building a new graphics workstation/gaming pc

digitalgargoyle

digitalgargoyle

Geek Trainee
Hello all,

In my last post I asked for some hardware pointers but got no response.

Since then I've don a little more research and i've put together a priliminary "shopping list" . I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks.

parts model
case antec 902 v3
power supply corsair ax850
mother board asus p8-z68v gen 3
cpu intel i5 2500k sandy bridge 3.3ghz
cooling fan (optional)
ram corsair 16gb 1600MHz
hdd seagate 7200 rpm 1tb
ssd intel 320 series 120gb
video card
nvidia evga gtx560 1gb
 
Hey Digital, what are you looking to get out of this machine. A hardcore gaming rig? What settings do you want to play games on? Also are you going to over clock at all? How much are you looking to spend on this machine?
 
NumbWarri0r said:
Hey Digital, what are you looking to get out of this machine. A hardcore gaming rig? What settings do you want to play games on? Also are you going to over clock at all? How much are you looking to spend on this machine?
Click to expand...

Use: Primarily I'm looking for this rig to be a visual effects workstation while I'm in college. Something that can not only handle the Adobe CS5 Prouduciton suite, but also Autodesk's Maya and Nuke & Nukex by The Foundary (all programs that I'll be learning in my degree progam). That being said, I'd like to game on it from time to time.

Video Card: This is one of my main concerns right now. Nuke & Nukex recomend "workstation" cards like Nvidia Quadro or AMD FireGL, Maya just asks for a "Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL® graphics card". Adobe wasn't quite as vague but still posted "qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM, Adobe-certified GPU card for GPU-accelerated performance in Adobe Premiere Pro". I know that a workstation card is going to kill my budget. I listed the above video card of "nvidia evga gtx560 1gb" primarily because I was told at Fry's that (as far as an Nvidia card goes) a Geforce card that had a lot of Cuda Cores could be a good compromise to getting a Quadro.

HDD/SDD: This is another concern right now. I understand that machines that use these in conjuction do perform better. However, I'm not sure how best to impliment this pairing. Which one would be the boot drive? What are the pros and cons of this kind of hard drive combination?

Overclocking: I hadn't really considered that as an option. I know that back in the "old days" (1999ish - when I did my last build), that stability was always an issue durring an overclock. Since this machine will be for school I'd rather have it be as stable as possible (the last thing i need is a system crash and to lose class projects).

Powersupply: I"m honestly not sure if the 850w power supply that I lised above will be sufficient. Primarliy because I'd like to go SLI in the near future.

Cost: I'd like to keep it under $1300.

The bottom line is that I'd like to build a machine that has room to grow, and won't be an oversized paper weight or bookend in the next 3 years.

Thanks.
 
Alright I'll price out a build for you tomorrow. As far as the HDD/SSD is concerned... have the SSD as your boot drive, you can also put the programs/games you use a lot on there for fast accessing. Then just use your HDD as a secondary for like movies, pics, other programs and what not.

If you don't know much about overclocking I wouldn't really worry about it. Because if you push it too far you could destroy a or multiple parts. If you have the time and are really interested in trying it out do some research online. There are a lot of great resources out there for it, or if you have any friends that know how to oc. I'm sure they'd help you out.

Also for the PSU, it depends on what you're going/wanting to SLI. If you were to sli 560ti's or 570's you be alright. But the main thing is you don't want to bottleneck your system.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
As far as the HDD/SDD is concerned it looks like you agree with the other research I've done. Cool.

Nope, no overclocking for me. While I'm sure that I could figure it out, I'm more concerned with stability and longevity of this build.

PSU, I think that going with either the 560ti's or 570's would be more than sufficient for all of the programs that I listed. However, I'm open to alternatives.

I know that this will not be a cheap build, but because I'm a broke college student all over again finances will be key. However, I believe that it will still be managible.


Thanks again.
 
Core components and OS. For OS I'll probably go with Windows 7 Home 64bit. My current monitor should be fine and I can come across a mouse and keyboard fairly easily.

Thanks.
 
Wow, all of those builds look great. I'm torn between your build and the group build. I"ve got a couple of questions though and I appologize ahead of time for my ignorance. Basically, why those specific parts over my initial list? Was it basically bassed on the graphics sofware that I'll be getting into? Was it more of a proactive decision, logevity over time?

Thanks again. :)
 
It was based on price over performance for your particular needs and wants. This build will last you AT LEAST 3 years. As far as keeping up with games... then when you notice a decrease in video performance you'll just need a new video card.
 
I kind of thought so. Thanks for the help, this is going to definately get me going in the right direction. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to get all of the parts together (I'm neck deep in preparation for finals) but I hope that it will come together in the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll have a pic or two to post and show off. Thanks again.
 
Strike that last question and replace it with this one. I just opened an acount at newegg. How can I add those lists that you created to my newegg acount?

Thanks.
 
Hey there, one more question on the OS. The OS choice of Windows 7 64bit OEM is great and affordable but why the difference in price from this version and the full retail version. Could it be a scaled down version? Any insights?

Thanks.
 
digitalgargoyle said:
Strike that last question and replace it with this one. I just opened an acount at newegg. How can I add those lists that you created to my newegg acount?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Add all the items to your cart then select all of them, put them in the temp wishlist. Go to temp wishlist and select them all, create a wishlist and save them into it.

digitalgargoyle said:
Hey there, one more question on the OS. The OS choice of Windows 7 64bit OEM is great and affordable but why the difference in price from this version and the full retail version. Could it be a scaled down version? Any insights?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
OEM versions of Windows 7 are identical to Full License Retail versions except for the following:

- OEM versions do not offer any free Microsoft direct support from Microsoft support personnel

- OEM licenses are tied to the very first computer you install and activate it on

- OEM versions allow all hardware upgrades except for an upgrade to a different model motherboard

- OEM versions cannot be used to directly upgrade from an older Windows operating system
 
No problem dude, glad I could help. Let me know how it goes... what you decide to go with. You should upload pics when its done. Anyways, glad I could have been of assistance.
 
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