Review and suggestions for a build?

gaze · Mar 14, 2015

Hi, I'd like to ask for your opinion on a build, possible changes and suggestions! I'm a complete newbie and not sure if the build is good or just sounds good.

I'm needing a computer that can handle daily ~8 hours of photoshop CS6 use (sometimes streaming the process online) and other drawing programs that are lighter than PSCS6. I'll also use it for 2D animation and it should handle 3D modeling without a problem, as I'm interested in 3D as well.

For internet use, I usually have 20-50tabs open and sometimes two browsers at the same time. I listen to mainly online radio's.

Important points:

Silence (preferably no noticeable noise when the room is quiet, and on peaking points medium background music should mask the noise easily)
Speed
Good graphic cards

Budget is ~2000€ (~2100$) not including the price of the monitor. If I can go under 2000 euro's by 300-500€ without compromising silence, speed and graphics that'd be preferable.

I'd like to go with two graphic cards but can start with one and add another later.

CPU Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor

CPU Cooler be quiet! Dark Rock 3 113.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler

Motherboard MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard

Memory Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory

Storage Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card

Case NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Operating System Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Monitor Dell U2415 60Hz 24.1" Monitor

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/hG96jX

Does it perform well for graphic design purposes and is it silent? Also I'm not sure which of the gtx 970 would be the best pick :\

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

That cpu and motherboard platform are overkill for gaming. You're overspending for no appreciable gain. Plus, the price that is reflected doesn't accuracy depict the final cost since several of the items are not available in your market and therefore don't show or include any cost in the final price. What is your actual total budget for the build?

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

Nevermind, I see the budget now.

gaze · Mar 14, 2015

Darkbreeze :

I don't do gaming, this is supposed to be a computer for graphical design work, big poster quality canvas painting and animating in 2D and bit of 3D.

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

What resolution will you be working with, or desire the monitor to be? I'm not sure 1920x1200 is the best choice, but you may have reasons for that specific resolution so I could be mistaken.

You also don't want a Red drive, those are NAS drives and tend to be slow. Plus it's a 5400RPM drive, which makes it even slower.

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

This is what I'd recommend. By the time you add a compliant X99 motherboard and DDR4 RAM to the price of your build, you would likely exceed your budget by a good margin, for no appreciable gain.

Add windows 8.1 to this build and you should be good to run any current professional graphics applications at a high level. Windows 8.1 isn't showing at all on the .de partpicker site, so you'll need to try and find it elsewhere like Amazon or another vendor. You might check each of those parts against other available vendors as well, since they might be cheaper elsewhere. PCPartpicker doesn't always reflect the best or most accurate pricing on the euro sites.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1271 V3 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (€337.94 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler (€69.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€99.89 @ Home of Hardware DE)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (€159.84 @ Home of Hardware DE)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€96.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€185.25 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (€355.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (€109.90 @ Caseking)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€128.14 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Monitor: BenQ GW2765HT 60Hz 27.0" Monitor (€389.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1932.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-14 18:42 CET+0100

If necessary, I'd drop the HDD down to a 2TB model if necessary, and add another later if you run out of space, to fit the OS into the budget but stay away from the WD green and red drives. The Caviar blue and WD Black drives, at 7200RPM and SATA6 (III) speeds are what you want, for Western digital anyhow. According to the latest results from Backblaze, just released last month, the Hitachi (HST) drives are actually the most reliable, but I've always had good success with Western digital hard drives being reliable over the long term, at least as much as any other.

gaze · Mar 14, 2015

Darkbreeze :

I picked the Dell U2415 monitor for it's review for monitors good for graphic design with its color profile and its price.

The Dell UltraSharp U2415 is the company's latest targeted at graphics professionals. The IPS panel provides a very good 91% CIE1976 color gamut and the 99% sRGB gamut. All of the displays are factory calibrated by Dell for better color accuracy out of the box.

Source

I'm really not looking forward to switching it to another one. The monitor price isn't included in the 2000e range for the tower budget. It sells for 299e in my country.

What kind of disadvantage does the 1920x1200 have compared to other more common sizes? I don't want a very big screen, I think 24" monitor is a good size. I have 22" at the moment and I think a bit bigger would be better for my eyes. Can you tell me why the BenQ would be a better choice? (price difference is about 80e)

For the list I linked to, the price including win8.1 and the monitor, the whole package comes to 2,340e when searched locally for cheapest prices, plus about 30e postage, most of the parts are shipped for free though.

Thanks for explaining about the HDD, I can go with the 2TB and add another one later when/if needed.

It doesn't seem I can add a second video card should I need to, is the card itself not suited for it or?

For the Intel Xeon you suggested, the price difference is 20 euro's in comparison to the i7. The motherboard minus 100e. Memory is minus 35e. The video card adds 20e. CPU cooler minus 30e. BenQ adds 80e. So I would save 85 euro's. In this light, what do you think?

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

I think you would be much better served for the type of graphics tasks you're working on, using the higher resolution monitor. A larger monitor with a higher resolution is always easier to work with than a smaller, lower resolution monitor, but that's a choice that's totally up to you. Well, it's actually ALL entirely up to you. Heh. But considering I do a lot of high end graphics as well, with Photoshop, Illustrator and a variety of 3D modeling applications in addition to some CAD stuff, I find a larger monitor with a higher resolution easier to work with than any of my 24" monitors that have 1920x1080 resolutions.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2456236,00.asp

1920x1200 is an oddball resolution, being 16:10 instead of 16:9 like a 1920x1080 display and you may find it troublesome or awkward, but you might not as well. Kind of like that work, awkward, the spelling never LOOKS right. Heh.

If you think the 24" is big enough, that's fine, it's just not as easy to find a good high resolution monitor in that size. With a high resolution the biggest advantage for on screen design work is the added real estate but it also helps to work in resolutions that look better for print than trying to do so with a lower screen resolution.

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

If you decide you want to go X99 instead, which might have a small advantage over the Xeon, but in my opinion probably isn't worth the extra money, it would look like this using parts that show as available to your market. Feel free to tailor it to suit your desires since you know better than I about what vendors have what in your region. I'd go with the Xeon package above, or do it like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (€396.00 @ Home of Hardware DE)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler (€69.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (€209.10 @ Home of Hardware DE)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (€265.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€96.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€184.34 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (€355.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (€109.90 @ Caseking)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€130.94 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Monitor: BenQ GW2765HT 60Hz 27.0" Monitor (€389.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €2206.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-15 00:14 CET+0100

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

It's probably also worth mentioning that the Samsung 850 EVO SSDs are MUCH faster than the Crucial MX100, or any other SSD aside from the 850 PRO, that's currently being sold. If you can budget one of those into your build, it might be worth it depending on the work load.

gaze · Mar 14, 2015

Darkbreeze :

I did a quick search and I could get a 250gb Samsung for 127e, I don't think that's a bad price if it'll speed things up significantly.

Is Seagate a bad choice for HDD? It seems to be a bit cheaper. The WD 3TB is 200e and a Seagate 3TB Barracuda is 119e, I might find cheaper though if I look further.

I think I'll take your word for the monitor and go with the BenQ, I can't really compare with anything physically except my TV that is 32" and my monitor that's 22". But the 27 falls in between so it could be just right.

What would the difference be between Crucial Ballistix Sport memory and Corsair Vengeance? The Crucial one I was able to find the kit for 194e with a bit of search within my country. And I can't seem to find Corsair 2x8 DDR4 just a DDR3 for DDR4 they have 4x4 and the prices are quite high.

And I think I'll go with the X99 but I'll give it a bit more thought before I decide.

Darkbreeze · Mar 14, 2015

The Seagate is fine. The western digital caviar blue and Seagate budget drives are about equal so far as anybody can prove to the contrary. I use them all the time in builds and have no issues. The WD Black drives, in my experience, are more reliable and slightly better quality though. When I can afford it I get black drives over blue OR any other budget drives. The Seagate should be fine though.

Since this is for work related tasks I'd highly, HIGHLY, recommend that you get ANOTHER drive of the same capacity to back up anything you save to the drive. Drive failures can happen at ANY point in a drives life and it's miserable to find that months or years of work is gone. I'd do that as soon as you were able or even now if possible. Every week or even every couple of days, sync the drives so everything has two copies in case one fails.

IF you give me the two model numbers of the RAM you're comparing, I can tell you what the difference is. Generally it comes down to latency and the quality of the RAM. I personally like Crucial better as they've been in the memory game almost since the beginning (Think Micron, which is who they really are.) and Corsair is a relative newcomer to the memory market in comparison. Corsair does make quality memory though, but they just assemble their modules from components provided by actual chip manufacturers like Micron, Kingston and Mushkin.

In this case the X99 might not be a bad choice, since it's not a gaming machine, which is what we mostly see requests for here and the fact that it does have six physical cores with twelve threads, but it also has a much lower clock speed per core as well when compared to the Xeon that has four cores and eight threads. The Xeon would be perfectly fine though and if the price difference would allow you a little more room to budget some other areas of the build, I'd say it's a trade worth making. I can't think of any current applications that couldn't be run at a high level with that Xeon.

gaze · Mar 14, 2015

Darkbreeze :

Crucial: BLS2C8G4D240FSA and the one you suggested in the second list: CMK16GX4M2A2400C14 I think you meant these part numbers?

I have 1TB external drive at the moment (my hdd is 750mb) and I have it exactly because my first computer totally got spent til the last dime and I couldn't save everything before the HDD failed. I noticed it just in time to save some, but yeah..

Do you suppose I would ever need two graphics cards at any point?

The cost difference is about 120e mobo&cpu together between the two, which I don't think is very much...but that may be because I don't practically understand the difference marginal in performance. However I could get a back-lighted keyboard with that money.. and well, I really am not a gamer but I do have an account with RIFT however I don't have the game downloaded at the moment so I probably would have to start fresh if I felt like I wanted to try learn to play it again.

Darkbreeze · Mar 15, 2015

If you're not a SERIOUS gamer, you'd never need a second GTX 970, unless you planned to game or run some serious applications at 4K resolutions, especially on multiple monitors. For a single monitor at 1440p, the single GTX 970 is plenty, and then some.

Like I said, if there are some other things you'd like to fit into the budget, I'd go with the Xeon build. Performance will be likely similar for what you need it to do and the cost is less. As you can see at the following link, they actually trade places in regard to performance depending on the title (I had to use the 4790 non-k as it's the closest listed chip and is actually nearly identical to the Xeon in question.) with the Xeon/4790 actually being much faster in some of the benchmarks.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1320?vs=1199

I'd say that build with the Xeon would keep you relevant for at least five years. Same goes for the 5820k.

gaze · Mar 15, 2015

Darkbreeze :

Thank you so much for helping me figure this build out. Both your part lists got me below the list I started with cost wise.

I think I'll be going with the Intel Xeon build. The cost is around 2150e all in all which is ~200e spare for additional stuff. Considering the cost includes OS and monitor as well I'm quite happy with this.

Thanks again!

Darkbreeze · Mar 15, 2015

Absolutely, anytime. If you have any further questions at any point, just come back and ask. Be glad to help.

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