New Build for Editing/Animation

O

OceaNz

n00b
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
35
1) What will you be doing with this PC?
Editing, AfterEffects, 3d max, Cinema 4d

2) Budget - $2000-$2500 if necessary

3) Where do you live? Miami, FL

4) What Parts required?
Memory
Motherboard
Graphics card
PSU
Case
Processor
HDD

5) Re-using the following parts:
20"monitor

6) Overclocking? Not going to overclock

7) What size monitor? might upgrade to a 24" to get higher resolution

8) When do you plan on building/buying? in the next month

9) What featuers needed in motherboard?
multiple CPUs

10) Going to be purchasing Windows 7 64 ultimate


** need advice on scratch disks or raids for these programs
 
Last edited:
Subscribing to make sure I don't miss this thread when I'm more cognitive.

Though I'm personally conflicted whether or not to recommend the Core i7 950/930 in light of all the RAM issues lately with the X58 platform for the OP.
 
Why would you need multiple graphics card for this kind of PC? Do the apps you mention take advantage of multiple video cards for rendering?

All right just gonna start recommending a series of parts and options:

RAM wise, the prices of 4GB sticks of RAM has dropped pretty significantly over the past few months. Considering your usage scenario, try to cram as much RAM as possible using 4GB sticks:
$90 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$160 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$250 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9T-12GBRL 3 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

PSU wise, the Corsair 650TX will be enough for any planned single GPU setup with no CPU overclocking planned:
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU

HDD wise, I recommend this fast hard drive:
$75 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Though I encourage you to have your OS installed on a SSD and your programs installed on the hard drive for extra performance:
$200 - Intel SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SSD

Case wise, choose your own case:
$60 - NZXT M59 ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master CM690 II Basic ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$130 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$170 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$170 - Lian Li PC-B25F ATX Case
$180 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$210 - Silverstone FT01-B ATX Case
$220 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Hey, Danny Bui I have looked more into it and you are right I would not need multiple video cards as they would both not be utilized for rendering. However the more processing power the better so would need a motherboard that supports 2 processors.
 
OceaNz said:
Hey, Danny Bui I have looked more into it and you are right I would not need multiple video cards as they would both not be utilized for rendering. However the more processing power the better so would need a motherboard that supports 2 processors.
Click to expand...

EVGA Classified SR-2 (Super Record 2) 270-WS-W555-A1 LGA 1366 Intel 5520 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HPTX Intel Motherboard $600

2x Intel Xeon E5503 Nehalem-EP 2.0GHz LGA 1366 80W Dual-Core Server Processor BX80602E5503 $400

2x G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ $261

you would need corsair 700d to fit this motherboard and psu with dual 8 pin cpu power
 
Is color accuracy important to you? You didn't mention what monitor you have, but I would set aside at least 300USD for a nice IPS panel monitor. The Dell U2311H is on sale I believe right now for $240 shipped, I got mine for that price a while back.
 
OceaNz said:
However the more processing power the better so would need a motherboard that supports 2 processors.
Click to expand...

Ahh now we're talking! Building off of lt_shiro's recommendations:
$480 - Intel Xeon E5506 Quad-Core CPU
$80 - Cooler Master Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
$600 - EVGA Classified SR-2 70-WS-W555-A1 LGA 1366 Intel 5520 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HPTX Intel Motherboard
$320 - 4 x G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$65 - PowerColor AX5550 1GBK3-H Radeon HD 5550 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$130 - XFX Black Edition P1-750B-CAG9 750W Modular PSU
----
Total: $1675 plus tax and shipping

Now you'll get a total of 8 cores and 16GB of RAM to start. Since the above build is using 4GB sticks of RAM and the mobo has a total of 12 RAM slots, that's a possible 48GB of RAM! The server Xeon CPUs do not come with a HSF so added those as well. The XFX PSU does have the two 8Pin EPS12V connectors for the motherboard.

Now we need a case (The Corsair 700D will work but needs modificaiton IIRC) and storage. Will the projects you will be doing with this PC require more than 1TB of space?
 
You should get that 24" monitor too: Most graphic software support dual monitors, one for the desktop and application, one for rendering. That's how Matrox started in the 80s.
 
Hey all,

I just popped a pair of G.Skill F3-10666CL9T-12GBRL kits in to my EVGA Classified SR-2 rig, and I have to report that as of the most current BIOS (A47), these kits do not provide stable operation, even when run at lower than spec timings, and higher than spec voltages.

I've tried running these 1333 MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5v modules at 1066 MHz 9-9-9-24 1.6v and I still get very jumpy performance, poor disk throughput, lock-ups, and occasional "Machine Exception Check" BSODs (hardware faults)

These modules are on EVGAs X58 chipset supported list, but the 5520 chipset seems not to like them.

This is with only those modules installed (single bank operation)

I've informed EVGA, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll probably end up going with ECC Registered modules, especially as I'll be adding another 24 GB at some point pretty soon to get up to 48GB. I'm using this system to create extremely large, high resolution images for print on my Epson Stylus Pro 9900.

Just thought I'd give you all a heads up.
 
Oh, and I forgot to mention. There are very few cases that support the EVGA Classified SR-2. The only one on Newegg that has been confirmed to generally fit it is the Lian Li P80. Even this case barely fits it, with the board sticking off the motherboard tray and requiring the use of all of the plastic spacers that are included with the board.

Oh, and just to clarify, if you're going to get optimal performance from the SR-2 you'll need to populate a minimum of 6 DIMM slots, since there are two CPUs with triple-channel memory controllers.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top