Need a second opinion for a computer build

Joltya

Hey guys. I'm pretty new to 3D software and to this site, so if this is the wrong place to ask this, I apologize.

So I've been a Mac user all my life, need to get PC for school. Friend put these parts together for me based on what I said I need. Just wanting to get some other views and see if I can trim down my budget.

My main use will be for 3DS Max and occasional gaming.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h33/JoltZero/Screenshot2012-02-06at12649AM.png

I am I bit concerned with the Blu-ray burner. I hardly ever watch movies, and when I do, I'm not that picky about quality. Do I really need it?

The keyboard, mouse, and speakers are subpar, but I will upgrade those in time.

Stromberg90

I don't know a lot about computers, but I would buy a nvidia graphics card seems to work better with 3D software in my experience, as for the bluray burner it does not seam like you will need that, maybe save or invest that money in a better cpu a i-7.

Reminds me I need to buy a new computer myself soon:thumbup:

Natocwal

Honestly you dont need that great of a computer. I am running on 2gb DDR3 Ram, nividia Geforce 8800GT and 2.5ghz Core 2 Duo. I use maya and play games on it aswell. It runs Skyrim on High, (Ultra but has major lag moments). It works alright for me and a few years back, cost me $600, so imagine it now lol.

For you i would recommend more RAM than me so you dont get slow in 3DS Max. And the Blu-ray is a waste of money unless you intend to use, plus if you have a PS3, whats the point.

Cremuss

Hi,

Here is my humble opinion.

- 700 W alim is probably overkill ? A decent 500W is enough for an i5 2500k + 560 gtx.

- The video card looks poor. I hardly see how you could play games and use 3dsmax with a fanless gddr3 50$ video card .

- Proc is good but why not i5 2500 (2500k if you want to overclock it) ? I think the 2400 is the old one but I may be wrong.

- Cooler master, take a look at the silencio 550.

- Hard disk drive. I'm trouble here, 2.5" drive ? Isn't this for laptop ? IMO, 5400 rpm is too low anyway.

- I'd suggest you to drop the bluray burner thing. Waste of money.

- I'm sure you could take a cheaper mothercard. You probably don't need a lot of features if you're not into overcloking thing and stuff like that.

That's all.
Hope it helps,
Regards,

Ryan Clark

My thoughts:

-Skip the blu-ray.

-I think you can safely spend less on RAM. eg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231442

-RAM is easy to upgrade later. You can start with 8GB, and leave two slots available for future upgrades. eg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231440

I'm not an expert on memory compatibility, so please, somebody, correct me if I'm wrong about the above suggestions.

-You can get a faster hard drive pretty close to your price range. eg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136767

-I suggest a small SSD for your OS and applications. The performance is worth the cost. Be sure to use an automated backup as insurance against drive failure. I like the intel 320 series: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167049


-You mention that you're a mac user. Be aware that if you have an Intel mac, it can run windows just fine. Depending on its hardware, your existing mac may be suitable for your needs. The biggest obstacle is that most macs don't have upgradable GPUs.

Joltya

Thanks for the input everyone. I really appreciate posting links to help me see what I need.

The Mac I use can run WOS, but it is actually my parents' computer and I'd really like to get a computer for myself so I'm not using theirs all the time.

EarthQuake

Agree with everything here, but I also want to say that you should get a better monitor.

Dell makes some good 22", 23" and 24" e-IPS displays, which are much better than your standard TN LCD for color, viewing angle etc, TN can have faster response time but its not really a big unless you're a "pro gamer".

You can save a lot by buying more affordable ram, 8GB should be plenty and should only cost $40. That ram may be faster than your mobo supports.

A 500W PSU should be about $60, really the important thing here is to get one that is rated 80 + efficient, not a high wattage one.

The intel I5 2500 is $200 on newegg, or $220 for the 2500K. Not sure where you're shopping but newegg is really the best place to buy hardware, often the cheapest but also fast shipping, good sales and really good return policies.

Definitely skip the bluray, get a $20 DVD burner, make sure you get a "retail" one not OEM though so it comes with software, usually about the same cost or a few dollars more.

Video card is a bit low end, but honestly, unless you're playing the latest games on a huge monitor, its likely not that big of a deal. I was using a 8800GT until just recently.

SSD is a great idea for os/apps/working art files. 120GB is about the min. I would recommend, should start at about $150. Expensive but worth it. Make sure to get a nice big HDD for misc data too.

I would reprice this whole build on newegg and see where you come out at.

Joltya

That's what I'm doing atm. Also, money isn't THAT much of an issue, I'm just trying to avoid paying for things I won't use.

EarthQuake

In that case, get a SSD for sure, a better video card($150 is a good range). Better monitor. These are things that you're very likely to notice.

The I7 2600 may be an option too, the extra cost is about equal to the extra performance(which is rare, usually you pay disproportionally high amounts for extra performance). Depending on what you do, you may notice the difference here or you may not. For an extra $100 its a pretty good way to get maybe a year or two of extra life out of the system though. The I7 is super fast and should last a good while.

Also look at an 80+ modular power supply, you can get them for a reasonable cost, but they're sooo nice to use. You don't end up with so many extra cables just taking up room in your case. Something like this is seriously good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016 You totally do not NEED this, but after buying one without even noticing it for my last PSU, I really like them.

Joltya

Thanks for the help. What are the things I should look for when choosing an SSD or monitor?

EarthQuake

For an SSD, a good size/cost ratio, good read/write speeds(some can be lopsided), and just good reviews/stability, though that one is the hardest to quantify as everyone seems to have think X SSD is unreliable. I've got a OCZ Vertex 2 120GB that I haven't had any problems with(actually installed one in my Father-in-law's system too that is nice and stable) but I've heard plenty of people say how terrible they are. I know people like the Intel SSD's but they can be a bit more expensive.

For a Monitor its mostly down to panel type. Its sort of a really long topic but it was covered pretty well recently in this thread: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92682

If you have any monitor Q's after reading that feel free to post them here, or in that thread. There were some really good suggestions for quality monitors and what you should expect to pay for one in that thread.

A really basic summary, when it comes to Art where viewing angles and color accuracy are important:

EarthQuake wrote: »

it sort of goes like this:
H/S-IPS
M/P-VA
e-IPS
10 year old CRT
Light Bright
...
....
.....
TN

Joltya

Thank you so much EarthQuake! I thought this would be difficult but you're making it very easy for me.

Here's what I have so far. I'll add the monitor after I've done the research and mouse/keyboard adjusted to the price.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h33/JoltZero/Screenshot2012-02-06at74215PM.png

Does it all look okay?

EDIT: just threw this in. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

EarthQuake

Looks pretty solid there to me, you may want to look into the differences between Windows 7 home and Pro, I'm not sure what you're missing in Home but probably something.

You can also get an "OEM" version of Pro for about $140, I think this has some sort of limit to your hardware config/how many times you can install it, but for $140 vs $250 its worth considering. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006646&isNodeId=1&Description=windows+7+professional&x=0&y=0

There is also what looks like an $80 upgrade from home to pro if you decide you want it later, which strangely enough is cheaper overall than buying a pro copy. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116774

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-pro-vs-home/0bd870e2-7427-41ed-a5d4-680939ddb27e

A quick google shows:

Professional is better and has more features and there are no drawbacks, they use the same amount of disk space and same system requirements. You are also getting more bang for your buck. The only things you are not gonna find in Windows 7 Home Premium, but might need to use one day are:

Domain Join
Remote Desktop - more powerful than remote assistance
Location Aware Printing
Group Policy Editor
Encryption
Network Backup
Support for Windows XP Mode for legacy applications
Also, Windows 7 Professional carries a longer support system than Windows 7 Home Premium, Microsoft will support Windows 7 Professional for up 10 years, while consumer editions such as Home Premium have a life cycle of about 5 years.

Joltya

Awesome! Thank you so much! I really appreciate all the help you've given me!

I think I will stick with the Home so I can get Corel for $50 off, plus like you said I can upgrade for $80 later.

EarthQuake

Yeah no problem, let us know how the build goes!

Ryan Clark

A french retailer published their return rates for a variety of HDDs and SSDs a couple years ago. The information may be helpful: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923-3.html

But no matter what drive you get, assume that it will fail. Because eventually it will.

For desktops, I like to get two identical HDDs and configure them as mirrored.

Joltya

^ Sounds like a good idea. Do you use an external one or can you fit both in a case?

EDIT: One last thing! Do I need to buy the cables as well? Like to connect the computer to the monitor and to the power outlet and such?

Snader

That would seem useful, yes. But you can re-use some of those you use for your current PC. (unless you, like me, would like to keep the old one hooked up for backup and visitors to use)

EarthQuake

PSU will come with power cord, monitor will come with video cable and power cord, motherboard will come with SATA and IDE cables, you may need an extra SATA cable if your DVD drive doesn't come with one. Your case should come with all the necessary screws.

Make sure your SSD drive comes with a 2.5 to 3.5 drive bay converter, SSDs are smaller(laptop size) than standard drives and some SSDs don't come with the little adapter thing, if you need one its like $10.

Your CPU will come with a stock cooler that should have thermal paste applied already, so you don't need to worry about that.

What Ryan is talking about is two internal harddrives, same make, model, etc. If you do this you'll may need another SATA cable too, depending if your mobo comes with 2 or 4 cables, it wouldn't be a bad idea to just buy 2 extra sata cables as it will be like $3. Your case will probably fit 5 or so hard drives if you really need it, and your motherboard likely has 4, 6 or 8 SATA ports.

One thing to watch out for is longer video cards, sometimes they will block the SATA ports, in that case you can often put the video card in the lower PCI-express port.

Uhhh, I think thats pretty much it. Putting it all together is pretty simple, just make sure to follow the directions on the motherboard or watch a few youtube video tutorials on it. The thing that always gets me is wiring up the power/reset/HD LED/etc switch, or forgeting to plug in the P4 power connector, the video card's extra power connector or something like that so check those first if its not booting.

Joltya

I will need a drive bay converter, but I can't find one. Do you have a link for one?

Justin Meisse

JoltZero wrote: »

I will need a drive bay converter, but I can't find one. Do you have a link for one?

Go to Fry's Electronics, they'll have 'em

EarthQuake

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167050

Is this yours? It looks like it comes with one if the photos there.

Joltya

It was, but I changed it down to this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167049

EDIT: Nevermind, I found a boxed version of that one that comes with it. Thank you again!

EarthQuake

Personally i would say 120gb is the min, you may regret going with only 80gb.

Joltya

^ Noted and changed. I am reaching my limit though, so I'll have to downgrade the RAM to 8GB until I can afford to upgrade it.

EarthQuake

I've got 8gb in my workstation and in my laptop, honestly I would have to be doing some really hardcore to need more, like baking some really really high poly model while working on a massive PSD at the same time. Its also the easiest/cheapest thing to upgrade later if you need it too.