I'm going to uni soon to do Film and Television studies and I'm look to get a PC that will be suitable for the editing that will be involved, but also able to play games smoothly.
The software I'm currently using is Sony Vegas Pro 12, but will also be using AVID and I also do some Illustrator and Photoshop work, I'm not 100% about the exact editing I'll be doing but given It's a course focusing on film and tv production I imagine it could get quite intensive. As for the gaming, I would like to be able to run games such as Metro: Last Light and Tomb Raider smoothly at 1080p and ideally hitting an average 30FPS at least. (My current laptop can run most things smoothly at 800x600 so the only way is up from there really!)
I have all the necessary peripherals so I'm only looking at the actual PC. My budget is around the £600 mark and I'd like to keep it pretty close to that.
This is the spec I've come up with and I think would do what I need but I'm not fully sure, so any help would be appreciated. This comes in at about £660 and that is already over what I'd really be willing to spend. So basically, would this do the job, and what do you suggest for improvements? Thanks!
CPU: AMD FX 8350 Black Edition
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Optima
Operating System: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333mhz (1x8GB)
Hard Drive: 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Internet: Wireless 802.11N 150Mbps MIMO PCI-E card
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus
PSU: 550W Corsair VS
Motherboard is not sufficient for the 8350. It lacks the necessary power phases. I do have some good news for you, though. I see that you're in the UK, and this motherboard is a fairly cheap, suitable option:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a97evor20
That power supply sucks. What is the price of that particular unit? This is the affordable option that I would recommend:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9
XFX are always solid.
It's actually a nice little system that you've got configured. You'll be satisfied with the 8350 and 270X. You might consider switching the 8350 for an 8320. The 8320 is the same chip, but lower binned. It's likely that you could overclock it to the same speed as the 8350 and save some cash - most people attain the same speed.
Similar situation with the R9 270 and R9 270x. You can overclock the 270 to same the speeds, or better in some instances.
Final thing; are you looking to add RAM? If you want to stick with 8GB, it is advisable to get two sticks, rather than one.
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=1640
That's the base product that I've started with and changed the bits where I've needed it from the options they gave. I've never built a PC before so I stuck with them because they build it, I just pick the parts! There is no option to change the motherboard though so I assumed it would just work, probably a bit silly of me.
I can't find a definite price but that PSU is around £50 to £60 from what I can find on amazon, is the problem not enough power or just not a good brand?
I went with the 8350 since it's faster without having to overclock which is something I'd like to avoid in an ideal world, but given it knocks an extra £25 off the price it might be something worth looking into. The price difference (on Dino PC at least) between the 270 and the 270X is only a fiver so is it worth saving a fiver and overclocking it or just spending the little extra and going with the X?
As for RAM I'm not sure, I picked 1 stick over 2 just to save an extra £7.60
As a rule of thumb, the motherboard should have a 6+2 power phase for any 8xxx processor. 4+1 is sufficient for the FX6300. The issue is, if the power-hungry octacores don't have enough power, they will throttle. It creates all kinds of stability issues, and it is often overlooked.
The XFX PSU is £45, approximately. The VS is Corsair's lowest quality brand PSU. Quality is not brand specific. Some Corsair units are awesome, others are best to be avoided. It has everything to do with the OEM (Original Electronics Manufacturer). XFX power units are made by Seasonic, and they have really good quality control. Source capacitors from Japan, quality stuff. Produces lower ripple. Basically, if you choose a crap PSU, it can damage your components over time.
Two sticks of RAM will enable you to utilise dual channel memory. It makes file transfers faster, and other applications. It's twice as fast as single channel.
Build this:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3LbbX
It poops on Dino PC.
This build looks pretty good.
Wow, that really does poop on it! Just needs a wireless card, what about a sound card?
Motherboard audio is great nowadays. If you have high ohm headphones, just get an amp. Soundcards are pretty much useless today. If you get static in the front audio, use the back ports. The back audio ports work a lot better due to not having a wire susceptible to interference.
Don't worry about a soundcard. When you talk about audio, you need to think about the setup as a whole. Most headphones do not warrant a soundcard of any kind. I've learnt that a good pair of headphones go a long way. After that, you should consider other things like a DAC with a built in AMP.
Anyway, wireless card. I hate wireless, but most wireless cards are sufficient. I couldn't really recommend one. Usually, I tell people to stick to wired, or consider Powerline. Whatever is right for the situation. If you are stuck with wireless, that's a crying shame.