Help with new build for DVR encodes and Gaming.

[brennok]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Primarily video encoding with occasional gaming and surfing.
Essentially I want to build a PC that the majority of the time will be encoding Mpeg2 files such as Media Center and TiVo recordingss into 720p h.264 MKVs. The rest of the time it will be used for surfing and playing various PC games mainly FPS and mmorpgs. I may finally start ripping my DVDs also.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $1000 though it isn't firm tax and shipping not included.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, Tampa, FL so no Frys or Microcenter. Everything would be coming from Newegg or Amazon most likely.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, PSU, CPU prefer Intel, Ram, motherboard, HDD, GPU prefer Nvidia

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I may reuse my current monitor which is some crappy Dell s2209w 21" I got for free. I also have keyboard and mice and a spare Lite-On DVD/CD burner model /Has424. I also have a set of speakers.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Probably not for now.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
21" 1920 x 1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Probably in the next week or so unless I should hold off. I thought I read new Intel chips coming in February.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
The more SATA ports the better and have been using boards with Realtek NICs, but I keep hearing I should switch to Intel. Most of my current PCs are Gigabyte boards.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes Win 7 or 8 64 bit.

Essentially I have a couple of friends who stay with me off and on, but they travel a lot for work. As a result we keep running out of space on our TiVos since I have to keep their recordings around until they have a chance to catch up. Since I now have room on my NAS, Synology 1812+, I plan on dumping all their shows to the NAS thereby freeing up space to record additional shows. I really don't want to keep the raw Mpeg2 due to the size so I plan on encoding them into 720p MKVs with the various free tools like handbrake and ffmpeg and storing them on the NAS. This way they can just transfer the shows back to the TiVo when they have time to watch them essentially making our own ondemand service. I am still in the process of playing with profiles to find one I like, but my current living room PC is definitely not up to the task since it is an old i5-551. Trying the default Handbrake Television profile it took over 4 hours for a 30 minute HD recording.

 

[Dangman]

Power usage and heat generation isn't a big issue for you? I ask because I think with your budget and the fact that you plan on doing more encoding than gaming that you might be better off with an AMD FX setup. That is unless power usage and heat generation are an issue.

There are indeed new Intel CPUs supposedly due out between March and June 2013. Up to you if you want to wait until then. Early reports say that Intel's new Haswell CPUs are about 5% to 10% faster than current Intel CPUs.

 

[brennok]

I think power usage and heat generation would potentially be an issue. My electric bill is already insane, and if I can avoid having a heater in my living room it would be nice.

I guess though it might depend on the difference when it comes down to it. I would be willing to sacrifice encoding times for less heat and power consumption, but it would depend on how much of a variance. I don't know what is realistic these days with encoding times.

Hmm I doubt if I will hold out till June since I will be starting up once the shows are back in January, and I just see it being a pain with my current setup.

 

[Dangman]

How large of a HDD will you need initially for this?

 

[brennok]

I will probably start with a 1TB drive so I have some wiggle room between the time shows are transferred to the PC, encoded, and moved to the NAS. Worst case eventually I will add a 2+ TB drive if I find I don't have enough space if I leave it unattended for a couple days. I tend to fill my cases eventually anyway.

 

[Dangman]

All right here's what I recommend:
$300 - Intel Core i7-3770 CPU
$120 - ASRock Z77 Extreme4
$34 - Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$220 - XFX Core Edition FX-787A-CNFC Radeon HD 7870 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$150 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB SATA HDD
$100 - Seasonic X650 Gold 650W Modular PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
----
Total: $974 shipped

I don't normally recommend AsRock but in this case I did because there really weren't any other alternatives (i.e mobos with 8 SATA ports) that were as cost-effective. In any case, that mobo and case will allow you to add up to 8 hard drives total to the PC without additional upgrades. Combined with the above 3TB drive, you should be set storage wise for quite awhile.

I highly recommend buying that PSU today if possible as that $100 price tage is a sales price. Simply put, it's one of the best deals now for a high quality and modular PSU. So definitely buy that TODAY.

Yes that is an AMD GPU. Nvidia's cost-effectiveness is kinda poor at the moment considering that the closest Nvidia GPU in terms of performance to that $220 HD 7870 2GB is the $280 GTX 660 TI. The closest Nvidia in terms of price is the $224 GTX 660, which is of course slower than the GTX 660 TI and HD 7870. Up to you if you want Nvidia.

 

[brennok]

Thanks. I had actually looked at the Asrock before and it seemed to be getting good comments here when it first came out. I could sacrifice 2 Sata ports if there is a board you would recommend over it. With 4TB drives dropping in price, I don't see myself hurting for space soon even with 5x4TB rather than 7x4TB especially with the NAS.

I had also been looking at the NZXT line of cases. One thing I need to research though is dust. We have several cats so my living room PC tends to be a gigantic magnet for the hair. I may have to opt for something with some dust filters though I like the design and layout of that case.

I have just stuck with Nvidia due to my horrible luck with drivers on AMD side. I always seem to have issues upgrading them or uninstalling them.

 

[Dangman]

I'd probably recommend this mobo instead:
$95 - MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard