- Feb 11, 2007
- 54
- 0
- 18,630
I'm helping a friend to build a new system based on the Q6600 and would appreciate criticisms/suggestions.
He primarily wants to run Maya and other 3d apps, but plays the occasional game as well - he's particularly interested in Starcraft II, which I suspect will have rather conservative hardware requirements so no problem there.
We have pretty much set in stone the following-
CPU - Q6600 G0 stepping from ClubIT - $295
Motherboard - Gigabyte DS3R from ClubIT - 130 - 10 MIR = $120
Case - Thermaltake Armor from Newegg 150 - 40 MIR - $110
WD 500GB HDD newegg - $110
Sony optiarc SATA DVD burner - $33
Ok, the video card is a bit of a problem. He wanted to get a Quadro, and I did some research but I wasn't able to find benchmarks of Games on the Quadro or 3d apps on the GeForce cards, which is understandable since the cards are not intended for those uses, but I'm still interested and I think it would be cool if THG would include a benchmark or two on the "wrong" cards in their VGA charts. Anyway, from my limited experience running Maya on a 6600GT, it seems like a GeForce will do better running 3d apps then a Quadro will running games. Also, the cost of the equivalent power quadro card seems to be about twice the cost of a GeForce. So, we settled on-
evga 8800GTS 640MB 380 - 30 MIR = $350
If anyone has any suggestions or experience here I would appreciate it.
The rest is still kind of up in the air, but we have sort of decided on.
PSU - Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W - 130 - 40 = $90 (I know it's probably not the greatest PSU, but I'm kinda from the old school where the PSU came with the case and no matter how crappy it was you just used it and didn't know any better, so this seems like a decent compromise without having to drop $200, plus where we live power is cheap and pretty reliable so efficiency is not that much of a concern.)
RAM - Patriot eXtreme Performance 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 245 - 20MIR = 225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220227
Maybe two of these to make 8GB of RAM, which is a lot, but he thinks he will need that much for 3D work. I'm telling him to buy one kit now and if he really does need the extra then buy it later.
98% sure that it will be running Windows XP pro x64 which he already has access to an unused, legal copy, but he says he'll learn and use Linux if it suits his 3d work better. (I kinda doubt it, but he IS serious about 3D)
So that's $1558 AR + shipping for a quad-core system with 8GB of RAM, seems like he's getting a pretty powerful computer at a reasonable price. We're both college students so that's a lot of money to both of us, but he understands that he will get a high quality system for his money. This will represent the highest end build I've ever attempted, though I've built some decent systems before.
So I guess my main questions are:
1. Does anyone know how well the 8800GTS 640MB will perform in Maya and other 3d apps?
2. Any one have a better recommendation for RAM? (probably 2x2GB kit so that a later upgrade is possible)
3. I guess you can try and convince me to Upgrade the PSU, I'll listen, but no promises.
Any other advice/recommendations are greatly appreciated, I know that there are a lot of these posts on the Forums, but it really helps to make sure and have others scrutinize your build before you drop the cash. Thank You.
He primarily wants to run Maya and other 3d apps, but plays the occasional game as well - he's particularly interested in Starcraft II, which I suspect will have rather conservative hardware requirements so no problem there.
We have pretty much set in stone the following-
CPU - Q6600 G0 stepping from ClubIT - $295
Motherboard - Gigabyte DS3R from ClubIT - 130 - 10 MIR = $120
Case - Thermaltake Armor from Newegg 150 - 40 MIR - $110
WD 500GB HDD newegg - $110
Sony optiarc SATA DVD burner - $33
Ok, the video card is a bit of a problem. He wanted to get a Quadro, and I did some research but I wasn't able to find benchmarks of Games on the Quadro or 3d apps on the GeForce cards, which is understandable since the cards are not intended for those uses, but I'm still interested and I think it would be cool if THG would include a benchmark or two on the "wrong" cards in their VGA charts. Anyway, from my limited experience running Maya on a 6600GT, it seems like a GeForce will do better running 3d apps then a Quadro will running games. Also, the cost of the equivalent power quadro card seems to be about twice the cost of a GeForce. So, we settled on-
evga 8800GTS 640MB 380 - 30 MIR = $350
If anyone has any suggestions or experience here I would appreciate it.
The rest is still kind of up in the air, but we have sort of decided on.
PSU - Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W - 130 - 40 = $90 (I know it's probably not the greatest PSU, but I'm kinda from the old school where the PSU came with the case and no matter how crappy it was you just used it and didn't know any better, so this seems like a decent compromise without having to drop $200, plus where we live power is cheap and pretty reliable so efficiency is not that much of a concern.)
RAM - Patriot eXtreme Performance 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 245 - 20MIR = 225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220227
Maybe two of these to make 8GB of RAM, which is a lot, but he thinks he will need that much for 3D work. I'm telling him to buy one kit now and if he really does need the extra then buy it later.
98% sure that it will be running Windows XP pro x64 which he already has access to an unused, legal copy, but he says he'll learn and use Linux if it suits his 3d work better. (I kinda doubt it, but he IS serious about 3D)
So that's $1558 AR + shipping for a quad-core system with 8GB of RAM, seems like he's getting a pretty powerful computer at a reasonable price. We're both college students so that's a lot of money to both of us, but he understands that he will get a high quality system for his money. This will represent the highest end build I've ever attempted, though I've built some decent systems before.
So I guess my main questions are:
1. Does anyone know how well the 8800GTS 640MB will perform in Maya and other 3d apps?
2. Any one have a better recommendation for RAM? (probably 2x2GB kit so that a later upgrade is possible)
3. I guess you can try and convince me to Upgrade the PSU, I'll listen, but no promises.
Any other advice/recommendations are greatly appreciated, I know that there are a lot of these posts on the Forums, but it really helps to make sure and have others scrutinize your build before you drop the cash. Thank You.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram