Hello everyone! I need some advice from all you experts out there. First of all it´s a long long time since I was up to date with different CPU's and graphic cards so please give me a hand and say what you think about this set up. Mainboard: ASUS Maximus III GENE, P55, Socket-1156 CPU: Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-750 Graphic card: ASUS Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 Memory: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 4GB CL9 PSU: Corsair HX 750W HDD: Western Digital Caviar® Black probably around 500GB, more if I can afford it. ----------- - No gaming! - Some HD movies - Google SketchUp - Image manipulation - Web surfing - C-programming - Matlab - Programming other stuff And finally a couple of question: - Do I need more memory? - Any suggestion for better components in the same price range.
psu is wasted in that system a 400w would be fine No gaming then ditch the 5670 and get somthing cheaper
If you are not gaming, but want to do CAD type work, then a Quadro fx graphics card from Nvidia is a good bet. Most graphics cards are aimed at gaming, and therefore perform less well in CAD type applications. The quadro cards are for CAD professionals, and the drivers are optimized better aswell for CAD design. They start at £100 or so, Im sure you could find one to fit your budget. ATI also do CAD aimed cards, called FireGL, maybe worth looking into aswell but I have no experience of them myself.
Thanks for the information Picky88! I found a Asus 1024MB DDR2 ATI Radeon HD5570 SILENT at a pretty nice price, it´s almost a 1TB HDD cheaper. So if no one says it´s crap I think I take it. I know it´s not a CAD/CAM card but I didn't find anything I liked at my shop.
I'm just wondering: why aren't you getting a cheaper motherboard? The Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 would do just fine. What exactly are you doing in Matlab? It may be wise to invest in 8GB RAM. Oh, as mentioned, a 750W PSU is very overkill. Maybe get a 500W one just in case you decide to get a better GPU later on.
Could he go for intergrated graphics? Also for the hard disk could you go for a samsung F3? the're cheaper than the WD and have good performance.
Point 1 - if the Photoshop/design etc use are purely professional, then the argument is "time is money" and the better components come into play. If it's recreational/not professional, go as cheap as possible, Point 2 - I love my Samsung F1, so +1 for the Samsung. However, the first F3 I bought lasted 12 hours, if that. The second one has kept going, though. Whatever you do, stress the hard disk (and indeed, every component) before putting anything important on there. An RMA's easier to do if you're not losing a ton of data.
Thanks for the hint on Samsung disks! Simulations, enjoying myself (well who doesn't enjoy programming) Thanks everyone for the help!
Hi Mikek - the advice given so far is all spot on but I think you need to provide more "colour" as to your requirements - by that I mean budget, priorities, just more details e.g. what in mathlab, what file sizes are your photo manipulation (raw or jpeg), how advance etc... But first impression is - Your Mobo / PSU / GPU is out of whack - get a basic MOBO. If you don't care for USB3 or SATA6, lots of Asus/Gigabyte ones for £100. If USB3/SATA6, then shoot for £125 range. - If programming, photo and programming esp if you do virtuliastion... then you could probably do with 8gig mem. E.g. are you dealing with big RAW files (21megs+) and lots of them. Or just jpeg? Normal OS use, you'll struggle to get past 2-3gigs usage. - Photoshop/LR are primarily single threaded and GPU acceleration is limited to only some filter use. So OC-ing your i5 750 to 3.8Ghz or 4Ghz (buy a 3rd party cooler) will make big jumps. 4megs is enough in most cases. But if you start doing virtualisation for your programming, then maybe 8gig maybe an idea. - Mathlab (i think) is similar to Photoshop etc... but pls check yourself. And as already mentioned, they use non-games GPU. - If not going for a non-games GPU, then try the 5770 or 5670 - quiet/cool, good price and esp the 5670, all the outputs you need HDMI (audio), DVI etc. Finally, it's a given you need a 64 bit OS to make use of 3gig+ memory. So don't forget that.
Thanks boy_lah! The problem now is that my car broke down so I must take care of that first, then new computer But I will listen to all the advices you all gave me. Thanks to all of you!!
