Building £850 Workstation - i5 or Phenom X6??

[OneDown]

Approximate Purchase Date: Next couple of weeks.


Budget Range: £850 max.


System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3DS Max, Maya, General Use, Gaming.


Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Overclockers.co.uk, Aria.co.uk, Scan.co.uk


Country of Origin: England


Parts Preferences: by brand or type: Unsure whether to choose an i5 and possibly upgrade down the line or go for a Phenom X6 as its seems better value for money.


Overclocking: Maybe


SLI or Crossfire: No


Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080


Additional Comments: As you can guess it wiill mainly be for 3D modelling and rendering but nothing major as yet rendering wise.
The reason I havent mentioned an i7 is because they seem to be alot less value than the Phenom X6 and I would rather go for an i5 now and upgrade once the prices fall somewhat.

Ive been looking at i5' alot more but thats only because I know more about them so if anyone could give me any hinters about the X6, compatibility issues with anything else and the pros and cons that'd be great!!!

If I went with a phenom then I'd obviously be better going with an ATi GPU aswell as ive heard of compatibility issues with Phenom/nVidia, so any help here would be awesome too? I know I cant afford a FireGL or anything though.

Any help is really appreciated...

 

[OneDown]

By the way my initial Intel setup was going to be this. I realise ive put triple channel memory into the mix and would be compatible, but this system seems good an still leaves me change. So I could spend a little more if need be for a performance boost??

Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156)
Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 Express 1156 Motherboard
Asus GeForce GTX 460 Direct CU TOP 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C7 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply
Antec 300 Case
Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive
Sony AD-7260S-0B 24x Internal DVD±R/RW/Ram Drive - Black

 

[Atotalnoob]

Phenom X6 black ediot = i7 920 btw... (according to tom's review, go look it up before you start hating on meh).... you can OC a 920 to be better then the x6. The reivew has them all on factory clocks...


You could use triple channel, but it will lower your performance...

The better cpu would have to be the phenom x6, in this case...


6000 series is coming out soon, too....

 

[Nesto1000]

Phenom X6

More cores will yeild better performance on that workstation...
Also, a 6000 series gpu would be pointless atotalnoob...

A workstation gpu is what the op needs...

 

[OneDown]

Okay, thanks for the replies!

Ive now got this possible setup ironed out. What do you guys think?

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1075T 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

Asus M4A89GTD PRO AMD 890GX AM3 Motherboard

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C8 1333MHz Dual-Channel (CMX4GX3M2A1333C8)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular Silent SLI/Crossfire Ready ATX2.2 Power Supply

ATI FirePro V4800 Graphics Card OR...
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

And this all comes for only £625.70!!
So I have potentially another £200 to play with. what extra do you think I could do with guys or get extra with the money?

Is the mobo okay? I figured I wouldnt need an amazing one as I wont be doing gaming on my rig but hey, I could be wrong?

Would an SSD be a good option? Them Crucial ones look great!
Will my case handle the heat? I wont be doing any major OC'ing.

 

[Snipergod87]

If you are going to overclock invest is a good aftermarket cooler too.

 

[Atotalnoob]

More RAM IMHO, if this is a workstation.... Corsair Ram isn't the best, G-skill is better...

maybe a little bit better of a wordstation GPU...

SSD give you a "fast" feel, and a little bit better performance, IMHO, waste of money until they drop to decent prices.