new build for design student

[jackhobday]

hey,
so i have 500 quid to spend on a tower which i will build myself, i will be using this computer for 3dsmax doing renderings, CAD packages (proEngineer) and Adobe CS3.
I had a few questions about the required spec:

Quad vs Core Duo, realistically is quad core within my budget? will it make a noticeable difference with speed and performance?
For my budget should i be expecting a good core duo and good graphics card rather than an ok quad core?

How much RAM do i require? 32 vs 64bit with respects to 3gb or 4gb+

Graphics card: how much i am looking to spend and what would be a good one(s) to get?

I am looking to build the best performing computer for my budget with the possibility of upgrading in the future (maybe to quad core)

Please could you suggest a good set of specs to work to and maybe specific components to get.

Thanks

Jack Hobday

 

[lamboman]

Antec NSK 4480
Q6600
Tuniq Tower 120
GeIL Black Dragon PC6400C5 4GB
WD6400AAKS
Pioneer DVR-215DBK
Asus 9600GT (chosen for the warranty, which is 3 years. Feel free to go with OcUK's model, which is the same, but with shorter warranty.)
Winodws Vista Home Premium 64 bit

While this totals out at £42 over budget, it is the only way that you will get the quad core and a powerful graphics card.

 

[jackhobday]

do you think quad core is necessary?
a collegue suggested these specs

LN21112 Asus P5N-T Deluxe, NF780i SLI, 3-Way SLi, 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £110.99 £130.41

LN19276 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, Conroe Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 4MB Cache, Retail £90.19 £105.97

LN23627 896MB Leadtek GTX260, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 1998MHz, GPU 576MHz, 192 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV £164.89 £193.75

LN11035 250 GB Hitachi 0A35399/OA33423 Deskstar T7K250, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £25.99 £30.54

LN23930 2GB Corsair DDR2, 6400(800Mhz) 240 DIMM, unbuffered, 5-5-5-18, with Heat Spreader, lifetime warranty £53.98 £63.43

LN14396 Xclio A380 Tower Silver + Window & 25cm Front & 25cm Side Super Cooling Fans Screwless w/o PSU £49.89 £58.62

LN20298 750W TX Corsair PSU, single 12V rail, energy efficient, quiet & cool, fully compatible,5 yr warranty £64.99 £76.36

i would like more RAM and possibly looking at a 64 bit system

 

[fester]

do you think quad core is necessary?
a collegue suggested these specs

LN21112 Asus P5N-T Deluxe, NF780i SLI, 3-Way SLi, 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £110.99 £130.41

LN19276 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, Conroe Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 4MB Cache, Retail £90.19 £105.97

LN23627 896MB Leadtek GTX260, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 1998MHz, GPU 576MHz, 192 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV £164.89 £193.75

LN11035 250 GB Hitachi 0A35399/OA33423 Deskstar T7K250, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £25.99 £30.54

LN23930 2GB Corsair DDR2, 6400(800Mhz) 240 DIMM, unbuffered, 5-5-5-18, with Heat Spreader, lifetime warranty £53.98 £63.43

LN14396 Xclio A380 Tower Silver + Window & 25cm Front & 25cm Side Super Cooling Fans Screwless w/o PSU £49.89 £58.62

LN20298 750W TX Corsair PSU, single 12V rail, energy efficient, quiet & cool, fully compatible,5 yr warranty £64.99 £76.36

i would like more RAM and possibly looking at a 64 bit system

Cant see the point of that at all on .The the e6750 is the same price as the quad core q6600 and not as fast as the new 45nm e8400. The nvidia motherboard is really only for high end sli set ups and at the minute ati crossfire is the best value multi gpu set-ups both totally out of budget ie double .

 

[fester]

double post

 

[fester]

This is what I'd go for.
Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £91.99
(£108.09) £91.99

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £76.99
(£90.46) £76.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-WH Rev.2 Zen White Case - No PSU £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99

Asus P5K EPU Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99

Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14) Sub Total : £488.91 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95 VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £87.48 Total : £587.34

 

[jackhobday]

Cant see the point of that at all on .The the e6750 is the same price as the quad core q6600 and not as fast as the new 45nm e8400. The nvidia motherboard is really only for high end sli set ups and at the minute ati crossfire is the best value multi gpu set-ups both totally out of budget ie double .

so a total rethink?

i still would like to know whether quad core is a realistic option for a budget of £500 and what i would be using the computer for?

also
would people advise sticking to 32 bit and have 3 GB Ram or go for 64 bit?

 

[jackhobday]

hey fester,

thanks for the reply!
but...
i would like to spend less on a hard drive so i can spend more on a graphics card so what would be a better one to look at?
would the quad produce better performance than dual with regards to the software i plan to use?

thanks

jack

 

[benjo]

would the quad produce better performance than dual with regards to the software i plan to use?

thanks

jack

Most probably

Take a look here, it's a chart of nearly every CPU.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/processors/3d-studio-max-9,369.html

Just click show all products at the bottom and notice the Q6600 is near the top. Also bear in mind that if you clocked the Q6600 to 3000mhz, it's effectively a QX6850.

 

[lamboman]

Yep, you'll want a quad. I would actually change the graphics card choice in mine to a 4850, not the 9600GT I said earlier. Believe me, the 4850 is fast enough for what you are doing.

If you aren't doing any major overclocking, the Tuniq Tower is overkill, the F7P is sufficient.

fester's build looks quite nice, but change the case to an Antec Three Hundred, the processor to retail, the hard drive to the one I recommended earlier, and the memory to the ones I also recommended earlier. That will get you a nice build that is £23 over budget.

 

[jackhobday]

Spec Check

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £91.99(£108.09)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £98.99(£116.31)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-WH Rev.2 Zen White Case - No PSU £23.99(£28.19)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99(£15.26)

Asus P5K EPU Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99(£70.49)

Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU £54.99(£64.61)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £58.99(£69.31)

Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) £31.99(£37.59)

ok from the above post ive put together this spec

total inc vat + p&p is £522.72

i would like to possibly oc but not by vast amounts

aslo whats the difference in the ram suggested by lamboman and fester apart from price?

just want to see peoples opinions on the rig and whether i can do better

cheers

jack

 

[fester]

The Ocz ram is guaranteed to run at ddr2 1066 533mhz the Corsair is ddr2 800 400mhz the the Ocz is faster for overclocking or running at tighter timings it is a good price for 4 gigs.

 

[EsaT]

i will be using this computer for 3dsmax doing renderings, CAD packages (proEngineer) and Adobe CS3.

Gaming graphic card won't benefit any of those so passively cooled (no fan to fail) low end, power consumption/heat output friendly card works equally well.
And Corsair VX450 is enough. (even if you have gaming card)

Combined price difference would give you faster and less consuming Penryn core Q9300.

 

[Slashiem]

You wont need any extreme graphics card like the 4850 and 9600gt unless you plan to use it for gaming, but in your description your not, so not needed.
Quad would be helpfull for your CAD work.
Also not sure how much hard drive space you need.

Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)

Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)

Asus ATI Radeon EAH3450/HTP/256M Vcool Silent 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)

Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)

Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99) Sub Total : £380.91 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95 VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £68.93 Total : £462.79

 

[jackhobday]

very interesting,
i was thinking of retail processor but people have suggested OEM, whys that?
why do you suggest the black dragon RAM?
would the above setup still be suitable for oc?

Cheers

 

[jackhobday]

any thoughts?

 

[fester]

Slashiems spec looks good if your not gaming.

 

[jackhobday]

Spec Check!

ok ive got:
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £94.99
(£111.61)

Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36)

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) £44.99
(£52.86)

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £29.99
(£35.24)

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £89.99
(£105.74)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-WH Rev.2 Zen White Case - No PSU £23.99
(£28.19)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26)

Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £39.99
(£46.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
(£46.99)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £58.99
(£69.31)

would it all work, are all the components compatible?
can all fit into the case?
have i forgot anything?

would it be able to oc to 3ghz?


Thanks in advance
jack

 

[lamboman]

Looks good, but change the hard drive to the WD6400AAKS (£10 more, and quite a bit faster), and go for the retail processor (£5 more I think, with a three year warranty, and a spare cooler if you ever need it).

Change the motherboard to the P5Q Pro, it has more features and is only a bit more.
Look at around 3.4GHz if you put some time into it.

 

[jackhobday]

hey
thanks for that i will look into those changes

thanks to all who has inputted

much appreciated!