russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

My business partner just completed his freshman year at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in computer science.
Since my current main computer is a little on the older side and seems to be getting slower and slower, I asked him to create and build for me a super computer that will let me work the way I want to work.
During the day, I use the Internet, Adobe InDesign, Audacity (for music editing), Photoshop, Bridge, Excel, VLC media player.
Those programs always are open at the top of my computer so that I can switch to any one instantaneously without waiting for a program to open.
InDesign all on its own can sometimes take up to 5 minutes to open.
I was pretty sure that would mean a much faster computer chip and lots more memory.

I thought I would share here what we decided to buy.
Everything was bought through Amazon (Prime), so shipping was free and prices might be a little lower than elsewhere.


Intel 7th Gen Core Desktop Processor i7-7700K (BX80677I77700K), $337.00

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E1T0B/AM), $349.99

ASUS PRIME Z270-A LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 USB 3.1 Z270 ATX Motherboard, $159.99

Corsair LPX 32GB DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit for DDR4 Systems, $259.99

MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 DirectX 12 VR Ready (GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING X 6G), $259.99

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan, $24.99

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Compact ATX Case for H55, H60, H75, H80i (CC-9011023-WW), $58.99

Sabrent 75-in-1 Multi Flash Media Card Reader/writer(With power cord) (CRW-UINB), $12.14

EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1, 80+ GOLD 650W, Fully Modular, 10 Year Warranty, Includes FREE Power On Self Tester Power Supply 120-G1-0650-XR, $79.99

LG 27UD58-B 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor with FreeSync, $344.99

Total after tax: $2,042.70


I have three external SSD's (500 GB, 500 GB, and 1TB) that will be moved over to the new computer, and the old computer will be dedicated to my digital music collection which currently has 3,834 files totaling 1,453 hours 32 minutes 3 seconds of music in my non-classical collection. (Yes, I am that detailed. Excel runs my life.) At an average of 10 hours of music per day, it takes me just over 145 days to listen to all my non-classical music. My classical collection is even larger but I'm still cataloging it.

Gpa-15 Loc: Tinton Falls, NJ

HOLY COW...!!!
Well I'll definitely have 'Andrew' (Robin Williams [RIP]) my Android, order the parts and then Assemble them. --- But Seriously... THAT sounds Perfect (provided you DON'T have personal use of IBM's 'Watson'.!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Nice.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Considering your intended uses, that seems like overkill, but no one ever complained that his computer was too good. Let us know how it turns out.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

It's not overkill. All of the Adobe products are serious memory hogs, with Photoshop being the worst.
I use 24.0mp DNG RAW files to create my Photographic Art. Quite often I'll have Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Redfield, Nik, and onOne all working at the same time creating stuff.
I often take 4 to 36 of those RAW files (6000x4000px) and stitch them together using Photoshop's Photomerge function to create a 10-feet long panorama. I timed a 36-picture Photomerge the other day: 29 minutes 21 seconds. The result is a TIFF of 251 MB which Photoshop then takes over 2 minutes to close down and, if I need to open it again for any reason, over 6 minutes to open. I need a computer that can do better than that. I think this new one will.
Fortunately, I'm a reader so when I'm waiting on something or someone, I simply read. Got all of Stephen King and Lee Child done.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I guess some people have greater needs than I do.

cosmo54 Loc: Easton, PA but will travel for photos

wow. I'm impressed! of course, if I bought all the parts I'd be looking at them all arranged on the table with me wondering what the heck to do next. LOL

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's what happened to me, but I took my time and spread construction out over a few weeks. Directions were not very good, but the online manuals were in color, rather than the printed B&W manuals, so that helped. I used different Asus motherboards for my computer and my son's - a mistake. Although they were similar, there were still a few head-scratchers. There are also good online videos about assembly. One showed the assembly, but the narrator spoke very fast. I commented on that, and he replied that it was already too long. So, if your video is getting too long, just talk very fast. It doesn't matter if no one understands you.

John Geyer

To put all those parts together should take less than two hours for a first time builder. It will take longer to install OS and programs.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

Installling Adobe InDesign, Premire Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom, Creative Cloud, Bridge, and Camera Raw will probably take a week!.............LOL

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

The only suggestion I would have is a different SSD. The Samsung 850 EVO is constrained by the SATA interface. The Z270 montherboards support an M2 drive that operates under NVMe. I would recommend the Samsung 960 Pro (or less expensive EVO) I purchased the Pro version not for the increased speed but for the durability.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

Thanks!

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

So, being unfamiliar with NVMe and with my business partner being incommunicado for a few hours, I went to do my own research on SATA vs. NVMe. I decided that although NVMe does better in most, but not all, benchmarks, they seem to do the same in actual use, probably because of the OS itself, meaning that the extra speed goes to waste, which is a pretty big waste considering that a 500 GB NVMe SSD is the same price as a 1 TB SATA SSD.

When my partner came out of his isolation, this is what he said:

"I got a Sata ssd for you because while nvme ssds perform much better in benchmarks their real-world performance is about the same because you can always find some sort of OS bottleneck that makes the extra speed go to waste. So while nvme ssds are the future, currently there's almost no point of getting them. They're just more expensive."

I can kind of understand your durability statement, but when we're at the top tier like this, I think it's probably six of one and half dozen of the other.

My current computer, a Windows 7 computer, was bought new in August 2009. So it's lasted. This new computer will, I hope, last for at least as long, if not longer. If NVMe becomes the standard and this new computer seems to be slowing, I won't have any issue replacing the SSD, or even buying a new computer with the latest and the greatest. I am, however, looking for at least 5 years, and preferably 10, from this new computer.

Thanks again for your input. Much appreciated.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

Your choice. At Microcenter an 850 EVO 1TB SATA is $345 and an 850 EVO 1TB M2 is $375 for a saving of $30. The durability statement was between EVO and PRO versions. Don't know about the SATA versions. Are you going to overclock? I assume that's the reason for the unlocked processor and high speed memory.

Haydon

Not a chance it will take that long with your rig. You're internet connection at this point is likely the slowest component. I would gesture to say about an hour for installation.