Mate looking for a new machine

the_syco

You should fill this in even though you answered a lot already but it's easier to read and has more info.

1. What is your budget? [€1400]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Video editing/3D Modelling/ Photoshop, high resolution digital painting. He's upgrading from a Dell.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Hard drive/DVD Drive/Case/PSU/etc.] (If possible state brand and model of the parts to ensure compatibility)

5. Do you need a monitor? [No] uses a one year old 42" Sony TV

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080] [No]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Not at the moment. Maybe in the future.

8. How can you pay? Credit Card & bank transfer

9. When are you purchasing? About a month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? no

=-=

He'll be needing about 8GB's minimum. Hoping Bloodbath works his magic on this one Preferably 2GB GFX and 32GB RAM if possible.

His use of video editing would be basic editing of videos he makes of himself drawing, so mainly Photoshop, z-brush and Maya (specs for Maya). He's of the opinion that if it runs Maya, it should be grand.

Personally, not sure if AMD or Intel would suit him better. What do you think yourself?

BloodBath

If he's not going to overclock straight away there's no point at all imo. No point wasting money on unused performance. He would be better off saving the money towards a future upgrade. This is what i came up with anyway.

Case comes in a few colors. I'm not sure how much space he needs and how important the work is. You could consider 1-2 more hdd's for raid which would boost their performance and provide backups in case of drive failure. Not sure what raid number that is.


Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v2, boxed, LGA1155|€203.79
ASRock ZH77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€68.13
2 x 16GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL9|€230.74
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€174.07
Samsung SSD 840 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€147.92
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€159.58
Nanoxia Deep Silence One Dark Black, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€94.53
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.77
LiteOn iHAS124-04 schwarz SATA|€16.31
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1167.83

the_syco

Cheers for that. All looks good, except for the SSD; going to swap it for a Corsair as the R/W speed of the Samsung is 540MBps/240MBps, whilst the R/W of the Corsair is 540MBps/450MBps which I think is worth an extra fifty.

How do you view the difference in write speed, or do you think that he wouldn't see much of an effect either way?

Monotype

Doubtful you'd notice the difference there, to be honest. If they were within a tenner of each other, I would put the Neutron above the 840 (the new revision anyway). It performs a smidge better but more importantly, it has a 5 vs 3 year warranty. But €40 is over an extra 25%. You're nearly up to the price of the GTX with that.

PaulDeasy

This PC is for me. Thanks very much for the help with what to get.. I was having a look at cases, if I wanted to change the case is tehre anything you would recommend if I had somewhere arounf 100 to spend? something that keeps everything nicely quiet would be great but it would be cool to have something that looks good. I was looking at this; http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=47538&agid=631&apop=0

Any help with this would be brilliant, this is my first build so I'm trying to be careful and make sure I ask the professionals before leaping into anything.

Thanks again

Serephucus

I have that case, and it's not quiet. Your best bet is something like this. It comes in a few colours too.

PaulDeasy

and is this kind of case my only option? I mean it doesnt have to be the most silent case on the market as long as its a practical amount of sound coming from it. I also want good air flow and it'd be nice for it to have a cool look. like the one I mentioned. but I mean I know it may not be possible to have it all, but something that looks good and is still quiet enough and a good airflow... just an all around good case that looks the part, ya know what I mean.

Monotype

Some of those ones with soundproofing are very quiet. Like you wouldn't be even sure that they're on.
How good do you need your airflow? Are you planning a couple of graphics cards? Most builds get by by just one or two fans. If you want a quiet build but want to keep the air moving through, get around 5 or 6 low rev fans... or go down the very expensive watercooling route.
The Bitfenix Ghost is another quiet one. Reviews were pretty good, if I recall correctly.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Midi/68202/BitFenix+Ghost+Midi-Tower+black%2C+ohne+Netzteil.article

Edit: If you were thinking of the build above, you really don't need to go overboard with the cooling. The graphics card is usually the noisiest thing once you have a good heatsink for the CPU (which isn't in that build, so I would be look at this first over the case). Usually it's the single fan GPU coolers that are the noisiest, but that one looks adequate for a quiet system.

Also, do you need 32GB of RAM?

PaulDeasy

Yeah that's a really nice case, I'll have a look. no I don't plan on going overboard with cooling, but for now there's a certain amount of 'i'd rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it'.
I was sent here from a friend, so i'm not all that computer savi. I know enough to get by but this is my first time building so still a lot to learn.
Basically this is for a heavy 3D modelling software that needs to be able to render at a practical time, which can be really tough to find when you're rendering even a minute of animation. and also painting really high res digital paintings in Photoshop and recording while doing so.
Do I need 32 gigs a ram? My honest answer is so I'm told.. I'm aware I need alot, I know what not enough Ram for this is to a point but 32 sounds like it would be great for getting this stuff done smoothly and quick.
But then again, you would know alot more then me when it comes to how to build the proper tool for the job.
Then again so would the guy who sent these parts.

BloodBath

I went with 32gb of ram based on the op request for it. It's hard to say exactly how much you will need as I don't know how memory intensive the work you are doing is. 16gb may well be enough but you have the budget for 32gb anyway.

I didn't include an additional cpu cooler as you wouldn't be overclocking with the xeon and I thought the case would be enough to reduce the noise of the stock cooler to acceptable levels. You could add a 212 evo for lower temps and noise levels.

On a day like today the stock cooler could struggle in a room without air con.

Monotype

BloodBath wrote: »

On a day like today the stock cooler could struggle in a room without air con.

Haha, you can say that again. Switching computer from "cold" today "WHOOOOSH!"

Well, to be fair the stock cooler would probably manage fine when there's no overclocking, it's just the noise when things get hectic. I wonder how they cope in warm climates.

JackieChan

Blood, did you consider the v3 version of the Xeon or is it just not worth the premium(20-25 euro) along with a pricier 1150 board(cheapest Xeon compatible I've seen are close to 80 quid)?

Monotype

It is worth it if you have the spare funds - you don't have the downsides of poor overclocking on Haswell when you're not overclocking. Unless you go down the route of a very cheap 1155 motherboard.
However, it wasn't on hardwareversand until about 2/3 days ago.

PaulDeasy

BloodBath wrote: »

I went with 32gb of ram based on the op request for it. It's hard to say exactly how much you will need as I don't know how memory intensive the work you are doing is. 16gb may well be enough but you have the budget for 32gb anyway.

I didn't include an additional cpu cooler as you wouldn't be overclocking with the xeon and I thought the case would be enough to reduce the noise of the stock cooler to acceptable levels. You could add a 212 evo for lower temps and noise levels.

On a day like today the stock cooler could struggle in a room without air con.

I'm happy to go with the 32gb RAM, the smoother it all runs the better, especially when doing the high res painting, if you're painting and the brush is behind its really off putting, especially if you're trying to finish a painting while a 3D scene is rendering that's going to be very labour intensive.

and there's nothing wrong with the case you recommended, I was more wondering, if there was anything that would do the job of keeping the noise down and keeping everything cool, say on a day like this, while working and I don't have air con here.

I don't mind paying a little bit more as long as obviously i'm not going into crazy money, but I can always upgrade down the road. Another reason why I was asking about whether it would be an idea to get a big tower considering I have the room for it and like I said at the risk of sounding like a newb, it'd be nice to have a slick looking case.

but as far as over clocking, its not something I'm considering right now. I don't know enough about it to feel comfortable over clocking. I'd end up with a chunk of melted plastic for a graphics card knowing my luck.