Alright, finally got the funds and the research done to nail this sucker down in the next week. Here's what I'm working with, looking for a sanity check and advice on a few last details.
Approximate Purchase Date: Next week
Budget Range: $1500 maximum, closer to $1000 is better
System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D Modeling/rendering (Maya 2011), Gaming
Parts Not Required: Speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg or tigerdirect, microcenter (there's one in town)
Country of Origin: USofA
Parts Preferences: Word of mouth has me sticking with an Nvidia GPU and i7 CPU.
Overclocking: Maybe, but down the line
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 (my current monitor will turn into a secondary monitor and it's only 1680x1050)
Additional Comments: One thing I'm worried about is rumors of Maya/Nvidia throttling down their video cards in Maya. Not sure if the GTX 500 series line has this as a factor or not. I've thought a little bit about SLI with two 560 Ti cards, but a single 570 seems like a more cost effective option.
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Parts!
Case: Antec 300 ($60) OR COOLER MASTER HAF 912 ($60) OR HAF 932 ($150)
Processor: Intel i7-2600k ($280)
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 ($150) OR Asrock Extreme4 P67 ($150) (can't seem to find a link for the ASRock)
Cooler: CM Hyper 212 ($30) OR CM V8 ($60)
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory ($100) OR equivalent
SSD: Nothing OR Corsair Nova 32gb 2.5" SSD ($75) OR OCZ Vertex 2 64gb ($120)
Storage HD: 2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB 7200 SATA 3.0Gb ($100) OR 1Tb ($65)
Optical: $20 DVD-RW of some flavor, probably a LITE-ON Black
Video Card: GeForce GTX 560 Ti ($260) OR 570 ($360)
PSU: XFX 750w Black Edition 80+ Silver ($130) OR 850W ($150)
Monitor: ASUS VH238H Black 23" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor ($170) or similar
Keyboard: Logitech G110 ($65)
Mouse: Not sold on one yet. We'll placehold with a Logitech G518 ($40)
Other:
Thermal Paste ($10)
Totals (without any deals applied)
Low Price - $1390
High Price - $1740 (a bit over budget, but that's with ALL the highest price options)
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So, any last touch ups, suggestions on getting the price down, etc. would be really helpful. I thought about trying to rearrange things to manage dual 560 Ti cards in SLI, but I'm not sure it's worth it.
Approximate Purchase Date: Next week
Budget Range: $1500 maximum, closer to $1000 is better
System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D Modeling/rendering (Maya 2011), Gaming
Parts Not Required: Speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg or tigerdirect, microcenter (there's one in town)
Country of Origin: USofA
Parts Preferences: Word of mouth has me sticking with an Nvidia GPU and i7 CPU.
Overclocking: Maybe, but down the line
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 (my current monitor will turn into a secondary monitor and it's only 1680x1050)
Additional Comments: One thing I'm worried about is rumors of Maya/Nvidia throttling down their video cards in Maya. Not sure if the GTX 500 series line has this as a factor or not. I've thought a little bit about SLI with two 560 Ti cards, but a single 570 seems like a more cost effective option.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parts!
Case: Antec 300 ($60) OR COOLER MASTER HAF 912 ($60) OR HAF 932 ($150)
Processor: Intel i7-2600k ($280)
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 ($150) OR Asrock Extreme4 P67 ($150) (can't seem to find a link for the ASRock)
Cooler: CM Hyper 212 ($30) OR CM V8 ($60)
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory ($100) OR equivalent
SSD: Nothing OR Corsair Nova 32gb 2.5" SSD ($75) OR OCZ Vertex 2 64gb ($120)
Storage HD: 2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB 7200 SATA 3.0Gb ($100) OR 1Tb ($65)
Optical: $20 DVD-RW of some flavor, probably a LITE-ON Black
Video Card: GeForce GTX 560 Ti ($260) OR 570 ($360)
PSU: XFX 750w Black Edition 80+ Silver ($130) OR 850W ($150)
Monitor: ASUS VH238H Black 23" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor ($170) or similar
Keyboard: Logitech G110 ($65)
Mouse: Not sold on one yet. We'll placehold with a Logitech G518 ($40)
Other:
Thermal Paste ($10)
Totals (without any deals applied)
Low Price - $1390
High Price - $1740 (a bit over budget, but that's with ALL the highest price options)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, any last touch ups, suggestions on getting the price down, etc. would be really helpful. I thought about trying to rearrange things to manage dual 560 Ti cards in SLI, but I'm not sure it's worth it.