1,500 AUD Productivity build (Opinions needed)

So, I've just read all the rules and regulations and all that stuff to this forum so I think I am ready to post.

From the information you have been given already, I am hoping to buy and make a pc that costs around $1,500 Australian dollars, also that this pc will be mainly used for productivity. Now if you need me to be more specific I will be mostly using it for music production. I will be using 1 TB or storage because I'm a pretty clean person and try to get rid of anything I don't need - plus from previous pc's & laptops I don't use much storage.

IF YOU WANT TO SKIP THE INTRO READ HERE:

I have made a pcpartpicker list, and here is the link: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/Rift1/saved/#view=QyrFf7

That list includes everything but a keyboard and mouse and a Monitor. I am getting a $40 K & M combo and my monitor will be the LG 25UM57 25 inch Ultrawide monitor which costs $269

A quick extra note: I do a bit of gaming also so games like Gta V I would like to be able to run on high settings, with good fps. And since I am a casual gamer high refresh rate monitors are not really needed.

Cheers

The power supply is 175$ and only 600W , so big money saving opportunity there.

Also 8 gigs of ram is not a lot , usually 16 is about where you want to be if you are doing production work. I have 24 in my server and I run out very quickly when video editing.

Also , get a windows 7 cd on ebay for cheap , then do a free upgrade to 10. Save ya some cash there. Although I would just run 7 and not use either 8 or 10.

you could also save money on the motherboard as it has features that cost extra that you most likely don't need , a 100$ board should be able to do just as well.

Thanks for the response! Ive found a Silverstone Strider 600W Fully modular for $119 on pc case gear, I could go with that.

Im kinda indecisive about the ram I feel 8gb might be fine, I'm not doing like heavy video editing, just making some music as in like what popular artists do like martin garrix etc, and they use a macbook for professional music production.

For OS I want to you windows or 8 or 10 because Ive used it before and really enjoyed it

Also just to add I could possibly find a cheaper case, my setup is going to have the case on the ground so its looks isn't too important

Sorry for the late response though I hope you did not build your PC already. There are a few things that would need to be changed about your build. Is first your motherboard and your CPU. Your CPU is locked what that means is that the CPU can not be overclocked and the Z series motherboard are made for overclocking. I would cut down on the motherboard, looking at the H97 series motherboard. Since you would be doing production work in this cause Audio I would suggest you grabbing the Xeon E3-1231v3 with the money that you have saved. I personally own this CPU and its great for gaming and with those extra threads (4 cores 8 threads) they will be extra handy in Audion work since its very CPU intensive. As for gaming I would not suggest getting the GTX 960 since of two reasons: 1. It has poorer fps per dollar range 2. Here is a thing that I go for PC building, if your budget is lower than GTX 980 look at the AMD cards it will yield better FPS per dollar. So I would choose getting the R9 380 Gigabyte SOC 4GB VRAM. Memory I have step up to 16GB of RAM which will be enough for your needs.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/QsZTGX

PCPartPicker part list: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/QsZTGX
Price breakdown by merchant: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/QsZTGX/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($369.00 @ Centre Com)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 300 55.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($23.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($133.00 @ Umart)
Memory: G.Skill Value Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($112.98 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 380 4GB SOC Video Card ($329.00 @ IJK)
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-M2 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($79.00 @ Scorptec)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($105.00 @ Umart)
Total: $1249.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-19 06:07 AEDT+1100

should shoot for the 380, has a bit more performance at the same price, and potentially has better DX12/Vulkan support

So this build was actually given to me from a friend (its a scorptec list) and I was just looking for your opinions and also how I should upgrade it. I was given an extra $100 to use on my pc so I was wondering where I should spend that.

List: http://i.imgur.com/K9hAFbn.png

Thats a link to an imgur picture because I couldn't find the same parts on part picker and the items listed to me were from scorptec. Either way from the pic you can see the components used. My friend told me to spend your money on CPU, Motherboard and PSU because with good Cpu, mobo and Psu you can upgrade your parts easier.

So firstly what I need you to do is give me an opinion on that build and then, secondly, tell me what I should spend the extra $100 on. Thanks

What I will be using the computer for
Mentioned in my previous post which I will go over again for those who don't know (Pretty much everyone) is how I will use the computer. I will mainly be using it for music production, and casual gaming. I like games like Gta V, free roamers and I would like to get at least 60 fps on high settings on Gta etc. In terms of my requirements for music production I would like to get the purest sound I can for my price range.

Thanks

What I just remembered I forgot to mention is the monitor, the monitor I am using is 250 so thats why the total price on the imgur picture isn't $1500 its ~200 less

A $1500 Aussie build would be around $1095 US dollars.

Yeah, for anyone wondering its exactly 1091.33 use

Rounding would take that conversion to $1091.30,
or averaged to $1093.15 US dollars

Wouldn't it be rounded to the nearest 5 cent?

Not necessarily, most times retailers will round-back to the .30 cents, .33 cents isn't over the second-decimal of .05, so this will round-back to .30 cents.

Of course there are less-than-honest retailers who will round-forward to .35 cents for extra 'profit'.

I'm interested in how your build-project will be quoted upon by other forum users.

You'll probably want a 380, the 2GB model is a bit cheaper

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-axr93804gbd5ppdhe

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What are the benefits?
PS I heard 4gb is for 2 monitors and 2gb for 1
I will be possibly using 2 monitors

Why Scoptec? No PC Case Gear?, MSY? CPL?

That doesn't matter so much, it's more for future games and higher resolutions, possibly worth the extra cost

Is it just me or does ddr3 in a skylake build seem like a waste? And doesn't skylake only officially support 1.35v ddr3 kits?

Also, is the blu ray writer necessary?

Looking closer at it, please don't buy that. There's incompatibilities all over it.

I put together a quick build on the AU Part Picker. Here's one that comes in under 1500 with a 970, 8gb ddr4, the blu ray writer and a copy of Windows 8.1.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/kgbvP6

Its not a perfect build, I'm sure I could do better with more time but I'm heading to bed shortly and this is what I came up with in about 3 minutes.

There's probably some jerry-rigging involved, but all DDR3 skylake boards seems to also support regular DDR3.

That said though rift1, you'd be better off with a DDR4 combo, more future-proof and depending on brand & feature set the cost difference will be bugger all.

Dunno what resolution you're aiming for, but your GPU is fine; Bugger using a mechanical drive, spend the $100
on a SSD as your system drive - keep and eye glued to ozbargain for sub-$100 240GB drives.

a 390 is a fair better choice, it's also 50 bucks cheaper in AUS

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-axr93908gbd5ppdhe

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