HELP: Building PC for gaming, FPGA design and Photo editing

[niopo]

Hi,

my last System was a total fail (AMD 5200+ complete system from HP from ~2008) so I want to build my next System myself with your help.

What I want to do:
* I currently only have Sim City 2013 and Battlefield 3 (which I is unplayable at my current system, I got it for free cause of simcity fail)
* I want to slice 3D-prints (I am a RepRap Operator) that is actually no problem with my current system.
* I want to compile FPGA designs for an Spartan 6 XC6SLX150. My system fails after about 3 days working on it.
* I have an 5d Mark II and do RAW photography. I want to edit these pictures.

What I have selected so far:
I think I want an i7-3770k with two asus hd 7970 and 27 2560 x 1440 Monitor. I already have a Windows 8 Lizense so I want to stick with it. That and my two 300gb (I have a NAS for storage), Logitech G500, Cherry Keyboard, BeoLab 4 & BeoLab 2 Speakers and Ironclad are probably everything I ll keep from my current system.

My complete list is here.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/M7RW

My Problems:
* Are the components well balanced? As far as I understand it I should get a little bit over 60 FPS in Battlefield 3 with ultra settings at full screen resolution. I still could upgrade to 32GB of ram if I get problems with photoshop or xilinx.
* The SSD should make my old drives fast enough?
* There should be one empty PCIe to add an Soundblaster later?
* The case Is too high for my desk. I need something more like 30cm instead of 60 cm. But it looks so cool and I havent found any 30cm height case jet. A wider case would not be a problem.
* Is the NEC PA271W-BK good for photo editing and gaming?
* I am thinking about waiting for haswell and change the relevant components (mainboard and cpu?) bevore I buy it. I also have to save up a little bit, so thats no problem. But I want to start the planing already.

Thanks a lot.

 

[niopo]

Ok, I completly changed my mind and ordered an evga x79 classified ... maybe not the best choice.
I ll go with an 3930K which I could upgrade in a year or so to Ivy Bridge-E. Waiting for 4770K on the other hand seems not to make any sense, its 10% faster and 10% more expensive than 3770K.

I ll go GTX 670 FTW 3x SLI, starting with one card and upgrade as soon as prices drop, especially for the monitor. I ll keep my old monitor at first.

So in the first stage I can compile my FPGA design, play SimCity in ultra and some bf3 in what so ever.
At the end of the year I should be able to play BF3 in ultra and edit the pictures I took till then.

 

[Marcopolo123]

Realy want to buy that silberstone case?
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-casw810b1



For psu this is better,cheaper
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-x850

 

[niopo]

Hi, thanks for your comment. I think I want the Lian case now, as it is the smallest.
http://de.pcpartpicker.com/part/lian-li-case-pcv750wx

So far I have only ordered the EVGA X79 Classified motherboard and I think that was a real mistake. Why does it only have 4 Slots for ram? Why are there so many places empty on the board? why did they discontinue it?

 

[Marcopolo123]

Lol 4 slots is enough... 4x8gb though
Realy want dat +300$ case ... Looks a bit overpriced

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119252

http://www.mountainmods.com/computer-cases-c-21.html?osCsid=skj2kor5bq3nnvb768bb9cn752

 

[niopo]

PSU and Case price really scare me too. I can wait with the case selection, but I need the PSU soon and focus my research on this one now.

64GB might be good for my FPGA work, but I ll see that and still could resell the board.

 

[Marcopolo123]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151102
Look, high quality full modular 80+gold (you dont realy need platinum... Not worth the money)

Seasonic best

 

[daerron]

You will have to check whether the FPGA tools will benefit from having multiple cores. Often professional applications don't fully utilise this and then the remaining cores goes to waste so in those instances a higher clock speed is preferable. I have seen this a lot lately with a lot of CAD programs. The cost of the i7-3930k is almost twice that of the core i7-3770k and then the X79 mainboards are much more expensive as well, though the X79 platform might give you more mileage in the long run.The core i7-3770k might end up being more than good enough for your application. I also don't know how intensive the compile, placement and routing for the Spartan 6 series will really be unless the designs you are working on are really sizeable.

Another thing you might consider if your system is going to be running high intensity work loads for a long time is to rather go with the Xeon E5-1560 or Xeon E3-1290 V2 route and add ECC memory to your system. I would also stick with Nvidia as their drivers are very solid. Also check if you can add a larger SSD to your system. In my experience a 128GB SSD fills up pretty quickly and you don't really want to fill up the SSD past 60-70% of its capacity. A 256GB SSD will give you a lot more mileage. There I can recommend the OCZ Vector which is running blazingly fast in my workstation. For reliability again you might want to consider the Samsung 840 drives.

 

[niopo]

Currently I have two Cores and Xilinx ISE uses them fully. It never failed me with non ECC ram.

3960X and Noctua N-HD14 are already with me now, also the EVGA Supernove 1500.
Lian LI V-750WX, EVGA GTX Titen SC Sig, Corsair Dominator GT 32GB are ordered.
The EVGA x79 Classified is an import, hopefully I wont have to wait too long, ack.

I ll order the Eizo as soon as I build up everything.
I ll order the SSD as soon as I have money again.

I am really, really excited.

Thanks for the typ with the larger SSD. Is the Samsung 840 really that good? I always hear Intel are best.

 

[Marcopolo123]

1500w rofl...
4 titans no problem