My First Workstation

[virtualTune]

Hello Everybody,

I just joined the community after following Linus for a couple months and learning quite a lot  :)

Hope you guys can tell me what you think of the system so far and maybe give me some advice. Open for any criticism!

So lets go!

 

1. Budget & Location
I am a student in Animation and VFX-Design in Germany so while I will post the current conversion from Euros into USD, please be aware that most parts are usually more expensive here. For example a Xeon E5-2620 is 425USD in the US but at least 465USD (converted) in Germany. I would like to stay below 3000 Euro or $3880. However if you say that i will get significant performance increase with $150 more then that is fine too. 

2. Aim
I am currently in my first semester, but I know that this is what I want to do for a living. Thus I will be using programs like Maya, 3ds Max, Nuje, After Effects and probably particle programs like Hudini in the near future. 

3. Monitors
I currently have 2 Samsung Syncmaster P2370HD monitors, which are by no means the best but they were on sale :D (2 years ago)  I might add another monitor later on, but right now 2 seems enough. 

4. Peripherals
I should buy a mouse as my Performance MX isn't very suitable without a middle mouse button -.- 

5. Why are you upgrading?
My current system (below) is having trouble with medium amounts of particles and clones in 3D Programs such as Cinema 4D. I'd also rather have a dedicated work system as myine is layed out for gaming. 

 

Current System:

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-x58-UDR3

CPU:       Intel i7-930 @ 2.80 GHz

GPU:      Gigabyte GTX-670 OC WF3

RAM:      24Gb DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance LP

Sound:   Auzentech Xi-Fi Forte 7.1 

HDD:      2x WD 500Gb @ 7200rpm

SSD:      1x OCZ Agility 3 120Gb

Case: Coolermaster HAF932 

 

My plans for the WS:

 

Mainboard:    Asus Z9PE-D8 WS

CPU:              2x Intel Xeaon E5-2620 @ 2.00GHZ (boxed)

GPU:             PNY Quadro K4000

RAM:             32GB DDR3-2133 Corsair Dominator Platinum DIMM Kit (debatable) 

HDD:             WD Caviar Black 4TB

SSD:             Samsung SSD 840 500Gb ;)

Case:            Corsair Obsidian 900D (very debatable!!!)

PSU:              No Idea what I need :D

CPU Cooling: ???

 

 

Allright so now a little bit about me and my PC experience. In the past I have done some pretty stupid things like buying that Vengeance RAM. Basically I always wanted a sick PC even if I only use like 5%. Thats why you see the 900D in the list. BUT I dont want to waste my money anymore and it feels pretty stupid to spend 350Euro on a Case. I bought all this RAM only to find out that it makes almost no difference in rendering for me right now. As far as the case goes, I would like it to be fairly quiet because I will likely do overnight rendering. 

With this system it will be my first real decision that i will dedicate my time to work and not gaming. Thus I do not need any show-off value or unneccessary parts, I want to get the maximum performance for under 3000 Euro. 

 

If I left anything out, please let me know!

 

-vT

[Morfy]

I would get more, cheaper RAM, the platinum is unnecessary, also higher freq won't help you, stick to 1600 mhz

[virtualTune]

why wouldn't i benefit from higher frequencies? I crosschecked, the board can do up to 2133MHz. 

[Morfy]

I know it can do, but application won't render/create faster, there are tests all over the internetz, going from 1600 to 1866 actually drops in performance sometimes.

[virtualTune]

alright, well since i already have 1600MHz (CML32GX3M4A1600C10) Corsair Vengeance LP i guess ui will just use them. If I find out that 32Gb is not enough. do i have to buy the same kit again or can i chose whatever quad-kit i want?

[virtualTune]

Also, what kind of power supply would you guys recommend?

[Morfy]

I would buy the same kit, just to be sure, for a PSU i would recommend building your system on pcpartpicker (link in my sig) and you will see the recommended wattage, buy a Seasonic, Corsair or XFX, which one is more appealing, a bit over the recommended wattage.

[virtualTune]

By my own calculations, using the limits intel and nvidia write, i get to 290W. However that is without the ram. So I figured I can't go wrong with a beQuiet! 550W PSU. Any idea how much wattage the ram would need?

[Morfy]

Ram is negligible, but pcpartpicker is calculating with all the parts, but yeah, a BeQuiet 550 is more than enough, just be sure it's 80+ silver/gold.

[virtualTune]

FYI, your site doesn't have most of my components :)

[ole720]

make sure you get one of the higher end beQuiet power supplies ie the darkrock pro 550w to ensure that it does indeed have the two eps 8 pin cpu connectors, a requirement for dual cpu operation

[vanwazltoff]

I know it can do, but application won't render/create faster, there are tests all over the internetz, going from 1600 to 1866 actually drops in performance sometimes.

the only thing that benefits from faster ram is APUs

[virtualTune]

Could a Mod please close this topic? thx!