Build for <1400$

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zmaj

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Apr 26, 2010
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Hello guys. I'll be buying new comp in a month or so since I'm finishing high school and need something better for my graphic design studies.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I'm mostly buying this to be able to do some decent 3D, motion design and design in general. I used to be gamer when I was younger so I might play a game now and then but that is obviously not my focus.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around 1000 euros which is like 1400$ max.
3) Where do you live?
Europe
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, RAM and graphic card are important in my opinion. I was going for Intel build with i5 or perhaps i7 processor. Regarding RAM, I'll be fine with 6GB for now but I'd like to be able to extend it in future to 8 or maybe a little more. Graphic card, I was thinking Radeon 1gb. I don't need really cool looking parts or stuff like that, I just want stuff that works. I also don't need massive monitor, 21 inch is going to be just fine, I don't want to spend too much money on that.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I won't be reusing any of the old parts.
6) Will you be overclocking?
I don't think so.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Like I said, I don't want anything too expensive, I'll be happy with 21 inch or something like that. I want to save money on this part.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
In like a month or so.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I might need firewire but not necessarily.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yeah, I have windows 7 64bit.

So that's it. I'd really appreciate your help guys, I did some research and I definitely need professional feedback. Don't include shipping and that kind of stuff in your price estimation. No need to be really exact in price because when I get this build planned, I'll go and see how much it's gonna cost me in Germany to get this build. If it's gonna be too much I'll replace some parts with cheaper but I want general directions where should I go with this build. Thanks a lot in advance!
 
Any particular online German stores that you will be buying from? It will give us a good idea of availability and pricing of parts.
 
I don't know honestly which it's going to be exactly. I guess the most available parts should be used. As I said, I just want to plan out the build generally, then I'll check exactly how much it's gonna cost me and perhaps change a few parts to less expensive ones. That's my plan, I don't have any more information but this. But limit of 1400$ or like 1k euros should be respected. There are http://www2.hardwareversand.de/, http://www.billiger.de/, http://www.preisroboter.de/ these sites that can give price estimations and everything, but prices do not vary a lot in Germany.

EDIT: Btw, I already said what I'm looking for in this PC so maybe that could be used as wireframe for the build. :)
 
zmaj said:
EDIT: Btw, I already said what I'm looking for in this PC so maybe that could be used as wireframe for the build. :)
Click to expand...

I know what you said and wanted but that doesn't mean that those parts are within your budget. As such, we needed to know the general price range.

Anyway, a Core i7 930, Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard and Corsair 6GB DDR3 1600 RAM will cost about 602&#8364; total. HDD wise, pick up the WD5000AAKS. So thats a total of 644&#8364; so far. That would leave you 356&#8364; for the PSU, GPU, monitor, DVD burner, and case. So in other words, a Core i7 930 setup would probably not be possible within your budget unless you use really crappy parts.

Now does the apps you're planning on using takes advantage of CUDA? PSU wise, just about any Corsair PSU above 550W will be enough.
 
Danny Bui said:
I know what you said and wanted but that doesn't mean that those parts are within your budget. As such, we needed to know the general price range.

Anyway, a Core i7 930, Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard and Corsair 6GB DDR3 1600 RAM will cost about 602€ total. HDD wise, pick up the WD5000AAKS. So thats a total of 644€ so far. That would leave you 356€ for the PSU, GPU, monitor, DVD burner, and case. So in other words, a Core i7 930 setup would probably not be possible within your budget unless you use really crappy parts.

Now does the apps you're planning on using takes advantage of CUDA? PSU wise, just about any Corsair PSU above 550W will be enough.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, I didn't mean to be rude with what I said before.

Does not have to be i7 (i know it is quite expensive), it can be i5 also, or any other Intel processor that's good for that matter. My current computer is 6 years old and I don't even know about all the good hardware in last few years so keep that in mind. I'm not doing this professionally so I don't really need a beast but just a machine that can handle everything relatively decent. I'm working in 3dsmax, cinema4d, after effects and most of the other creative suite software. I don't really mind having crappy case or ugly looking monitor and stuff because I couldn't care less about it, efficiency is important to me at this point. So, to sum it all up, I want balanced build regarding cpu, ram, graphics card and I don't need top of the line external devices, exactly opposite of that. Hope this helps.
 
168€ - Intel Core i5 750 CPU
129€ - Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
105€ - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
42€ - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
87€ - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU
---
Total: 531€

So there should be enough leftover for the GPU, DVD burner, Case, monitor, and GPU.
 
what 3d programs will you be running? will you be rendering overnight (are render times not that important)? The reason I ask is because most 3d opengl apps will perform better with a pro card vs a gamer card.
 
I'll probably be rendering stuff overnight. I'm using 3ds Max and Cinema4D as well as After Effects. I'm not sure what graphic cards you have in mind but I really want graphic card that can perform well in various situations. My first priority is to build a comp for my design studies but I also want to try out a game now and then I guess.
 
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