Need some advice for new PC

[gashe]

Hi,

I am planning to buy a new pc, i will use it for 2D/3D graphics and video editing. My budget is around 1500$
This is the computer that i am thinking of:

MAINBORD: ASUS P6T SE
CPU: INTEL I-7 920
RAM: 3X2G DD3 1333
VGA: GTX 285
HDD: 1TB 7200 rpm SATA II 32

If you have any idea of what to change that it will work better for graphic pls advice me (but to be around the same price as above or maybe lower).

Now i really don't know how much power i will need for this kind of computer, some say that 550W is enough some say to get at least 750W. Also i don't know if i should buy an additional FAN ? I am not a overclocking maniac and i dont play games, only some simple mmorpg.

So please someone help me out

Best Regards
Ivan

 

[warmon6]

Well what the computer tower case you looking into. Sometime you may need additional fans while in other cases you may not.

As for PSU's for me i like the over head so i would get a 750 watt. (this so that as the PSU ages, i wont losse power to my stuff due to lowering output.)

Now for graphics i would suggest an ATI graphic card equivalent due to that if you ever want to go in a Multi graphic card setup in the future you'll be able to do crossfire. Nvidia sli will not work on this MB.

Other than that i say you have a great build going.

 

[amdfangirl]

Hi,

I am planning to buy a new pc, i will use it for 2D/3D graphics and video editing. My budget is around 1500$
This is the computer that i am thinking of:

MAINBORD: ASUS P6T SE
CPU: INTEL I-7 920
RAM: 3X2G DD3 1333
VGA: GTX 285
HDD: 1TB 7200 rpm SATA II 32

If you have any idea of what to change that it will work better for graphic pls advice me (but to be around the same price as above or maybe lower).

Now i really don't know how much power i will need for this kind of computer, some say that 550W is enough some say to get at least 750W. Also i don't know if i should buy an additional FAN ? I am not a overclocking maniac and i dont play games, only some simple mmorpg.

So please someone help me out

Best Regards
Ivan

You don't need a uber graphics card.

What field of graphic design are you?

It determines what you spend your money on.

I'm a tablet artist, I spend up to $750 on a tablet in a single build.

 

[gashe]

thanks for the replay
I mostly work in Photoshop and Illustrator, but also working in after effects, 3ds Max (specially rendering), zbrush ....
I already have a tablet

 

[LePhuronn]

If your graphics and video editing packages are Adobe CS4 then I'd recommend staying with the GTX285 (or possibly a GTX275) as CS4 is CUDA-enabled and testing was heavily biased towards NVIDIA cards.

If not then you can save yourself a good chunk of money going to an ATI card, probably a 4870 - still enough GPU grunt to help with hardware-accelerated graphic design but not overboard.

However, to see any real benefit from having a decent GPU for your graphic work you need a workstation card not a gaming card, but they're likely to be out of your budget.

I'd get DDR3-1600 RAM though, not 1333, as the triple-channel architecture really comes into its own at 1600MHz and will give your graphics and video a nice performance boost.

Don't dismiss the idea of overclocking though - you don't need to go mad with it, but the i7 920 will easily hit high clocks, even on the stock cooler you could probably get up to 3.4GHz, and that pretty much matches the flagship i7 975.

 

[amdfangirl]

They you should focus on the CPU, that will be important, followed by a plenty of RAM large HD and maybe a nice screen. Those are your main points.

 

[amdfangirl]

If your graphics and video editing packages are Adobe CS4 then I'd recommend staying with the GTX285 (or possibly a GTX275) as CS4 is CUDA-enabled and testing was heavily biased towards NVIDIA cards.

If not then you can save yourself a good chunk of money going to an ATI card, probably a 4870 - still enough GPU grunt to help with hardware-accelerated graphic design but not overboard.

However, to see any real benefit from having a decent GPU for your graphic work you need a workstation card not a gaming card, but they're likely to be out of your budget.

I'd get DDR3-1600 RAM though, not 1333, as the triple-channel architecture really comes into its own at 1600MHz and will give your graphics and video a nice performance boost.

Don't dismiss the idea of overclocking though - you don't need to go mad with it, but the i7 920 will easily hit high clocks, even on the stock cooler you could probably get up to 3.4GHz, and that pretty much matches the flagship i7 975.

CS4 is not CUDA enabled. It is an open standard that accelrates on both ATi and Nvidia cards. Only certain filters appiled to Photoshop can and will be acclerated by the GPU. The load on the GPU is quite light.

Bloomfield i7s can only use 1333 RAM so there's no point.

Just keep the OC sane, nothing insane.

 

[ulysses35]

Except for the graphics card I have just bough the same set up - housed in the Antec 1200. So far I couldnt be more happy with the performance (old pc = E8400)

anything over 600W for power is going to be overkill unless you plan adding a second graphics cared

 

[sportsfanboy]

Also concider going with two hard drives. Video editing benifits when you read form one drive and write to another

 

[amdfangirl]

You should aim for 2 if it fits your budget. One fast scratch and pagefile disk.

 

[gashe]

thanks for the advice for 2 hdd...
i was a little bit worried about the power, should i get 700,750 or 800 ?
Here are some of the powers i can buy for my budget

FORTRON EPSILON 700/ 700W
FORTRON EVEREST 700/700W
FORTRON EVEREST 800/ 800W
750W CHIEFTEC P.S
Chieftec CFT-750-14CS
CHIEFTEC APS-750C 750W
Corsair CMPSU-750TXEU, 750W

so what to choose ?

 

[sportsfanboy]

Google tier 2 power supplies and pick one with the appropriate watage/amps for your needs. Most likely something around 650w to 750 will be plenty, with room for addictions in the future.

 

[gashe]

so what do you think it is the best bang-for-buck option for Graphic Card ?

 

[sportsfanboy]

Your going to be using Cuda assisted based software, so you have to go with Nvidia.

There are several good cards, maybe a gtx 260 core 216 for around 200.00 USD, or a 9800gtx+ for around 120.00 USD. I would go that route if you don't plan on full HD gaming now or in the foreseeable future.

Edit:

Make sure what ever card you choose is supported within the software that you are going to be using before buying.

 

[gashe]

so if i go with gtx260 should i stay with power of 750W ?

 

[sportsfanboy]

Any PSU 700 watts or above from that tier 2 list, will easily run your spec out setup.

I have an Enermax infinity 720w, and have been completely happy with it.

 

[gashe]

i am a little bit confused about gtx 260
i found :

GTX260 SP216 1792MB DDR3
GTX260 SP216 896MB DDR3
GTX260+ 896MB DDR3
GTX260 GL+ 896MB DDR3

help

 

[gashe]

if i take the GTX260 SP216 i can get + 6G RAM for the same price as GTX285, is this a better choice ?

 

[sportsfanboy]

I'm not a huge video guru... The extent of my knowledge is trans coding to dvd and other formats, but mainly, trans coding via the Cuda based app Badaboom to iphone.

I would benefit by going with the gtx285, you may or may not. On the ram side of things, 6gb tri channel ddr3 sets are priced under 150.00 USD, not too bad.

Obviously getting the gtx285 and the 6gb of ram is the way to go, if money is tight, i would go with the ram(since your going to video edit) and the cheaper video card.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Almost forgot, here's a list of the tier 2 power supplies.

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

 

[amdfangirl]

Your going to be using Cuda assisted based software, so you have to go with Nvidia.

No, that's not true. CS4 uses Open GL based rendering. Acceleration happens on both ATI and Nividia cards.

Here is my ATI Radeon HD 2600 pro running Photoshop CS4

Adobe article: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html

You don't need a very fast GPU for the acceleration. Something like an Ati HD 4670 or Nvidia 9600GT should be enough. My own GPU is hardly stressed, it's more about the video card RAM and the RAM type and speed. Those megapixels are all stored in the RAM. However, if you decide to use your GPU to transcode videos, I highly recommend investing in a faster GPU. However, I find that GPU encoding has lower quality, less format support and the fact Badaboom is a retail piece of software. There are many high quality encoders for the CPU for free, such as Handbrake.

 

[amdfangirl]

OpenGL/GPU features in Adobe Photoshop CS4 are:

* Smooth Display at ALL Zoom Levels
* Animated Zoom Tool
* Animated Transitions when doing a One Stop Zoom
* Hand Toss Image
* Birdseye View
* Rotate Canvas
* Smooth Display of Non Square Pixel Images
* Pixel Grid
* Move Color Matching to the GPU
* Draw Brush Tip Editing Feedback via GPU
* 3D GPU features include:
o 3D Acceleration
o 3D Axis
o 3D Lights Widget
o Accelerated 3D Interaction via Direct To Screen

These tasks are not very strenuous to the GPU.

 

[Wisecracker]

You are confusing OpenGL with OpenCL.

Direct3D (Microsoft) and OpenGL (Open Source) APIs provide for the rendering of 2D and 3D screen graphics primarily through hardware acceleration. 3D object modeling/rendering 'on screen' can be very strenuous involving gazillions of polygons, lighting, camera views, shadows, reflections, etc.

CUDA and OpenCL utilize the stream processors of the GPU for parallel computing in what is called GPGPU, or General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit computing.

Many of the tasks run in D3D and OpenGL cannot be made parallel because they are linear and dependent upon the completion of other operations before proceeding.

 

[amdfangirl]

There is no open-cl or CUDA support for CS4.

 

[gashe]

this has become a great topic for understanding a lot of thinks about computers, and you all helped me a lot for buying my new computer. I was thinking between GTX 260 and GTX285, so i took the middle GTX275 for only 20$ + from the GTX260 216. But you can continue the conversation so when someone who have the same problem as me can read what he needs to know

Thanks again to all