new computer build help

[chaffe[seagreens]]

We'll I'm ready for a new gaming/video editing computer. I have $1200-$1500 to spend. I have my operating system, software, etc. I am looking for a computer to 95% play games. I need a large hard drive to house all the photos and videos I have and will be taking of my son. I would like to be able to do minor video splicing and editing. do i want a solid state HD and a large secondary hard drive? some insight would be much appreciated. i plan to buy in a few weeks...I have friends who can help me with the build..

[Gizanked]

do you have a monitor(s) that you will be keeping or do you want those added in as well. Also does your "etc" include mouse and keyboard

[chaffe[seagreens]]

yeah, just need to build a new box...

[Fingolfin]

I have a small solid state drive just for the operating system (64gb or something like that, which is probably too small). Some folks get a larger one for the most played games, maybe double the size. But the majority of my data is on a really big HDD, including Steam, and I have no issues.

[Cat Square]

I'd get a 128-256GB SSD. Win7 is gonna take up around 20GB, and once you get all your apps installed you'll probably be pushing 100GB, so it might be a good idea to just double your capacity there up front (rather than have to buy another one or a spinner down the road)

I wouldn't bother with any more than 8GB of RAM to start -- see if you need it before buying more because RAM is the easiest thing in the world to drop in. If you can get matched pairs, you'll get better performance. Corsair, Crucial, and Kingston all have long warranties (either 10yrs or lifetime if I remember correctly).

I'd go intel on the motherboard (intel branded). They are hands down the best manufacturer. You won't get some overclocking/hotrod/bells and whistles that other manufacturers tout, but the fantastic compatibility/driver support are worth more IMO.

As for GPUs -- I think ati is way more cost effective than nvidia, but my card is a couple of generations old so that could have changed. When I got mine, I'd have paid a full $150 more for a nVidia card of the same performance tier.

Corsair makes great power supplies -- I have their 750w. It's solid and it's warrantied for 5 years.

I like my thermaltake case a lot (make sure it's big enough to fit your GPU -- I see people make that mistake all the time where I work, I almost did)

WD for your spinning hard drive. They warranty their "enterprise" drives for 5 years and they aren't that much more expensive than the desktop equivalents.

As for the CPU, you'll have to look at benchmarks and decide how much performance you're willing to pay for. For gaming/video editing, I wouldn't go below an i5, so I'd be comparing mid-level i5s to mid-level i7s (the high-end i7s are just too expensive for not enough added performance).

[Gizanked]

I have heard rumblings that if you are a big fan of console ports then getting an amd chip might be a good idea because both the ps4 and Xbone will be amd based.

[Flash]

I'd say yes, get an SSD for your OS and Apps and then a spinning drive for other data.

On all those photos/videos of your son: you're backing them up someplace else right? I personally have a RAID1 in my computer for photos and they're also backed up to a RAID5 server. I'm about to add USB Flash sticks off-site as an additional backup. You can't be too careful with those irreplaceable memories!

[chaffe[seagreens]]

so i plan to move on this in a few days, would love some input.
I have my windows 7 software already
I think I would like to go with 256 SSD( or a 128 if you think that I'm crazy)
a 1 TB internal hard drive
I don't know or want to get into overclocking to get a little more out of stuff. Just looking for a solid Motherboard and CPu combo
I Like a full sized Case so I should have room for a good heatsink.
I would like a good video card.

I've always went with AMD so I wouldn't mind staying with that. looking for a little help. thanks

[Fingolfin]

My build last summer used an AMD 7850 video card from Sapphire, an Intel i5-3570k CPU, and I think a Z77 Extreme4 motherboard from ASRock. I also used a midtower, which was fine for a Coolermaster 212 heatsink. All of which is more than I ever need for the minimal gaming I do.

This was last summer, so there will be better/newer products. And I had no idea what I was doing at the time (still don't). I probably overspent, but whatevah.

A couple resources to use:
http://pcpartpicker.com/ -Lets you virtually build your computer and shows you deals, etc.
http://reddit.com/r/buildapc - Lots of people submitting and critiquing builds at all price levels. Lurk around for ideas or submit your build and see what they say.

[Fingolfin]

Also, I think either the 128 or 256 SSD will be fine. 256 sounds like overkill to me, but I also didn't plan on putting (m)any programs on it aside from the operating system. If it's worth it, go for it, otherwise maybe consider the 128 and putting some older/lesser-used programs and games on the HDD. I think my HDD is 1TB as well, which is more than I'll probably use but it's cheap enough.

[Clay Pigeon]

Pretty much all new cpus have some sort of turbo mode where they automatically overclock themselves. Don't worry about it unless you really, really want to show off.

[chaffe[seagreens]]

Pretty much all new cpus have some sort of turbo mode where they automatically overclock themselves. Don't worry about it unless you really, really want to show off.

not looking to show anything off. just looking for a great machine to play games and video edit with for the next few years...

[Flash]

I went with a 256 GB SSD myself. Right now I have 104 GB used with 151 GB free. Only 14 GB of that is Steam related, I put TF2 on the SSD and every other game (48 GB) on a different drive. You can use the multiple Steam Library Folders options to have SteamPipe enabled games on a different drive. For older games you'll need to use SymLinks but you can get it done.

For me 128 is cutting it too close and I wanted to have the breathing room.

[Overcharged]

Honestly that's a ton of money to spend on a gaming desktop these days you can get a good rig for about half of that.

250ish GB SSD for main drive $150

AMD 8320 8 core cpu $150

AM3+ motherboard 990fx series $125-150

16GB DDR3 1866MHZ $120

750Watt power supply $80

AMD 7950 GPU $250

Total $900 that's basic off the shelf amazon pricing. look for sales or deals cut a good $100 off that I'm sure.

If you need a case OS etc it makes more sense to buy a cheap on sale prebuilt and replace power and vidcard adding ssd. In terms of saving money anyways

[MateoTheBold!]

Definitely go with the 256GB SSD. I'm running a 128GB SSD and my Windows/TF2 install wipes a good chunk of that out. Each time I get a new game that not something indie, I usually have to delete something I otherwise would want to keep.

I have seen some funky sizes (160, 240). 240 would be fine, but at a bare minimum I would do at least 160. That extra space on your SSD you can use for workflow with your pictures/video. After you are done editing them, you can dump them off to your larger storage drive.