A pc for an engineer-to-be

[Polynomial]

Recently I've taken up my studies on the faculty of architectural engineering, so I need a quite efficent pc.
I'd be glad to read your opinions about this set:

Processor Intel Corei5 750 // despite older technology than in i5 661, it's faster in many benchmarks.
ram Kingston DDR3 2x 2GB 1333MHz CL9
graphics card PNY QuadroFX 580 PCI-Ex16
MoBo Intel BLKDQ57TM
HDD 2 x WD Caviar Blue 500 GB WD5000AAKS // raid 1 setting

PSU is a 600W Tagan from my current pc, as well as chieftec's case and eizo s1931 display monitor.

I'm going to buy the pc in the next week.
Burry in mind that it's optimized for CAD software, not for gaming.
Does anything in this pc require polishing up? I'd be grateful for your opinions.

 

[MRFS]

Check out the new price on the Core i7-870:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115213&Tpk=N82E16819115213

http://www.3dgameman.com/news/2010/07/22/intel-updates-processor-line-introduces-core-i7-970

As hoped, the Core i7-870 has seen a nice price-drop, to $294 from $562. As a quad-core model with full HyperThreading capabilities, not to mention a 2.93GHz clock speed, this is one drool-worthy model for the overclocker and non-overclocker alike.

[end quote]


Also, you'll get more for your money with an ASUS motherboard,
particularly one that supports SATA/6G and USB 3.0 -- both of which
are the current standard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=ASUS+LGA+1156&x=0&y=0


As a viable alternative, check out the new AMD 890FX chipset,
and their latest 6-core CPUs: the prices for these 2 technologies
are excellent:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=AMD+Thuban&x=0&y=0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=AMD+890FX&x=0&y=0


This 890FX chipset supports native SATA/6G with integrated RAID.

SATA/6G SSDs should burst on the scene within the next 8 to 12 months,
so it's wise to "future-proof" your machine.


MRFS

 

[MRFS]

> HDD 2 x WD Caviar Blue 500 GB WD5000AAKS // raid 1 setting

Caviar Blues do not support TLER:

WD recommends their RE (RAID Edition) HDDs
for all RAID arrays.


MRFS

 

[sinPCsin]

Few suggestions from fellow Engineer.

1. Lots of CAD tools require loads of ram, you want to get at least 8 Gig.
2. Majority of CAD tools support multi-core, that is more cores you have more parallel threads you can run
3. You will be starving student strapped for cash for next 4+ years, you won't be able to drop Big $$$ on upgrading computers
4. School will likely force you to buy shitty laptop from pre-approved list and will only allow you to run copies of school software on it


With this in mind:

Go with CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz -based system.

As of right now strictly for gaming AMD system is inferior, but extra 2 cores will mean more data crunching OR ability to use PC while standard 4 cores are 100% loaded by CAD.

Additional bonus - unlike Intel, AMD stays with socket architecture for very long time, so in 2+ years you still will be able to upgrade your CPU while keeping rest of the system intact. This means your PC can be upgraded on the cheap and still "keep up".

graphics card PNY QuadroFX 580 PCI-Ex16

You might not need Quadro-based graphic card, especially if you are on a budget, benefits are very minimal (in form of better drivers tuned for applications) compared to gaming Nvidia video card. FYI - modern Quadro hardware is identical GForce. You will get maybe 10-15% better performance out of Quadro, for a very substantial premium. There are exceptions to this rule, depending on CAD tools you going to use (SolidWorks is one example where you want Quadro) and degree of complexity you going to use it for.

Back in the early days Quadro cards made a lot of sense due to vector processing for 2D, Nvidia actually had different hardware for Gaming and CAD. These days with obscene number of cores on modern video cards differences become trivial for 99% of applications out there.

Don't spend money on Quadro unless you know you will need it.

 

[sinPCsin]

NVIDIA GeForce To Quadro Software Mod

Not sure if this still works.