Critique this PC bulid please?

pmiller001

Hey polycount fam!
So its time that I create a  new desktop.
To cut to brass tax, I have a budget of  $1,500.00. And I'd like to build a machine for creative purposes primarily (modeling, rendering, video editing, sound editing).  And gaming purposes secondarily. I dont play  games for too long, but I Like to  buy them and stay up on the current stuff when I can, even if i dont play it to completion or for extended amounts of time. 

Below is a build I found using www.logicalincrements.com under their suggest video editing build. I switched out a few things, otherwise its pretty much the same. What are your thoughts? 

CPU: Intel i7-6700K

Graphics Card: GTX 950 

 or R7 370 

or GTX 960  (this one is my favorite)

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170X-UD5

RAM: 16 GB DDR4  (i may get two of these packs)

Storage 1: Samsung 850 EVO 240 GB SSD

Storage 2: HGST 2 TB hard drive

Power Supply: Seasonic M12II 620W

CPU Cooler: NHU-12S

Case: Enthoo Pro

A friend told me that nvidia is going to release something called pascal, which might lower the price of their other items namely theone i listed above. Not sure if thats something I should count on.

ALso is 600W enough power? 800 was suggested. 

THanks everyone!

JedTheKrampus

600 W is more than enough for the PSU as long as you get a brand of reasonable quality. You could even use a Corsair CX430M and it would be completely fine, although it would limit your ability to add more or higher-TDP GPUs later somewhat.

If you really, really want to wait for Pascal to come out you could use the integrated graphics on the CPU in the meantime, which is fine for millions of points in Zbrush and a medium number of polygons in a main app of your choice. I would wait for Pascal GPUs if you want to be able to do VR development relatively cheaply, otherwise any of these GPUs you listed are more than adequate for game art. (The exception would be if you're planning to use Substance Painter or Mari, both of which can use all the GPU power you throw at them. In that case it could be worth saving up for a 980, a 980 Ti, or their Pascal equivalents.)

PolyHertz

Looks good.

CPU will tide you over for quite a few years. GPU though you don't want anything below a GTX 960 (unless your focus is on very low-spec work). Keep in mind that the next generation of GPUs are just around the corner atp (Pascal), and most will tell you to wait for them. The power supply is fine.

pmiller001

Oof, As much As I hate waiting, thats what everyone is saying I should do. Hopefully When Pascal comes out it offers a  significant price drop on the 980, because right now I dont even see a reason to worry about buying Pascal, unless theres something I dont know? 

Anchang-Style

I think a drop on the 970 is more realistic (which is a really good card and a whole lot stronger than the 960). But then again the 1070 should drop between 300-400 and could be expected to be as powerful as the standard 980 (if the usual cycle is to be trusted) just with 8GB Ram instead of 4 (which will help with anything 4k related). Currently a standard 780 is 30 Bucks more expensive than the average 970, just less ram, more Power consumption, lower performance. So you can expect the 980 not going down too much, rather the new generation being priced in a way it makes no sense buying the prior generation.

PolyHertz

Prices generally don't drop that much on previous gen cards in the retail space, but they do when it comes to the used market.

ZacD

The main reason people are excited for Pascal is more vram, more memory bandwidth, and support for more DX12/Vulkan features, all of which could be a pretty big deal to performance, a much bigger jump than 700 series to 900. But no one knows when it will actually be released and if it will be that much better. 

EarthQuake

Get a bigger SSD! 500gb at least, even 1TB is not that expensive these days.

Bek

JedTheKrampus said:

If you really, really want to wait for Pascal to come out you could use the integrated graphics on the CPU in the meantime

This. Unless re-using your current GPU is an option..? Though even if pascal does release soon you might end up sacrificing raw speed in favour of the latest technology, so it's hard to know what is the better route. Considering the recent release of Vulkan I'd be tempted to wait for the newer cards in hope of better longevity. Since it's more for video editing I'd be considering the extra ram instead though.

oglu

you need min 32GB ram.... 

pmiller001

EarthQuake said:

Get a bigger SSD! 500gb at least, even 1TB is not that expensive these days.



OOf alright, I'll check that out! thank you


Bek said:

JedTheKrampus said:

If you really, really want to wait for Pascal to come out you could use the integrated graphics on the CPU in the meantime

This. Unless re-using your current GPU is an option..? Though even if pascal does release soon you might end up sacrificing raw speed in favour of the latest technology, so it's hard to know what is the better route. Considering the recent release of Vulkan I'd be tempted to wait for the newer cards in hope of better longevity. Since it's more for video editing I'd be considering the extra ram instead though.

Well I dont even have a current gpu, I'm using a laptop haha. Let me see if i'm understanding you correctly. Instead of saving up then dishing out for the Pascal, use those funds for more ram? 


I did a little research on Vulkan, it looks like the deal with that is its cross platform, and cross vendor capabilities?  It sounds like the benefit of waiting for that, would only be  having the latest tech, is this accurate? 

oglu said:

you need min 32GB ram.... 

Thats what I thought initially, but I was told otherwise! Why do I need min 32GB ram? 



PS, thank y'all for the input!
My knowledge is woefully small y'all regarding technology, so all this information is remarkably helpful to yours truly. 

Anchang-Style

It's more that you migh wait for the new Line of GPU and instead stick with the Incore GPU of the I7 for now, which should do alright with video cutting.

pmiller001

Anchang-Style said:

It's more that you migh wait for the new Line of GPU and instead stick with the Incore GPU of the I7 for now, which should do alright with video cutting.

What about doing any 3D stuff? Would that I7 suffice for that? 

JedTheKrampus

Probably won't run Mudbox, UE4, or Mari that great but the integrated GPUs can do more than you think they can. I've done hard surface modeling challenges on my i3-2310m laptop with an Intel HD 3000 which is way worse than the integrated GPU on your CPU, and as long as you learn to respect the GPU's limitations you'll be fine.

Pascal is supposed to come out early June, so a bit less than two months which is not that long to wait.

m00t

Depending on how much rendering and video encoding you do, you may also want to check out this article at techspot

http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

Older tech but prices are great and they still do a hell of a job. 

JedTheKrampus

If you do that make sure to get the motherboard first. It's hard to find a $300 motherboard that can host dual Xeons and it's also kind of hard to find a $500 motherboard that can host dual Xeons.

PolyHertz

pmiller001 said:

What about doing any 3D stuff? Would that I7 suffice for that? 

The 6700k cpu is easily one of the best cpus available atm. The onboard gpu is fine for 3D modeling, but will limit you with game engines like UE4.
For RAM, the amount you'll need is dependent on what you want to do. If you plan on using Substance Designer then you want as much ram as possible, or intend to do very high resolution bakes (8k+). The bigger issue is that the onboard gpu is going to be sharing your ram instead of using dedicated vram, which means you'll effectively be losing a few gigs of your ram by not having a dedicated GPU.

kolayamit

Your rig looks fine, just go with 4GB GTX 960 and 32 GB ram.

m00t

Some equipment recyclers are selling dual xeons with motherboard ,  and (lots of)  ram for under 500 such as natex.us...but otherwise i agree EBay and stuff is rather picked out.  Nice to see these options available though. 

JedTheKrampus said:

If you do that make sure to get the motherboard first. It's hard to find a $300 motherboard that can host dual Xeons and it's also kind of hard to find a $500 motherboard that can host dual Xeons.

pmiller001

m00t said:

Depending on how much rendering and video encoding you do, you may also want to check out this article at techspot

http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

Older tech but prices are great and they still do a hell of a job. 

Thanks MOot! I'll check this out. 

PolyHertz said:

pmiller001 said:

What about doing any 3D stuff? Would that I7 suffice for that? 

The 6700k cpu is easily one of the best cpus available atm. The onboard gpu is fine for 3D modeling, but will limit you with game engines like UE4.
For RAM, the amount you'll need is dependent on what you want to do. If you plan on using Substance Designer then you want as much ram as possible, or intend to do very high resolution bakes (8k+). The bigger issue is that the onboard gpu is going to be sharing your ram instead of using dedicated vram, which means you'll effectively be losing a few gigs of your ram by not having a dedicated GPU.

It looks like I'll be waiting on the Pascal, so until then I suppose I wont be using substance or UE4, (not a thing I do now often anyways). And if its just two months (june) then that wont be so bad. Will I be able to handle 4k stuff on the I7? not  a problem if I cant, I'm only wondering. 



Here's an updated version of my build now, Built with the intention of modeling, animating, rendering in after effects and premier and some gaming.


http://pcpartpicker.com/p/my2hsY