New Computer build, budget €2500

Osmosae

Hey there, i'm looking to build myself a new computer, mainly for work in 3D and the Adobe Suite. I do a bit of everything (modeling, animating, dynamics, texturing, rendering) so i know its hard to pin down where exactly the money should be spent. I'm not great when it comes to hardware, so looking for a few heads to look over and offer suggestions on the build

1. What is your budget? [€2500]
2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? It'll be a workstation, mainly for use with Maya, and other 3d Applications
3. Do you need a copy of Windows?No, i'll be using Win7 x64, might dual boot linux but this isn't a primary concern
4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No
5. Do you need a monitor? I have a 19inch monitor i'll be using as my second display for the time being. I'll be purchasing a main display monitor, but I'm not sure it'll fit in with the budget above, so may buy it seperately ....
   If yes, what size do you need. ... at least a 24 inch with (1920 x 1080 or higher) .... (i would actually prefer a resolution like 1920 x 1200(or higher ), its what i work with now, but i know there usually more expensive as they're not as common)
6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard ,Wireless Card, DVD burner, USB 3, bluetooth (preferred but not essential)
7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes
8. How can you pay? Paypal, credit Card, Laser, bank transfer, money order, cash on delivery
9. When are you purchasing? By the end of the week preferably
10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Cork, but i'll put it together myself unless something drastically goes wrong

Right so heres a list of what i've put together so far

• Intel Core i7 3930k (€539)
• Asus p9x79 Deluxe (€289)
• Corsair DIMM 16 GB DDR3-1600 Quad-Kit (X2 giving me 32GB) (€89.90 each, total €179.80)
• PNY Quadro 2000D (€399)
• Hitachi HDS723020BLA642 2 TB (€164.90)
• Samsung 830 128GB SSD (€174.90)

Ok so a few things about the build ....

I'm open to suggestions, if u think i've chosen something which could be money better spent on something else then just shout, i'd prefer to have all options to make a choice from.

I've chosen the intel 3930k as i'll be able to utilise the hexacore in rendering and a few other tasks, and overclock it comfortably over 4ghz for anything which only uses a single core

I know some of you may say i'm wasting money on 32GB of ram, that i'll never use it, but i have 4 or 5 scenes which are recommended for systems running a minimum of 24GB

I can't decide on which SSD drive to get, the Samsung 830 series or the mushkin Chronos, but am siding with the samsung for past reliability. I've taken a look at the crucial M4 and the OCZ vertex3 but i think i prefer the samsung/mushkin

I cant decide on a case, or PSU, so feel free to fire a few suggestions at me, also not decided on whether i should water cool or not, again throw suggestions at me

I've decided on a Quadro 2000, simply cause i cant afford the 4000 . The GTX 4xx and 5xx series of cards are apparently useless for Maya as Nvidia have disabled their PixelReadBack Acceleration ? I've no idea if this is true, just something i've read. That their gtx285 is actually a better performer for 3D. Otherwise i would drop the quadro 2000 and grab a gtx580, again throw out suggestions to me..... i would however prefer to stick with Nvidia as they seem to work better in my field

Anyways, i'll end it here this has gone on long enough, any questions just ask, and cheers in advance for any1 whose even read this far

Serephucus

Sounds like a good build to me. Are you sure a 580 won't work with Maya though? I don't use it myself, but from the bit of Googling I just did, I can't find anything on forums to suggest it doesn't.

Osmosae

No its not something i'm sure on, and finding it hard to confirm . The 580 was actually what i'd planned on buying as the professional series of the cards generally arent worth the extra money in my opinion(when sitting on the low end of professional cards). It was only that i came across 1 dude posting on cgsociety that the 4xx and 5xx series were useless so it kinda scared me off. As i said, hardware isnt really my forte. I'll do some more googling on the subject though

Serephucus

Are you sure the 4xx series don't work? I know NVIDIA removed some crap with the 5xx cards, but I sold a 480 to a guy for 3D work last year, and I haven't received any angry emails from him as of yet.

Osmosae

hopefully he wont read this

The cards work alrite for 3d apps, its just they start getting sluggish at lower poly counts than they should be. LINK. There's a link to a discussion on the topic from a few months ago.... all these discussions usually only go as far as the 570 though, but i doubt much has changed for the 580, i just couldnt be bothered buying a €450 euro card only to have to replace it with a €500 card, when i could have then just bought a quadro 4000 (and i cant afford that in the first place :rolleyes:)..... arghhhh decisions :mad: ha first world problems . I know it isnt a certified card on the autodesk website

Osmosae

Nobody else has any suggestions ?

Serephucus

I'd say look into a U2711 as your monitor. Everything else you've selected looks good. Personally, I'd go with a Sandy Bridge setup, as it works out to be better value for money (by quite a bit), but if you have the money SB-E is more powerful.

Osmosae

I was thinking of sticking with sandy bridge alright, and then possibly upgrading to ivy bridge in a few months. But figured ivy is going to cost quite a bit when it comes out, so id probably end up waiting a few months before upgrading, and I've a good bit of rendering due in may. If it came down to a situation of money being short due to other upgrades or parts, id happily re evaluate the decision though

Will check out the monitor cheers man!

Any suggestions on cases or cooling ?

Serephucus

Well with that sort of money, you could look into a watercooling setup. Though for that you'd have to really confirm if a 4xx/5xx card works with Maya, because you won't get waterblocks for Quadro cards.

As regards cases, depends what you want out of it, but:

Fractal Design Define XL, Fractal Design Define R3, Cooler Master ATCS 840, Cooler Master Cosmos II, Corsair Obsidian 700/800D, Corsair 600T.

Those would be some of my most-liked cases out at the moment. Most aren't cheap though.

Osmosae

Just waiting back on one more lead to are how the gtx are working, if this returns unsure like the ready have I'm just going to err on the side of caution, possibly then do a water cool on the cpu and the rest being air ?

Sorry I should have mentioned the case doesn't need to have side windows and lighting or anything like that. I'm not avoiding these or anything, but I'm all about function rather than form. Ease of installation and room for expandability is the most important thing, if the case had these and is also decked out like a christmas tree then grand but how the case looks is secondary for me

Cheers serephucus man

Serephucus

I'm of the same vein RE: cases, so none of the cases I mentioned - barr the 700D - have a window or any crazy lights or anything, IIRC.

You could watercool only your CPU, but to be honest... It's not really worth it money-wise. Might as well just get a really good air cooler. If you do end up being able to use a 480/580, then we'll talk.

Osmosae

Yup it appears the 4xx and 5xx series are as I feared. No doubt they'll release driver updates which'll fix everything as soon as I buy the quadro, but sure that's life.

Gonna buy the quadro 4000 from newegg, and get it sent over. Works out not much more expensive, so provided it gets through customs it should work out grand.

As regards the case, I think I'm starting to favor the cooler master haf x. Its not the best looking by any means, but it seems to be one of the best for air flow. Supports usb 3 natively and great price.

Serephucus

Osmosae wrote: »

Gonna buy the quadro 4000 from newegg, and get it sent over. Works out not much more expensive, so provided it gets through customs it should work out grand.

Import taxes. Odds are it won't be any cheaper unfortunately.

Osmosae

Yeah that's the worry , I'll be getting it sent from a friend though, so get him to take the card out if its case, repackage, and send over hoping for the best. If it does get caught. It'll still work out cheaper (though arguably by very little he he), so might as well take the chance for the better card than settling for whats over here.

ShadowHearth

Osmosae wrote: »

Yeah that's the worry , I'll be getting it sent from a friend though, so get him to take the card out if its case, repackage, and send over hoping for the best. If it does get caught. It'll still work out cheaper (though arguably by very little he he), so might as well take the chance for the better card than settling for whats over here.

i dont think you will get hit by import taxes and duties in that way. it will be personal packadge.

kfish2oo2

Go for the Quadro. I worked for a few weeks in an animation studio and the lads in there were trying to flash workstation BIOS onto gaming cards - it worked, eventually, but the lost revenue in unproductive trouble shooting time worked out to even out the cost of the savings they made with the gaming cards. Essentially, they ended up spending the same money for a GPU solution that had no warranty or customer support than if they'd just gone for the professional cards in the first place.

Osmosae

ShadowHearth wrote: »

i dont think you will get hit by import taxes and duties in that way. it will be personal packadge.

That's the hope! I've received packages before in this manner (though never with such value), so hopefully it will continue

kfish2oo2 wrote: »

Go for the Quadro. I worked for a few weeks in an animation studio and the lads in there were trying to flash workstation BIOS onto gaming cards - it worked, eventually, but the lost revenue in unproductive trouble shooting time worked out to even out the cost of the savings they made with the gaming cards. Essentially, they ended up spending the same money for a GPU solution that had no warranty or customer support than if they'd just gone for the professional cards in the first place.

That's exactly the text i needed to make myself feel right about the quadro purchase, cheers kfish2oo2!!

Osmosae

*grumble* ..... so the noctua wont fit as i've all the ram modules occupied , trying to return it to HardwareVersand at the moment but cant find a proper address for returns.

I've logged in and gone through the complaint (online) procedure as they say to do, but then when it gets to the end where i should find a ups label, the images wont load.

Searching their site i come up with the following address
hardwareversand.de GmbH
Daimlerweg 4
59519 Möhnesee

Is that all i need to send something back ? I have also printed off the complain receipt which has all my bank details etc for them to refund .... i'm not worried about the ups label and having to pay for shipping back, it was my own fault not theirs. But just need to know if this is the right address ?

I've also purchased a corsair h100 as a replacement

deconduo

Osmosae wrote: »

*grumble* ..... so the noctua wont fit as i've all the ram modules occupied , trying to return it to HardwareVersand at the moment but cant find a proper address for returns.

I've logged in and gone through the complaint (online) procedure as they say to do, but then when it gets to the end where i should find a ups label, the images wont load.

Searching their site i come up with the following address
hardwareversand.de GmbH
Daimlerweg 4
59519 Möhnesee

Is that all i need to send something back ? I have also printed off the complain receipt which has all my bank details etc for them to refund .... i'm not worried about the ups label and having to pay for shipping back, it was my own fault not theirs. But just need to know if this is the right address ?

I've also purchased a corsair h100 as a replacement

Oh yeah, they've got a problem with the UPS thing. Its says in german that you should ring them up instead to sort out returns, but they haven't translated it :pac:

Just ring them up and ask for an english speaking rep, they'll sort you out no problem. Because you're returning it as unwanted rather than faulty, you'll probably have to pay for the shipping + a restocking fee of 5-10%.

Osmosae

ugh, more hassle ... bloody germans, thought they were supposed to be efficient ? ha ha cheers man i'll get onto em now

Osmosae

ha ha i love germans, just off the phone from them, very polite and helpful. Spent a bit of time over in germany last year so i think it helped on both sides, they have very good english, and then for things like calling out post codes etc, i can count perfectly in german and recognise german address's more easily, making it an easy exchange on both sides.

For any1 looking in future it is indeed the address posted above, just after double checking with em