Building for Graphics

Hi

First of all, I'm not en expert in hardware by all means. That is why I'm asking you for help.

I'm building the system that I'll use to work in programs (more of a learning them) like 3ds Max, photoshop, corel... Now, I know that it'll be perfect to buy some quad or better extreme CPU, tons of RAM and so on... but I'm a little bit short on a budget for that.

Here is what I come up with till now:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz (1333MHz,4MB,Conroe,S775,Active Heatsink) Box
Gigabyte MB GA-P35-DS3P
OCZ 2GB DDR2, 800MHz Gold XTC/CL 5-5-5-15
SEAGATE Barracuda 320GB 7200.10 with NCQ 7200rpm 16MB cache Serial ATA II-300
ASUS EN7900GS/2DHT/256M, GeForce 7900GS
Cooler Master eXtreme Power RP-500-PCAP
Cooler Master Centurion 534 w/o PSU

What bothers me the most is which motherboard should I choose and will this video card be enough. Another thing is, will this hardware work well together.

Any suggestions and critics are welcome.

P.S. Don't mind my bad English.

That would mean an extra 150$ (or more) and sense I'm not gonna use this setup for games, imo I don't really need advanced video as 8800GTS is.

That should be a fine build.
The PSU is slightly questionable.

There was a PSU from ROSEWILL with RP-500 in its name that was reviewed by JohnnyGuru and got good comments so it may be ok.

Neither CoolMaster or RoseWill make PSUs so it is likely from the same 3rd party manufacturer and likely identical and passable for its price range.

The Corsair 450w is a new PSU on the market that is also great in the lower price range. Do no let the low wattage fool you as it has 33a on the 12v line and can power just about any single GPU system. (Or have a crazy number of HDDs with a top tier GPU)

GA-P35-S3L will do, and it's cheaper.
Use the savings for a Q6600.
A 7600GT or 7900 GS would do fine.
2GB of RAM is fine if you're still learning and don't use huge files.
Barracuda - there's got to be a cheaper and quieter disk out there.
A Corsair 520HX PSU would be great for that build.

P5K compares directly with GA-P35-DS3R. The P5K has better overclocking tools, but the GA consumes less power which also helps with overclocking. It depends on who you think makes higher quality products these days. I believe it's Gigabyte and I just bought my mobo from them, but I'll probably get flamed by people who prefer Asus. The only real difference is that the GA still has 3 PCI slots available with an 8800 GTX on it while the Asus loses one due to silly layout. It's important for me but probably not for most people.

1066 MHz is useful if you overclock. If you don't, or overclock only a little, DDR2-800 is fine.

Can't say if the WD is better. It has advantages and disadvantages over the Barracuda. I would personally buy the WD if those two were at the same price. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this one too, this time by people who prefer Seagate. Note I'm not saying fanboys, they have every right to prefer Seagate. It depends on what you need. I prefer a disk I can't hear. Others prefer a somewhat faster disk. The differences are small anyway.

Yup, it's expensive. Try this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] =BlueStorm
FSP, 500W, $87

My question is what do you need the graphics card for, you aren't gonna play games. If you really want a GPU go for 2600xt GDDR3-4. I'm not really sure about this but i don't know if a GPU like 7900GS or the 2600xt will have much impact on your 3D work.

Get a q6600 and Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2H(Integrated GPU)
This would probably cost you the same or less compared to e6750+7900GS.

If you want to be able to play some games get x1950 pro instead of the 7900GS. The x1950pro beats the 7900GS in all the test and is normally cheaper also.

I'll let everyone know how it goes when 3DSMax 2008 comes out in October as I will finally bite the bullet and buy a copy for home. Zbrush works great with gaming cards so far...