New comp build, need your advice :)
Hi Guys,
I put together a list of components for a new comp...
I could really use some advice as I value the opinions of the community here, rather than a salesperson
I'm looking to use this for Photoshop, 3DsMax 2014, Mudbox and CrazyBump.
I put together a list of components for a new comp...
I could really use some advice as I value the opinions of the community here, rather than a salesperson
I'm looking to use this for Photoshop, 3DsMax 2014, Mudbox and CrazyBump.
Still unsure whether to go with Win 7 or 8/8.1, too...
CASE:
ANTEC Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case
$73
MOBO:
ASRock Z87 Extreme4 Socket LGA 1150 Z87 ATX Intel Motherboard
$145
PROCESSOR:
Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4GHz Socket LGA 1150 Boxed Processor
$190
GRAPHICS CARD:
EVGA 02G-P4-2754-KR NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Superclocked 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E 3.0x16 Video Card
$150
HD:
WD Desktop Mainstream 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$63
SSD:
Samsung 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 120GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal (SSD)
$90
RAM:
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 8GB Memory Modules)
$145
CD/DVD DRIVE:
LG 24X Internal DVD ReWritable Drive SATA
$16
POWER:
Thermaltake TR2 Series 600 Watt ATX Power Supply
$50
OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit English (1-Pack), OEM LPC
$100
Replies
SSDs go on sale pretty frequently these days; you should be able to pick one up for relatively cheap.
That's a high price for a GTX 750. You should look for a GTX 760 at less than $240 or a GTX 770 at less than $320. If you can find a GTX 750 Ti, those are pretty cost-effective, although the 760 and 770 will probably do better running things that you want to run.
Otherwise that looks pretty reasonable overall; although I personally prefer Gigabyte motherboards over the others, I'm sure it will be fine.
Though if you get something like a 770, make sure to get a very good, higher wattage PSU. When I got mine I blew a 550W Antec and then a 600w OCZ crashed on full load, make sure you get one with 2x 8-pin PCI-E connectors for the 770, I think that was really the problem as I was using the converter cables that came with it.
If you're going to be doing mostly stuff in the max viewport, the 750 will be fine.
Also yeah, go for Win 7 unless you have some sort of touchscreen device. Win 8 is really a touchscreen-centered OS.
But yeah upgrading to an SSD should be pretty easy later too if you want. Samsung SSDs come with a fancy SATA to USB connector thing and software for making the swap. Though I personally love my SSD.
Yes, generally, OS, apps, working art files, and then archive art files onto larger HDD. Though SSD prices are coming down to the point where a 256GB drive isn't unreasonable, and at that point you can fit a lot more stuff on it.
I've found 8.1 to be a bit quicker in all areas, and have not had any compatibility problems.
Have a 770 myself and its good, but the AMD are just cheaper and have a bunch more power for now.
Also you need a CPU with 8 threads. Dont get an i5. Get a i7 or a AMD with 8 cores. Everything that takes time needs those. Baking, rendering, loading, etc. Its like cores. A i5 has 4 physical and 4 theoretical, the i7
has 4 physical but 8 theoretical and thats a huge difference.
If youre low on cash, the AMD give a lot more power for the money, they just dont really offer high end right now, so the high-end is intel but expensive. You will regret having a 4 threaded CPU very soon.
An i7 will be nice for baking and rendering, and will save you sometime, but if it's outside your budget, you can live without it.
It really depends on what you do, I've been doing some video production stuff lately and I really appreciate my I7.
if you upgrade your PC right now, first third of 2014 then you want it to last I suppose, and getting a 4 threaded system when you can have a 8 threaded one from AMD for about 180 is something you very likely will regret.
I guess my view is biased since I do offline rendering aswell, but theres more and more multithreading in games, in engines, in programs and theres just nothing speaking for a i5 really, not even the price.
I guess madalex is an artist and he will dig into more and more programs in the very near future and you really dont want to render offline things or videos with 4 threads in 2014. Im not sure about xNormal but it should 100% profit from the extra threads, and baking can take very long.
AMD FX-9370 Black Edition (4.4 GHz) Sockel AM3+ costs a tiny bit cheaper than the
i5 4670K and has 8 threads and a better overall performance rating (well it always depends on the app, on some the i5 wins some the FX obviously)
i5s are more or less an exploit for gamers. They offer basically the same power of an i7 for way less money.
As games do not need hyperthreading, this is a great deal for gamers. For workers, hyperthreading is a big deal and thats where most of the extra price is going in.
Well i dont want to convince anyone for something they dont want, just trying to be helpful
Im no AMD fanboy or such, got an i7 and 770 myself and happy with it, but the new AMD cards blow nvidia out of the water at the moment (again cost/power relation not high end), and the FX-9370 is a extremely good solution for low money and high price effience since atleast a year or so. AMD GPU driver tend to suck tho but cant confirm for the moment.
For the SSDs, they are more noticeable than any CPU, total recommendation
but try not put any cloud storage or anything on it with 128 its instantly full with windows and your working apps and you dont know how it happened
Btw a Zotak GTX 660 should cost the same than your 750 Ti but should be around 20% faster even tho its an older generation if you want a geforce
or a XFX Radeon HD 7850 Black Edition will provide a bunch more performance aswell for the same price, but more info should be researched tho on that, not 100% sure there. 750 T1 is a budget card that came out later, while those others are "core" cards that went cheaper with the time. I Compared with a general 750T1 now. If its not so important, the 750Ti should be fine however.
145 for 16 GB ram sounds pretty expensive aswell
Personally I would try to get the SSD into the build from the beginning if possible. SSDs are one of the best investments one can make in my opinion. Thanks to the fast access times (compared to HDDs) everything will feel much smoother (OS and programms start faster) and copying files is faster as well thanks to the better transfer rates.
As was said already: you should probably reconsider your PSU. I didn't know the PSU before you posted it, but after searching a bit it seems to be getting mixed reviews, ranging from "total sh*t" to "just accepatble". 600W is far too much for your build. The build you posted will only use around 250W under maxium load.
To chime in on the cpu: 8 Threads can be useful, especially in the future, and it's not really more expensive compared to your CPU+MoBo combo (especially if you know the Intel Xeon E3 series which is the workstation/server counterpart of the mainstream i7 series).
btw: since you picked a K-Series CPU and a Z87 motherboard, do you intend to overclock your CPU?
I'd be inclined to skimp on GPU rather than the CPU at the beginning - GPU's are a cheap upgrade, CPU and ancilliaries are not. Go for an older higher end model rather than a newer lower end model (I'm using a pair of 560Ti at home - total cost of sod all) they have all the features - just lack some of the speed, which is non-essential really
for my money i7, SSD and as much RAM as you can afford are the best way to spend your money.
one thing - do you really need a new case ?
also - have you checked to see whether doing this by hand is cheaper than going to Dell/HP/etc?
Granted I tend to be looking at 3-4 times your budget but I've always found the big guys to be very competitive on price and they have a lot more resources to put towards developing a decent cooling/PSU setup than you or I ...
not necessarily true for all ATI card types.
i been using ATI Firepro W7000 and works amazing well with most pro 3d apps. max, maya, UDK4, cryengine3, toolbag2, knald, mari, mudbox, topogun, abobe CC collection, etc. what is even amazing is that is plays all latest PC games with directx11 features with high spec at nearly flawless speed.
i mainly got it for performance boost in mudbox and it was an instant difference being able to have a mudbox scene with close to 100mil poly in realtime. rest of the benifits were just bonus.
Hehe, I would hope so, its an $800 workstation card.
hehe, true but compared to a NVIDIA quadro of the same price range it seems to do it all. i tried quadro cards before and they were utter waste of money considering all things. quadros only did very few selected things really well while failing completely on things like UDK, cryengine, toolbag, PC games etc etc.
just saying that the "ATI is bad, NVIDIA is good" isnt always true.
but the one thing id recommend is to get an SSD. nothing gives you the uprgade feel like an SSD does! i didnt believe it until i got one and damn things run fast.
Obviously it doesnt really help calculation speed but any swapping and launch/write/load time is reduced dramatically!