sisamnes said:
Hi everyone,
I would really appreciate your help. Here's the deal. Believe it or not, I won a brand new Intel Core i7 980x CPU in a contest, and I am looking for advice on building a desktop with this as a starting point. I'm a student on a limited budget, but I'm looking for something that can work well with programs like After Effects and 3ds Max. I'm not really concerned about gaming. I'm hoping to spend less than a thousand, but if that's not realistic, oh well. So, I basically know nothing about computers; I could really use suggestions that would suit my needs for motherboard, graphics card, &c. Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks!
Hey,
Congrats on the CPU. Now, this post might look a bit like self-advertising, but I hope no-one takes it this way.
Well, my advice is: get what I got. When I built my rig I was looking to find a decent mobo that could leverage the capabilities of the 980x without breaking my bank. I'm very happy with my choice, the Sabertooth is very stable, reliable & easily overclockable. USB 3.0 & SATA 6 GB/s support, SLI support with x16 on two PCIE slots (if you do suddenly decide to go gaming) plus a few other things. A solid mobo for less than 200 USD and below 160 GBP in the UK.
newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
review:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/11/1...
review:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-tuf-sabertooth-x58-r...
After that, take your pick. If you want to go with CUDA for 3ds, you'll need a relatively powerful nvidia card. My choice was the GTX 570. If you want to rely more on the CPU, get something like a Radeon 6950 (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...), which will give you performance similar to nvidia's counterparts, but at a lower price. Such a card will run games nicely in 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 with lowered details. This is still very much a gaming card, so go lower if you all you want is a smooth aero experience and video playback.
I'd advise shitloads of RAM for your purposes. 8 GB would be nice, but you'll have to go to 12 GB if you want to make use of triple-channel support. Don't push yourself for extremely low-latency chips, diminishing returns very much apply. This would be nice, for example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Both of these kits have a decent CAS 9 latency at 1600 MHz, they run at stock 1.5v and populate 3 slots instead of all 6, allowing you to expand in the future.
PSU: Don't skimp here. Since you plan on stressing these 6 cores, make sure you have a good supply of clean power with plenty of overhead. Go with a decent brand (Seasonic, Corsair, XFX etc.) and 500W (more if you pick a high end GPU).