need to know the limitations of the HD4000 integrated graphics. It will do some video won't it?

I really liked that Seasonic PSU and to be honest, I was considering the next new line of NVidia GPU i.e. Maxwell, which may not come out 'til 2014 now.

http://semiaccurate.com/2011/12/30/nvidia-gpu-roadmap-slips-a-year-too/

I like Isaiah4110's suggestion of XFX and EVGA due to the lifetime warranties.
 
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I believe you are correct there. If I remember correctly, they are based in Fresno, CA. I had a video card made by them that went bad after I had it 2-4 years. The fan quit spinning, which resulted in the GPU overheating. I had registered it on their website when I got it, and all I had to do was go there and click a couple links to RMA it. They sent a new card and I sent the old one back. I don't think I even had to pay shipping. It was completely hassle free and easy.

I haven't had an XFX card yet, but I have heard a lot of good things about them and their cards seem to be really well made, so I am planning on giving them a shot with my next build. If EVGA is cheaper for an identical card then I might still go that route, but I'm hoping I can find a good deal through XFX.

Keep in mind (thought I doubt this will affect you) most companies void the warranty the second you start fooling around in OCing.
 
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Didn't read this whole thread, but it's worth noting that Adobe is starting to take advantage of OpenCL (GPU computing) to enable real time filter previewing on AMD video cards (so far only AMD supports OpenCL, nVidia is sticking to their proprietary cuda api). May be worth looking into for you. :)

I expect you still wouldn't need anything too high end , 7770 or a 7850 perhaps?
 
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^ Wow, more great info I was not aware of. I could actually go ahead and get a 7770 or 7850. I was under the impression that NVidia was best on Adobe CS with their CUDA cores - is this not accurate? We'll have the CS 6 soon.

If I did get a 7770 or 7850 it'd have to be by EVGA or XFX for that life-time warranty. So, regarding Adobe CS, which GPU is best for me the AMD/Radeon or NVidia?
 
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I just noticed that our Z-77 UD5 has a new update for the chipset "Intel Management Engine Interface" as of Nov 26th 2013. I have no idea what the update fixed or was for tho - Anybody know? We use Windows 7, 64-bit OS.

There are other updates too but, they didn't seem necessary for me.

Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H (rev. 1.1)
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=4440#dl

When NVidia posts new drivers for the GPU they always share some details of what is fixed or what we might be able to expect - not so with the new Gigabyte z77x-UD5 mobo updates.

So, what did it fix?
 
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