My current PC is on its last legs and is now more often than not refusing to turn on - it has become a bit of a lucky dip and means that I cant really take work home with me in case the thing wont start up.
Looking to build a bit of a jack of all trades, lots of AutoCAD, 3DS Max (Mental Ray & Iray), Adobe CC and Gaming.
The build is currently looking like this:
Case - Corsair 350D
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-X87MX-DH3
CPU - Xeon E3-1230 V3
Heat Sink - Xigmatek Dark Knight Nighthawk
GPU - EVGA GTX 770 4GB (Iray allocated memory usage when rendering is linked to the GPU memory and isn't cumulative and a Titan, high end quadro or Tesla is well out of the price bracket). I like the look of the Gainward Phantom but its a triple slot card so will probably restrict putting another card in the next PCI slot should I add another in the future.
PSU - Silverstone SST-ST75F-75 GS Strider 750W (it has some blue accents on the modular sockets and no graphics on the sides)
RAM - Corsair Vengance Pro (With the blue accents to match the blue on the Mobo)
Fans - 6 (2 of the heat sink) Corsair SP120 Quiet series (I'll probably Vinyl die the detachable rings to match the other blue a little better)
Hard Disk - I'll reuse the 120GB Crucial M400 I already have, Add a 240GB Corsair Neutron for Steam Games & A WD 1TB Black for backup.
Looks good, make sure you're using about 16GB of ram minimum for this, cause that will help a lot.the 4GB 770 is a perfect choice in your situation, same with the cpu. I dont know anything about gigabyte's workstation mobos though, but it should do the trick.
So here's roundabouts your build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3btMz ($1532)
Let's see if we can't work with that budget and do a little more if we don't focus on the part color particulars...
And here it is: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bujb ($1543)
You won't notice the difference between the SSDs or HDDs (and really there's no reason to buy an $80+ HDD unless it's 2TB+), won't notice the difference between the Memory... better PSU... overclockable CPU, and the huge 770 to 780 GPU leap... all at the cost of a color scheme :/
Switched out the RAM, PSU, and Drives for some more affordable units that probably wont make any difference to performance. The cooler is in there jut as a reference as PC part picker doesn't seem to list the DK for some reason.
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.88 @ Aria PC) CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Prime SD1484 90.3 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£39.99 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£98.24 @ Scan.co.uk) Memory: Kingston Beast 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£111.96 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Corsair Force Series 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£99.98 @ Scan.co.uk) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.99 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card (£318.92 @ Scan.co.uk) Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£83.87 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£91.99 @ Dabs) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans (£19.99 @ Aria PC) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans (£19.99 @ Aria PC) Total: £1113.80
DrunkenPanda - Don't want to switch to the 780 as I'll lose a gig of GPU memory which is a killer in iRay and don't plan on OC'ing so the extra money for an i7 which is basically the same chip would be wasted.
I'll fully admit that I am very shallow when it comes to colour matching.
Hikage - I chose the board mainly due to the price and the placement of the PCI slots, the others in this price range seem to have the second PCI slot just above the ports and headers at the base of the board which looks very cramped. At least with this one the second 8x PCI slot is further up the board and the 4x at the bottom will remain empty regardless of putting an extra card in. The ASrock is the same but has brown all over the PCB, and the MSI gaming is red which everyone seems to have done with this case/fans, did I mention that I'm shallow?
Due to space constraints which I hadnt taken into account, a 350D isn't nearly as small as I was expecting, and the Bitfenix Prodigy/Phenom/Colossus are too wide for there my PC is situated, I switched to an N200 which also happens to be less than half the price of any of them.
Switched to the Gryphon as the Gigabyte board needs a case with 5 PCI slots to SLI whch I'd like to do eventually, and certainly don't want to rule it out from the get go.
The GPU is a bit of a default choice at them moment as I'm tempted to wait for the 800 series or see if the 760 drops in price when they are released and snag a second for SLI. Either way it will probably be the last part I purchase.
Finally got the money together for my build worked out to £900. No problems so far except for the rookie mistake of over tightening the CPU cooler. Flexed the motherboard slightly after checking it, backed the fixing off and it seems fine. Booted into the BIOS OK on the test run.