800 Dollar Gaming/Video Editing PC

So.. I pretty much have to build this rig before new years eve. With newegg shoprunner and a trip to microcenter if I order the parts by tomorrow I should be able to build the rig just in time before new years eve.

My friend does light video editing with sony vegas, lots of chrome tabs, and he wants to play games smoothly on max settings.

(He's moving from like a intel core 2 duo laptop 3gb ram)

So the total budget is 800 without the cost of windows. Any opinions/better options?

This was my plan is to get the following.

Microcenter
3570k - 189.99
Asrock Pro 4 - 109.99
- 40 dollar promo (I think it's 40 dollars now, do they still have it?)
280.80 Total


Newegg
G.Skill Sniper 1866 2x4GB Ram - $40
Cooler Master Storm Scout - $50 after $20 mir
Sandisk Extreme 240gb SSD - $160
Twin Frozr 560 ti - 169 after 30 mir
Modxstream 700watt PSU - 49.99 after 30 mir
T-Link Wireless Card - 17.99

Total Should be around 787.

The iffy things are the ssd (why haven't prices gone back down to 70-80 bucks for a 120gb ssd?!) and the gpu which is pricey and not a deal. Anyone have any input on this? Thanks.

Quote : Twin Frozr 560 ti - 169 after 30 mir

Ummm how much memory and is it regular or OC?

Oh, perhaps save a lil more money with the wireless adapter with this [amazon.com].

From all I can read, that Sandisk Extreme is frickin rocking. I'd go down to a 120GB and then buy a second TB HDD for storage. Use the SSD for anything requiring performance such as installed applications, OS, etc. and use the HDD for storage and don't run anything off of it.

For $170-200, you can pickup a 7850 or gtx 660, if lucky.

Everything else seems fine. I agree with menace on the ssd/hdd comment.

All this talk of video cards, but no talk of some basic things.

A) How about HDDs? When I render out a scene, I render an image sequence of PNGs or Targas. This will use up a lot of HDD space. For instance, 5 seconds of 720p video is ~340 megs (approximately 3.5 megs per frame). For video editing, you will want at least 1 large HDD for storage and scratch space.

Forget about using the SSD to store a lot of video. It's not cost effective and most SSDs aren't large enough to hold more than a little HD video. You'll probably want at least a 1.5-2tb 7200rpm HDD. As an aside, contemporary 7200rpm HDDs are more than fast enough to handle most video operations, including most seek operations (which tend to require the fastest speed). I haven't hit a situation where the speed of my mechanical HDD was the bottleneck in performance.

B) More ram. 8GB is OK, but video editing packages can easily use a bunch of memory. I've managed to use up more than 8GB when I work in Maya on several occasions. I've also managed to use close to 8GB in Photoshop. Your friend may not necessarily use these two programs, but the point is, if this is a serious rig, consider 16GB of RAM.

C) Consumer graphics cards will accelerate some aspects of video editing, but the video card is NOT the most important aspect for video work. Most of the time, the video card will accelerate previews and video playback in the work area (which can be important depending on which compositing effects and filters you use). However, things like rendering will typically be processor-only operations. Some packages, like Adobe After Effects CS6, can use the video card to render certain aspects of video, but I think that only applies to the 3D elements (Ray-traced elements, according to one page).

D) Consider an i7 processor. The big differences between i5 and i7 processors is that the i7 has hyper-thread support and also has a greater quantity of cache. Both are very useful in video editing tasks in speeding up the processes. You may even want to consider an i7 2600K which can be had for not much more money and is comparable to many of the higher mid range processors.

Quote from kakomu : All this talk of video cards, but no talk of some basic things. A) How about HDDs? When I render out a scene, I render an image sequence of PNGs or Targas. This will use up a lot of HDD space. For instance, 5 seconds of 720p video is ~340 megs (approximately 3.5 megs per frame). For video editing, you will want at least 1 large HDD for storage and scratch space. Forget about using the SSD to store a lot of video. It's not cost effective and most SSDs aren't large enough to hold more than a little HD video. You'll probably want at least a 1.5-2tb 7200rpm HDD. As an aside, contemporary 7200rpm HDDs are more than fast enough to handle most video operations, including most seek operations (which tend to require the fastest speed). I haven't hit a situation where the speed of my mechanical HDD was the bottleneck in performance. B) More ram. 8GB is OK, but video editing packages can easily use a bunch of memory. I've managed to use up more than 8GB when I work in Maya on several occasions. I've also managed to use close to 8GB in Photoshop. Your friend may not necessarily use these two programs, but the point is, if this is a serious rig, consider 16GB of RAM. C) Consumer graphics cards will accelerate some aspects of video editing, but the video card is NOT the most important aspect for video work. Most of the time, the video card will accelerate previews and video playback in the work area (which can be important depending on which compositing effects and filters you use). However, things like rendering will typically be processor-only operations. Some packages, like Adobe After Effects CS6, can use the video card to render certain aspects of video, but I think that only applies to the 3D elements (Ray-traced elements, according to one page).

Oh I forgot the mention, he has the hard drive from his old computer to use. 320gb caviar blue I believe.

I didn't really get the graphics card for the CUDA cores, just for gaming. Like I said he will be doing light editing such as putting 1080p clips together and such. I was planning on getting him 16gb, but that's an extra 30 bucks he said he'll wait in the future if he ever needs more and get another 2x4gb set.

Yea and the thing about the i7.. It's also 100 more and that breaks the budget. By a lot.

Quote from menace33 : From all I can read, that Sandisk Extreme is frickin rocking. I'd go down to a 120GB and then buy a second TB HDD for storage. Use the SSD for anything requiring performance such as installed applications, OS, etc. and use the HDD for storage and don't run anything off of it.

There are no more 120gb ssds at the 70-80 dollar price point They're all at 100 D:

What happened to all the ssds >:L

Quote from tonyftw : For $170-200, you can pickup a 7850 or gtx 660, if lucky. Everything else seems fine. I agree with menace on the ssd/hdd comment.

I see the 7850 for 160 on newegg, still not sure if it's a deal, but it's about the same performance and ten dollars less.

Quote from APhamX : Yea and the thing about the i7.. It's also 100 more and that breaks the budget. By a lot.

http://www.microcenter.com/produc..._Processor

i7 2700K for $219.99. Only $30 more, but definitely more powerful. Haggle with Microcenter. You may be able to get the Asrock Z77 Motherboard at the advertised $94.99 for purchasing with the 3570K. I was able to get my EVGA GTX 560 Ti for a discount (I think it was compared to Newegg) when I haggled with one of the sales reps.

Quote from kakomu : http://www.microcenter.com/produc..._Processor i7 2700K for $219.99. Only $30 more, but definitely more powerful. Haggle with Microcenter. You may be able to get the Asrock Z77 Motherboard at the advertised $94.99 for purchasing with the 3570K. I was able to get my EVGA GTX 560 Ti for a discount (I think it was compared to Newegg) when I haggled with one of the sales reps.

The thing is, if I get the motherboard with the 2700k I doubt I'll get the 40-50 dollar off from the compo, brining it to 80 more plus tax too. Will the sales rep count rebate :o! I don't really want to deal with tax because it seems like the same price either way and I'd rather get it off newegg.

Quote from APhamX : There are no more 120gb ssds at the 70-80 dollar price point They're all at 100 D: What happened to all the ssds >:L

Yes, this is true. Either you wait on a promo code, a sale, or a market price drop.

32GB is max ram

Why buy 2 x 4 GB?

Better to buy 2 x 8GB and max out those ram slots. Or 1 x 8 GB

Quote from APhamX : The thing is, if I get the motherboard with the 2700k I doubt I'll get the 40-50 dollar off from the compo, brining it to 80 more plus tax too. Will the sales rep count rebate :o! I don't really want to deal with tax because it seems like the same price either way and I'd rather get it off newegg.

You can always try. Take both the 3570k and 2700k with motherboard of choice at checkout,
and in the last minute ask them to remove the 3570k. Discount should still be applied.

Quote from boltman2007 : 32GB is max ram Why buy 2 x 4 GB? Better to buy 2 x 8GB and max out those ram slots. Or 1 x 8 GB

The majority of users who have 16gb (or more) of ram, rarely (if ever) approach 50% usage. Op is trying to stay at a certain budget.

Quote from tonyftw : You can always try. Take both the 3570k and 2700k with motherboard of choice at checkout, and in the last minute ask them to remove the 3570k. Discount should still be applied. The majority of users who have 16gb (or more) of ram, rarely (if ever) approach 50% usage. Op is trying to stay at a certain budget.

I just ended up getting the 3770k and the 120gb Samsung 840 for 90 dollars.