Need Help Deciding

[RossWoofels]

Hi everyone.

First time on the forums, I am hoping to get some advice.  I am currently looking at buying a new PC rig and for the first time In my life getting it built for me from a PC shop instead of doing it myself because, it has been 6/7 years since I last built my own rig & I work so a pretty hectic job these days, so too tired and lazy to build it myself lol.

First off my budget is around $1080 (roughly R16'500.00 I am from South Africa so the exchange rate & import taxes screw us pretty heavily). The main purpose of the PC is for gaming, then light video editing & rather intensive photo editing/ illustration (primarily using Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC & Corel Draw). I am a designer by trade and just do video editing as a hobby (Mainly AMV's and small editing for friends. Nothing longer than 30 minutes with about 7/8 video layers with 4/5 audio layers.)

I have two choices from the place I am buying:

BUILD 1

CHASSIS: Bitfenix NOVA BLACK ATX Gaming Case (https://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/chassis/nova/)

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600k (http://ark.intel.com/products/88191/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz)

CPU COOLER: Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid Cooler (http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-h60-cpu-cooler)

PSU: Antec 700W 80+ High Performance Power Supply

RAM: 8gig DDR4 2400Mhz High Performance Gaming Ram

GPU: MSI R9 380 Gaming 4GB 256bit Overclocked Ed Card  (https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/R9-380-GAMING-4G.html)
 MB: MSI Z170A TOMAHAWK AC INTEL WI-FI AC & Bluetooth Gaming MB (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-TOMAHAWK-AC.html)

HDD: 250 SSD (I have three 1TB SATAII 7200rpm mechanical drives for bulk storage with 2TB external usb 3.0)

BUILD 2:

CHASSIS: Bitfenix NOVA BLACK ATX Gaming Case (https://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/products/chassis/nova/)

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 (http://ark.intel.com/products/88196/Intel-Core-i7-6700-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_00-GHz)

CPU COOLER: Stock Cooler

PSU: Antec 500W 80+ High Performance Power Supply

RAM: 8gig DDR4 2400Mhz High Performance Gaming Ram

GPU: MSI R9 380 Gaming 4GB 256bit Overclocked Ed Card  (https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/R9-380-GAMING-4G.html)
MB: MSI Z170A TOMAHAWK AC INTEL WI-FI AC & Bluetooth Gaming MB (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z170A-TOMAHAWK-AC.html)

HDD: 250 SSD (I have three 1TB SATAII 7200rpm mechanical drives for bulk storage with 2TB external usb 3.0)

 

Right so as you can see the main difference is the i5 vs the i7, now I know right off the bat the i7 is leaps and bounds better for video editing & photo editing but as I said my video editing is only a hobby. However from what I've seen when it comes to 1080p gaming (I won't be doing 4k as I can't afford a new monitor) it does not make that much of a difference between and i5 & i7. I've also seen a lot of people doing over clocks of over 4ghz on the i5-6600k with that cooler.

My main concern with build 2 is that 500watt power supply leaves me very little wiggle room for extra drives and even smaller room for potential upgrades. Where as with build 1 having a 700watt psu It leaves with me a decent amount of power to play with.

The only reason I have left the ram at 8gig for now is because, it is the easiest to upgrade quickly and will most likely look at adding another 4 to 8gig in 4 or 5 months once I have some funds again over just buying the system.

My personal feeling is Build 1 is better choice despite the less powerful CPU for now because it leaves with most effective upgrade path. I am however uncertain what is the best value for money here and would really appreciate some input from other people.

(P.s I also know Nvidia cards are better for video editing, but I have a soft spot for radeon cards).

My current machine I have been working off for the last two years is a Intel 3.2ghz duel core, 8gig DDR3 ram and 2gig dedicated mobile graphics (using a dell laptop). So pretty much what ever I choose will be a massive improvement for me lol.

Thank you so much for any advice you can offer me.

(For anyone interested in seeing the PC shop page see these links: http://www.evetech.co.za/Computer-systems/core-i5-r9-380-gaming-pc-318.aspx
http://www.evetech.co.za/Computer-systems/core-i7-r9-380-gaming-pc-325.aspx)

 

 

[TLoD_Snake]

I got my Intel Core i7-6700K BOX and it was no cooler in the box They didn't include it any more. At least for i7-6700K.

[RossWoofels]

Oh wow really, that's heavy.