Looking at building a computer

[jlr860]

I still would get a much cheaper mobo, ditch the soundcard unless you have some REALLY nice headphones or it has a feature the integrated card doesn't.

 

Your processor is an older gen if you didn't notice. Still a great processor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899 will probably run older games like portal just off the integrated graphics alone if you wanted to wait until you actually found a game worth buying and get a potentially faster card later instead of getting one now and not really using it. (note this is haswell so you probably noticed you need a different mobo)

 

I got a fancy mobo making a build in the manner you are doing, while the board was good value to me, I have barely overclocked and actually helped friends do more with what were much cheaper boards.

 

Definitely a nice setup you got picked out though. I hope I can upgrade to some newer intel stuff before my old amd 955 gets much older. Being an IT type I would like to have an i3 build just to act a as a server/nas for my movies, an overclocked AMD or anything with dedicated gpu is not a power saver. It would make a nice always on rig.

 

Start looking for a nice monitor now if you don't have one. It will help you spot the deals on black friday and you can always use it along side your laptop!

[Chris]

The monitor wont reallh really be needed. One reason for external graphics is the ability for HDMI. I will use my tv for a monitor. I want a decent video and sound card because after I finish a few projects I am going to start editing some photos and videos. The motherboard and processor will likely be changed. I havent found a case I like yet.

 

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[jlr860]

sound card will do nothing the stock one won't do. It MAY sound better if you have some very nice studio monitors or headphones. Also unless you have some nice video editing software most all rendering will be done using your CPU. I really do like some good sounding stuff but seriously put off the sound card until you have studio quality speakers. The stock ASUS software that I had with my last mobo had plenty of stuff to get the sound right as far as low pass filter for sub, bass gain, eq and such. I've had friends use the tv for monitors and most like it but personally I'd take a computer monitor over a tv especially for serious editing to make sure colors look correct.

 

The nice thing about building your own is you can always start with the necessities and add on what you feel is missing. MOBO and CPU are two things you usually can't afford to change though.

 

Have you found a case and power supply?

[OhmMega]

The sound card provides the hardware necessary for encoding and decoding many effects not easily accomplished with software. If he's editing video with complex audio he can take advantage of the high end hardware with the proper editing tools.

 

For listening I agree, the cost of a sound card could be better spent on better peripherals.

[jlr860]

I'm not sure what software he is using but if it really uses hardware encoding then he has no business buying an i5 unless I've just been really out of touch on rendering software lately. Most all encoding is done using the CPU not anything else. I would check the software you think you might use.

[StinkyCheese]

I don't know if you bought this set up yet or not but just FYI Steam is going to be increasing their Linux support/game library and actively encouraging game makers to make a linux version as well. Plus with Steam if you buy it for one you get it for all OS versions available.

[Chris]

Good. I haven't purchased yet. It will be after I move

 

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[StinkyCheese]

Yeah I still haven't gotten around to learning/using Linux but anything that enhances PC gaming is a plus for me. They started pushing early this year announcing better linux support and now that they are beta testing Steam Boxes which are basically a small form factor PC, aka a console, that run a Linux based OS. Btw if you aren't going to do anything other than use the PC as a media PC for a while then all that you listed is over kill. I'm running an Athlon x2 and a 5+ year old board. Only reason I have a gfx card (ati hd5450) is I always buy mobos without onboard graphics and back then HDMI wasn't the semi standard output for onboard video anyway. The onboard sound works well enough sending the signal via my gfx card to my receiver and the computer easily handles 1080 mkv files with the files being kept on my primary computer.

 

If you're looking for HDs the seagate 3TB externals sale prices seem to always be about $99. Just buy one of those, pull it out of the case, use crystal disk manager, hard disk sentinel, or any other hard disk software that can disable APM and you're good to go. I've been using 2 of the 3TB "externals" in my computer for almost a year now and can't tell the difference between the 3TB internal I bought at the same time.