First Build Ever - Shopping Begins Today

[MTB]

Okay, I'm working on my first ever computer build. This is going to be a mixed-use machine, with three primary roles:

1. Central server for filesharing and Time Machine backups for a pair of MacBooks
2. Media PC for iTunes server and streaming Hulu/MLB/ESPN/home video to a 1080p HDTV
3. General use computer (MS Office, web, light Photoshop, Xcode, light gaming, etc.)

Here is what I'm thinking of buying:

• CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K
• Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H or GA-Z77X-UP4-TH
• PSU - Seasonic X-560 or Corsair TX550M
• RAM - 2x8 GB
• HD1 - SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 3.0 Gb (SDSSDX-120G-G25​)
• HD2 - Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s (ST2000DM001)
• DVD - LG Electronics 24X SATA Super Multi DVD+/-RW with Lightscribe (GH24LS70)
• Case - Corsair Carbide 300R or Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus

I have a few questions for the community:

1. Is the Thunderbolt-enabled mobo worth the extra expense? I don't currently own any Thunderbolt peripherals, but my impression is that it isn't easy to add Thunderbolt capability later.
2. Am I okay with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 for now, knowing that I can always add a videocard later?
3. I don't have a good feel for power supplies; do you have any wisdom to share with me on those?

I would also greatly appreciate any other comments/suggestions/warnings that you can provide about my proposed build. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Going Bald]

Okay, I'm working on my first ever computer build. This is going to be a mixed-use machine, with three primary roles:

1. Central server for filesharing and Time Machine backups for a pair of MacBooks
2. Media PC for iTunes server and streaming Hulu/MLB/ESPN/home video to a 1080p HDTV
3. General use computer (MS Office, web, light Photoshop, Xcode, light gaming, etc.)

Here is what I'm thinking of buying:

• CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K
• Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H or GA-Z77X-UP4-TH
• PSU - Seasonic X-560 or Corsair TX550M
• RAM - 2x8 GB
• HD1 - SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 3.0 Gb (SDSSDX-120G-G25​)
• HD2 - Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s (ST2000DM001)
• DVD - LG Electronics 24X SATA Super Multi DVD+/-RW with Lightscribe (GH24LS70)
• Case - Corsair Carbide 300R or Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus

I have a few questions for the community:

1. Is the Thunderbolt-enabled mobo worth the extra expense? I don't currently own any Thunderbolt peripherals, but my impression is that it isn't easy to add Thunderbolt capability later.
2. Am I okay with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 for now, knowing that I can always add a videocard later?
3. I don't have a good feel for power supplies; do you have any wisdom to share with me on those?

I would also greatly appreciate any other comments/suggestions/warnings that you can provide about my proposed build. Thanks in advance for your help!

Parts list looks OK, but the LG might prevent sleep. If this is being used as a streaming media server sleep might not matter.

1. Personally, I don't think TB is worth the added expense ATM. TB peripherals are all too expensive compared to alternatives and I am not in that big a hurry.
2. HD4000 graphics works just fine for light PS ang gaming - just don't expect high speed play.
3. 500W should be plenty for hat is on your list. You could add a couple of HDDs and still have headroom.

 

[runebinder]

I was looking at the UP4 Motherboard originally but ended up going for the UP5 instead, as the VIA USB controllers on the UP4 were not supported so a few of the ports would not work in OS X. Don't know if this is still the case, if it is then worth consideration.

Thunderbolt is a bit of a gamble atm, hasn't really taken off as yet and quite pricy. Now that some Windows machines have it we may see a change but then again it could completely flop and become redundant. Main reason I went for the UP5 in the end was the Ultra durable 5 and the IR3550 mosfets for OC'ing rather than the dual Thunderbolt. You may be better off with the GA-z77x-UD5H which does not have TB but is about the same price as the UP4 and a really good compatible board.

 

[FranktheDinosaur]

Okay, I'm working on my first ever computer build. This is going to be a mixed-use machine, with three primary roles:

1. Central server for filesharing and Time Machine backups for a pair of MacBooks
2. Media PC for iTunes server and streaming Hulu/MLB/ESPN/home video to a 1080p HDTV
3. General use computer (MS Office, web, light Photoshop, Xcode, light gaming, etc.)

Here is what I'm thinking of buying:

• CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K
• Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H or GA-Z77X-UP4-TH
• PSU - Seasonic X-560 or Corsair TX550M
• RAM - 2x8 GB
• HD1 - SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 3.0 Gb (SDSSDX-120G-G25​)
• HD2 - Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s (ST2000DM001)
• DVD - LG Electronics 24X SATA Super Multi DVD+/-RW with Lightscribe (GH24LS70)
• Case - Corsair Carbide 300R or Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus

I have a few questions for the community:

1. Is the Thunderbolt-enabled mobo worth the extra expense? I don't currently own any Thunderbolt peripherals, but my impression is that it isn't easy to add Thunderbolt capability later.
2. Am I okay with the Intel HD Graphics 4000 for now, knowing that I can always add a videocard later?
3. I don't have a good feel for power supplies; do you have any wisdom to share with me on those?

I would also greatly appreciate any other comments/suggestions/warnings that you can provide about my proposed build. Thanks in advance for your help!

For Motherboards:
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H has some ethernet issues if you get Rev. 1.1, if you have a Rev 1.0 board you should be good
GA-Z77X-UP4-TH from what i've heard as well is a no go. If you really want the Thunderbolt you gotta pony up that extra cash and go for the UD5H-TB. If you're looking to spend ~$180 on a board I would recommend the GA-Z77X-UD5H

PSU:
I have heard nothing but good things about seasonic PSUs. Looking at the one you chose its fully modular which is a bonus. Just to point out the Corsair TX-550M isn't really that modular. I have a 650M and the only cables that ARE modular is the option for PCI-E and a few mroe SATA cables, other wise everything is permanently connected. (Still not a bad PSU though).

 

[MTB]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Since this is my first build and I am a bit risk-averse, I will probably go for the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H. So far I have purchased the processor, power supply, and RAM, so we are rolling.

I have one more question to add: given that this is going to be a server and data security is an issue, I was considering buying a second Barracuda and setting up a RAID1. What pitfalls should I be considering for doing this in a Hackintosh?

 

[Going Bald]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Since this is my first build and I am a bit risk-averse, I will probably go for the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H. So far I have purchased the processor, power supply, and RAM, so we are rolling.

I have one more question to add: given that this is going to be a server and data security is an issue, I was considering buying a second Barracuda and setting up a RAID1. What pitfalls should I be considering for doing this in a Hackintosh?

On my -UD7 I have 6 SATA ports from the X58, 2 from a Marvell chip and 2 from a jMicron chip.
I installed one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990016 and connected the trays to the jMicron ports.
I have 6 Samsung Spinpoint F4 1Tb HDDs, from before Seagate bought them out, connected to the 6 ports on the X58.
The Marvell ports are DVD-RW and BDR drives.
Ports 1, 2, 3 are data drives with #1 and #4 having partitions for backups (non-bootable) and drives 4, 5 & 6 are clones of 1, 2, & 3.
The Kingwin tray has a Samsung 830 128Gb SSD for each of 4 OSs - Mountain Lion, Win7, PC-BSD and Ubuntu
The second bay gets a WD 500Gb Velociraptor for Users and other files for each OS.
I manually backup each OS to the HDDs with CCC on one and SuperDuper on the other for OS X and I use other software for the other OSs in a similar fashion so I always have backups to 2 HDDs. Finished projects are offloaded to a NAS. With the capacity of the new Bluray discs I can burn the smaller projects to disc and store them off line.

This way I never have more than one OS in the build at a time, I can read/write to all drives from whichever OS I am booted to and the optical drives can be shared by all OSs.

I also have some Hitachi 160Gb laptop drives that have Lion and Snow Leopard installed, plus one that is a bootable clone of the ML SSD for emergencies.

I would have set up a RAID 1 or 1+0 , but doing it with the onboard "fake" RAID through the BIOS, OS X would not recognize it and doing it via disk utility in OS X and then Win7 wouldn't recognize it, so I said heck with it and just cloned them. I seldom use more than 3/4 of one drive during a project anyway.

 

[MTB]

I would have set up a RAID 1 or 1+0 , but doing it with the onboard "fake" RAID through the BIOS, OS X would not recognize it and doing it via disk utility in OS X and then Win7 wouldn't recognize it, so I said heck with it and just cloned them.

Wow, you have a nice setup there; more rigorous than I need. Since I'm not worried about giving Windows access to the RAID, I should be fine using the OS X Disk Utility RAID 1, right?

 

[Going Bald]

Wow, you have a nice setup there; more rigorous than I need. Since I'm not worried about giving Windows access to the RAID, I should be fine using the OS X Disk Utility RAID 1, right?

If you don't care that Windows can't access the drives as a RAID array built in OS X, then go ahead and RAID them using Disk Utility. Formatting them GUID HFS+ Windows wouldn't see them anyway unless you installed a 3rd party software to allow it or drivers from Bootcamp.

 

[MTB]

Shopping done. Here is what I have:

• CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K
• MoBo - Gigabyte GA-Z77Z-UD5H
• PSU - Seasonic X650 Gold (SS-650KM)
• RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 2x8 GB (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10B)
• SSD - Samsung 830 128 GB (MZ-7PC128B)
• HD - Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s (ST2000DM001) [x2]
• DVD - Sony Optiarc 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW (AD-7280S-0B)
• CR - Rosewill 74-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Reader (RCR-IC002)
• Case - Corsair Carbide 300R Windowed

I am planning to build next weekend. Thanks for the advice!