Where's the ultima demolisher gone? High-end rendering tower spec

[WU-TANG]GZA · 4 Feb 2012 at 12:52

Hi ppl,

Colleague at work is thinking of getting a MAC PRO for media related taks such as HD, 3D video editing all sorts of stuff that I'm really not knowledgeable about and is going to buy a mac pro as stated.

I was going to try to convince him to get the ultima demolisher but cannot find it. I'm sure it's not the number 1 seller at OcUK and perhaps they are making a new one.

Nonetheless, can someone spec me a tower that destroys a MAC PRO for similar price. Having looked at the pricing of the mac pro (christ almighty it's expensive) let's put a £5k limit on the spec.

I'm assuming that it's easy to install OSX on such a tower (similar to installing windows the first time?)

Thanks in advance

jamesfreddie · 4 Feb 2012 at 12:53

Do you want OSX installed on the machine?

[WU-TANG]GZA · 4 Feb 2012 at 12:54

jamesfreddie said:
Do you want OSX installed on the machine?

Yes we will. Thanks

jamesfreddie · 4 Feb 2012 at 12:56

[WU-TANG]GZA;21190432 said:
Yes we will. Thanks

You are going to have to get a Gigabyte motherboard then.

Also you will need a mac to make the install USB.

[WU-TANG]GZA · 4 Feb 2012 at 12:59

jamesfreddie said:
You are going to have to get a Gigabyte motherboard then.

Also you will need a mac to make the install USB.

Do you mean a separate machine? We have loads of macs at work - that's not a problem. We just don't have a mac pro.

Damn, I was just doing a spec from OcUK but they don't have the Gigabyte board.

One another question was I assume than an Nvidia card would be better for those sorts of taks? I wouldn't want to get a 580 right now would prefer to get a 7950/7970 but as it's not for gaming, I'll need advice on what GPU to include.

jamesfreddie · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:03

[WU-TANG]GZA;21190460 said:
Do you mean a separate machine? We have loads of macs at work - that's not a problem. We just don't have a mac pro.

Damn, I was just doing a spec from OcUK but they don't have the Gigabyte board.

One another question was I assume than an Nvidia card would be better for those sorts of taks? I wouldn't want to get a 580 right now would prefer to get a 7950/7970 but as it's not for gaming, I'll need advice on what GPU to include.

Does it just need to do rendering or is it for gaming?

What spec mac pro where you looking at

[WU-TANG]GZA · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:06

jamesfreddie said:
Does it just need to do rendering or is it for gaming?

What spec mac pro where you looking at

It is not for gaming, it is for work.

Circa £5k as I said in the OP.

jamesfreddie · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:10

[WU-TANG]GZA;21190519 said:
It is not for gaming, it is for work.

Circa £5k as I said in the OP.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £274.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £157.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £149.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £143.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £134.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXV2UK) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £67.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98 (£79.96)
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,151.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).

What do you think?

[WU-TANG]GZA · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:16

I had this in my basket but I guess we'd have to get the mobo from somewhere else.

2x Intel Xeon X5650 2.66GHz (Westmere) (Socket 1366) - Retail
£1,437.60

EVGA Classified SR-2 Intel 5520 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard (270-WS-W555-ER)
£499.98

MSI ATI Radeon HD 7970 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£437.99

Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2)
£287.99

Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK)
£244.99

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£179.99

Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred (V3 with USB3.0) Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
£149.99 - would have really wanted the Lian Li case that the Demolisher came in so might get that elsewhere with the Gigabyte mobo

2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001)
£215.98

Pioneer BDR-S06XLB 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail)
£89.99

4x Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9)
£319.96

LG GH24NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - Retail
£19.99

Sub Total : £3,237.04

Total : £3,904.67

jamesfreddie · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:18

[WU-TANG]GZA;21190600 said:
I had this in my basket but I guess we'd have to get the mobo from somewhere else.

2x Intel Xeon X5650 2.66GHz (Westmere) (Socket 1366) - Retail
£1,437.60

EVGA Classified SR-2 Intel 5520 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard (270-WS-W555-ER)
£499.98

MSI ATI Radeon HD 7970 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£437.99

Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2)
£287.99

Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK)
£244.99

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£179.99

Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred (V3 with USB3.0) Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
£149.99 - would have really want the Lian Li case that the Demolisher came in so might get that elsewhere with the Gigabyte mobo
2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001)
£215.98

Pioneer BDR-S06XLB 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail)
£89.99

4x Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9)
£319.96

LG GH24NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - Retail
£19.99

Sub Total : £3,237.04

Total : £3,904.67

Look for a DSDT for the motherboard also look if anybody else has used the HD7970.

[WU-TANG]GZA · 4 Feb 2012 at 13:18

jamesfreddie said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £274.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £157.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £149.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £143.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £134.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXV2UK) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £67.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98 (£79.96)
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,151.38 (includes shipping : £13.75).

What do you think?

I think it's good if I was buying it myself and being worried about price/performance. The company is paying, so VAT will be gone and the chap buying it is about to dump around £5k with apple so I'm trying to show him that he can get a MUCH better machine for less rather than a slightly less good machine for MUCH less money.