Need help designing a production computer

[Syle]

I've built a few computers in the last 15 years or so. But it's been a while since I've even researched the newer technologies or anything...so, I am feeling a bit lost at this point. I'm just looking for some help on finding the right combinations of components to get this machine built.

I researched a bit within the "First time Building" stickied thread and I decided I'd just copy and paste the list that was provided within that sticky; it seemed the most efficient and helpful thing for all of you:

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the month of April. Or, are there any new technologies that will be rebuilt within the next few months that will force current product's prices down? If so, I could manage to wait until August to do this.

Budget Range: ~$1,000.00 - ~$1,500.00 <----- After rebates, and including shipping/tax.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photoshop/Video production, Music production, gaming, general computing needs

Parts Not Required: Mouse, keyboard, speakers, audio card (I'm currently using an M-Audio Profire 2626)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: I've always used Newegg in the past. But I don't really have a preference; whatever is cheapest and trustworthy with a good return policy if needed.

Country: Is this asking where I want my parts from? I guess I don't really have a preference; again, cheap but trustworthy.

Parts Preferences: Intel for the processor is about the only thing that I am really adamant about. Everything else falls under the "cheap but trustworthy" category.

Overclocking: No.

SLI or Crossfire: No.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200 on two monitors. Here is what I will be using with it: WACOM 24HD. I will also be extending the monitor to this secondary monitor: Hanns-G 281D.

Additional Comments: I would like this machine to be quick while processing video within Adobe Premier, digital painting in Adobe Photoshop, and I also need the PSU to be fairly quiet because I do a lot of microphone/music recording within the same room that the computer sits.

Other than that, it's a pretty straight forward machine (I think?). Thanks for any help!

 

[Raiddinn]

Check the link in my signature for the $1200 PC and change the processor to a 2600k. That should work well enough.

- Edit - If there would be any money remaining in the budget, I would go for a bigger Crucial SSD with it.

If you aren't going to be doing gaming you might be able to scale back some on the video card, but that could negatively impact the video stuff. I am not familiar enough with high end video editing to tell you how it would be impacted, though. If there are forums you have access to where people talk mainly about the computers they use for video editing, those are the sorts of people I would ask that question to.

 

[Syle]

Thanks for the reply Raiddinn. Using your build as a starting point, here is what I've come up with. Any changes that I could make to get something better/cheaper/more reliable?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RkO
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RkO/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RkO/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($259.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master GeminII S 69.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($48.47 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H61ICAFE ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($72.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($116.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX 560 1GB Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $915.91
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-07 01:12 EDT-0400)

EDIT: I'm also considering adding another (2) sticks of 4GB RAM to bump it up to 16GB. Is that even necessary for what I am wanting to do? That would add another $45.00 to the total.

 

[Syle]

I'm also thinking of downgrading the video card to this:

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6570 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card (100324L)

Why is this one so much cheaper than the 1GB GeForce card? Will this Sapphire card last me for a few years before having to upgrade again?

 

[Syle]

My apologies if this is sort of a one sided discussion...I just keep finding other things to switch around

Here is the current build I am looking at:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RpM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RpM/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RpM/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($259.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H61ICAFE ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($72.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($116.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 2GB Video Card ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $825.43
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-07 01:54 EDT-0400)

 

[juniiflow]

My apologies if this is sort of a one sided discussion...I just keep finding other things to switch around

Here is the current build I am looking at:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RpM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RpM/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RpM/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($259.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H61ICAFE ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($72.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($116.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 2GB Video Card ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $825.43
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-07 01:54 EDT-0400)

wow i really like your setup, i might even buy it aswell as you O.O.

the only problem it might have is the graphics card, wich i may just take out the SSD and the Cooler and buy it off later in two weeks or more. and spend it on a better graphics card

but that is because i am not a gamer, so dont worry. i think a GDRR5 would be better for me.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156062#top

that case is a good one, and it comes with a 500w psu.

 

[Syle]

Hmm, you mentioned the graphics card...what seems to be wrong with that particular card to make it so cheap? Is it just outdated? 2GB seems like a lot of RAM for a graphics card? Also, from what I am researching, 2GB seems to be necessary for higher resolution-dual monitor set ups.

 

[juniiflow]

well, yes is a litle outdated,, iam not a pro at this i am trying to learn myself. nad yes you are right.

 

[Syle]

Unless anyone has some other recommendations, I think this is the build that I will go with. Probably wait a week or two before following through with it:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RWk
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RWk/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7RWk/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($259.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V LE ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($116.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1042.87
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-05-07 09:16 EDT-0400)

 

[Raiddinn]

The 6570 is just a whole lot suckier of a video card than a 6850 or 560 is. The amount of RAM on the card doesn't matter very much.

For multiple monitor setups, you want to choose the version of whatever card that has the most RAM on it, but the processing ability of the card is the deal breaker.

There are plenty of 6870s that have 2GBs of RAM on them as well as 560s with 2GBs. These just crush cards like 6570s in raw computational power.

The 480 is a solid card, but two generations old now and afaik can't do anything with direct x 11 as a result. I generally try to suggest staying at most 1 generation behind the curve for reasons like that. I would be surprised if Nvidia released any more driver patches for the 480 at this point so if something you tried to use didn't work on it you would probably be SOL.

The older cards also use a whole lot more power and stuff too as compared to the newer models.

The 7850s with 2 GBs would be the best of both worlds, but they are still kinda expensive.

Also, I definitely would stick with the Z68 board instead of the H61. AFAIK, the H61 board won't be able to OC the 2600k if you ever wanted to do that whereas the Z68 will be able to and it will most likely have UEFI which would make the task a lot easier than it might be on the average H67.

 

[Syle]

Best answer selected by Syle.

 

[Syle]

Thanks Raiddinn.

 

[Wisecracker]

Before spending any $$ I would suggest you teach yourself a bit about OpenCL and CUDA, and what prospective new features may be rolling out.

Because someone with a $150 CPU and $150 workstation card will simply wear you out in production.

Adobe accelerates CS6 with OpenCL

Adobe and AMD today announced that the next Creative Suite 6 (CS6) will be OpenCL based. This is quite an interesting turn of events from the last version, and is a big step forward towards open standards.

If you recall, the last version of Creative Suite was GPU accelerated based on Nvidia’s Cuda, thus locking it to Nvidia’s GPUs. CS6 breaks that, and with OpenGL and OpenCL acceleration, it should work just fine on all GPUs . . .

 

[Syle]

Before spending any $$ I would suggest you teach yourself a bit about OpenCL and CUDA, and what prospective new features may be rolling out.

Because someone with a $150 CPU and $150 workstation card will simply wear you out in production.

Adobe accelerates CS6 with OpenCL

Adobe and AMD today announced that the next Creative Suite 6 (CS6) will be OpenCL based. This is quite an interesting turn of events from the last version, and is a big step forward towards open standards.

If you recall, the last version of Creative Suite was GPU accelerated based on Nvidia’s Cuda, thus locking it to Nvidia’s GPUs. CS6 breaks that, and with OpenGL and OpenCL acceleration, it should work just fine on all GPUs . . .

Thanks for the reply Wisecracker.

I own the CS4 software suite, so that probably won't be an issue...?

"Because someone with a $150 CPU and $150 workstation card will simply wear you out in production."

^ What do you mean by this?

 

[Raiddinn]

The processing power of a video card is many many times more than that of a processor.

If you can trick your video card into doing something that your processor would have otherwise done, the task will get done like 50x faster.

Stuff like CUDA, OpenCL, and so on are related to that concept.

The same sort of concept is making a major splash in the hacker world because hackers have found a way to use video cards to brute force attack passwords.

When a webpage says such and such password would take 100 million years to crack with random guessing they base this on trying X number of passwords every minute.

That held true until hackers were able to buy motherboards with 4 PCIE slots and then get 4x high end video cards all working together to guess passwords without depending on the processor.

That means that one computer could be worth 100 or 1000 computers in terms of this particular problem. All for the cost of maybe 3 or 4 computers in total.

All kinds of computational power is in the video card just waiting to be tapped if you can free it up from video intensive tasks and get it to focus on processor intensive tasks. It really is the wave of the future.

It may not help you that much, but that is what he was trying to tell you, I think.

 

[Wisecracker]

I'm too lazy to expand beyond Raiddinn's excellent reply

GPU Compute may well be extended to updated plug-ins and filters associated with CS4 -- not sure how that may impact you. I'm not sure how to even search for the possibilities but basic GPU acceleration began with CS4. CUDA, too, but for the most part it is limited to Quadro cards and color-correction, generally.

It looks as if Adobe has gone 'all-in' with OpenCL and OpenGL.

 

[Syle]

Hmmm. If I want this computer to last a while, I should probably embrace the OpenCL functionality. I can definitely see myself upgrading Photoshop to CS6 (or better) within 3-4 years.

Are there any good OpenCL functioning cards within my budget of $200?

 

[juniiflow]

i already have CS6, :] tell me more about that graphic card Wise Cracker

Style: trust is worth the upgrade is really worth it :] the CS6 update.

 

[Raiddinn]

These days almost all cards are capable of OpenCL.

That is why it is called "Open" because it doesn't rely on specific hardware in order to work. OSs like Linux and stuff are built on OpenGL as the graphics back end instead of stuff like DirectX which is only for Windows.

They do basically the same thing, just one works in Windows and everywhere else while the other only works in Windows.

I would say the whole concept of CUDA and DirectX is stupid since there is no need to restrict what works with what based on hardware or software, but that is just me.

If you go with OpenGL/OpenCL then your stuff works with anything.

Any video card that costs ~$200 will be about the same for OpenGL and OpenCL.

People who aren't going to be gaming are often encouraged to get "Quadro" cards by Nvidia, though, because supposedly they are better if you are doing stuff like AutoCAD or such.

I personally don't see a big difference and from where I sit the Quadro cards are overpriced for what they give, but I am not a super expert in this area or anything.

 

[Syle]

i already have CS6, :] tell me more about that graphic card Wise Cracker

Style: trust is worth the upgrade is really worth it :] the CS6 update.

juni: you're digging CS6 huh? What do you use Photoshop for?

 

[juniiflow]

juni: you're digging CS6 huh? What do you use Photoshop for?

Mixtape,Flyers,BussinessCards ETc..

printing and stuff like that. also use illustrator for cartoons and logos also image illustration.

and yes i already have the CS6 Master Suite i been had it before it even got out on Adobe. English and evrething ;]

 

[Wisecracker]

"Because someone with a $150 CPU and $150 workstation card will simply wear you out in production."

^ What do you mean by this?

Here's an example in Vegas rendering/edit GPU acceleration with a FirePro V4900 and AMD FX 8150 (the AMD FX-8120 Zambezi is $160 with code).

OEMs write special application accelerators for their workstation cards, so, there really are big differences between $200 spent on a desktop card, and $200 spent on a workstation card.

It's important to make the connections between what you want do and what parts of OpenCL and CUDA can best do it for you.

i already have CS6, :] tell me more about that graphic card Wise Cracker

Style: trust is worth the upgrade is really worth it :] the CS6 update.

You already know more about CS6 than I do :lol: I abandoned Adobe for Vegas when the first 'CS' came out -- when they said my Premiere/PS/AE/Encore/Audition was not eligible for upgrade, and jerked me around on some encoders. It's great that Adobe is embracing OpenCL in CS6.

Yah simply have to look at each individual card and its 'compute' performance (and how it connects to your needs). You should also be aware of the graphics API (OpenGL/DirectDraw) of your software operation and where the advantages for you exist.

In my case, the AMD FirePro V4900 acceleration in Vegas for video FX, transitions, compositing, pan/crop, track motion and encoding is like a special order for me

 

[juniiflow]

Here's an example in Vegas rendering/edit GPU acceleration with a FirePro V4900 and AMD FX 8150 (the AMD FX-8120 Zambezi is $160 with code).

OEMs write special application accelerators for their workstation cards, so, there really are big differences between $200 spent on a desktop card, and $200 spent on a workstation card.

It's important to make the connections between what you want do and what parts of OpenCL and CUDA can best do it for you.




You already know more about CS6 than I do :lol: I abandoned Adobe for Vegas when the first 'CS' came out -- when they said my Premiere/PS/AE/Encore/Audition was not eligible for upgrade, and jerked me around on some encoders. It's great that Adobe is embracing OpenCL in CS6.

Yah simply have to look at each individual card and its 'compute' performance (and how it connects to your needs). You should also be aware of the graphics API (OpenGL/DirectDraw) of your software operation and where the advantages for you exist.

In my case, the AMD FirePro V4900 acceleration in Vegas for video FX, transitions, compositing, pan/crop, track motion and encoding is like a special order for me

ireally like how AMD got so low prices on their CPU's but the problem is that they are not near a i7 from what i hear. even tought that,, they are like 20% slower than the i7 3770k i think but better OC'd, and you save almost $200
wich is a good ass price to save in your pocket, i am a AMD fan but i dont know, i7 benchmarks for working/bussiness are just amazing.