Xeon e3 1230 v2 $1k upgrade

[_Tank]

This all started with intentions of upgrading my i7-860 machine with an SSD. Since the motherboard doesn't support SATAIII, I decided to upgrade it.

As a recent college grad, I worked mostly in 3d modeling and animation, but now have a job doing mostly web/interface/frontend/backend design & development. My needs have changed over the past few years and would like a machine that can handle lots of multitasking and many system services.

Since I have not followed hardware very closely for the past few years, I'd like to ask your opinions on my choice of upgrades.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Typical Tasks:

• Virtual Machines - Windows x64 running Linux, Android, and potentially Windows Server VM's (not all at the same time)
• Adobe CC - Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, DreamWeaver, Premiere, After Effects, Lightroom, Flash, Edge **
• MS, Java/Android/Eclipse dev tools
• Autodesk Maya, or Blender if I ever get around to learning the UI (sometimes work related)
• Unity 3d (non work related)
• RR/FTB Minecraft (non work related)
• CAD (non work related)

Scenario Workload : VirtualBox running a LAMP VM, Android VM/Emulator, Eclipse, Photoshop||Fireworks, Web Browser

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Hardware + Screens for $1k. No other peripherals.

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

Denial, Wash. DC USA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?

CPU (1155), RAM, Case, 2x Monitors, GPU, SSD

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Reusing : PSU corsair cx430, Watercooling

Current Machine:

• CPU: i7 860
• RAM: G.Skill 12gb (4gb,2gb,4gb,2gb) 1600 C9
• MB: Gigabyte GA-P55m-UD2 motherboard (sata-II)
• GPU: ATI FirePro v4800 1gb GPU (3d/maya nightmare)
• PSU: Corsair cx430 (2009)
• HDD: WD 650gb Black
• HDD2: Seagate 1tb *A
• Screens : Asus 23", Asus 20" ring stand (I hate these things)
• Case : Apevia x-Qboii (Panel on wrong side)

A.) Will move to my htpc/fileserver

Upgrades: $1010

• CPU: Xeon e3-1230 v2 (1155) *A
• MB: Biostar z77 (1155) *B Owned
• RAM: Corsair 16gb (2x8gb) 1866 CAS 9
• GPU: ASUS GTX 750 Ti 2gb
• PSU: Corsair cx430 (2009) * Owned - reused
• HDD: Mushkin 480gb SATA III SSD
• HDD2: WD 650gb Black HDD* Owned - reused
• Screens: 2x Dell 23" IPS
• Case: Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01
• Watercooling : MCP655, 2x120mm radiator, Apogee GT *C

A.) Will most likely upgrade within next 2 years. Gambling on 4770k & 1150 motherboards coming down in price when DDR4 is mainstream. I may try to overclock to see what it will do, but overclocking is not my intention.
B.) 1155 wasn't my first choice, but I found this cheap and bought on an impulse.
C.) Has been sitting in a box since ~2009. The Corsair case has a place to mount my 2x120mm radiator. Unnessesary, but I'd like to use it again.

6) Will you be overclocking?

Not for permanent usage

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

Current:
23" 1920x1080 + 20" 1600x900

Planned:
23" 1920x1080 + 23" 1920x1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Today

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

SATAIII 6gb/s
DDR3 1866+

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Win 7 x64
Not sure if transferable. Have called M$ in the past and transferred licenses after upgrading.

 

[Dangman]

Bad gamble. Intel CPUs don't drop that far in price to justify the wait even after multiple new CPU releases. The Core i5 2500K, when it was available new, was still around $210, not far from its original $230 to $240 price, when the 4770K was released. Not to mention that the 4770K isn't that huge of an upgrade over your planned E3-1230V2 purchase. Speaking of which, how much are you spending on that CPU?

Motherboard wise, did you make sure that Biostar supports that CPU?

No need whatsoever for DDR3 1866 RAM as it doesn't really provide that much of a noticeable performance increase or smoothness. You'll be fine with any cheap DDR3 1600 RAM like this:
$145 - Crucial BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix Sport 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

If the COrsair RAM you chose is within $5 to $10 of the above RAM set, then it would be not quite that bad of an idea to get that Corsair.


SSD wise, I'd go for the far far more reputable Samsung 840 Evo 500GB instead:
$260 - Samsung 840 Evo Series 500GB SSD

Yes it's worth the extra cash over that Mushkin due to its far higher reliability and reputation.

 

[_Tank]

This is my price list:

e3 CPU - $220
MB - $40
Mushkin SSD - $180
Corsair RAM - $149
GTX 750Ti - $150
Case - $50
Screens - (2x) $130
120mm fans - $20
---------------------
$1069

Maybe it has been AMD's lagging behind the high end i7's. I remember years ago cpu prices would drop each time a new generation came out.

The Biostar website lists the e3 1230v2 in the compatibility list, but the integrated video will (of course) not work.

Ram is within $5, so why not! My curent ram is 1600 C9

That makes sense. Hard drives are definitely the component you don't want to skimp on reliability. Everything but your data can be replaced. I may have to fork out some extra money on this one. Interesting that it's the part I wanted to upgrade in the first place.

 

[Skripka]

Why in the world are you getting an e3? It makes no sense unless you can get them at cost.

 

[_Tank]

Why in the world are you getting an e3? It makes no sense unless you can get them at cost.

Similar performance to the i7 3770 but cheaper.

 

[Dangman]

GTX 750Ti - $150

Yeah that's what I thought. All right I'd recommend ditching this card since you can get the faster R7 265 for about the same price:
$150 - MSI R7 265 2GD5 OC 2GB PCI-E Video Card

The R7 265 is faster than the GTX 750 Ti in gaming and, at least with the 2013 version, in Autodesk Maya as well:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/AutoDesk-Maya-2013-GPU-Acceleration-166/

Case - $50
120mm fans - $20

If you buy a good case to begin with, no real need for extra fans. I recomend the following cases:
$63 - Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Case
$75 - Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black w/ Window ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case

Maybe it has been AMD's lagging behind the high end i7's. I remember years ago cpu prices would drop each time a new generation came out.

Yes and no. While AMD's relative lack of competitiveness at the high-end range has helped out Intel a lot, the lack of major price drops is also part of Intel's strategy to make consumers buy their newer hardware over their old hardware. It makes sense: Why buy the older stuff when the newer stuff costs the same?

That makes sense. Hard drives are definitely the component you don't want to skimp on reliability. Everything but your data can be replaced. I may have to fork out some extra money on this one. Interesting that it's the part I wanted to upgrade in the first place.

Yes. Although if you absolutely have to save some money, then go for the Crucial MX100 512GB:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KFAGCUM/?tag=extension-kb-20

Either way, the main point is to avoid that Mushkin SSD altogether.