HackProPhoto Machine: Heavy Photo & Occasional Video Machine Parts Review Request

[nathanlarsonpic]

Thanks in advance for taking a peek at this proposed HackProPhoto set-up.

Most likely workflow will be SSD for system, and two SATA drives (one for photos library only and one for all other media). The photo-only drive will back-up daily to an external and also back-up to a cloud back-up. There will be heavy use of Lightroom, Aperture, and Adobe Creative Suite CS5 and 6. Occasional video editing with Premiere. A very high end 27" monitor is included in this proposed build, but I am showing the cost without it as well. I do not plan to overclock it, but the cooling is there in case I go that route for even temporary use.

I don't love the case, but I think everything will fit well.

Total Cost as presented: $3,384.49 with monitor and $2,285.49 without monitor

CPU:Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K
Item #: N82E16819116501 $329.99

MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with Dual Thunderbolt
Item #: N82E16813128559 $229.99

VIDEO: EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814130768 $479.99

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10Q-32GBZL
Item #: N82E16820231507 $219.99

MONITOR: NEC Display Solutions PA271W-BK Black 27" 7ms WQHD Height, Swivel & Pivot Adjustable IPS Panel Widescreen LCD monitor 300 ...
Item #: N82E16824002543 $1099.99

WIRELESS: not sure included wireless solution included with MB works, so this is option just in case TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Adapter, 2.4GHz 450Mbps/5GHz 450Mbps, IEEE 802.1a/b/g/n, WEP/WPA/WPA2
Item #: N82E16833704133 $44.99

DRIVE 2 & 3: Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136792 $174.99 x 2

DRIVE 1: SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820171568 $219.99

BLUETOOTH: IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth 4.0 Micro Adapter USB
Item #: N82E16833139027 $16.99

CARD READER: Rosewill RCR-IC002 74-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port / Extra silver face plate
Item #: N82E16820223109 $14.99

POWER: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC
Item #: N82E16817139010 $129.99

CASE: Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811139009 $119.99

COOLING: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler
Item #: N82E16835181032 $119.99

 

[zaptoons]

Very nice build- pretty close to the top of the heap for Hackintosh.
Only thing I can say is- make sure the bang-for-buck is really up there for that GTX 680 card, vs. say the GTX 670. I've built practically identical systems with the GTX 670 that handle everything even the highest end user can throw at it- so I'm not really sure what the extra expense for the GTX 680 *really* gets you, but hey, except maybe a bit more awesomeness.

I personally would skip the H100i kit and just go for a decent third party heatsink/fans. I say this after a terrible experience with an H100 kit that was nothing but trouble for its owner from day 1. He had endless trouble with what should have been a trouble-free system- we replaced the motherboard, RAM and PSU in trying to track down the problem- in the end, it turned out to be the H100i shutting down his system because it was failing all the time for no discernable reason. Put in a Cooler Master Hyper 212 and his system has been perfect ever since. I know I'm biased and a lot of people swear by these, but if you read the reviews it seems the troublesome units are just (bad)luck of the draw. If you run into any issues where your system starts randomly shutting itself off- suspect the H100i first before you waste time with all the other components.


Only one word to describe that NEC monitor- AWESOME. We have a few at work for doing color-correction work and they are simply the best. Costly, but well worth it. You can't go wrong with it for photo editing.

$175 seems a little steep to me for a 2GB hard drive, but whatever.

Very nice system!

 

[kundica]

Your build looks super solid.

I agree about the 680, not sure if it's necessary. I run the MSI 670 PE OC in my video editing system and it really holds up well, even for games. I'm not counting my fps in games though. My card is super quite, inaudible most of the time. One thing I've read repeatedly is that the EVGA cards can be pretty loud. My old GTX 460 sounded like an airplane, even at idle.

At that price for an SSD, I'd consider the Samsung 840 Pro. I've run had a Crucial M4, Intel 335, Sandisk Extreme, and Samsung 840 Pro. I returned all of them except for the Samsung and now run 840 Pros for both OSX and Windows drives. Great choice with the WD blacks, they're outstanding drives, and all I run for mechanical drives at the moment. Sure you could go cheaper, but I don't think it's worth it. You can't beat a 5 year warranty(which I should mention the 840 Pros also have).

I run air cooling and have been very happy with my Noctua cooler. My system(3930k small OC to 4Ghz) runs idle at 31ish degrees and maxes at 60 under full load. I guess if you plan on OC'ing like crazy at some point, you might want to go with liquid.

The NEC pro series are outstanding monitors. I recently bought the new Dell U2413 and returned it within 5 days. I now own the NEC P232W with SpectraView II software and an i1Display Pro calibrator. It serves my needs well(I only need sRGB with high contrast ratio, I get 1150:1 after calibration with a .087 black point), and is by far the best monitor I've ever owned. It's built like a beast and colors are spot on after calibration. I'd definitely plan on purchasing the calibration software/equipment if you're investing in such a high end monitor. It's well worth the few hundred dollars more.

I own a Corsair case as well, and I'm very happy with it. Don't know much about the 500R you're looking at, but I find that almost all the Corsair cases are similarly built.

I went through 2 Corsair PSU, one of them the high end AX Platinum series and returned them both for terrible coil whine. I ended up taking my old Seasonic 760 from another system that also suffered from coil whine and RMA'd it. The replacement doesn't whine. I've read that Corsair uses Seasonic OEMs for their PSU, so I'm not sure what a great recommendation for a trouble free PSU would be. I'd do some searches on the HX though, because I'm pretty sure I saw a lot of complaints about coil whine. Those who don't have the whine issue, it's a great PSU.

 

[nathanlarsonpic]

Kundica and Zaptoons:

Thanks so much for the the feedback. I am going to look into saving some money on the graphics card and perhaps replace it with a slightly "lower" end card. I am also going to drop the liquid cooling and move to the 840 Pro SSD. The notes about the power source will probably lead me to choose another option there too...I just don't know what size power source is required versus what is too much, etc. I will re-price everything this week and check the grand total.

-drives to 840 Pro
-power to different options/brand
-graphics card re-examined to see if the original build is too much for intended use

Thanks again!

 

[YWO]

You mentioned that you "don't love the case"; what is it specifically that you don't like? I'm not a veteran builder, but I have been doing a lot of reading about cases over the past few months, so your answer might lead to suggestions for a case that might suit you better. Incidentally, I concur with opinions above about the NEC monitor, and the Samsung 840 Pro seems to be the current overall performance leader in consumer SSDs, going by many reviews.