Double check my build for compatibilty?

Hardware Build a PC
1

I checked compatibility as much as I know how, it would be nice if someone more experienced could double check it before I commit to buying parts. I'll probably be running Manjaro Linux KDE until Chakra Linux finishes adding support for UEFI, gpt and disk encryption.

I probably wont do overclocking. I will most likely be packaging software in virtual machines, some gaming, 2D and 3D graphics programs such as blender, gimp, and maybe krita in the future.

pcpartpicker list

  •     AMD FX-8350
  •     Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
  •     EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW
  •     Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
  •     Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
  •     Plextor M6S SSD 128GB
  •     XFX P1850SNLB9
  •     Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) FD-CA-DEF-R4-BL
  •     Dell P2214H IPS 22-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor
  •     Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
  •     Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch Small Tablet (CTH 480)



Might I need more case fans?

In the future I might add more RAM.

Thank you.

2

I'd highly recommend a newer graphics card if you can. Is that possible or is there some limitation with the kind of linux you are running? I would also check to make sure you can have pen and touch support as some distos don't have that I think.

 

 

3

I was considering the GTX 580 because as far as I know it's still the second best for blender. Though I could go for a different one so long as it has CUDA and preferably is 2-way sli compatible. Is there one you could recommend for $190 or less?

Part of the reason I decided to go with Wacom is because they seem to have good driver support. I'm pretty sure Chakra ships with the drivers pre-installed, and if Manjaro doesn't, I'm familiar enough with software packaging that I should be able to make it available.

Thanks

Edit: One of my biggest uncertainties is whether or not the ASRock 990FX Extreme4 can disable secure boot; I think I need to do that in order to install Manjaro, but I've had trouble finding a video showing it's UEFI/BIOS.

4

Next time post your build from the perma-link on the system build page @pcpartbuilder,com. It makes it much easier for us to do comparisons and recommendations. 

and where have you found the EVGA GTX 580 for $190  ... the lowest prices I found are ...

  • $260 including shipping for the 1.5GB flavor

http://www.super-laptop-parts.com/brand-new-evga-gtx580-15gb-ddr5-384bit-512sp-graphics-card-p-34899.html

  • $330 including shipping for the 3GB

http://www.super-laptop-parts.com/brand-new-evga-gtx580-3gb-ddr5-384bit-graphics-card-p-34898.html

5

*Adds pcpartpicker link*

I take it $190 would be a good deal then?

6

How about this: I swap out the ASRock 990FX Extreme4 for an Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0, and the EVGA GTX 580 for a EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW. I'll also need to get a SATA optical drive since this board doesn't have an IDE connector. *Updates part list and link*

I'm not sure how that GPU would perform with blender though.

7

if it is the 3GB flavor ... yes  

buy 2 run in SLI

and maybe 4x4GB 1866 Ram

would be a rendering monster

8

everything is compatible in build stated 

9

They're compatible, but probably not ideal.

Blender loves cuda.

Also, that 8ms monitor will be very sad when you game.

Give this a shot.  Should be more powerful and prettier(windowed case).

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Jmf7Mp

10

Would not two of the GTX 580s (assuming they are the 3GB flavor & not the 1.5GB)  in SLI not be better than the one GTX 770 ? (for rendering)

http://www.systemagnostic.com/faqs/quickly-which-is-the-fastest-gpu-i-can-buy/

+1 for the windowed version 

and I completely dropped the ball on the monitor lag in OPs build ... thanks again   

11

Probably, but I'm not a fan of purchasing hardware that old.

12

Your build is good. I don't think you need to change your CPU choice in light of AMD's FX refresh.

However, I do think that it would be better to get the new Radeon 285 instead of the 750Ti. It's about the same price. A quick check on Amazon shows it's $259.99. and it gives a ton of forward-looking features (and thus more futureproofiness): TrueAudio, Mantle, FreeSync, OpenGL, bridgeless CrossFire, updated power tune... and more performance than the 750Ti. The 285 also has great power efficiency, and hardware h.264 encode and decode which significantly reduces power consumption and noise when playing back 4K content.

13

Blender prefers CUDA instead of OpenCL, hence why I'd rather stick with nvidia.

14

OP plans on doing alot of rendering in Blender ... so Nvidia is a better fit for him.