Building an AutoCad and Photoshop PC, need advice.

Havoc3233,

CPU: For workstation applications, the CPU should be hyperthreaded0 which the i5 is not, and if there is a lot of
CPU -based rendering, the more cores the better. The ideal CPU for these uses is Xeon E5, and the LGA2011 socket allows up to 18 core CPU's, so a quad or six core to start and later this could be changed for rendering. Xeon E3 are excellent performers and very good value only limited to four cores, half the bandwidth and PCIe lanes.. Workstations are never overclocked for stability reasons which is why Xeons have locked multipliers.

GPU: Autodesk and Adobe applications are CUDA accelerated, so there is an advantage to use an NVIDIA- GeForce is possible fro AutoCad 2D, but is there are 3D modeling applications, consider a Quadro K2200 (4GB) - a new Maxwell GPU design with very good performance for the money (about $450).

RAM: Workstations are often using large files and several applications at once, so if there can be 16 or 32GB that will provide overhead. At the maximum I sometimes run all at once: Windows 7, 2D CAD, 3D modeling CAD, rendering, photo editing / processing, word processing, database, Internet Browser, Google Earth, Windows Explorer, but always have at three or four of those going.

Disk: If the budget allows, consider an SSD for the OS and applications. The recent Crucial Mx100 series has a good performance at a good price. If the SSD is large enough, set a partition for the working files that are then backed up to the mech'l drive. I recently added a larger SSD (Intel 730 480GB) and have a 160GB OS /applications partition and 290GB partition for my active files of 45GB.

I think you'll find that the 500GB and 1TB WD Blue are very similar in price- perhaps only $5-10 apart and I would suggest a 1TB.

PSU: As dark_globe mentioned, a 750W PSU is not necessary -600W is more than enough. Perhaps consider stepping down the wattage and up a quality notch from the Corsair CX series.

If you have a budget in mind, that would help focus the choices.

If your brother needs a fast, high performance, reliable solution he might consider doing what I did a couple of weeks ago, buying a used Dell Precision T5500 (1 or 2 CPU's, 2X 150W GPU, 2-3 Drives, 825W PCU) or T7500- (2X 200W GPU, 4-6 HD's and 1100W PSU's ) with a base CPU ($171) and GPU, adding RAM ($120) and swapping in parts I had around. With a Windows 7 Pro COA on the system, the ISO from MS made the OS free:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) Original: Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1066 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB > 825W PSU > Linksys WMP600N WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

Dell Precision T5500 Revised > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro 4000 (2GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB /WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1440)
[ Passmark system rating = 3339 / CPU = 9347 / 2D= 684 / 3D= 2030 / Mem= 1871 / Disk= 2234]

Because I had the Quadro 4000, Samsung SSD, and WD RE4, the total cash outlay was about $625. If I had to buy those parts on Ebahhh, the system would have been a bit over $1,000. I have a relatively fast 6-core system that is in the top ten fastest T5500's on Passmark Performance Test. For another $350 or so I can add a second six core CPU, and I'm considering adding a PCIe card for 6GB/s SATA III, but so far that doesn't seem necessary..

Precision T7500's can be done similarly and these are ultra-reliable.

Upgrading a high quality is not as forward -looking but is more economical and could be much faster than building. The system I bought could have been setup and used out of the box in a few hours and and parts changed gradually- never out of use for more than a couple of hours.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420, Xeon E5-1620 (4-core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHZ) > 24GB DDR3 ECC 1600> Quadro K2200 (4GB), Intel 730 480GB / WD Black 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Windows 7 Professional 64 > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) < Passmark Rating: 4402

Dell Precision T5500 > Xeon X5680 ( 6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro 4000 (2GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > Windows 7 Professional 64 > HP 2711x (1920 X 1080) < Passmark Rating: 3340