Hi all, I've been considering buying a new machine for 3d rendering as my 2 old Core 2 quad machines are flagging...I was leaning towards a dual Xeon machine but I can't justify the huge outlay at the moment.. My previous machines were built by me, but I'm looking at just buying one off the shelf because quite frankly I can't be bothered to build this time around and it's been a while! I've been pricing up some systems from various sites and have put together what I think is a well priced fast machine. Here are the specs (from pcspecialist.co.uk) Case COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-970 (3.20GHz) 6.4GTs/12MB Cache Motherboard ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI Memory (RAM) 12GB KINGSTON HYPER-X TRI-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (6 x 2GB KIT) Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11 Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) 2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) 1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT Power Supply & Case Cooling CORSAIR 850W PSU (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£99) Processor Cooling TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39) Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79) Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Data Recovery NONE Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI) Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days £1702 inc VAT and Delivery. Looks good to me but I'd appreciate any comments... I have added two Sata 3 drives but should I just stick with Sata 2 as even that isn't fully utilised with hard drives, though they have a large cache which might be of use? Not really interested in an ssd so would rather get bulk over speed! Also - will maybe indulge in some gaming but not a big priority - have decided to not go for a Nvidia Quadro card as I've always used `generic` cards without any problems... Cheers q.
A few points... ...I assume your usage requirements justify 12GB RAM? ...you don't need an 850w PSU, for the same price as the Corsair 850TX, you can get the modular 650HX. ...6Gb/s mechanical drives are a waste of time, they will not saturate a 6Gb/s bus, let alone a 3Gb/s, get an SSD ...you could build it yourself a bit cheaper... Prices from Scan, replaced the 6Gb/s drives and the PSU: Akasa AK-ICR-07S 3.5" Black Internal Multi Card Reader Incl. M2, Micro SD & USB port - £7.27 650W Corsair HX Professional, Modular PSU, 85% eff' - £95.94 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM - £71.76 Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced Dominator, Black, Mid Tower Case w/o PSU- £73.31 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM - £82.13 (x2) Asus P6X58D-E, Intel X58, S1366, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2000 (OC), SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX - £154.61 Sony AD-7260S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM - £13.97 Intel i7 970, S1366, Gulftown Six Core, 3.2 GHz, QPI 6.4GT/s, 24x Core Ratio, 130W, Retail - £671.12 12GB Corsair Dominator, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), CAS 9-9-9-24, Connector, DHX, XMP, DF, 1.65V - £225.18 Titan Fenrir EVO GOLD Special Ed. TTC-NK85TZ/CS2 120mm PWM Fan HDT Cooler - £31.35 1GB Gigabyte GTX 460 Super Overclock - £168.57 Total excluding delivery (free for forum members): £1611.64 Some of it can be sourced on Scan's Today Only page or elsewhere on the net which could save you a few quid. With the money saved you could drop one of the HD's and go for an SSD. You could also save over £450 by buying an i7 950 and overclocking it to i7 970 levels (or higher).
Cheers for the info Fingers! Yup, I definately need 12 gb ram - (after effects happily sucks up alot) I hear what your saying about the PSU but I was kind of future proofing for any additional HD's/Graphics card -sensible? Heh heh, and yes - building would be cheaper/more satisfying but this time around I'd like to have someone else do it (luxury I know)!! In terms of the system though, looks solid enough? thanks again...
Yeah - I mentioned that in my post but wanted clarification - thanks. As to overclocking the 950 - sounds like a good idea but I'd like stability as the machine will get a thrashing! I'm guessing the extra 2 cores and increaed cache will be better for my multi threaded rendering though over the clockspeed alone? EDIT: Can you recommend a good SSD for OS and Several apps?
