Need Help Please

Hey all, 

Brand spankin' new to the community here, but I've read through as much as I'm able to in 3 days of no sleep, hopefully I retained some stuff as well... I'm here looking to build my first pc. This thing is going to be primarily for 3D modeling and rendering using a combination of software such as Rhino, 3DS Max, Maya, AutoCAD, Adobe Suite, Maxwell Render, VRay Render and perhaps other plugins for those programs such as Grasshopper and such. I will be doing some gaming on the side with this also, though I think that whatever I'll be needing for what I mentioned above should suffice for now. I'd like to keep the build open to upgrades as it's life goes on, so please keep that in mind. Lastly I'm really trying to keep the budget of the build below $800.00 USD without including operating system, monitor, and keyboard/mouse (though I already have a few mice I could use, including an old R.A.T. 9 I was using for 3dmodeling a few years ago, just need to fix that right click). 

 

I got on PCPartPicker and started playing around with some stuff, the link is below.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3NjTVn

The only real aspect I'm attached to is the idea of having a solid state drive for booting and heavier programs such as adobe, and then having an hhd for file storage and such.

I'd appreciate any and all feedback, please remember my original statement of being "brand spankin' new", the fact that I thought I could pull that line off at all is testament to my ignorance.

Thanks in advance, and glad to be on this site, I've found some helpful info on here already!

Hello welcome to the community.

If i read your post correct, this build is mainaly for productiviy, not realy gaming related?

Because as far as i have readed your task list, i would highly recommend something like a Xeon E3-1231V3 build. Because you could definitely use some render performance.

This is what i came up to sofar

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vzwWjX

You could offcourse cheap out on some parts if you like, if you dont need a gaming gpu, you could go with a cheaper 750Ti or what not. 700W psu is way overkill, im still looking for something cheaper for the psu.

Further i think that the Xeon is realy an ideal cpu for your workloads. its basicly an haswell 4770 without igpu. so you have 4 cores 8 threads. Will work well in adobe programms for sure.

Yes I'm agreeing with the overkill on the psu, it seems 400 would do it, maybe a little higher to be safe and for future upgrades?

In terms of the video card, reducing the overall price by about $50 seems very appealing but what would be the main trade offs that would happen there in terms of rendering and gaming power? This is of course a component I can upgrade at a later date.

Also I wonder why the Samsung SSD, is there a reason to choose one brand over another besides reputation or perhaps dependability?

I appreciate the quick feedback, and this seems like a solid place to start!

Sorry, I'm looking into the Xeon and it seems to have heating issues, would you recommend a heat sink of some kind? If I'm understanding correctly, CPU pins are located on motherboard not chip, so if damaged would the motherboard have to be replaced? This seems like a better option than replacing a CPU but I just want to check if I'm right on that.

as far as i know, the Xeon does not have any heating issues.I dont think that an aftermarket heatsink is realy needed right away. The Xeon is a locked cpu so its hard to overclock it anyway. The stock cooler should be more then capable to keep it cool. i never heard of any overheating issues with that particular chip. only with haswell 4770K cpu´s. But thats because they overclocked those chips. Offcourse an aftermarket cooler would be more silent, but you dont have to go too crazy or add one right away. its not nessesary. If you still want a cheap cooler, i could recommend a Coolermaster T212 EVO. for $30,- or so. great bang for buck.

THe pins are indeed on the motherboard sockets on intel platforms now days.

THe reason why i choosed for that particular xeon, is because you get i7 performance for an i5 price. In rendering workloads like you do. The Xeon will definitely makes more sense, because of its Hyper Threading technology. Overclocking isnt interessting for the tasks you are doing, Because stabillity is much more important. So you can basicly use the xeon on a cheaper H97 board with good feutures like i did. The only con of a H97 board is that it does not support Sli but i think thats not realy something to bother about.

About the GPU, thats offcourse depends on how much of a hardcore gamer you are. R9-280 = 7950, is still a very capable midrange 1080p card. Also AMD cards are great with open CL and open GL. If you more of a cuda renderer, then you should look at Nvidia cards offcourse.

PSU is indeed way overkill, 500W is more then enough allready for a single gpu setup. Having more headroom is offcourse never bad. i have to say that $69,- for that particular Rosewill PSU 12V single railed Gold rated psu, is realy a steal.

About the SSD, i choosed the Samsung EVO because they are very decent in my opinnion. If im right corsair was on the same price point? Offcourse you can also look for something diffrent if you like to. But samsungs are very decent, also Crucials seem to be very good.

This is all super helpful, thank you. If I were to invest upfront on that much more overhead for the psu how much could i upgrade before i would need a different one? I guess another question is if its worth investing that money into a psu instead of putting it into something else like the graphics card or more ram? i'd like this computer to last a few years at least so i do foresee upgrades in the future as opposed to building a brand new rig, though that sounds very tempting too.

500W / 550W is basicly all you realy gonne need for a single gpu setup. I was allready looking for a cheaper alternatively psu, But psu´s seem to came up in prices lately. You will maybe save a few bucks, i dont know if you will realy be able to buy something more nice for the saving you are getting on the psu. like i said $69,- for that Rosewill psu is realy a steal.

But if you could find something like a Corsair CX500m or CX600m, XFX pro 550W, Coolermaster VSM or what not on sale for cheaper then i would go for that.

In terms of upgrades, with a 550W psu or something like that, you will have enough headroom, to add a couple of hard drives and what not. or a better gpu if you ever tempt to be a more hardcore gamer. would be no problem at all. As long as the psu is a decent one with preferaly a single 12V rail, for these kind of lower wattage ranges.

I think I'm going to end up picking up the Rosewill just to have more overhead for the future. The last question I think I would have is about an appropriate OS for doing all the things I need done. Again, I think we've determined I will be doing more adobe and 3d rendering with this build, so I was planning on going with Windows 7 but if there's a better OS than this I'd certainly consider it. 

something windows 7 pro / ultimate, or windows 8.1 pro should be fine.

sounds good, awesome! 

Thanks for all the help with this! I'll be doing minor tweaks and reposting the build for more comments at some point, but you've been incredible!