[Help] New Computer for the End of May.

[-RJB-]

I'm going to start to buy and build my new computer for the end of may. Here is my projected part list.

Input is welcome.

Case
Cooler Master HAF 922 - Silent Air Flow Gaming Mid Tower – Black
CPU
Intel Core i7 980 Extreme Edition 6 Core 3.33GHz - Socket LGA1366, 6.4GT/s QPI, 12MB Cache Boxed Processor (Gultown - 32nm
Motherboard
Asus P6T7 WS SuperComputer Intel Core I7 & Xeon CPUs - X58 DDR3 | DDR3 2000Mhz|
Power Supply
Cooler Master Real Power 1250Watt Active PFC ATX 12V V2.3
Hard Drives
2-3X Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (7200) SATA 3 Gb/s, 32 M
Ram
6X OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Platinum i7 (1600Mhz)
Video Cards
2X Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5850 Toxic 765MHz Core | 2GB 4500MH

 

[Adm_Z]

Geeez, sounds like the perfect computer for your needs

 

[-RJB-]

Geeez, sounds like the perfect computer for your needs

The ram may still change. I'm thinking of doing 6 sticks of 4gb if I can find what I want.

 

[Majestic]

I would personally go with AMD over Intel, as AMD have better cooling systems that allow them to run longer and overall the quality is better.

I used to do Intel but after issues with all of them and switching to AMD I haven't looked back. I am sure Katala or Syf could tell you more about them as those two are the ones that convinced me to make the change.

The rest looks good, you'll have a awesome rig there when done, ideal for the high poly rendering that you do.

 

[-RJB-]

I would personally go with AMD over Intel, as AMD have better cooling systems that allow them to run longer and overall the quality is better.

I used to do Intel but after issues with all of them and switching to AMD I haven't looked back. I am sure Katala or Syf could tell you more about them as those two are the ones that convinced me to make the change.

I've never had any issue with any Intel multi-core CPU and I have been hearing good things about the I7 line. Thanks for the input Maj, it will give me something to think about. Good thing I still have over half a month to decide.

 

[Majestic]

I've never had any issue with any Intel multi-core CPU and I have been hearing good things about the I7 line. Thanks for the input Maj, it will give me something to think about. Good thing I still have over half a month to decide.

Yeah time is always good when building a PC, it's always a big decision as most people upgrade every two to three years and if you make a boo boo then you're usually stuck with it for a couple of years.

Something worth avoiding if you can.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Is this a render machine or gaming? If it's intended as a render machine, stick with the Intel chips imo.

And also if it's rendering I'd recommend nVidia over ATI, their cards in general tend to be more stable platforms for that sort of thing.

Dunno much about the WD Caviar Blacks because I have Seagates in this, but the people I know that have them praise their WD drives. I'd recommend either, just whatever suits your preference/needs...

A couple links to check out if you haven't already...
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

[-RJB-]

Yeah time is always good when building a PC, it's always a big decision as most people upgrade every two to three years and if you make a boo boo then you're usually stuck with it for a couple of years.

Something worth avoiding if you can.

Yes you do always want to get a few years out of all the components and a good 5 years out of the core parts (ram, CPU). My current rig is coming to the end of it's 5 year cycle and will be used as a backup / part of a rendering farm.

Is this a render machine or gaming? If it's intended as a render machine, stick with the Intel chips imo.

And also if it's rendering I'd recommend nVidia over ATI, their cards in general tend to be more stable platforms for that sort of thing.

Dunno much about the WD Caviar Blacks because I have Seagates in this, but the people I know that have them praise their WD drives. I'd recommend either, just whatever suits your preference/needs...

A couple links to check out if you haven't already...
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

It will be a mixed platform, about 60% modeling and 40% gaming / general computer use.

Video cards are the area I'm having the most debate with, I'm just not sure which way to go.

I've used both WD and SG and both are very good drives. Blacks tend to be the high end models for WD and also come with an extended warranty of 5 years compared to the standard 3. The only drive I had fail was an old IDE WD which took 7-8 years of continuous use which is not bad.

I'm also still debating on doing 4gb sticks of ram or just 2gb. The 12 gb of 2gb will be about $600-700 and the 24gb of 4gb will be almost $2000 which is a huge leap.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Yeah, if you plan on doing a fairly average amount of both I think those ati cards will do fine, I'm not sure at all though because I haven't had much experience with ati lately, just my rocking nvidia GTX 260.

I'd almost suggest possibly looking into some nvidia Quadro's, but they be expensive...

As for the ram, I'd think 12gb is plenty, I only run 8gb, and I use ddr2 and I never ever run out of memory, and that's using things like Photoshop + doing renders of my own, all while playing Star Trek Online or Counter Strike Source or something.

 

[-RJB-]

Yeah, if you plan on doing a fairly average amount of both I think those ati cards will do fine, I'm not sure at all though because I haven't had much experience with ati lately, just my rocking nvidia GTX 260.

I'd almost suggest possibly looking into some nvidia Quadro's, but they be expensive...

As for the ram, I'd think 12gb is plenty, I only run 8gb, and I use ddr2 and I never ever run out of memory, and that's using things like Photoshop + doing renders of my own, all while playing Star Trek Online or Counter Strike Source or something.

I'm in the same boat, I'm still using my nvidia 8800 GTX.

I'm looking at more ram since I want to start to render print sized media (so 7000+ pixels) and do it in a single rending segment (more segments generate lines in the image).

I may just do 3x 4gb for now and add another 3 later.

 

[-RJB-]

I'm going to see what price my parts supplier can get me for 2 kits of Kingston KHX1600C9D3K3/12GX12GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 (Kit of 3) XMP.

 

[-RJB-]

Ok so I'm going to do my order at the start of next week.

One of the areas I'm still debating is if it is worth getting a full tower or just staying with a mid.

Here is my near final decided system.

Processor (CPU) Intel Core i7 980 Extreme Edition 6 Core 3.33GHz - Socket LGA1366, 6.4GT/s QPI, 12MB Cache Boxed Processor (Gultown - 32nm)
Motherboard Asus P6T7 WS SuperComputer Intel Core I7 & Xeon CPUs
Memory (RAM) 6x2048MB Corsair Dominatorâ„¢ DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Triple Channel XMP - TR3X6G1600C8D
Case / Chassis Cooler Master HAF 932 - Silent Air Flow Gaming Super Tower - Black
Power Supply Corsair HX Series 1000W Silent Modular Power Supply
Hard Drive [1] Western Digital VelociRaptorâ„¢ 300GB (10,000RPM) 16MB Cache SATA2 - WD3000HLFS
Hard Drive [2] Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (7200) SATA 6Gb/s, 64MB Cache
Hard Drive [3] Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (7200) SATA 6Gb/s, 64MB Cache
CD Writer (CDR/DVDR) LG CH10LS20 | 10X Blu-Ray Reader | 16X DVD-R Read/Write | SATA | LightScribe |
Video Card (GPU) 2X Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5870 (Eyefinity 6 Edition) 850MHz Core | 2GB 4800MHz GDDR5 (Quad Data Rate) PCI-E DX11 | 6 x Mini-DisplayPort | ATI Eyefinity | Avivo | Dolby® TrueHD And DTS-HD Master Audio™
LCD Monitor - LCD (Flat Panel) Samsung P2370HD 23" Widescreen LCD (1920 x 1080 Max Res!) | 50,000:1 | 5ms | DVI | HDMI | Analog RGB | TV (Digital TV / Analog TV) | Black
Drive Bay Accessory [1] NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum Dual Bay (5.25") Fan Controller

PS I'll be transplanting my old Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB and WD 500GB from my old PC into the new one.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Only one monitor? lol

 

[-RJB-]

Only one monitor? lol

Well that would be number 4 in total. lol

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Ahhhh ok. And I'll bet your 23" cost half as much as my 24" lol, **** buying things new! (mine hits 1920x1200, I enjoy the extra height.)

 

[-RJB-]

Ahhhh ok. And I'll bet your 23" cost half as much as my 24" lol, **** buying things new! (mine hits 1920x1200, I enjoy the extra height.)

I got an odd mix. My other 3 are a CRT (helps with balancing brightness of scenes), another Samsung screen but it is more art oriented and can rotate to be vertical (nice when you are working on a long tall image) and my tablet screen.

 

[-RJB-]

Computer is now ordered and I should have it near the end of next week.

Can't wait to do some renders in it.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Excellent. Did you happen to see the newegg article about the 'unlocked' i5's and i7's?

 

[-RJB-]

Excellent. Did you happen to see the newegg article about the 'unlocked' i5's and i7's?

Can't say I did.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Newegg.com - Unlocked and Unleashed

 

[Syf]

Unlocked only is useful if your going to overclock. It's nice to get extra speed, but at what price? Overclocking voids warranties as well as you risk frying your system like holding an ice cream sandwich in your hand for 3 minutes in Death Valley in the late part of July... AKA: Totally melted. I've been building and repairing PCs since the 80's. One thing I have found to be true is unlock/overclock = early death of the CPU. Overclocking is unstable at best. And since RJB is into high end rendering, that is the one thing he should avoid, regardless what CPU he uses. I know it's always been cool to brag "I got my 3.2 ghz CPU to bench out at 4ghz" but believe me... it is not actually worth it. (I've been there... long story). My most recent example of such is, I bought 2 CPUs at the same time (3 and a half years ago,). One was for a friend, one for me. He overclocked his for that little extra boost, I left mine at factory level. I still have my same CPU running, his cooked itself, along with the MainBoard, RAM, and Harddrive over 2 years ago. Yes, the HD as well. I looked it over and sure enough, the paint on it was "boiled off" and "burnt" in a few spots. But my system is still in one piece (except for a PSU I replaced a while ago).

I know having unlocked CPUs sounds cool... but take it from one of the guys that fixs PC almost on a daily basis... It's not cool. If you really want more speed or power, find alternative options... (simple things like a high-end cooling system can increase CPU responce time by 20-50%)... Heat and Dust are what slow you hardware down... reduce those and you'll be happy with your system for the time you have it.

Sorry LT, not calling you out on this... I meant no offence. I just wanted to put into view of what you were pointing to. Remember, not everyone knows a lot about CPUs, and as such, when we speak of things like "unlocked", we have to be ready to clarify what such things are, inclooding the good and bad. In this case, the bad side is your CPU could have a "melt down". The good thing is... IF one knows what they are doing, they can push their CPU to speeds well beyond the factory set speed... but with a high priced risk.

 

[-RJB-]

I agree Syf, it's one thing if you have years of experience but for an average person it does give a level of risk. Also for myself going with out of the box level of high end removes the issue of possible stability problems. Last thing a person needs is a few hours into rendering a large image for something to crash.

Again thank you both for the advice.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Don't worry Syf, no offense taken. In fact I don't overclock my processors either, the only thing I will ever overclock is my GFX card (and only if I desperately need a performance upgrade, which is quite rare), with the company provided overclock tools.

 

[-RJB-]

Just got it in. I'll be spending the next few days setting it up.

 

[Majestic]

Looking good, I see inside it has those plastic clips like my case does. Katala loves breaking those on me.

Also is that a screen on the front of the case under the DVD tray? My case has a small one up top to show the temperature of the HDD, CPU and Motherboard.

 

[Adm_Z]

Haha, those are so awesome! LCD's on the case.

 

[-RJB-]

Also is that a screen on the front of the case under the DVD tray? My case has a small one up top to show the temperature of the HDD, CPU and Motherboard.

Yes it is, it runs the temperature and fan controls. (also has time and date)

 

[Lord_Trekie]

That looks quite nice I think.

 

[dinosaurJR]

Wow - sweet rig - makes my simple little lap top look like a drinks coaster...