PC BUILD - Will be used for 3D Applications, Video Editing.

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xmamx

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#56924 28-Jan-2010 14:58

Hello all can you please give me some help with this setup,

I am looking at building a new system to be used as a 3d Modelling platform using 3dsmax, Zbrush, Vray, Photoshop, Nuke, After Effects, Motion Tracking software. Therefore need something really beefy and fast. Also dont want it to be to noisey. Also probably going to try and get a stable overclock of about 3.5ghz. The 12gb ram is for using 3d applications and possibly virtual pcs as well.

Here is the list of parts i am interested in:

CPU: I7 920 - $469

CPU FAN: Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 - $45.20

CASE: COOLERMASTER DOMINATOR CM690 - $113 -

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P6T Standard - $395

RAM: 12GB - CORSAIR XMS3 Twin3X DDR3 PC12800/1600Mhz 12GB - $258 + $258 = $516

or Patriot Viper ddr3 6gb 1600 ($200 to $260 each set) - The patriots have good review, but arent listed on pricespy.

POWER SUPPLY: PC Power & cooling silencer S75CF 750W - $175 (price went up to $199 today)

DVD DRIVE: Samsung SH-S223F - $44.72

MONITOR: Samsung P2350 24 Inch- $341

GPU - Galaxy Geforce gtx 260+ 216SP Overclocked Dual-DVI 896mb

Operating system: Windows 7 Professional - $217

Current total is: $2,622.00

I allready have:

Hdd's - 650gb, 500gb, 250gb and also have a 160gb Raptor 10K Rpm drive which i am thinking of using as the boot drive (faster but also a bit noisey)

2 x 19inch monitors (will keep one and turn sideways to join up with the 24inch Samsung), will sell the second one with my existing computer

Keyboard, mouse, may need some new speakers but not to important at the moment.

Hopefully this is enough information, thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,
Nathan

Ragnor

8222 posts

Uber Geek

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#294011 28-Jan-2010 16:53

The choices look solid, I would replace the 650GB, 250GB and 500GB with 2x 1TB drives.. the Western Digital Black or Samsung F3 are top performers.

It's probably worth using the raptor as the boot drive unless you are willing to stretch your budget and get an SSD?

Use the older smaller drives as usb external backup or sell them on trademe if un-needed.

dman

953 posts

Ultimate Geek

#296462 5-Feb-2010 16:56

if you are already going to spend over 2 grand then I'd get a SDD drive for booting and to have your most used applications on it, a smaller sized one is surprisingly cheap these days!

https://www.youtube.com/c/SoundSpeeding

Niel

3267 posts

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#296473 5-Feb-2010 17:37

http://www.computerlounge.co.n...
This is my "customer special" at Computer Lounge. It was for use as a SolidWorks workstation using a Quadro FX 4500 video card (which I already have). Memory is low, but that is because we decided to start with WinXP for which we already had a spare license and later go to Win7 64 bit when service pack 1 is available. This PC was for my wife to do contract work from home. We did not include a monitor as we were looking for a specific model which was a lot cheaper somewhere else, but CL was the cheapest for everything else.

It you want a good quality picture, buy a good quality video card (i.e. not a gaming card). Huge difference in picture quality due to quality components. My video card is obsolete but current similar models are around $4k and a good entry level Quadro is around $1500. But you have to match your video card with your applications, if it is DirectX or OpenGL or whatever performs different on different cards.

For some applications it is better to go Intel, especially high end software. It is weekend, can't be bothered going into detail ;-). Or won't you be better off with a Mac?

You can never have enough Volvos!

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek

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#296475 5-Feb-2010 17:41

I'm not fond of an SSD (yet), reliability is not as good as a hard drive especially when Windows writes so often to the drive. Fine for data storage, bad for frequent writing.

You can never have enough Volvos!

xmamx

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#296521 5-Feb-2010 21:31

Thanks guys, i have heard good and bad things about SSD drives. I would consider one for my media centre pc as that would make buffering and loading faster, but on a Workstation I am not sold either (have heard ppl having issues with windows etc and saying to wait for the new type SSD drives when they come out).

As far as the pc side of things, Macs are very expensive for a start and not fond of macs for the apps i use. Also 3dsmax uses directx mainly these days so gaming cards are usually ok. I wont be doing any full on cad work (precise stuff) so the accuracy doesnt matter to much. My current setup has a quadro 3450 and i havn't really noticed to much of a difference over my laptop (has 8600 card) quality of 3d etc.

I also quite like the fact that i can sli the video card if i need to as some 3d apps eg. Vray are starting to implement GPU rendering (heaps faster) so Sli would be great for that when they release it.

Thanks,
xmamx