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Let's build me a new rig

P

puntadigital

n00b
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
34
Hi there

Use to love building and fixing computers, got burned out after everyone I knew coming to my house to fix their mess, or calling to see "what's wrong with my machine" at anytime of the day. So I completely "retire" myself and eventually got rusty and left behind, now I'm the one looking for expert advice :)

My Rig is gonna be used for graphic design - Photoshop & Illustrator , normal office stuff, web browsing, and several printing and cutting software to run my solvent printer and my vinyl cutters.

I want to have as much memory as possible (without being absurd), so I'll need to change to a 64-bit OS, I'm running XP 32 right now :p

I' like to get everything through Newegg since I have credit there and I'd like to take advantage of that.

Now, I'll proceed with the required process

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Graphic Design, photoshop - illustrator - Vinyl cutting software and RIP software. NOT Gaming at all.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Open, no top of the line, unnecessary luxury, is a wrokstation not a gaming rig

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

US - Texas - Houston

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
RAM - CPU - SSD - PSU(Maybe) - GPU (maybe) - Sound w/front panel would be nice

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
PSU - Corsair GS600 - Couple of SATA HD - DVD writer - ATI HD5570 (want to run 2-3 monitors in the future)

6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7)
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Famous maker 24" 1920x1200 and Hanns.G 25" (a 32" Spectre TV avaiable too)
8)
When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Not sure, that's why I'm here :) I need speed and efficiency

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Will need 64-bit OS but don't include that in the price



Well, let me thank you in advance for taking the time to help me out here, glad to see knowledgeable people willing to help by doing what they like. I know I sound like an old fart, but I'm "just" 32, that was the rustiness taking over

Take care and I'll be checking daily to see what you guys come up with.


NOTE: I got FRY's in town and credit with them too, so feel free to take that into account if necessary
 
Well you really never gave us a price, so... anyway. (Hate working without a budget, but whatever)

For a serious work horse, especially one that runs Adobe software I recommend going with a Nvida GPU, since most of Adobe's software makes use of CUDA on Nvidia based cards. If you plan on running multiple monitors then I'd suggest either 560 Ti or 570 in SLI.

With that being said, lets get to work.

$314.99 - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz
$114.99 - MSI Z68A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68
$89.99 - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$134.99 - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-850TX 850W (10% off with promo code Corsair92329, ends 9/29)

Total shipped: $662.29

  • The 2600k is the fastest Sandy Bridge processor you can buy, with it's hyper threading enabled quad cores it's the best job for program that make use of multiple threads/cores which most workstation/horse systems do. Such as video encoding and 3D rendering. If you do not feel that any of your programs will make use of hyper threading, then go with the 2500k.
  • The motherboard I selected has two x16 PCIe slots for SLI video cards. You could get by with 1 x16 and 1 x8, but at the price it's not too expensive. It also has a 3 year warranty, which is always a plus.
  • 16GB of DDR3 13333 RAM. RAM is cheap right now, really no reason not to buy as much as you can afford and with a workstation, especially graphic work, the more RAM you have the more work you can do. You can dub down to 2x4GB of DDR3 1333 for under $50 if you wish to save money.
  • The 850W PSU is enough power for SLI GPUs. If you plan to stick with your AMD/ATI card then I'd recommend getting a 650W unit from Corsair or Antec.

Now for the video card(s) I recommend getting two of either one of these cards. The 570 is more powerful, but the 560 Ti will get the job done as well. Don't really know your budget, so get what you can.

$234.99 - GIGABYTE GV-N560OC-1GI GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
or
$319.99 - MSI N570GTX-M2D12D5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB

SSDs, I recommend the following SSDs: (List Danny Bui put together)
$200 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
$229 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SSD w/ USB to SATA Adapter and Drive Cloning software
$225 - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SSD
$278 - Intel 510 Series SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SSD
$391 - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SSD
$425 - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 256GB SSD w/ USB to SATA Adapter and Drive Cloning software
$580 - Intel 510 Series SSDSC2MH250A2K5 2.5" 250GB SSD

For a case, I recommend the following cases for SLI. You never said you are reusing one or that you need one, but here's a list anyway. (Another Danny Bui list)
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance nVidia Edition ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$120 - Antec Lanboy Air Yellow ATX Modular Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$125 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 White ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium Grey ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Silverstone RV03B-W ATX case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$170 - Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case

No idea what hard drives you plan on using, but if you do plan to add more/upgrade those as well then I recommend one of these two hard drives as the price/performance ratio is great. The F3 is also neck and neck with the fastest consumer mechanical hard drive out now (The Caviar Black series)

$59.99 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
$79.99 - SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB
 
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Skillz, that's awesome, I appreciate it!

About the budget, I left that open for a reason, since there are members who always go for the top of the line parts, others try to find a balance between quality and price, and that gives me a wide array of choices. I think yours looks great, I'll check all those links tomorrow and see what I can do .

Once again, I appreciate you taking the time to help me out here
 
lack of patience ? :D

Maybe I was expecting more options given the environment where the questions were made
 
puntadigital said:
Maybe I was expecting more options given the environment where the questions were made
Click to expand...
Meh, it's only been less than a day dude. In addition, we often share similar recommendations (case in point: the cases and SSD list that Skillz posted are my lists:)). Also, note that a certain beta has been released and some of us are busy with that :D. So might want to work on that patience. ;)

Anyway, a few issues with Skillz's build:
1) That's an outdated version of the 850TX. The 850TX V2 version costs the same yet is of higher quality and has better efficiency.

2) You do not need the video cards that Skillz posted. Since you're not gaming at all, I do not see a reason for those GPU choices considering that these GPUs will be more than enough for your needs:
$110 - Gigabyte GV-N450D3-1GI GeForce GTS 450 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$138 - Gigabyte GV-N550OC-1GI GeForce GTX 550 TI 1GB PCI-E Video Card

3) With the above GPU changes, you don't need such a large PSU. You'll be fine with this PSU:
$85 - Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU
 
Appreciate the new suggestions, nice relief knowing the previous GPU recommendation is overkill, and 2 of them for that matter :)

I have no idea of any beta going around so excuse me for being an outsider, I mentioned I'm rusty and out of my game in this arena, to much stuff going on on other venues lol

Well, I'll keep looking on what you recommended.

Does that GPU supports 2-3 monitors ?
The PSU I have, Corsair GS600, is not powerful enough you say ?

EDIT: What about this one ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102931
 
Last edited:
Nvidia cards only support two monitors per card, newer AMD cards (the 6xxx series [like the one you linked], not sure about 5xxx) support up to three with a single card.
 
I think 2 will do it for quite some time, and since I don't do any gaming, memory and processing power is more important than graphics
 
Link to the V2? The one I recommended is v2.2. :confused:

I also thought that the better the video card, the more performance increase you can expect in Photoshop. :confused:
 
puntadigital said:
The PSU I have, Corsair GS600, is not powerful enough you say ?
Click to expand...
It's basically a 500W PSU if you were to look at the +12V amperage. With taht said, depite that failing, it should be enough. I personally don't trust it but that's honestly not based on anything really substantial.
puntadigital said:
EDIT: What about this one ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102931
Click to expand...
Only reason to get an AMD card in your situation is if you want three monitors out of one card. Outside of that, you're better off with a Nvidia card.
puntadigital said:
I think 2 will do it for quite some time, and since I don't do any gaming, memory and processing power is more important than graphics
Click to expand...

Skillz said:
Link to the V2? The one I recommended is v2.2. :confused:
Click to expand...
Here it is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139022

Note the different labeling and the capitilization of the "V2" monikor.
Skillz said:
I also thought that the better the video card, the more performance increase you can expect in Photoshop. :confused:
Click to expand...

That is true but there's a point of diminishing returns from what I gather.
 
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