Editing/3D Modelling Build Help

SeniorEduado · 2 May 2013 at 12:28

So basically I need a new PC capable of video editing and 3D modelling, nothing hugely expensive, around the £1000 mark, preferably something optimized for quick rendering, and as reliable as possible. I do a bit of light gaming, but nothing intensive (I save that for the consoles).

A case that's easily transportable but robust would be preferable, but not essential, I don't need peripherals either.

Something like the Coolermaster HAF XB appealed simply because it fits in a car easily and I don't have to worry about knocking it.

Thanks very much - SE

mickyflinn · 2 May 2013 at 13:00

What software do you use ?

SeniorEduado · 2 May 2013 at 13:13

Premiere Pro and After Effects, and Blender at the moment for modelling, but when cash is spare probably buying 3DS max or Maya.

Leprechaun312 · 2 May 2013 at 14:40

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £279.95
1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787Q2G2M) £199.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal £84.98
1 x Seasonic G series 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £69.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £51.95
2 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9K) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £1,014.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).

i have a 3770k and 16gbs of ram and it has no problem compiling videos and eith the 7870 it is definately capable of rendering 3d scenes in max and maya

SeniorEduado · 2 May 2013 at 15:09

That looks good, is 450 watts going to be enough should I want to expand/upgrade ?

Leprechaun312 · 2 May 2013 at 15:21

it will be enough to ru that system but in the future if you wanted to crossfire and add a secod graphics card you would need a higher wattage power supply

honosuseri · 2 May 2013 at 15:43

Leprechaun312 said:
it will be enough to ru that system but in the future if you wanted to crossfire and add a secod graphics card you would need a higher wattage power supply

The Z77-D3H is not a proper Xfire mobo, you've already been told that *sighs*

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £269.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7870 XT rev2.0 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £104.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £89.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Micro ATX Case - Black £84.95
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL316GB1600C9DC) £83.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £71.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,033.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

The 7870XT can be OC'd to 7950 performance. This mobo is Xfire capable but you'd need a higher rated PSU. The SSD is much better too for write speeds.

smilertoo · 2 May 2013 at 15:58

I'm not sure about recent drivers but i always get nvidia for driver stability in 3d apps.
I'd also go for a bigger case to increase airflow, and overclock the cpu, and 16gb ram.

Leprechaun312 · 2 May 2013 at 16:13

honosuseri said:
The Z77-D3H is not a proper Xfire mobo, you've already been told that *sighs*

it is still crossfire capable i crossfire a 7870 and a 7850 on that boards and i get nearly double the fps in bf3 on ultra @1080p so it is capable, just with the second slot only being 4x it limits it slightly but i still see a massive fps increase

Leprechaun312 · 2 May 2013 at 16:14

smilertoo said:
I'm not sure about recent drivers but i always get nvidia for driver stability in 3d apps.
I'd also go for a bigger case to increase airflow, and overclock the cpu, and 16gb ram.

that is a big enough case that i have specced i can give you a few other options if you want but i have included cooler and a motherboard that is overclockable so as you can overclock there is also 16gbs of ram included

honosuseri · 2 May 2013 at 16:27

Leprechaun312 said:
it is still crossfire capable i crossfire a 7870 and a 7850 on that boards and i get nearly double the fps in bf3 on ultra @1080p so it is capable, just with the second slot only being 4x it limits it slightly but i still see a massive fps increase

You did what!?!

The 7870 will drop to match the 7850. So the extra cost of the 7870 was wasted, might as well have used that cash to get a proper Xfire mobo in the first place.

There is another AMD never settle games bundle now. The 7870XT is a good GPU (it's not really a 7870 at all) but a "full fat" 7950 isn't much more and when you get free games with it too the extra cost is easier to justify

Leprechaun312 · 2 May 2013 at 18:35

honosuseri said:
You did what!?!

The 7870 will drop to match the 7850. So the extra cost of the 7870 was wasted, might as well have used that cash to get a proper Xfire mobo in the first place.

I didn't choose the 7870 i got sent it as a replacement for my broken 6970 and i realised that you can crossfire the 7870 with the 7850 so until i can afford a new motherboard for my second system i am using the 7870 and 7850 from the second system in crossfire

honosuseri · 2 May 2013 at 19:38

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £269.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £104.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL316GB1600C9DC) £99.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £89.99
1 x Silverstone TemJin TJ08B-E Midi Tower Case - Black (SST-TJ08B-E USB 3.0) £83.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £71.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,077.94 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Even smaller mATX case and the 7950 is external exhaust and you cop the free games bundle with it to help justify the extra cost as I mentioned earlier. If you are happy with a normal midi-tower you can save a decent amount of cash. You could consider the Bitfenix Prodigy which is a mini-itx chassis.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £279.95
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel kit (PV316G160C0K) £99.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £89.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £71.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy 'Yin' Mini-ITX Cube Case - White/Black £69.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,041.37 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Much more portable, this mobo has wifi included too. I've just noticed OCuk have upped the price of the Geil RAM kit I used earlier

SeniorEduado · 2 May 2013 at 21:07

Thanks for the specs guys ! The micro cases look pretty cool, but the option to expand the RAM and possibly hook up another graphics card is something I'm interested in, and I understand that the Micro motherboards only have one PCI slot. The portability is great, but I meant more robust and not likely to fall over on a back seat, as opposed to small

I appreciate all the help though, I'm always tempted by the Prodigy !

honosuseri · 2 May 2013 at 21:15

SeniorEduado said:
Thanks for the specs guys ! The micro cases look pretty cool, but the option to expand the RAM and possibly hook up another graphics card is something I'm interested in, and I understand that the Micro motherboards only have one PCI slot. The portability is great, but I meant more robust and not likely to fall over on a back seat, as opposed to small

I appreciate all the help though, I'm always tempted by the Prodigy !

All valid points bud that's why I do like to cover the options fella

Haswell is a new intel socket (1150) and is due around the 4th of June. Maybe you'd like to spend your time waiting looking into a case you'd like to live with.

If you settle on a mATX build doing Xfire gets a little complicated. In the Temjin case you really need an external exhaust GPU. Finding a 750W PSU that will fit (i.e 160mm long) for a reasonable price could be tricky too. Even on an ATX mobo in a fullsized chassis an external exhaust GPU makes a lot of sense, on mATX it's pretty much vital as the cards are sooo close to each other.

All the best with the build bud. I look forward to seeing what you settle on in the end