AMD FX or i7 sandybridge

[mS_Design]

Hello guys,
It might seem quite straight forward but I have been configuring so many different setups from i5 to i7 to 8150's. I am a student so I want to spend as less as possible from my loan (no offense admin)
I will be using 3d rendering programs and animations of such subjects so I am decided on 16GB RAM for definite.

As far as I can see, the i7 is about £100 more mainly due to the processor cost but are programs going to be optimised for 8 cores soon? I guess Intel will soon release a much more advanced octo-core at a enthusiast level that will maybe leave AMD behind. "Hyperthreading" is also there with i7's.

Erm, any help?

Many thanks,

Marc

 

[Orcvader]

Quick spec up:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (3660-KR) with FREE Borderlands 2 PC Game £249.95
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £85.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £64.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi "Core" USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £46.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
2 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99 (£59.98)
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,024.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).




You should be able to claim a free copy of Windows 7 (and later 8) from your university. Will you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers as well?

The i7 will help with the 3D work and the card has CUDA support, which should help with the rendering times depending on the software you're using. The SSD will also give a boost with your work.

 

[mS_Design]

wow that was quick! and a fantastic looking build! i have monitor and all. Hard drive and case I have already so saves money I also have a 3 year old cooler master 530W PSU. Do you think 4GB of ram is ok for 3d and rendering animations?
The SB-E looks lush!
Thank you so much

 

[Orcvader]

From a friend who does CAD work he copes with 8gb RAM fine with his degree course. So maybe try 8gb first then add on an extra 8gb if you find yourself hitting the limit.

Removing the HDD and PSU:

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (3660-KR) with FREE Borderlands 2 PC Game £249.95
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £85.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi "Core" USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £46.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £878.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).




The cheaper GTX 570 may be the better GPU to go with though, since it has a higher memory bus, but I've no idea how much that affects 3D work.

EDIT: Ah heck with it, we're students, if we can save money then might as well do it :

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £85.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi "Core" USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £46.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £848.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 

[mS_Design]

That's a nicer price, and yes I heard that CUDA helps a lot with this application. Looks like SB-E needs quad channel though, about the same price or slightly more expensive..
Thank you Orcvader, I bow to you

 

[Orcvader]

SB-E can work with single/dual/triple/quad channels, so no problem using 2 sticks of RAM.

 

[mS_Design]

ok cheers, thanks. Is the processor that you have reasonable? is SB-E overkill maybe?
Although I guess its better to have a good processor and average GPU

 

[HankScorpio]

Change ram for Samsung green and OC the **** of of it.

 

[Orcvader]

Change ram for Samsung green and OC the **** of of it.

It's expensive though , students only have so much money...

Nah SB-E is fine, the 3770K is actually more expensive, hence why I went for the 3820.

The 660 Ti and 570 are both powerful cards, so if you feel like gaming it should be able to max out most games on 1080p with no problem.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hello guys,
It might seem quite straight forward but I have been configuring so many different setups from i5 to i7 to 8150's. I am a student so I want to spend as less as possible from my loan (no offense admin)
I will be using 3d rendering programs and animations of such subjects so I am decided on 16GB RAM for definite.

As far as I can see, the i7 is about £100 more mainly due to the processor cost but are programs going to be optimised for 8 cores soon? I guess Intel will soon release a much more advanced octo-core at a enthusiast level that will maybe leave AMD behind. "Hyperthreading" is also there with i7's.

Erm, any help?

Many thanks,

Marc

What software are you using?? This can make a big difference to what graphics card you need.

I would be careful though with the graphics card you buy. You might find Fermi based GF110 cards like the GTX570 are actually more useful for your application,and moreover even a Nvidia or AMD professional card might do a better job due to the more optimised drivers(can make a massive difference). Consumer Kepler cards are based on the GK104(gaming optimised Kepler unlike the GK110 which is not released yet) and many of the GF110 cards(compute optimised Fermi) are better optimised for compute ATM if you are getting a consumer card.

There are also considerations such as VRAM quantity(some software can use a lot of VRAM) and even memory bandwidth might also be important(the GTX660TI is limited in this way).

Do you your research carefully - I would be first aiming to get a decent CPU.

 

[JGStonedRaider]

Was going get a 670 but it seems my 580 is better for premiere pro..Stick with the 570 imo

 

[notthemilkybark]

The whole point of Sandy Bridge E is more than 4 cores, quad channel memory and lots of PCIe lanes. Why make an SB-E build which doesn't use any of those features? :S Why not just go with an Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge, and a less expensive motherboard?

 

[Dirtyganker]

SB-E can work with single/dual/triple/quad channels, so no problem using 2 sticks of RAM.

But thats not optimal and defeats one of the significant strengths of the X79 platform.

For the cost of the memory you might as well get the right solution for 60 quid more and run with 16Gb RAM.

Two modules on X79 is like making Hussien Bolt run whilst wearing only one shoe.

 

[Dirtyganker]

It's expensive though , students only have so much money...

Nah SB-E is fine, the 3770K is actually more expensive, hence why I went for the 3820.

This isn't good advise.

Unless you're planning on getting and using more cores later on, making use of the abundant PCI-E lanes by going SLI/Xfire or something like a Revodrive, using quad channel memory, etc, then SB-E is sub-omptimal and definately won't give you max 'bang for your buck'.

The 3770K will eat the 3820 for breakfast, especially when you're not using X79 optimally. When you're only using 4 cores and single GPU then the 3770K is a better value/performance option than even the 3930K. I looked at this really carefully before I bought my own 3930K. I also own a 2700K and a 3770K, so I've compared them all.

The 3770K might cost a little more than the 3820, but you can make a massive saving on using a more budget oriented Z77 board over an X79 board, which more than compensates - plus you then don't have to use the four modules that would make X79 worthwhile.

 

[Dirtyganker]

But to answer the original question - don't give AMD FX a second look. It's garbage.

 

[llamadal]

But to answer the original question - don't give AMD FX a second look. It's garbage.

What he said.

 

[Orcvader]

But with the SB-E build he can drop in IB-E with more cores/threads later on if he wishes right? Even a second hand 6 core SB-E. And he can always add more RAM, both will help with his course. I'm just trying to also give him an upgrade path that he can take later on.

He can go straight for the 16gb RAM since it's only a £30 difference but he did ask if he could get away with less.

 

[Zaim]

Go with Intel mate you won't regret it, the AMD FX CPU's are poor imo. I'd take a 3570K over a 8 core BD.

The power consumption once oc'd is double that of a 3570k, and it still loses to the i5:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/05/01/intel-core-i5-3570k-cpu-review/6

The builds Orcvader posted look good but I personally wouldn't buy a GTX 570, if you game at 1080p its not ideal unless you don't mind turning the details down.

My heavy old oc'd 570 struggled with BF3 on ultra, ran fine on high though.

I'd go for a GTX 670 personally.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I will be using 3d rendering programs and animations of such subjects so I am decided on 16GB RAM for definite.

The builds Orcvader posted look good but I personally wouldn't buy a GTX 570, if you game at 1080p its not ideal unless you don't mind turning the details down.

My heavy old oc'd 570 struggled with BF3 on ultra, ran fine on high though.

I'd go for a GTX 670 personally.

This is rendering and animation build,not a gaming build. The GK104 is not superior to GF110 Fermi based cards for all compute purposes though.

Moreover,not all rendering and animation software can make good use of the gaming cards anyway and performance can be more dependent on the more optimised drivers found for professional cards. This is what I have gleamed from people who actually have done some of this work themselves.

The OP really needs to find this out first,lest they waste £250 on a card which is of no use for their actual work. If they actually mentioned what software was being used,it would be useful.

I would actually advice them to go on forums which are dedicated to the software they are using, or at least on forums concerned with rendering and animation,so they can get better advice in this regard.

Was going get a 670 but it seems my 580 is better for premiere pro..Stick with the 570 imo

Exactly and this is why the OP needs to do some research regarding the graphics card they need to get.

 

[Lokken86]

How do you display your basket like that on a post?