$1800 Graphics orientated PC build

DVS Industries New user 2 posts Posted: 09/10/2011 10:10 PM

I have been looking at building a new PC for a while now as the old dual core is getting dreadfully slow lately. I was looking for some input and suggestions. The main requirements; Put together a PC for around the $1800 mark, Budget is for Motherboard, CPU, PSU, RAM, HDD's, and Graphics card(s), After reading on how easy it is to O/C i7 2600k would love to give it a try, Main uses are graphics orientated programs including but not limited to Autocad, Signlab, Photoshop and Illustrator, Run XP Professional 32bit, Store about 500gig of music, Be able to run some sort of RAID configuration, Run my 2 LG 26" LED monitors in dual veiw. I already have a custom case in the build (first acrylic project with my new 5 axis router table), and I am in the process of designing my own custom liquid cooling components. From the research that I have done and reviews that I have read I was looking at the following, Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-D3 $160 CPU: i7 2600k $365 PSU: Antec 750w 80Plus bronze (more for looks as the PSU will be exposed in my planned case) $157 RAM: 16gig Ripjaws DDR3 2133mhz dual channel $220 HDD's: ? Graphics card(s): 1 or 2 EVGA GeForce GTX460 1024MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCIe2.0 $252ea That comes to a toal of $1154 with a single graphics card or $1406 with 2 graphics card so that leaves either $650 or $400 for hard drives depending on graphics. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cameron

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ss-rotel User 674 posts Posted: 10/10/2011 5:10 PM

ok, i see a fatal flaw in your plan - DVS Industries wrote: Run XP Professional 32bit, DVS Industries wrote: RAM: 16gig Ripjaws DDR3 2133mhz dual channel $220 You do realize that a 32bit OS will only see 3.2gb of memory MAX? In all honesty, running windows XP in this day and age is a silly idea. Windows 7 is a really Good OS compared to XP And Vista, and unless you plan to run a webserver or connect to a Domain, you only need Home Premium. You should be able to pick up a copy of win7HP x64 for sub $150 when you buy your parts. I would look @ A 120gb SSD drive for OS, Progams and scratch, and a 3 x 1TB drives in RAID 5 for storage. Also, unless you plan to play games, then 2x 460's is a silly idea. you'll probably need a Quadro or FireGL card for the 3D app's you plan to use, so pick the one you use the most, find out what video card you will need to H/W excellerate it, and get that. If you plan to run adobe software full H/W excellerated, and you want to play games, i'm pretty sure you will need a GTX 480 or GTX 580 or above to make that work. you will need to look up the hardware requirements for the software you want to use, (EG; CS5 premier will not H/W excel unless the card is a GTX580/590/480/295). (pretty sure that's right... i had to look that up a few months ago, but that was pre-CS5.5 and might have changed)

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DVS Industries New user 2 posts Posted: 10/10/2011 11:10 PM

I do realize that running 32 bit windows is a downside, however I have spent alot of hard earned buying software and unfortunately I have purchased software that will run on 32 bit and not 64 bit. The replacement cost of the software would not justify an upgrade of my current system. I am also aware that 32 bit windows only sees 3.2GB of RAM but was under the impression that it would still use all available RAM but only recognize 3.2GB. I don't plan only playing any games other than Transport Tycoon every now and then which is DOS based so no issues with graphics there LOL....... I am aware that most of the software that I currently use is out of date but does everything that I need it to do. The programs most used are; Autocad 2009 Photoshop 7.0 Illustrator 10 Signlab 7.1 A4 desk pro Quote: Also, unless you plan to play games, then 2x 460's is a silly idea. you'll probably need a Quadro or FireGL card for the 3D app's you plan to use, so pick the one you use the most, find out what video card you will need to H/W excellerate it, and get that. What is the best way to go about finding out which video card to hardware accelerate? your advice is much appreciated. Cameron

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Mayo Pain = weakness leaving the Body New user 6 posts Posted: 11/10/2011 3:10 PM

Few points from my opinion. - 64 Bit Windows 7 will set you back around $150, it's not that huge of an investment for an extra 13+ gb of ram usability - 460's are outdated now, from what I have heard they run how and are power hungry. If you purchase 2, there isn't any upgrade-ability either, unless you are going to sell both and buy two. I would suggest a single 570/580 then you can throw another in in 12 months time. - HDD's: are you looking to fast boot up times with an SSD? - PSU I always say better safe then sorry, like the note I said above about upgrade ability. Look for something like a Thermaltake Tough power 875w. I'd rather be clear by 200w (personally) rather then worrying about my capacitors ageing etc. I will link you to my suggestions: GFX Card: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=16871 SSD: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17369 PSU: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=14004 Win7: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17032

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Chris.Lampard Why spend when you can o/clock ? User 148 posts Posted: 11/10/2011 5:10 PM

Mayo your PSU 200w+ rule is overkill as long as you have the numbers right between your usage and the PSU's nominal output and don't plan on putting another gfx card in you'll be fine i'd add 200w for a future proof of the graphics card however its inefficient to use to large of a wattage so what the point buying the good PSU in the first place ? I myself would save the $50-100 the extra 200W will cost you for a better gfx card or an SSD :) Also your cap's are gonna age either way there's no escaping it, also there's the small chance if the PSU is way to powerful for the board its over voltage protection better not fail or you'll see the purple smoke happened to my mate 1500W for a 850W max system he saw the smoke.... I would even consider running Ubuntu or Mint if you are that concerned with licensing costs, i mean the only reason you put XP onto a gen 2 system is its SOE and their crappy applications don't support the newer OS :) and instead of porting to 7 they just image XP onto whoever needs it. Hence why most office workers assume XP is the best still. Bet there IT dept is 7 LOL. GTX570 minimum i would say i mean you want the newer additions to the card and also the less heat and power draw from the 5xx series Nvidia cards. Chris.

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Mayo Pain = weakness leaving the Body New user 6 posts Posted: 11/10/2011 10:10 PM	Go for something like the Tough power XT 775w version then. I don't think only 200w over will kill the board anyway to be honest.
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ss-rotel User 674 posts Posted: 12/10/2011 11:10 AM

i dont think that 200w over what's needed is over kill. Most power supplies run at it's peak effeciently @ about 60-75% load. so to get 90% effceiency on a system that will draw 600w of power, you'd want a 800w PSU. remember - high end CPU will draw 130w, motherboard between 20 and 50w depending on the board, 20w for each HDD, and optical drive, 200-450w depending on the video card... Adds up. Also, something no one else has touched on. NO, XP Will NOT make use of the extra memory. there is some tricky stuff that Server 2003 R2 enterpise ed. does to map the extra, up to 8gb or 16gb i think, but i'm guessing nothing that you can get your hands on One thing, if you get win7 pro 64bit, you can install XP mode, which is a VM install of 32bit windows. 95% of the time will fix the problem

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