Mid-range 2D & 3D Design/Gaming Build

Mel17

Mel17

Mel17

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Joined
3 Feb 2013
Posts
124
Location
Manchester, UK
Hello all,

I’m a designer but also gamer who is looking to build a completely new set-up within the next month or so. Although I’ve done a lot of reading about searching, I’m not so sure about what components are best for my needs so I’m asking for help selecting.
I do digital painting everyday and in between that use programs like 3DSMax and ZBrush to do 3D work. With this new system I’ll be playing a bunch of games in my free time, mainly the huge steam backlog of games I bought in the sales in anticipation of this build :) !! Watching movies, listening to music and internet browsing will also be common practice. I’m wanting this system to last around 4 years.
I’m happy to do things like searching for the best price for the components once I know what specification I’ll be needing.

Approximate Purchase Date:
As soon as I have decided on all the parts and can get the best offer for my timescale (needs to be up and running by at least mid March at the latest). Will be building it within 24 hours of the parts being delivered.

Budget Range: £1000-£1200 including shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
(I’ve linked the system requirements for some of the software)
Digital Painting using Corel Painter, Photoshop CS3 (might upgrade to CS6 after build)
3D modelling using 3DSMax, Maya, Mudbox and ZBrush
Regular Gaming: games such as Sleeping Dogs, Dead Island

Are you buying a monitor: Yes 1920x1080 resolution
I will be using a dual monitor set-up. Planning to buy either Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23 inch or Dell Ultrasharp U2212HM 22 inch


Parts to Upgrade: All parts since it is a completely new build.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, Windows 7 Home Premium


Parts Preferences: No preference as such, just wanting to get the best longevity for the price range. I’d rather pay a bit more for quality rather than skimp and have to re-buy sooner.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Will be using a dual monitor set-up. Planning to buy either Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23 inch or Dell Ultrasharp U2212HM 22 inch

Additional Comments:

Will definitely be purchasing 16GB RAM, in the 2x8GB format. I also would like a Blu-Ray drive, in terms of what I might do in the future, I thinking RW is best.
I’m aiming for at least 2TB of HDD and a 128GB SSD. Not sure whether to purchase two 1TB HDD and use for work and one for gaming, or just stick to buying a single 2TB HDD.
I’m going to need to buy either a USB wireless adapter or a PCI wireless card. From initial research it seems like the PCI card comes up trumps however any extra advice would be helpful.
I’ve got a mouse already that I can use for now, I just need a wireless keyboard. This was the one I was thinking of buying this one or this one.

After doing some initial research, I've compiled the following parts:
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, D-Sub/ DisplayPort/ DVI/ HDMI, ATX
Or
Asus P8Z77-V, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), DisplayPort/ DVI-D/ HDMI, ATX
Or
Asus P8Z77-V PRO, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, D-Sub (VGA)/ DisplayPort/ DVI-I/ HDMI, ATX 

Thats where i'm up to at the moment. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'll start you off....

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £275.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £73.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (KHX16C10B1BK2/16X) £71.99
1 x OcUK BDRW 16x SATA Internal - OEM £69.95
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Midi Tower German Edition Case - Black/Red/Gold £49.99
1 x Logitech K350 Wireless Keyboard (920-002012) £46.99
Total : £1,400.28 (includes shipping : £13.75).



This is all I've got so far, I'm sure it can be improved upon.

Would you consider Grade- items? This would reduce the cost overall. There is nothing wrong with grade-b, just unwanted items which have been returned, possibility of some items having missing accessories.
 
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £229.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Dell Studio S2340L 23" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £164.99
1 x Adata XPG SX900 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (ASX900S3-128GM-C) £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £75.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £73.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (KHX16C10B1BK2/16X) £71.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Zero Infinity Phantom Knight CPU Cooler - Black (Socket 775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £49.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £36.98
1 x TP-Link 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter (TL-WDN4800) £27.98
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 (2LF-00021) £24.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,201.33 (includes shipping : £13.75).



to keep in budget, standard dvdrw drive, altered vga card to a 3gb one and a few tweeks here and there, wireless card is ott but works great same as cooler, just very large, some stuff out of stock but will be here by the weekend or next at worse

have picked adata sdd, have 2 my self but the 256gb version, work great, rock solid and fast, not to everyones cup of tea, but hay ho :)
 
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budgets too tight for all that's needed, don't like b grade stuff either so didn't go looking for any, can always add it (BluRay) later when pockets are deeper snips :)

and for some of his programs, i would have liked to add a i7 instead for more horse power but budget didn't allow, but same as drive it can be added later

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-083-PO&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314


£54.98 inc VAT minus dvdrw = £37.99 over budget if needed to be added
 
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This:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £83.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Pioneer BDR-S07XLT 12x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £45
Total : £1,233.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660TI OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £161.99
1 x Adata XPG SX900 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (ASX900S3-128GM-C) £95.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (KHX16C10B1BK2/16X) £71.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM £50
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.98
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter (TL-WN851ND) £19.99
Total : £1,275.79 (includes shipping : £19.10).



I've not included OS, could use the developer version untill you can buy one.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions guys! Didn't expect so many so fast :)

As far as my budget goes, if to get the best value vs performance, i may be able to increase it slightly to say £1500 max. If it makes much difference maybe omit the cost of the monitors from the overall cost since it will be two monitors rather than one. Like i said, i'd rather pay for quality products/build that has a good longevity rather than skimp and have to replace sooner.

The only reason i suggest a wireless card is due to the fact i'm unable to get the Ethernet cable to my room and saw that as a good solution as opposed to the USB since I've had problems with them in the past, but alternatives would be welcome.
 
Mel17 said:
Thanks for the suggestions guys! Didn't expect so many so fast :)

As far as my budget goes, if to get the best value vs performance, i may be able to increase it slightly to say £1500 max. If it makes much difference maybe omit the cost of the monitors from the overall cost since it will be two monitors rather than one. Like i said, i'd rather pay for quality products/build that has a good longevity rather than skimp and have to replace sooner.

The only reason i suggest a wireless card is due to the fact i'm unable to get the Ethernet cable to my room and saw that as a good solution as opposed to the USB since I've had problems with them in the past, but alternatives would be welcome.
Click to expand...

I would do something like this in that case:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £275.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £92.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (KHX16C10B1BK2/16X) £71.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM £50
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.98
Total : £1,213.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



and this could be a good alternative to wireless Ethernet cards:

YOUR BASKET
1 x TP-Link AV200 200Mbps Mini Powerline Starter Kit (TL-PA211KIT) £29.99
Total : £35.96 (includes shipping : £4.98).

 
You guys can afford to go a touch lower on the graphics card to save money for other parts of the system.
Photoshop can use the GPU but it's not a main driver of performance.
ZBrush is surprisingly mainly CPU driven.
Most viewport speed bottlenecks in max and Maya will come from CPU single-core speed ie deformation calculations, particles, cloth etc (although max can use GPU for physics acceleration). GPU is mainly only the bottleneck when dealing with very high-poly static meshes.
Main thing on these applications is to have high single core speed (for viewports) and as many cores/threads as you can afford (for rendering). Better to drop the GPU back to make room for the 3770.
 
Thanks for the updates guys.

In terms of the Seagate HDD suggested, I've read various negative reviews about their unreliability particularly since the warranty period has been shortened. Should i be looking for a WD drive instead then? Opinions on this would be appreciated.

I did at first consider the powerline option and upon re-thinking it, its definitely an option. I guess easier to sort out should there be any problems rather than re-opening the pc case.

Apologies for all the questions, theres just so much to consider its a bit confusing!
 
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1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD £149.99
2 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95 (£259.90)
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K4/16X) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £36.98
Total : £1,495.43 (includes shipping : £14.75).



with a increase in budget, went for different socket cpu and m/b, different make of hdd, quad channel ram with keeping a good vga card, and including 2x24" monitors.

have been able to add bluray this time

whats still needed is wireless or power line option, only go powerline if you know or are sure you age of house wireing as it may or may not work, same as good wireless reception etc if walls and cables are older type etc

OR,

1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £149.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD £149.99
2 x Samsung S24B300BS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95 (£259.90)
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K4/16X) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x TP-Link AV 500 Gigabit PowerLine HomePlug Adapter Kit (TL-PA511KIT) £64.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £36.98
Total : £1,490.46 (includes shipping : £14.75).



taking advice from above, lowered the vga power slightly and kept rest of bits, but then added TP-Link AV 500 Gigabit PowerLine HomePlug Adapter Kit, as if your going down that route, you might as well have fast ones for best speed, as a different cpu/ m/b added with a slightly increase in mhz of other socket and quad channel ram, might suit the apps/programs more and give it a bit more power, plus changed to WD, also my choice if i was buying as also don't like the poorer reliability of some of Seagate HDD in the past, and a better warranty is always worth it for HDD as my choice as 5 years against 1 to 2 years for others
 
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snips86x said:
It's not a hex-core so the difference over the 3770k is going to be minimal, the 3770k would thrash the Sandy:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/551?vs=523
Click to expand...

be we agree it's faster (minimal gain of a few % is still a gain) :) if only by a bit, add that to the different socket and faster ram it all adds up, 5% gain for the same money is better than nothing, if user could wait then see how newer socket preforms, but i think with that from what i read is only power saving gains, with little real horse power change, but we will see

the test prove that with some apps and program certain setups one is better than the other, with other bits being changed the gap gets more blured, if both used dual memory yes, if one used dual and the other quad, then no, it's about the same for some programs, but better for other so would be worth it, for the same price, as it's no extra, just different hardware / socket with a few different tweaks, if it's the same or a few % better for same costs, id have the latest one, but agree it's close for some apps/programs, but thats how they are programmed more than how the cpu performs.

and i base my max 5% gain on h88p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-channel_memory_architecture, with 1 or 2% gain coming from cpu in some tests with the rest from socket / memory type
 
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Thanks once again guys, really appreciating the help.

What are the main performance advantages/differences between the zakblood and snips86x most recent suggested builds? Also noticed they have different CPU between the 3 of them. Will the benefits be noticeable? I'm liking the look of all 3 builds, but just a bit confused about the benefits of having the 4x4gb vs 2x8gb RAM.

I'll do some checks with regards to if the powerline will work. I think it should be OK since we have had the house rewired in the past 10 years.
 
Mel17 said:
Thanks once again guys, really appreciating the help.

What are the main performance advantages/differences between the zakblood and snips86x most recent suggested builds? Also noticed they have different CPU between the 3 of them. Will the benefits be noticeable? I'm liking the look of all 3 builds, but just a bit confused about the benefits of having the 4x4gb vs 2x8gb RAM.

I'll do some checks with regards to if the powerline will work. I think it should be OK since we have had the house rewired in the past 10 years.
Click to expand...

The difference is the generation of technology. My build is based on 3rd gen which is more power efficient & quicker that zak's 2nd gen as well as being more expensive. Zak's would be good if you could afford to get the hex-core CPU, but your looking at £450 just for the CPU. 3770k would be fine.

You could wait till July as Intel's 4th Gen will be released then :D
 
my rule of thumb is, for most games 4 core atm, ie this year at least will be plenty, so get the fastest 4 core for your budget, for anything else most of the time a i5 for mid range and price, a trinity chip or i3 for low end, i only go i7 or 8350 if there is a need for the extra cores and power etc.

the 3820 for it's price and overclocking headroom is a great chip, but not faster in some users than the 3770K but in others it can be, price around about the same, but different memory and a few other bits on the different socket can make it worth while for some, but yes not for all.

3930K has more cores and again is a very very good chip, but power v price it's a tough call so unless budget is very good most tend not to pick it, same as the 3970X which tbh is just a silly price full stop.....

must agree with snips above, if you can wait, you may find it better as then at least you will be on the later socket even if the chip isn't much faster, seems they just are better with power and a % quicker, but might be proved wrong, only a few months wait to see

more ram is better than less ram, speed normally only matters for benchmarking as most can't tell difference between slowest and fastest tbh, but quad is faster than dual, no matter what timings, same as the slowest sdd is still faster than any standard hdd.

and to reply to your other question Mel, no you won't see any difference in any of the cpu's unless you could benchmark all 3 in the same board which you can't as there different sockets and parts etc, but most couldn't tell anyway, 5 seconds to load something on one might take 5 seconds on another, with one being quicker but you couldn't measure it without using some sort of test program.

the main advantage over one cpu to another is socket, the later ones are more resent and can be quicker or have more bits and bobs on, most don't use or need them, but there their if you do, the older sockets will get phased out sooner so you loose the support and updates long term etc
 
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Ahh right i see now, thanks for clarifying.

Unfortunately, i'm not able to wait until July, as I have to do some 3D rendering and animation for my final major university project around the beginning of April. Since my laptop is only 4GB RAM and only a 2GHz dual core cpu, it would be a pain and slow to render using it, especially since my timing for the project is pretty tight. Plus having the option of the two systems during my project will mean i can do my 2D art on the laptop while the desktop is doing the CAD rendering.

I understand what you're saying about the ram now.

Just looking back and comparing the builds suggested. With Snips if i take the cost of the monitors out and powerline out (since they have less impact on system performance) i'm looking at £1213.

With Zaks (minus powerline and monitors), i'm looking at £1236 for the first build you suggested, £1165 for the second build you suggested.

Price wise there is not much difference and if i understood you both correctly, the main difference is the generation of the cpu and its possible i wont be able experience a noticeable difference with the speed/performance. (correct me if i'm wrong) So if anything the main difference is the CPU type and motherboard?
_______________________________

EDIT: Thanks for the help guys, ordered snips' suggestion (with a few tweaks).
 
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