Building a new workstation

[Rimsek]

So a friend of mine needs a new workstation for Nemetscheck Allplan (cad).

 

Here's what i plan to use:

 

CPU: Intel i7 4790k

Mainboard: Asus Sabertooth  Z87

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30

SSD: Samsung SSD 850 Pro Basic (2 times 256GB in Raid 1)

HDD: Seagate Constellation ES.3 (2 times 1TB in Raid 1)

GPU: Saphire FirePro W7000

RAM: Kingston Fury Black (2 times 8GB @1866MHz)

PSU: Corsair CX600M (still have one of those laying around)

 

I don't know which case to use yet. Coolermaster Storm Trooper, Corsair Obsidian 750D or the Corsair Graphite 600TM Black are the options i have.

I don't want the system to be loud, it doesn't have to be quiet but it shouldn't bother while working. it's also possible to buy other fans, since money isn't much of a problem.

 

Any other parts you would swap out? if so why? 

 

I hope for some usefull answers.

Greetings Basil 

[Guest]

Go for a Z97 board.

[Rimsek]

If you want something quiet, you might just get the Define R4 or the Define XL. If it's too loud then you might change out all of the fans with Noctuas. Maybe a higher wattage power supply? You shouldn't need it though.

They don't have the Define XL in my local part store, it took me long enough to convince him to let me build it, trying to get him to order parts via amazon is useless. and i guess the normal R4 is to small.

 

 

Go for a Z97 board.

 

 

Any other parts you would swap out? if so why?

 

reason please

[menendez1293]

They don't have the Define XL in my local part store, it took me long enough to convince him to let me build it, trying to get him to order parts via amazon is useless. and i guess the normal R4 is to small.

 

 

 

reason please

They generally cost the same thing, it officially supports the 4790K out of the box, are the new chipset, and have support for M.2 and SATA Express 

[brob]

So a friend of mine needs a new workstation for Nemetscheck Allplan (cad).

 

Here's what i plan to use:

 

CPU: Intel i7 4790k

Mainboard: Asus Sabertooth  Z87

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30

SSD: Samsung SSD 850 Pro Basic (2 times 256GB in Raid 1)

HDD: Seagate Constellation ES.3 (2 times 1TB in Raid 1)

GPU: Saphire FirePro W7000

RAM: Kingston Fury Black (2 times 8GB @1866MHz)

PSU: Corsair CX600M (still have one of those laying around)

 

I don't know which case to use yet. Coolermaster Storm Trooper, Corsair Obsidian 750D or the Corsair Graphite 600TM Black are the options i have.

I don't want the system to be loud, it doesn't have to be quiet but it shouldn't bother while working. it's also possible to buy other fans, since money isn't much of a problem.

 

Any other parts you would swap out? if so why? 

 

I hope for some usefull answers.

Greetings Basil 

 

I wouldn't bother with the 2x 850 Pro ssd, the difference in performance is not going to make a huge difference in this application. Go with the 2x 840 EVO or MX100 and put the savings into either larger drives or more main memory. My vote would be more memory as that can make a real difference with larger projects and providing buffers for storage.

 

Without the details on the memory timings it is not possible to comment on it.

 

If you already have the psu it's ok. But if buying new I would suggest something a little better, especially if noise is an issue.

 

Cases to consider: Fractal Design Define R4, Corsair Carbide 330R , Nzxt H630, Nanoxia Deep Silence 3, 5, or 6.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Go for a Z97 board.

no use. Z97 only adds sata express and m.2.

The chip is accually Z87 rev 2

[Electronics Wizardy]

Try using a zeon like the 

E3-1276 v3

same price and supports ecc so you can use that if you need relibality.

Is there a reason your using a firepro not a quadro. I know many apps work better with cuda but i don't know that specific app

[Guest]

no use. Z97 only adds sata express and m.2.

The chip is accually Z87 rev 2

It makes sense to buy the latest chipset Motherboard. If he wants a Z87 board then he might as well go for an i7 4770K. The Z97 boards are about the same price, so I don't see the logic in buying the older Z87 board.

[Rimsek]

They generally cost the same thing, it officially supports the 4790K out of the box, are the new chipset, and have support for M.2 and SATA Express 

 

Any reccomendations for a z97 motherboard up to 200$ ?

 

 

I wouldn't bother with the 2x 850 Pro ssd, the difference in performance is not going to make a huge difference in this application. Go with the 2x 840 EVO or MX100 and put the savings into either larger drives or more main memory. My vote would be more memory as that can make a real difference with larger projects and providing buffers for storage.

 

What's the difference between the 850 Pro and 840 Evo? 

more storage won't be needed, he worked with a system using  120GB ssd and 1TB HDD without problems.

 

 

Try using a zeon like the 

E3-1276 v3

same price and supports ecc so you can use that if you need relibality.

I'm mostly using cpubenchmark.net to choose the cpus i use in builds, is the site unreliable? because it marks the E3-1275 v3 with a cpu mark score of 9617, while the 4790k gets 11,445

 

 

Is there a reason your using a firepro not a quadro. I know many apps work better with cuda but i don't know that specific app

 

it's a bit cheaper  than the quadro k4k,  might call the tech support and ask what GPU they reccomend.

it's also the first card shown on the system requirements page of allplan so it can't be wrong i guess? <.<

[Rimsek]

It makes sense to buy the latest chipset Motherboard. If he wants a Z87 board then he might as well go for an i7 4770K. The Z97 boards are about the same price, so I don't see the logic in buying the older Z87 board.

i mainly choose the sabertooth z87 because i like the armor and dust covers, i'm not against changing it

[Guest]

i mainly choose the sabertooth z87 because i like the armor and dust covers, i'm not against changing it

There is a Z97 Sabertooth board if you still want the thermal armor. They should be the same sort of price.

 

On the UK website I use, the Z87 and Z97 Sabertooth are the same price.

 

YOUR BASKET

1 x Asus TUF Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard  £176.99

1 x Asus Z87 SABERTOOTH Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard  £176.99

Total : £363.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[Rimsek]

There is a Z97 Sabertooth board if you still want the thermal armor. They should be the same sort of price.

 

On the UK website I use, the Z87 and Z97 Sabertooth are the same price.

 

for some reason i only find the mark 2 (without armor) for about the same price, the mark 1 which includes armor costs almost 100$ extra, but like i said, i wouldn't mind changing the motherboard for another one. just give me some recommendations and tell me why you would choose it.

[Guest]

for some reason i only find the mark 2 (without armor) for about the same price, the mark 1 which includes armor costs almost 100$ extra, but like i said, i wouldn't mind changing the motherboard for another one. just give me some recommendations and tell me why you would choose it.

Where are you buying from ?

[Rimsek]

Where are you buying from ?

Steg-electronics.ch, the site isn't available on english, only German, italian, and french

but digitech.ch ,which has an english version, has pretty much the same prices: https://shop.digitec.ch/en/Search?q=sabertooth+z97

[Guest]

Steg-electronics.ch, the site isn't available on english, only German, italian, and french

and digitech.ch ,which has an english version, has pretty much the same prices: https://shop.digitec.ch/en/Search?q=sabertooth+z97

It seems that there is a big difference in price for the Z87 Sabertooth motherboard on those sites.

 

159.90 - http://www.steg-electronics.ch/de/article/asus-sabertooth-z87-297143.aspx

224.00 - https://shop.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/asus-sabertooth-z87-lga-1150-intel-z87-atx-motherboard-630217

 

And the Z97 version is 247

 

In that case you might as well stay with your original choice. You might have to update the bios on the Motherboard for the cpu to work depending on what bios version is on the board, but it will work ok after that. If you do need to update it, then you need Bios version 2003 from Asus website.

 

http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_Z87/HelpDesk_CPU/

[Rimsek]

It seems that there is a big difference in price for the Z87 Sabertooth motherboard on those sites.

 

159.90 - http://www.steg-electronics.ch/de/article/asus-sabertooth-z87-297143.aspx

224.00 - https://shop.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/asus-sabertooth-z87-lga-1150-intel-z87-atx-motherboard-630217

 

And the Z97 version is 247

 

In that case you might as well stay with your original choice. You might have to update the bios on the Motherboard for the cpu to work depending on what bios version is on the board, but it will work ok after that. If you do need to update it, then you need Bios version 2003 from Asus website.

 

http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_Z87/HelpDesk_CPU/

 

I know how to update bios ^^ i've done it a few months ago when i upgraded my gaming rig

but like i said, if someone reading this thread can give me a good recommendation for a sub 200$ z97 mobo i wouldn't mind changing it, i only included the sabertooth z87 at first because theres such a wide variety of motherboards and i picked one which looked good, i mean most of them have pretty much the same stuff <.<

[Guest]

I know how to update bios ^^ i've done it a few months ago when i upgraded my gaming rig

but like i said, if someone reading this thread can give me a good recommendation for a sub 200$ z97 mobo i wouldn't mind changing it, i only included the sabertooth z87 at first because theres such a wide variety of motherboards and i picked one which looked good, i mean most of them have pretty much the same stuff <.<

Something like this Asus would be fine. Like you say, most boards have pretty much the same feature set unless you start going for the crazy expensive ones 

 

http://www.steg-electronics.ch/de/article/asus-z97-c-841625.aspx

[brob]

Any reccomendations for a z97 motherboard up to 200$ ?

 

 

 

What's the difference between the 850 Pro and 840 Evo? 

more storage won't be needed, he worked with a system using  120GB ssd and 1TB HDD without problems.

 

. . .

 

Not sure what feature set you are looking for on a motherboard. In US sub $200 ATX motherboards include Asus Z97-A, Asus Z97-Pro, Asus Sabertooth Mark 2. Any one of those will do a good job.

 

The 850 Pro uses a new cell design and is a bit faster than drives like the 840 EVO. It apparently uses the same controller as the 840 EVO. As I'm sure you know, higher benchmarks do not necessarily translate into better performance in the real world. Unless one habitually reads/writes large amounts of data in one set of operations any performance difference will not be noticed by the user.

[Rimsek]

How about going with an Asus Maximus VII Ranger? Doesn't seem to be a bad choice. I've also gone ahead and changed the 2 ssds for 2 samsung 840 EVO basics, i might also change the PSU for a quieter one, but i still haven't decided on a case <.<

[Rimsek]

How about going with an Asus Maximus VII Ranger? Doesn't seem to be a bad choice. I've also gone ahead and changed the 2 ssds for 2 samsung 840 EVO basics, i might also change the PSU for a quieter one, but i still haven't decided on a case <.<

any opinnions? or recommendations for a quiet PSU?

[brob]

any opinnions? or recommendations for a quiet PSU?

 

http://www.steg-electronics.ch/de/article/super-flower-650f14mg-344311.aspx

 

https://shop.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/seasonic-x-650-650w-power-supply-computer-374072?tagIds=76-524

 

Expensive but very good. Most modern psu have intelligent fan control. These two units, like a number of others don't start to spin the fan until the load/temperature requires active cooling.

[Guest]

Or you could go fanless on the psu. I don't think you would need more than 500W.

 

http://www.steg-electronics.ch/de/article/super-flower-500p14fg-120239.aspx

[Norman_the_Owl]

Any reccomendations for a z97 motherboard up to 200$ ? (1)

 

 

 

What's the difference between the 850 Pro and 840 Evo? (2)

more storage won't be needed, he worked with a system using  120GB ssd and 1TB HDD without problems.

 

 

I'm mostly using cpubenchmark.net to choose the cpus i use in builds, is the site unreliable? because it marks the E3-1275 v3 with a cpu mark score of 9617, while the 4790k gets 11,445 (3)

 

 

 

it's a bit cheaper  than the quadro k4k,  might call the tech support and ask what GPU they reccomend.

it's also the first card shown on the system requirements page of allplan so it can't be wrong i guess? <.<(4)

 

(1) Any asus mainstream motherboard, they all have great features that are actually pretty useful. The range you'd be looking at is the Asus Z97 Pro, maybe the Z97-A if you want to save some money.

 

(2) The difference between the 850 pro and 840 evo is how the Nand is. I don't know much about SSDs, but basically what it means is it theoretically will last a bit longer, and be slightly faster. Also, it provides possibility for greater storage, but Samsung hasn't perfected that yet. 840 evo is better right now IMO.

 

(3) that website itself is reliable, unlike biasboss, but the actual benchmark data is a little bit skewed. Passmark isn't really the best, the way it tests CPU performance is a bit strange, but you'll be pretty safe going by it.

 

(4) If you don't mind the extra price, a  quadro is probably a better bet. Most programs are optimised way better for cuda and nvidia cards than AMD.

[Norman_the_Owl]

any opinnions? or recommendations for a quiet PSU?

Corsair RM series power supplies are pretty optimized for quiet, that's all the marketing behind them

 

Also, "Be quiet!" power supplies are probably pretty silent. I've not had experience with them myself, but i know they make good products.

 

Be Quiet! is also a  german company, so availability in switzerland should be no problem

[Rimsek]

So i called the tech support of said CAD program today, they said Quadro or FirePro either works fine, but they usually use Quadro. So i decided to put a Quadro K4000 in.

 

the build as i plan it as of now:

 

Mainboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII Ranger

CPU: Intel i7 4790k

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30

Thermal Compound: Spire Thermal Kit SP -455

RAM: 2x8GB Kingston Fury Black Series DDR3 1866MHz

GPU: PNY Quadro K4000

DVD RW drive: Asus DRW 24F1 ST

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO Basic (2 times 250GB in Raid 1)

HDD: Seagate Constellation ES.3 (2 times 1TB in Raid 1)

PSU: Super Flower 500P14FG (Fanless 500 Watt)

 

I still havent decided on a case. 

Opnions are: Coolermaster Silencio 550, Corsair Carbide 330R, Corsair Carbide 400R, Corsair Carbide 500R, Corsair Obsidian 550D or Coolermaster COSMOS SE.

I just listed the ones that looked like they would be silent... Could be any other Case from http://www.steg-electronics.ch/de/articlelist/pc-gehaeuse-49.aspx (beware: german site)

Ignoring the price, which one would you go with for a quiet Workstation? i could also switch out Fans for Noctuas or something else.

 

 

Ps. I love how the last replies all adapted to the websites i linked. Awesome Community!