Assembling new rig!

uncle

Hey guys, hope I can get a few comments before I make final decision. Gonna abuse Max, Mudbox, PS and bake gorrilions of pixels in Xnormal.

GIGABYTE GA-P67A-D3-B3
PROCESOR CORE I5 2500K 3.3GHz
8GB ram Geil
ASUS GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB (900/4200)
SeaSonic S12II-620w
Aerocool PGS SIXTH ELEMENT (wives choice :sigh: )

I already have :
HDD Seagate Barracuda 500GB
SSD 120GB Corsair Force 3


I have few thought though. Getting I7 2700K is really tempting, but I've already reached my maximum cash level. I wonder if there is a way to reduce some costs, ie. I'm not sure if I need 620w psu (wonder how much power do I need with already overclocked GPU and OC friendly CPU), maybe I will cut on the case too. I guess I will do fine with 8 gigs of ram, I will have 2 extra slots anyway.

Waiting for input and thanks!

katana

Kick up your ram to at least 16gb, I am now running 20 (with immediate plans to expand to 32) and found that it helped immensely with Zbrush. Max can build up to about 400k tris with that, but it will be sluggish and you'll be using the layer manager alot, before committing to a bake. However, xnormal can handle the counts much better of course.

monster

Yeah 16 gigs of ram. Windows will hog over a gig by itself. I've got a similar system. I can rip a DVD to iOS format and play TF2 at the same time.

wolver

do you guys ever check whether your using over 8gb of your ram? because im doubtful you do on very many occasions, and if your on a budget well....

X-One

As mentioned, get more RAM. While you didn`t mention UDK, if you ever have to do any scene bakes with Lightmass with higher quality settings, you`ll max out that 8 Gigs very quickly. Right now I`m running 16g and I very regularly max it out during baking in UDK.

m4dcow

The chipset on the motherboard is kind of old, so unless you're getting a huge bargain go for a newer chipset like a z77 or even h77.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128543

uncle

Thanks for replies!

As for the ram suggestion - I'm kinda with paintforge on that. 2 years of working with 4 gigs made me to learn how to manage my resources (while preventing me from attemting to do something really complex). I think 2 times that amount will be just fine for now, in case I am wrong I can always buy some more without a problem.

@m4dcow
I will look into that, I could use some knowledge about hardware surely. Thanks.

@katana
How come I'm sure I managed 1-2mil in max somehow with 4gigs? This makes no sense to me.

Kbrom12

My setup started as yours, worked very well, but I soon upgraded to 16GB of ram, then to 32GB with the newegg deals.

Still using the palit GTX 560 2GB I got though, its a beast of a card.

I have the same processor, very easy to OC if you want to.

My motherboard though is an Asus P67 something, model number isn't on hand right now however.

You'll like your setup if you stick with those parts.

m4dcow

Also the GTX 660ti is supposed to be released in about 2 weeks, so I would wait either to get one of those, or for the price of the 560 to drop.

katana

uncle wrote: »

@katana
How come I'm sure I managed 1-2mil in max somehow with 4gigs? This makes no sense to me.

Are you trying to turn the model that high in world space? If you can run that on 4gb smoothly, I'd like to have your settings....


My comp is:

ASRock Z68 Pro Gen 3
Imtel i5 2500k
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
2x8 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series
2x2 OCZ NVIDIA SLI-Ready Edition
OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III
EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX
Turtle Beach TBS-3300-01 7.1 Montego DDL Sound Card
..and two TB of space, in addition to the SSD.

Case
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black

I have 3 fans doing the push pull thing and several other little tweaky bits as well.
I don't OC. It runs well and cool.

Probably the only thing that needs an upgrade is the card, but it's still holding it's own, so I'm not in a rush.

Justin Meisse

RAM is fairly cheap, it's the best bang for your buck

uncle

Well I'm sitting on something like this just with little better cpu. Sure, it wasn't possible before going for 64b system, but somehow doable when I got it. I admit that I work very rarely on hipoly stuff in max, only when I really have to. Also I'm really used to technical restrictions, so our definition of 'managable' may differ.

Thanks again for RAM suggestion, I'll reconsider that.

EarthQuake

I would go for the 2600/2700 honestly. Your CPU should be the most expensive part of your build, and you should always buy more CPU than you need, because it is generally not economical to upgrade your CPU later down the line.

name bench price
2700k 9309 $309
2600k 9080 $289
2500k 6723 $219

8GB will be fine, but 16GB is cheap enough that I would probably go for it
You can save a little on the PSU, go for a 550w 80+ certified, that will be plenty for your system(there is no need to overclock I5/I7, they OC automatically).

How much does the case cost? Generally a $50-75 case is going to be perfectly acceptable as long as its not part of your interior design, and you're not kicking it down the stairs. I actually prefer lighter/smaller cases, there isn't really a need for large cases anymore because most computers don't use any additional expansion ports, audio, lan, etc is all built into the mobo. I mean honestly, who needs 4 optical drive bays and 6 HDD bays?

wolver

uncle on Today 12:22 AM
As for the ram suggestion - I'm kinda with paintforge on that. 2 years of working with 4 gigs made me to learn how to manage my resources (while preventing me from attemting to do something really complex)

same situation - 2 years on 3gb, just have to be aware that having other programs open at the same time drains the most ram and its generally ok. still, got 8gb now, is nice but i haven't needed more than that yet.

katana on Yesterday 09:11 PM
Kick up your ram to at least 16gb, I am now running 20 (with immediate plans to expand to 32) and found that it helped immensely with Zbrush.

i dont think zbrush is 64 bit yet even 4r4, (unless specially requested from pixologic?) so your limited to it using 4gb of ram, 8gb will allow room for other things like OS so is good...

uncle

@Great EQ, that confirms most of my guesses. Much obliged.

Hang10

For a case I'd make sure you get the dimensions of your video card first. I bought an NZXT guardian and a gtx 580 after and everything is crammed in their because the card is so huge.

JamesWild

katana wrote: »

Are you trying to turn the model that high in world space? If you can run that on 4gb smoothly, I'd like to have your settings....

I've seen 21 million polygons running at 40fps in Max 2011 on a dual core with 2Gb of RAM and a 9800GT, all depends on how well broken down the scene is.

EarthQuake

Hang10 wrote: »

For a case I'd make sure you get the dimensions of your video card first. I bought an NZXT guardian and a gtx 580 after and everything is crammed in their because the card is so huge.

Yeah this is a good point, make sure to check dimensions etc.

I also tend to gravitate towards mid-range cards and stock non-OC cards as they tend to be smaller, some of the high-end beefcake cards are so large you need a server class case just to fit it in.

Also check where your SATA ports are, the stupid mobo I've got in my workstation had them lined up with the video card slot, so I had to use the lower one(and have a bottom mount PSU, so the GPU sits on the PSU, ergggghh).

leleuxart

How much is your case? I have a Rosewill Blackhawk for $89.99 and it is amazing. It's a little cramped, only because I didn't go modular with my PSU. The 5 fans it comes with by default keep it cool and under 67C with anything. As soon as the program is closed, it jumps down multiple degrees in seconds.

If you're worried about dimensions of your hardware in the case, go bigger if you can afford it. It doesn't hurt anything and helps airflow, plus you have extra room for any mods in the future.

dUb

I just built myself a PC using these guidelines:
http://tinyurl.com/FalconGuide
(it gets updated often)

But I guess these are a bit more gaming oriented.

uncle

Thanks dUb, but it's been in my bookmarks for ages.

As for changes, I'm probably gonna be less conservative money-wise... and get i7 2700K, 16gb RAM and Asrock Pro4 z77 mobo instead.

Thank you again for input everyone!