$3200 Complete Desk Setup [Almost solved, Small Help Needed]

Hardware Build a PC
1

*Updated OP!*

Hello everyone,

I've taken out the things that have been presistent in every person's suggestions which were the Logitach MX Performance mouse and the rosewill RK9000 Cherry MX Blue Switches keyboard. Those along with my 3 monitor setup which will include 2x Viewsonic 27" vx2770smhLED (<<or something close to that). And a single Asus 1440p monitor for my main graphics design and video editing.

After taking out those parts from my budget, I am left with about $1750-$1800 Would I still beable to make a beast rig?? I'm hoping to still have the following:

An Ivy Bridge- E processor when those come out, 16-32 Gigs of memory, and a Mobo with onboard sound and wifi (I know the ROG mobos have that but I don't know which one to choose). The rest of the stuff like the cooler, the gpu, all that stuff can be optimized to fit the budget. It doesn't have to be exactly state of the art but It should last me a good 4-5 years before having to upgrade a component. 

Thanks again for all the immense help, If you could please leave your suggestions below that would be awesome! :) <3

-AA

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*EDIT* If you're reading this for the first time, please go to my final post on the thread to see the list i have put together. I ask many questions there that I would love to be answered! :D Thanks again for all the help so far, You guys are awesome! <3

Hello everyone! :) Okay so I know i posted about this before but this is my last time because my budget has been upgraded.

Okay so first of all let me say, This build is taking place at the end of june/ sometime in july. Therefore if you know of any new parts released in CES 2013 that might be available to buy before the summer, please include it with your predicted price in the build.

Second of all, I've been helped out immensley by BrennanRiddell. He's on this forum, i'm sure you've seen him before :) We've been exchanging emails (mostly me asking questions) and he hasn't failed once to come back with a detailed and absolutely satisfying reply making sure that everything I asked about was answered fully.

If you haven't read my previous threads, Basically this is mostly for photography/Cinematography/Graphic design and SOME gaming. While gaming is not my highest priority at the moment, I would still like to beable to play the latest games for the next couple of years to come. Now My aim with this setup is not only to produce professional work for small freelance jobs but also to beable to record long hours of me making a design and uploading it as a speedart to YouTube. So as you can see, I will be handling plenty of large files, doing ALOT of 3D rendering (Cinema4D, AutoCAD, Maya, etc.) and long video exports. I will also be doing tutorials on things i've picked up over the years that I would liek to share online (so I will be needing a microphone).

This is the build we got up to in our latest email: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zcHR

I would like your feedback on how to improve it while staying within my budget. This is a DESK SETUP so all the peripherals I have on the list and others you guys would like to add are an absolute necessity (although I don't need a graphics tablet, I already have that).

From Brennan's advice, I will actually be having an IvyBridge-E processor in my computer once that one is available but for now I think having a High-End Socket 2011 CPU would be good for comparison. If you have an idea about the price range, the feel free to put your prediction as part of the build. Also, Brennan said that the DualBand Wireless adapter would be an amazing component for future proofing my build (because the build has to last ATLEAST a 6-10 years) but i don't personally see the point in it. (NOTE: It doesn't have to run games at the highest asdfgjhjkl amazingness for all of its life but atleast for the next couple of years).

I really do appreciate all the effort that Brennan has helped me with so far, and to avoid annoying him further (because i'm an absolute n000b when it comes to hardware) I am reaching out to the people of TekSyndicate. I know you guys won't let me down. :) <3 So yeah, Have fun.. go crazy, and I can't wait to get tyour responses!

PS!: $3200 exchanges for ALOT of money in my native currency so spending that much on the PC alone would be completely unreasonable, and besides, what's a computer without peripherals. Considering i've been suffering from a laptop until now that costs a sixteenth of that, I really want to utilize this large money grant to its absolute extent. AND EVERY DOLLAR MAKES A DIFFERENCE! I don't live in the US so I'll be shipping the parts over (but the shipping expenses are not part of the budget - so don't worry too much).

-AA

2

I know a 2560x1440 monitor for $400. The brand was "Benq" or something, I don't remember what it was called. I saw someone with 3 of those set up, it was amazing

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Hmm, So you're suggesting a 3 monitor setup rather than one. It's funny you bring that up as it was the subject of one of my emails to brennan, but he argued mainly towards a large screen with a high resolution to favor my graphics design rather than 3 smaller ones with a 1080p resolution. Would you agree?

4

ok so i went with 2 27" 1080p monitors instead of one 2560x1440. You can get more work done on 2 screens than one.  http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zioa

changed the ssd to a Plextor ssd (the fastest and most reliable on the market right now.) changed the mb im 90% sure the one i picked dosen't coil wine (the asrock mb you had has a small fan on the south bridge chipset. very loud)  and with a 1000w platinum psu so you can get very clean very reliable power. your rig needs to be stable for cad the last thing you want is for your system to die.

and plz get a battery back up for your pc. if your looking for a cheep one thenhttp://us.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=opti-ups%20thunder%20shield (but good quality) one is a 2000v(you'll need a 20amp power socket) and the other is 1200v (15amp power.)

http://alturl.com/g7oht

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I forgot to say that benq monitor was a 27" also. I'm not really suggesting a 3 monitor setup for any graphic designing, I would think 1 monitor with the 2560x1440 would be better than 3 monitors for what you're doing.

6

I think I agree with Brennan and Markus when they said that a 27" with a higher resolution would be better for me than dual monitors. And if I really need a second monitor, my dad has an old 20" HP w2007v monitor that I can always use as a secondary. Besides, I'm used to the 13-15" form factor of the laptop screen size so one 27" monitor should be enough. Second thing I would liek to state is that I absolutely hate Seagate drives, I did some research and the barracuda drives can suffer from failures from time to time, and that is not something I'm willing to compromise. These disks will hold my main projects and will only utilize the SSD when i'm actually working on them. So I think i'd rather pay a premium for the WD Drives and probably have two of those in a Raid configuration. The SSD and the PSU suggestions are completely fine, i'm taking them into consideration. but the battery supply is not really needed. We have a really good maintenance system here and the power RARELY goes out without us being notified a good 6-7 hours before hand. So that won't be a necessity. Plus, the extra cost won't fit into my budget.

I've bookmarked the page incase i ever need to buy it, but for now it's not going to be added. Also I'm still waiting on Microphone suggestions. Blue Snowball maybe? I dont know, I'd like your feedback! :D

-AA

7

Definatly go with the blue snowball. Really awesome sound and for a good price also.

Also an Audio technica at2020 is really good also, it's $100. Really depends on your budget. 

8

Have you looked at WD red drives. they spin at 5400rpm but they are baisicly server quality drives. and if your going to use them in raid (what their made for with raid 1 2 5 6 maybe more i cant remember them all) they are very good.  http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ziTu

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I'll look into that right now :) Thanks again. Do you think i would need like a capture card? or a soundcard? Any specific peripherals that might aid my work?

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Also, I would like to beable to have the luxury of ordering everything from one website so that if anything goes wrong or any component is DOA, there's only one person to go to. Also, since these will be shipping outside the US (If i buy them from a US website) which one has a better guaranteed quality? Newegg or Amazon?

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NCIX has international shiping, it costs., if you can buy local it will save you.  i guest you set aside $ to get everything shiped. if not you'll have to look at a i7 1155 build or get the 4 core 2011 i7 and wait till the next cpu release on 2011.

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Shipping costs are set aside from the budget. So that's not really a big problem.

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I just went to NCIX to see if I could get in touch with one of their personnel to try and talk with them and understand how this goes but all of their departments are offline. I tried newegg, but i kept geting stuck on the submitting page where it wouldn't open a live chat window for me. As for amazon, I couldn't even find the bloody thing... and I KNOW for sure they have a live chat option.

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http://ncix.ca/ its in the top baner and you can request a call back you should get one in an hour or two

15

So far this is what I've got:

MAIN COMPUTER

CPU: The equivalent of the 3930K but from the IvyBridge-E processors (4930K?)

CPU Cooler: Swiftech h220

MotherBoard: Still haven't decided :/ Need something that is large, future proof, socket 2011, has onboard WiFi and possibly onboard sound (Suggestions please?)

Memory: Don't really know which brand to choose, but it has to be 32GB (high speed low CAS ofc - Corsair Vengance? 2133 DDR3, CAS of 10)

Storage: I'll have to buy that last I think because i need atleast 4-6 TB (in total) of storage for all my crap and maybe one or 2 SSD's in Raid configuration for my boot drive and multiple OS's (suggestions??)

Graphics card: This is something i'm fairly certain of but just for the sake of knowledge i'd like to compare the following. 2 GTX 670's in SLI vs. 1 GTX 680 (vs. Quadro 4000 which was marketed as a workstation card? apparently it helps in render time of 3D stuff and especially in GPU accelerated programs like AutoCAD)

Sound card: Do I even need one? I'd rather it be onboard the Mobo.

Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2 - Full tower

Power supply: A Seasonic PSU, I'll decide which one depending on the voltage estimate on pcpartpicker.

Optical Drive: If i have the money I'll throw in a Lite-On

PERIPHERALS

Monitor(s): Either a dell Ultrasharp 27" or the Asus 27" 2560x1440 resolution (And i'll use my dad's old HP w2007v as a secondary)

OS: Linux!! :D and Windows 7 (I don't really like 8 tbh)

Keyboard: Rosewill RK 9000 Cherry MX Blue switches.

Mouse: Logitech MX Performance

Microphone: Blue Snowball - Gloss Black

Headphones: [I already have these, Just wanted to mention them here ;) ] Klipsch M40

Extra Case fans: Corsair AF 140mm (I'll see how many I can fit into my budget - ideally though, i'll get 6 of those).

 

And that is all!! :D So what do you guys think? Please leave suggestions for those pieces I left blank and I'll go update the build on PcPartPicker. Then, as soon as all the new stuff is added to the website I'll add up my costs and post my final shopping list! :)

 

16

Still need the help guys, I would appreciate it if you gave me advice on which parts to choose exactly. You don't have to stay within budget for now, I'll adjust that later. Just tell me what I could change, and fill in the blanks (like the GPU question, or the Mobo).

Thanks in advance! :)

-AA 

17

Thanks for the shout-out :)

As for the GPU, the 670 has fewer CUDA cores, but still very similar to the 680's amount. The performance is very close - the 680 only has a 5-7% performance advantage, compared to the stock-clock (non overclocked) 670. When overclocked, the 670 can perform just as well, or better than the stock-clock 680. However, for $100 more, the performance increase is questionable. If you went with the 670, you would still have fantastic performance, and save $100 to put towards SLI in the future. If you want the most performance, the 680 is better, but if you would like to save a bit of money to put towards the a microphone/soundcard, the 670 is a better choice. The performance is very similar, but the 680 is better. The visible performance increase is quite minimal, almost a theoretical increase. If you can get a good rebate on a 680, such as $50 off, then definitely go with the 680. Similarly, if there is a 670 that is discounted, that would be a great decision.

As for sound, the ASUS Repubic of Gamers motherboards have very good built in sound - fantatsic quality for onboard sound. Unless you are doing audio-engineering/studio-level music production, a soundcard is pretty pointless. If you have a nice 5.1 or 7.1 sound system, a soundcard would make sense, but otherwise, you would be spending money that you didn't need to. If you want one, get it after the initial build.

Cheers,

 

Brennan Riddell

 

18

The ROG Motherboards are the Rampage correct? So for example if I went with the Rampage IV Extreme, would that have onboard Wifi, and sound?

19

Alrighty then! I think I have a reference build. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zwBw

I've chosen 2 1080p monitors and a 1440p monitor to use for graphics. I figured if I get a 3 monitor setup, might aswell have them all matching in size! 

There's obviously going to be alot of work done to bring it back under budget, but that adjustment process will happen later after the newer parts have been added to the website and I can actually use their real price not a predicted price.

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get a shimian 1440p off ebay. ($350) and if you don't use adobe, a 7970 will be faster