Maximum PC

Hi Guys,
My experience: I'm new to doing my own builds. I do have experience digging into and tearing apart and upgrading PCs and laptops. In my previous job I worked with servers in a data center and I also ran a business network through an IBM AS400. So I do have experience and I'm not afraid of experimenting.

My needs: I run a custom ceramic poker chip business. I do a lot of graphic design for customer projects - custom poker chips, dealer buttons and plaques. I also have to manage the business through the same computer. I am moving away from MS Office and have decided to use Open Office from now on. My graphic design software is Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6). The two programs I run the most are Illustrator and Photoshop. Dreamweaver is used to maintain our website. I use Chrome extensively. Usually I will have more than six tabs and two separate windows open while I'm running my CS6 programs and Open Office. I would like to run two HD monitors eventually.

My problems: I've been running into memory and graphic card compatibility warnings. I've also had crashes when putting my computer to sleep when I am working on projects. I've been running all this on a three year old HP laptop so it's no wonder I have had issues.

All that being said I just don't have enough knowledge about compatibility and I don't have the time to research the whole build any more than I already have. I think I've come up with something I can upgrade and improve over time so that I don't have to completely replace it in two years.

Things I already own:
Wireless keyboard and mouse combo.
19" HD monitor
120gb Sandisk SSD
Adobe CS6
Printer
Wireless Router
Speakers

My budget: Under $2k - preferably much less. Any suggestions below on how I can cut costs but still get the best bang for the buck would be appreciated.

My build:
Newegg -
1 COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $179.99
1 NZXT HALE82 HALE82-850-M 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE - $139.99
1 MSI Z77 MPOWER LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $199.99
1 Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics - $319.99
1 CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - $219.98
1 ZOTAC ZT-61102-10M GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - $169.99
2 Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Edition 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory Model ... - $199.98
1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card - OEM - $44.99
1 Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $109.99
1 LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-Ray Burner with SW, 3D Play Back - BH14NS40 - $102.99
1 NVIDIA Gift - Assassin's Creed III Game Coupon - OEM - $0.00 Free
1 SilverStone Silent Foam SF01, Sound Dampening Acoustic EP0M Foam Material, Black, 21"x15", 4mm thick, 2 pcs - $21.99
1 Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM - $139.99

$1,849.86
Shipping: $27.77
TOTAL: $1,877.63

I've also thought about getting a similar build through one of the boutique builders. In fact I referenced a few of them to come up with this build. Maingear, Falcon-NW, iBuyPower, etc.
Do you think it is better to go with one of these to take advantage of support and warranties???

Thanks in advance and I hope I've given you enough information.

Off hand, a couple of things:

- Perhaps some of your prices stated look odd. For example, the Corsair H100 about $100, not $220. Just confirm?
- 850 watt PSU is a bit overkill, but even at that wattage, $140 is too much for that PSU imho. Seasonics are good.
- An ASUS mobo like this one will serve you better with more features and at less cost.
- I think you'd be fine with cheaper RAM.
- I think you'll be fine with on-board audio.
- Is 1 TB of storage enough?

Imho, you can probably get your total cost down to $1,500, but I'd figure you'd want to upsize your SSD, HDD and monitor. So $2k might be needed after all is said and done lol? I don't know if you will really need a dedicated GPU for what you are doing though - the Intel HD4000 built-in graphics might suffice.

Ok, i'm going to critique what you have.


Case - $180 is FAR to expensive for a full size case. You can grab a nice full size case with USB 3.0 ports for under $130.

Cooler - Are you overclocking the CPU? If not then the H100 is a waste of money as well as a chance as it might not fit in your case (even certain fill size cases can't fit that). Get either an air cooler or if your dead set on a Corsair water cooler go to the H80, yes I know its only $20 cheaper but it will fit your case with almost no question about it.

Video card - Unless your gaming that videocard will probably be a waste of money. The built in HD4000 (on the cpu) is just fine for what your doing as it offloads the processing of editing to the CPU with quicksync technology which compiles 10 times faster then it being offloaded just to the GPU.

ODD - BluRay burner? Really, your burning blu ray discs to clients? If not then this is another waste of money and you can drop the Optical drive to a measly $20-25 for a simple DVD Burner. Even $45-50 for a Blu ray player/DVD burner combo....is the blu ray burner necessary?

Sound card - Really? Sound cards aren't necessary at all, especially for a business pc, use the built in which will be good to the point that an average user wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

OS - Windows 8....are you sure? If you want it thats great but if you've never used it yet then I'd highly suggest going to your local best buy or walmart on October 26 to play around with the new interface. Not many power users enjoy the new interface as its constant back and forth instead of staying on one screen.

With the stuff above you could probably drop about $300+.

Graphics design... and nobody mentioned getting a better monitor?

19" is pretty minimal for any kind of productive work. I do a lot of coding, and I pretty much refuse to work on anything smaller than 1680x1050 resolution. Go get a 24" eIPS monitor at the minimum, they're around $350 for a good brand. Or if you're feeling risky and don't mind the bare bones setup, a Yamakasi Catleap 27" P-IPS monitor goes for the same price.