$1200-1300 Workstation HELP!

[andrey64]

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next month

Budget Range: $1200-$1300 Prefer not bothering with rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3D rendering, RHINO, AutoCad, lots of architectural programs, multitasking

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NCIX, NEWEGG, Microcenter, ebay, amazon, etc

Country: U.S. CALIFORNIA

Parts Preferences: Prefer midtower case(Fractal R3)
i7 2600k
16 GB DDR3 Ram


Overclocking: Yes if an H80 can handle a decent OC

SLI or Crossfire: Not sure because of renduring

Monitor Resolution: 2 Monitors Both 1080p

Would like it to run as quiet as possible. Noise isnt such a big issue but dont want it overly loud.

Anyone recommend me a GPU? Quadros, Ati Firepro's, Geforce, etc..

 

[g-unit1111]

Anyone recommend me a GPU? Quadros, Ati Firepro's, Geforce, etc..

Fire Pros are great but they'll run you nearly twice as much as a Radeon 6850 would depending on what features you want. If you're considering a 2600K and 16GB that will eat up quite a bit of your budget.

Overclocking: Yes if an H80 can handle a decent OC

Do you already have an H80? It was recommended by Tom's in an article a couple of weeks ago - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h2o-h80-h100-benchmark-overclocking,3084.html

If not I'd really suggest an air cooler - I generally try to steer people away from liquid cooling. It's mainly geared toward experts who want their CPU to max out as much as possible, but on a workstation build - you want to maximize your efficiency and minimize your downtime, and you certainly don't want to spend all your overhead on computer parts.

Try this:

Case: Corsair Carbide 400R - $99.99
PSU: Corsair TX650 - $89.99
Motherboard: Asus P8B WS - $219.99
CPU: 3.40GHz Intel Core i7-2600K - $319.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ - $29.99
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) PC12800 1600MHz 1.5V - $78.99
SSD: 64GB Samsung 830 - $109.99
HD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200RPM - $99.99
Video Card: ATI Fire Pro V4800 - $154.99

Total: $1234.90

 

[andrey64]

Anyone recommend me a GPU? Quadros, Ati Firepro's, Geforce, etc..

Fire Pros are great but they'll run you nearly twice as much as a Radeon 6850 would depending on what features you want. If you're considering a 2600K and 16GB that will eat up quite a bit of your budget.

Overclocking: Yes if an H80 can handle a decent OC

Do you already have an H80? It was recommended by Tom's in an article a couple of weeks ago - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/h2o-h80-h100-benchmark-overclocking,3084.html

If not I'd really suggest an air cooler - I generally try to steer people away from liquid cooling. It's mainly geared toward experts who want their CPU to max out as much as possible, but on a workstation build - you want to maximize your efficiency and minimize your downtime, and you certainly don't want to spend all your overhead on computer parts.

Try this:

Case: Corsair Carbide 400R - $99.99
PSU: Corsair TX650 - $89.99
Motherboard: Asus P8B WS - $219.99
CPU: 3.40GHz Intel Core i7-2600K - $319.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ - $29.99
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) PC12800 1600MHz 1.5V - $78.99
SSD: 64GB Samsung 830 - $109.99
HD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200RPM - $99.99
Video Card: ATI Fire Pro V4800 - $154.99

Total: $1234.90

Well think about it this way. I plan to have an R3 case which is built for silence. Its got acoustic foam and its shut tight. An air cooler will in a way suffer in there as a result of not as much air flow.
Also i previously owned the h60 and it worked good for me. A 2500k at 4.2 running prime for 30min topped me at 68c which isn't bad. Gaming it gets up to 45-48c. Im pretty sure i plan to OC the 2600k.

What air cooler would you reccomend in my r3 case? I know the d14 is good but huge.

 

[andrey64]

also the reason why im leaning toward the firepro is because the Geforce and Radeon cards are not all supported by my architecture software. Not all of it will run properly with my needed drivers.

 

[strausd]

also the reason why im leaning toward the firepro is because the Geforce and Radeon cards are not all supported by my architecture software. Not all of it will run properly with my needed drivers.

If you are considering a Quadro card, this chart from NVIDIA may help you decide. In some of their benchmarks at the bottom, a $450 Quadro 2000 competes well and in some cases beats an older $3000 Quadro FX 5800.

Also, I know Quadro cards work well with pretty much any Autodesk or Adobe program, but I am not sure about C4D.

 

[g-unit1111]

Well think about it this way. I plan to have an R3 case which is built for silence. Its got acoustic foam and its shut tight. An air cooler will in a way suffer in there as a result of not as much air flow.

The R3 is a very nice case - Fractal Design makes some really excellent products. The thing is a cooler like the H80 will still make some noise as even it has 2 x 120mm PWM fans.

lso i previously owned the h60 and it worked good for me. A 2500k at 4.2 running prime for 30min topped me at 68c which isn't bad. Gaming it gets up to 45-48c. Im pretty sure i plan to OC the 2600k

If you have experience with these already then I guess this would be fine for what you need it to do. I generally try to steer people away from liquid cooling as there's far more that can go wrong than with an air cooler.

What air cooler would you reccomend in my r3 case? I know the d14 is good but huge.

Not only are those coolers huge but they're incredibly difficult to install. In my workstation I use a Cooler Master Hyper 212 and it's worked fine for what I need it to do. The Noctua NH-U9B is also a great cooler for the price.

also the reason why im leaning toward the firepro is because the Geforce and Radeon cards are not all supported by my architecture software. Not all of it will run properly with my needed drivers.

What software are you running? Most Autodesk products aren't GPU specific. I don't know about any of the higher end stuff though.

 

[andrey64]

Best answer selected by andrey64.