Help a Mac user back into the fold! Spec me a pc plz

idi99 · 5 Aug 2011 at 01:14

Evening all, this is yet another 'Spec me a pc thread' I'm afraid.

I've seen you guys come up with some valid alternatives for other people so thought i'd pick your brains before ordering! especially as I have been using a mac for a few years now so haven't built a pc for at least 5 years, but built a few in the past. (including a DX2 66Mhz with 4 meg ram, classic! £30 a mb back then lol)

I will mainly be using this pc to do graphics/3d modelling work (using Adobe creative suite, ZBrush, Rhino 5, solidworks) and gaming.

Therefore I know I want 16gig ram. I am less certain if I need to get the i7 cpu and Gtx 580 or will a i5 and 570 suffice. (ATI not an option). I want games to run maxed out (at current monitor res 1920x1200).

I would like an ssd of at least 120gig (sata 6Gb) for main boot drive, but unsure of the current crop, I want a fast and reliable one preferably (probably like asking for the moon on a stick?) was thinking maybe the M4 as an alternative to the corsair, but its a good chunk of cash more.

Also power supply is also a grey area, again just want it to do the job quietly and for a long time, with the head room to run one or two more hd's in future

Not bothered by fancy case really but like the simple design of the BitFenix, unless there's a reason not to buy it.

CPU cooler has to also be quiet, don't want to listen to a jet engine all day.

Would like to keep budget around the £1000 mark but a bit more/less is ok if worth it, or a valid compromise. (cheaper means more beer money

)

This is what I've tentatively put together:

=============================================================
Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "GOOD Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £371.99

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £227.99

Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) £147.98

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-00765) £114.98

Corsair Vengeance Blue 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B) £107.99

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXV2UK) £74.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD7502AAEX) £49.99

BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £49.99

Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler £25.99

LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £6.98

Total : £1,355.86 inc shipping
======================

I'd appreciate your comments/suggestions.

Thanks

Quixote · 5 Aug 2011 at 02:05

I do a lot of similar work, although not the exact same packages (mainly Cinema 4D) but I have a few comments.
Overall, a very good spec.

First, If you go for the 580 over the 570, I think the benefit will be mainly for gaming. I can't see it making a significant difference in 3D apps. Even in the viewport, you'll often end up CPU limited anyway. Depends on price difference I guess. I mean this :
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-149-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010
is a £130 saving and I can't imagine you'll be dissapointed with it for gaming or 3D.

I can't see any point buying a £150 Z68 board. About the only advantage they have is better SLI support but :
-it's a small difference anyway, like 3% on top end cards
-almost no 3d packages benefit from sli at all
Just get a nice mid range P67 board and save £50

-You could save a bit of money by going for 2 of these kits :
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-098-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1516
and you wouldn't have to worry about the large heatspreaders getting in the way of cpu coolers. But there's very little in it, your first choice is great too.

Greavesy · 5 Aug 2011 at 02:16

I dont know if you actually need the i7 but definately go for the retail version, the extra 2 years of warranty can come in handy

chrisarm · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:23

I'd say stick with the z86 mobo as it allows you to use the internal GPU of your CPU, this might not seem important but it also unlocks the extras in the GPU which helps speed up video editing which may be helpful for what your doing. The P67 does not allow you to do this.

Here is a quick component list a bit closer to your budget

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 560Ti DS SuperClocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) £147.98
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Professional 64 Bit £99.60
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £47.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,024.98 (includes shipping : £13.75).

If you do want to go the P67 route (dunno if video editing would be usefull to you) then your budget could include the 2600k
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 560Ti DS SuperClocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) £147.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Professional 64 Bit £99.60
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £68.98
1 x OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £47.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,026.97 (includes shipping : £13.75).

If a 1 gb card is not enough for what you need there is always the 2 gb 6950 for about the same price
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-OK
Hope this helps

idi99 · 5 Aug 2011 at 20:59

Thanks for all the input. Thinking maybe 2600k and gtx 570 would probably be good enough.

hadn't thought of the retail version CPU for the warranty so will def look at that, cheers.

anyone else got any good alternatives to the ssd? or is that corsair deal as good as it looks?

thanks

Reaper 392 · 6 Aug 2011 at 00:12

as everyone has said, a 560Ti will be plenty for the graphics programs. to be honest i;d be surprised if a 460 wasnt enough for all of them. anything more that you want will be purely for gaming. solidworks isnt likely to use more than 8GB RAM, but i have no idea about the other programs

i would go for this as a lower end spec:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 460 HAWK "Super-OC" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £129.59
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Professional 64 Bit £99.60
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black £51.59
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £808.19 (includes shipping : £13.75).

or this for the same budget as you have specced yourself:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £254.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £173.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 2 RV02B Full Tower Case - Black £129.98
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Professional 64 Bit £99.60
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £29.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99 (£107.98)
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £1,351.15 (includes shipping : £14.75).

main reason for the case change was because the cooler wouldnt fit in the original case. other reason for the case change is because it has fantastic cooling, meaning the graphics and processor fans wont have to go as fast.

big PSU is there so you can go SLI later on. wont help much with the graphics programs, but it will give your gaming a major boost (~90% framerate increase)