Need advice/help for new rig

[Guest]

Hey, I'm building a PC for my dad. He's an architect so he would use this computer only for modeling, internet etc. No gaming what so ever. The reason why this rig is overkill for 3D modeling is because we wants it to last. In say 5 years, the 3D software will be more demanding and so we want the computer to still be able to cope. Anyway this is what i have found. All in all i think it's a very good system that i myself would want.

CPU: Intel Core i7-920

Mother Board: Intel i7 ASUS P6T SE

Video Card: VGA (ATI) 4890 OC 1GB XFX

RAM: DDR3 i7 6GB 1600 Kingston C8

DVD Drive: 5.25" SATA DVD-RW Samsung 22x

HDD: Either 3.5" SATA 1TB 32MB Seagate or 3.5" SATA 500GB 16MB Seagate. He doesn't need 1 TB storage, I'm just unsure if the 32MB of the 1TB means it's faster than the 16MB of the 500GB. Whats that all mean anyway?.

Case: Cooler Master ATX Midi HAF 922

PSU: This is tricky for me. How much power would he need for a system like this. I was thinking the 750W Corsair TX-750?

He prefers Nvidia over ATI but the closest in price to the ATI card i posted is the Nvidia GTX275 which isn't as good as the ATI card apparently. If you guys know of any other hardware that is better value or roughly same price and better as the ones i mentioned please enlighten me. Also is the case over kill? It looks to have really good cooling but if there are any other cases you guys think would get the job done and are good bang for your buck, please let me know. Oh and he will be using windows 7. Is the professional windows 7 edition sufficient? I don't think he needs ultimate and home basic isn't adequate.

Any help, advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

 

[hunter315]

Is his 3D modeling capable of offloading some of the load to the GPU? If not then drop down to a 4670s since he wont be gaming, if it can then consider a work station card or an nvidia card for CUDA support.

With the lower graphics requirements you can drop down to the OCZ modxstream 500watt psu.

If its the seagate .12 series 500GB drive or the samsung F3 500gb drive it will be faster than most 1TB drives out there.

For now get him vista 64bit pro with the upgrade coupon to windows 7, very few people need the ultimate versions and 7 pro will include all the features of home premium.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for replying hunter.

Would the 4670 still last do you think? The main reason is that we want the VC to last.

The 500GB HDD is the .12 series. Thanks for clearing that up.

How does the upgrade work? I did not know there were 'upgrade coupons'. Are they expensive?

 

[hunter315]

If you buy vista now, you get a coupon that gets you a free upgrade to an equivilant level of windows 7, you just put in the disk and it changes the OS to windows 7 and you wont lose your data either
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116676

if he isnt gaming the 4670 will last indefinitely, the main reason for the constant progression of video cards is not professional use, its the gaming industry, most of the workstation cards have gaming counterparts and are merely modifications fo them with better support, if he isnt going to be gaming i dont see why that 4670 would ever not suffice for his needs.

 

[Guest]

If you buy vista now, you get a coupon that gets you a free upgrade to an equivilant level of windows 7, you just put in the disk and it changes the OS to windows 7 and you wont lose your data either
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116676

if he isnt gaming the 4670 will last indefinitely, the main reason for the constant progression of video cards is not professional use, its the gaming industry, most of the workstation cards have gaming counterparts and are merely modifications fo them with better support, if he isnt going to be gaming i dont see why that 4670 would ever not suffice for his needs.

Thanks heaps hunter. What case would you suggest? I think the HAF is over kill. But he does want a case that will keep his rig cool.

Also i forgot to ask, what are workstation cards and cuda cards? He uses a 3D rendering program called revit. Would a corsair 600 watt corsair power supply suffice?

 

[obsidian86]

the antec 300 is good

 

[Guest]

the antec 300 is good

Hows it compare to the cooler master HAF i posted in my OP and also i recently found the Midi CoolerMaster RC-T05. It's a cheaper case and says it has good airflow. Advice?

 

[hunter315]

CUDA is nvidia general purpose graphic processing unit technology, it allows CUDA enabled programs to offload highly parallel processes to the GPU which is much better at handling them than CPUs are. Work station cards are like the FireGL from ATI and the Quadro series from nVidia. They are used in professional desktop work stations and have alot better driver support.

From what i could find about revit it doesnt even recommend anything more than a dedicated graphics card that supports directx 9 so he wont see any real benefit from a work station card, maybe slightly better frame rates when spinning the models but they also cost significantly more, i would go for the 4670 to save the money.

 

[Guest]

CUDA is nvidia general purpose graphic processing unit technology, it allows CUDA enabled programs to offload highly parallel processes to the GPU which is much better at handling them than CPUs are. Work station cards are like the FireGL from ATI and the Quadro series from nVidia. They are used in professional desktop work stations and have alot better driver support.

From what i could find about revit it doesnt even recommend anything more than a dedicated graphics card that supports directx 9 so he wont see any real benefit from a work station card, maybe slightly better frame rates when spinning the models but they also cost significantly more, i would go for the 4670 to save the money.

Thanks loads mate.

 

[obsidian86]

the antec compares well against the haf but the 300 is a bit more low key

 

[Guest]

the antec compares well against the haf but the 300 is a bit more low key

The online store i'm using doesn't sell antec . I have nearly completed the spec though bar the video card. I don't think it has to be very powerful. Although what is the best value video card perhaps around the $100-$130 U.S mark?

So far this is the current system:

- CPU: Intel Core i7-920

- RAM: DDR3 i7 6GB 1600 Kingston C8

- Motherboard: ASUS P6T SE (what's difference with non-SE version? From what i read the non-SE allows Nvidia cards to use SLI. He doesn't need SLI or Crossfire. Any other negatives of the SE board i should know about. The SE and non-SE cost the same btw).

- Case: Coolermaster Elite 331 (is this a good case for this system? Will it provide adequate ventilation? The look and features are not important, just it's cooling performance).

- Hard drive: 3.5" SATA 500GB 16MB Seagate (this is all he needs. Decided on seagate as the .12 models are supposedly improved over the .11 models).

- DVD drive: 5.25" SATA DVD-RW Samsung 22x

- Power supply: 600W Cooler Master Plus (is this enough power? Include a card that uses about the power of a 9800gt 1gb to what i have posted. Is this a good quality PSU? The store only have a corsair in 750 watt but if you guys are adamant that corsair is loads better than cooler master i'll ask them if they can order it in).

- Operating system: Windows VISTA Business 64Bit (comes with upgrade coupon to windows 7).

Advice is really, really appreciated. Very near to completing the spec.

 

[obsidian86]

that case is not too good on air flow but can you lnk me to your site you using an graphics hmm for that price a 4870 1gig is best value

 

[Guest]

that case is not too good on air flow but can you lnk me to your site you using an graphics hmm for that price a 4870 1gig is best value

Oh ok. Damn. I'm from australia so this site is in AU dollars: http://www.itestate.com.au/pages/product/pdt_homepage.faces

He only wants a case that can keep his system cool. The better ones are gaming cases and cost loads more. Also the graphics card does not have to be too powerful, something below 150 AUD is our limit.

 

[tecmo34]

Here is a build I put together for your Dad... I used a Nvidia card, which allows for him to use the CUDA software. These are all listed from your website.

06789 MotherBoard Intel i7 ASUS P6T SE (X58-supporting Socket 1366/DDR3 2000/CF) $295
06435 CPU/Processor Intel Core i7-920 (2.66 GHz/8M/D0/4.80 GT/45nm) LGA1366 $385
06769 Desktop DDR3 Ram 6GB Tri-Kit (3x2048MB) PC12800 1600MHz Kingston HyperX KHX12800D3LLK3/6GX 8-8-8-24 (i7 ready) $199
07100 Midi ATX Case CoolerMaster Centurion RC-690KWN (460w PSU) Black $169
05662 5.25" SATA DVD Buner/Rw Samsung SH-S223-BL 22x Black (Retail) $49
06647 Video Card PCI-e (nV) GTS 250 1024MB Sparkle SXS2501024D3-NM (HDMI/738/1900MHz) $169
05284 3.5" HDD SATA-300 1TB (1000GB) 32MB Samsung (HD103UJ/7200rpm) $107
06962 Microsoft Windows VISTA Home Premium 64Bit (OEM Version with Windows 7 upgrade) $169
Total Amount: $1542

I went with the Cooler Master RC-690 case with a Cooler Master 460W powersupply. The PSU is strong enough to run your system, since your Dad doesn't plan on running SLI. Cooler Master is a decent PSU company. They are not at the same level as Corsair or PC Power&Cooling but should suit you fine.

The GPU is strong enough for all of your Dad's needs, since he isn't using the system for Gaming.

 

[Guest]

Thank you so much tecmo34. I'll show him this list and see what he says. We will probably get a smaller hard drive but it looks like a good system for him. I'll let you guys know if any thing comes up.

Thanks again!!!!!!!

 

[Guest]

Ok, thanks to everyone's input we have decided on this system:


CPU: Intel Core i7-920 - I'm not sure if the model from the store is d0 steeping or c0 stepping. I read that d0 runs cooler? Is there really a difference?

RAM: DDR3 i7 6GB 1600 Kingston C8

Motherboard: ASUS P6T – The SE version costs $2 less. The only difference is that the SE version doesn't support SLI right?

Video card: Nvidia Sparkle GTS250 512MB - He is only using the computer for modeling/rendering so i decided (based on power consumption) that the 512MB was the better choice as he wouldn't need 1GB of vRAM if he isn't gaming right?

Case & Power supply: Midi ATX Case CoolerMaster Centurion RC-690KWN (460w PSU) Black - I'd like to see the power supply spec to see what cables it comes with. Anyone know if this power supply is any good? I think it would be the CM generic 460w. Any info on it's specs?

Hard drive: 3.5" SATA 500GB 16MB Seagate

DVD drive: 5.25" SATA DVD-RW Samsung 22x

Operating system: Microsoft Windows VISTA Home Premium 64Bit OEM Version with Windows 7 upgrade


I thought i'd run this system by you guys first before we order it. Again feedback is much appreciated. Hope it's all good

 

[JessicaD]

Aetius1031,

Yes Windows 7 Professional should be sufficient for him. To learn more about Windows 7, Microsoft does have a site with whitepapers, tutorials, walkthroughs and screen casts on all the “under the hood” features in Win 7. Check out the Springboard site for Windows 7 on TechNet here http://tinyurl.com/832nco

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[tecmo34]

Case & Power supply: Midi ATX Case CoolerMaster Centurion RC-690KWN (460w PSU) Black - I'd like to see the power supply spec to see what cables it comes with. Anyone know if this power supply is any good? I think it would be the CM generic 460w. Any info on it's specs?

After thinking about it some more... I do agree with your concern of not know anything about the PSU. I would recommend, if you can, call them and find out more information on the PSU before you buy.

Also, here is another alternative to keep you around the same price range...
■04805 Midi ATX Case Coolermaster Elite 331 no PSU Black $55
■06192 Power Supply 500W Seasonic M12 (Modular) Super Silent $129


Everything else on your list looks pretty good to me.

 

[Guest]

After thinking about it some more... I do agree with your concern of not know anything about the PSU. I would recommend, if you can, call them and find out more information on the PSU before you buy.

Also, here is another alternative to keep you around the same price range...
■04805 Midi ATX Case Coolermaster Elite 331 no PSU Black $55
■06192 Power Supply 500W Seasonic M12 (Modular) Super Silent $129


Everything else on your list looks pretty good to me.

Thanks again for replying. I used this site http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine to calculate watt usage. I got 311w. I think i entered in everything although i didn't know exactly what some options were asking for such as the HDD connection. I think it's sata2? Anyway i entered 2 usb devices and 4 120mm fans (to be safe) and high end motherboard. 311w seems very low but then again i don't know much about power consumption. Anyone able to clarify this?

 

[hunter315]

Thats about right but the PSU will run more efficient at about 50% load. There also arent many good power supplies that low, about the lowest i would suggest would be the EA430 but it isnt modular so it can get a bit messy.

 

[Guest]

We are just going to try that 460w power supply. If it's not adequate, he will buy another one.