Workstation Build - Graphic Design

[VulsaviiK]

A friend of mine came to me recently and asked me to build him a computer for doing graphic design.The budget for the build is $2500 AUD, which needs to include a monitor and wireless adapter at least. He did want it to look sorta decent, so I've kind of tried to balance everything. Here's what I've come up with:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 ($337)

-No need for a K version, it's not my system, so it won't be overclocked, at all.

 

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Performance ($135)

-Only need a H97 board, it's cheap, I can't see it being too bad for the price.

 

RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB ($189)

-It's 16GB, which should be enough (I think),

 

Boot/Programs: Samsung 840 Evo 500GB ($269)

-500GB should be enough for boot, programs, and to have current projects stored on here. Ideally I'd probably like to go for an Intel drive for the reliability here, but it's not gonna happen with this price budget, unless I dial it back to a 240GB drive.

 

Storage: Western Digital Green 3TB ($125)

-It's for bulk storage, it's quiet, uses minimal power, and it's cheap. I'd rather spend the money elsewhere, rather than buying WD Blacks, I think it would be better for my friend to have projects he's working on stored on his SSD

 

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 OC ($399)

-I know Photoshop CS6 can take advantage of GPU Accelerated features. I do feel this is overkill, but I'm not sure. Please, lemme know your thoughts on this

 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ($119)

-Honestly, it's really damn hard to find a case with this sort of build quality and style for a competing price. It looks professional, which I'm sure my friend will like, and it's something he should be able to hand onto for quite some time. I think it's a good buy.

 

Power Supply: Seasonic 650W 90+ Gold Semi-Modular ($129)

-I didn't feel the need to overspend here. Gold efficiency, it's good a near-flawless review from JonnyGuru.com, and the price seems right. I think 650W will be enough, and still give the option for a few more drives and things

 

Monitor: Dell U2913WM 21:9 ($575)

-This might be a bit of a controversial choice. I felt a 21:9 monitor might be a bit better then a single 16:9 for the added working space, admittedly at the cost of some other rotation options. The colour accuracy that I've seen in reviews seems to be on par with, if not, better than some of the Asus PB/PA series monitors that y'all probably going to suggest.

 

Theres a DVD drive and a USB wireless adapter in here as well, coming out to $2500 pretty much exactly.

 

So, thoughts, recommendations, what should I change. The biggest thing I'm unsure of is the GTX 770, purely because I'm not sure whether or not that's overkill for applications like Photoshop.

[AlwaysFSX]

If you're not overclocking you can save some money buy going with a Xeon instead.

[VulsaviiK]

If you're not overclocking you can save some money buy going with a Xeon instead.

 

Wait, you can get a Quad-core hyperthreaded Xeon for the same cash? It is the non-K i7-4790

[AlwaysFSX]

Wait, you can get a Quad-core hyperthreaded Xeon for the same cash?

Yes.

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/cpu/#s=26&qq=1&k=24

[VulsaviiK]

Yes.

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/cpu/#s=26&qq=1&k=24

 

Does it matter which one, or will say the Xeon E3-1220 V3 clocked at 3.1GHz be fine? Or should I allocate cash for one that's a little bit quicker?

[AlwaysFSX]

Does it matter which one, or will say the Xeon E3-1220 V3 clocked at 3.1GHz be fine? Or should I allocate cash for one that's a little bit quicker?

Well it depends. Some aren't hyper-threaded, and it would be beneficial to get one that's clocked moderately high. I'd say at least at 3.3GHz.

[VulsaviiK]

Well it depends. Some aren't hyper-threaded, and it would be beneficial to get one that's clocked moderately high. I'd say at least at 3.3GHz.

 

How heavily do applications like Photoshop benefit from GPUs. Is stepping down from a GTX 770 going to allow me to get something better elsewhere?

[pjm0925]

Make sure the mobo you get supports Xeon if you go that way.

[AlwaysFSX]

How heavily do applications like Photoshop benefit from GPUs. Is stepping down from a GTX 770 going to allow me to get something better elsewhere?

I'm not the best one to ask about that but if it's gpu accelerated then it usually benefits a lot.

[AlwaysFSX]

Couple of thoughts:

 

1, From my previous uses of Adobe applications, they have OpenCL support which AMD cards have and are cheaper and perform around the same as CUDA

2. Two hard drives to be put in RAID 1 for redundancy to preserve work in case of a failure.

3. Motherboard does support Xeons, this one is the fastest AFAIK.

4. Two monitors for more space!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1271 V3 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($389.00 @ CPL Online)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($39.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($135.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($189.00 @ Centre Com)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($269.00 @ Centre Com)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($125.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($125.00 @ CPL Online)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  ($329.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($119.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.00 @ CPL Online)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($175.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($175.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($44.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $2202.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-23 03:45 EST+1000