1700$ Gaming/Modeling/Rendering - Final thoughts?

[WoodenMarker]

Require, none, but from what I heard the 3D applications (like Maya) and photo/image editing software (Adobe softwares mainly) benefit from the CUDA cores. 

The 4Gb vRam is not for the modeling/rendering part, it's to be more future-proof in case I decide to use multiple monitors in the future. I was also being told that some games start to get heavy on the vRam aspect, and that 2Gb could be a bit low in 2-3 years. I don't plan on upgrading this build in the upcoming years, so I don't mind the price difference to get the 4Gb instead of 2Gb (since there's no way to increase that later on without changing the GPU)

I don't like the look of the 350D, it doesn't have that brushed metal on the front panel which I love, and no side window either. For 50$, I'll stick with the 650D. 

It's nothing professionnal, it's more of a hobby. In three years, with games, modelling projects and all that kind of stuff, I didn't even fill 20% of the current 1Tb Barracuda. I understand your concern, 1Tb does sound a bit short for someone doing modeling, but in my case 1Tb is sufficient!

I like the quietness and low price of the 212EVO, I'm being told that it's very quiet and more than enough in my case, since I don't want to do some crazy OC. The H100i would be cool, but I don't think it would be that much of an improvement, I don't see what it offers that I can really benefit from. 

Is the difference between the 840 and 840 Pro that irrelevant? In every review that I read, there was a little gab between the two, but again I don't know much about SSDs. 

I'll have a look at the WD black. For the case, I'll stick with the 650D, I don't feel like cutting on the case just to fit a 700W PSU, which appear useless to me.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Maya can use OpenCL (Which AMD does very well) and everything is moving towards it since it's basically open source CUDA. Fyi, OpenCL and CUDA aren't better than each other. They're prtty much equal. The two things you need to know are that everything is moving towards OpenCL but CUDA has had a longer history.

You can fit a 780 in your budget just fine but the 7970 would be my recommendation for the best price/performance. Games aren't going to peak 3GB vram too soon. We're just getting past 2GB right now.

There's a 350D windowed. http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc9011029ww

The Hyper 212 Evo is enough for 4.5 ghz depending on your cpu. Stick with it.

You can't tell the difference from the 840 Pro and non-pro. The difference is negligible. 

Stick with the barracuda. There's no need for a black when you are already have an ssd.

You should either get a 600 or 750-800w depending on whether or not you can to sli/crossfire. 

If you don't you shouldn't even be getting such an expensive mobo. Speaking of which, you're better off with a cheaper one with a cheap dedicated sound card.

I'm only overclocking the CPU to around 4.2 (or so) depending on how it goes. No SLI in the upcoming years, and if I decide to do that I'll consider a PSU change. However, at the moment, 620W 80+ Bronze is more than enough! 

Even a 500-550w would be fine.

Is the difference between the 840 and 840 Pro that irrelevant? In every review that I read, there was a little gab between the two, but again I don't know much about SSDs. ;)

I have a 840 installed on a rig I did and it is great. I started installing windows 7 and went to get a drink. When I got back it was done (less than 10 mintues). I plan on getting teh pro for my next build but that is just cause I am always wanting the best and fastest. You get better quality flash from teh pro (and the new evo will blow everything out of teh water) but the regular shoudl do fine. 

Not irrelevant--just negligible since you can't notice it in most use cases. It's not worth the extra money. (Maybe if it was only $10-15 more)

The evo isn't actually much faster than the the pro. The pro actually has faster random reads which is what matters. However, the memory controller is also important.

Alright, I'll go for the regular Samsung 840 120Gb, which is cheaper. With the money I'll save, I'll get a better CPU cooler. What would you recommand? I would really like the BeQuiet DRP2, but I don't know where to get it from in Canada =/

For the motherboard, I chose the VI Hero for two things : design, and future-proof again. In case someday I want to OC more (if I take a more expensive aftermarket CPU cooler, I might do that right off the bath, or sooner than expected) It has everything I need, and I prefer the RoG design over the "equivalent" Z87 Asus boards. I was also interested by the Z87-A, 50$ cheaper or so, but I don't like the design, and since I have the budget for the VI Hero, I prefer to take it today and not regret my choice in the future.

The Hyper 212 Evo is fine. 

The Hero won't future proof you anymore than the cheapest z87 mobo will. Even the cheaper board can get 4.8 ghz if your chip and cooler allows it. The better 'overclocking mobos' are only relevant for overclocking competitions with extreme cooling like liquid nitrogen and binned chips. 

For 20$, I think I'm going to stick with the VI Hero. I prefer ASUS than MSI, on the reliability aspect, and it's not a dramatic price difference. The design of the VI Hero looks a bit better in my eyes (I guess that's what counts ^^ ) 

And since I'll go for a better CPU cooler, I might OC more, and then the VI Hero will be a plus, right?

If it's not for the DRP2 I don't know what to choose, the equivalent I can think of is the NH-D14, but it's so ulgy .. no way I ruin the look of the build with that! =/

Msi, Asus, and Gigabyte are the big 3. They all make reliable boards. Take a look at the G45 gaming. 

Like I said above, the 'better board' won't make a difference in overclocking. The only plus of the Hero is the slightly better onboard sound. You're still better off with a cheap sound card though.

 

I'm still curious though. What programs do you use regarding editing/rendering?

Here you go. My recommendations: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/1o027

It's slightly more expensive but that's just because of the sound card. You could just remove that and it would be cheaper that your original config.

[Tex]

Maya can use OpenCL (Which AMD does very well) and everything is moving towards it since it's basically open source CUDA. Fyi, OpenCL and CUDA aren't better than each other. They're prtty much equal. The two things you need to know are that everything is moving towards OpenCL but CUDA has had a longer history.

 

I didn't know that, thanks for clearing that up. I'm still going to stick with a Nvidia GPU, it's not that I have something against AMD, but now that you showed me that I can fit a 780 in there, it's of course better to go with that, top performance at the cost of price/perf ratio. 

 

There's a 350D windowed. http://ca.pcpartpick...ase-cc9011029ww

 

I didn't know that either, and I see that it also has the brushed front panel that I liked of the 650D. Considering it's cheaper, and that I will save money going for mATX, I'll seriously consider it. Now that I think more about it, I didn't really build my setup according to my real priorities. The thing I hate the most about my current computer is the noise (stock heatsink - shame, stock fans, etc), and I want to avoid that for my next build. At the cost of the better look, would a Define R4 be the best option for me?

 

The Hyper 212 Evo is enough for 4.5 ghz depending on your cpu. Stick with it.

 

Alright!

 

You can't tell the difference from the 840 Pro and non-pro. The difference is negligible. 

 

It's also my first SSD, I doubt I could notice the difference if you say that it's negligible. Regular 840 it is, more money saved =P

 

 

Stick with the barracuda. There's no need for a black when you are already have an ssd.

 

Yep, that's what I wanted to do too.

 

You should either get a 600 or 750-800w depending on whether or not you can to sli/crossfire. 

 

I'll stick with 600W, the PSU you recommand looks perfect, and I'll go for it.

 

If you don't you shouldn't even be getting such an expensive mobo. Speaking of which, you're better off with a cheaper one with a cheap dedicated sound card.

 

You're right, I was a bit attracted by the look of the VI Hero, and I was selecting the motherboard based on untrue facts. I'll go for something cheaper, I'm not going to OC like crazy, and SLI/CF is not to be considered in the near (and long-term) future. 

 

My biggest concern is regarding mATX. What are the differences between an ATX system (with mid-tower like 650D) and a mATX system (with small tower like 350D)? In terms of noise, airflow/cooling, future-proof? Again, my concerns might be based on untrue facts, but I'd rather be safe now than sorry later ;)

 

I'm still curious though. What programs do you use regarding editing/rendering?

 

Maya/Blender for modelling (I use both for different purposes), Photoshop for the texture/image editing, Ndo and Ddo for the normal maps and that sort of stuff, a few video editing softwares, but nothing major there. Mostly Maya and Photoshop, which I use all the time. 

 

 

Here you go. My recommendations: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/1o027

It's slightly more expensive but that's just because of the sound card. You could just remove that and it would be cheaper that your original config.

 

It looks like a very nice build to me! I don't know that brand/model of RAM (I know the brand Intel of course, but not the Patriot thingy), it's better/more reliable than Kingston, Corsiar, Crucial? The rest looks very good, nice to see that it's possible to have 4770k + 780 for that price! I'll remove the sound card (which I don't need), and put a Wifi card instead. Speaking of, do you have any to recommand? I'm totally lost when it comes to Wifi card.

 

Thank you very much for your time, you are of a great help and I'm sure that I'll love my build even more following your recommandations!

[WoodenMarker]

I didn't know that, thanks for clearing that up. I'm still going to stick with a Nvidia GPU, it's not that I have something against AMD, but now that you showed me that I can fit a 780 in there, it's of course better to go with that, top performance at the cost of price/perf ratio. 

I didn't know that either, and I see that it also has the brushed front panel that I liked of the 650D. Considering it's cheaper, and that I will save money going for mATX, I'll seriously consider it. Now that I think more about it, I didn't really build my setup according to my real priorities. The thing I hate the most about my current computer is the noise (stock heatsink - shame, stock fans, etc), and I want to avoid that for my next build. At the cost of the better look, would a Define R4 be the best option for me?

Alright!

It's also my first SSD, I doubt I could notice the difference if you say that it's negligible. Regular 840 it is, more money saved =P

Yep, that's what I wanted to do too.

I'll stick with 600W, the PSU you recommand looks perfect, and I'll go for it.

You're right, I was a bit attracted by the look of the VI Hero, and I was selecting the motherboard based on untrue facts. I'll go for something cheaper, I'm not going to OC like crazy, and SLI/CF is not to be considered in the near (and long-term) future. 

My biggest concern is regarding mATX. What are the differences between an ATX system (with mid-tower like 650D) and a mATX system (with small tower like 350D)? In terms of noise, airflow/cooling, future-proof? Again, my concerns might be based on untrue facts, but I'd rather be safe now than sorry later ;)

Maya/Blender for modelling (I use both for different purposes), Photoshop for the texture/image editing, Ndo and Ddo for the normal maps and that sort of stuff, a few video editing softwares, but nothing major there. Mostly Maya and Photoshop, which I use all the time. 

It looks like a very nice build to me! I don't know that brand/model of RAM (I know the brand Intel of course, but not the Patriot thingy), it's better/more reliable than Kingston, Corsiar, Crucial? The rest looks very good, nice to see that it's possible to have 4770k + 780 for that price! I'll remove the sound card (which I don't need), and put a Wifi card instead. Speaking of, do you have any to recommand? I'm totally lost when it comes to Wifi card.

Thank you very much for your time, you are of a great help and I'm sure that I'll love my build even more following your recommandations!

I'm not entirely sure but I think 2 7970's in crossfire would be more powerful in rendering than a single 780 since 2 7950's are already like a single 780.

The Define R4 is good for a quiet system but it's a boring case imo and it's not like the 350D is loud at all. It's up to you but I find it better to get a smaller case for smaller footprint when you don't need the extra space  in the case.

Nowadays, matx can do pretty much everything you need from sli/crossfire to some custom cooling loops. The only thing a larger case has over it is more space for cooling loops, possibly looks, triple-quad sli/crossfire, more breathing room, and easier cable management depending on the case. The noise will depend on the fans on the cases themselves. Both the 350D and 650 are pretty similar in noise.

 

Aside from Ndo and Ddo, the rest of your programs I know can utilize OpenCL. I'm not sure but Ndo and Ddo are plugins of some sort for Photoshop right? If so, they should work well with OpenCL.

 

Patriot is a very reputable brand. It's hard to mess up ram as brand simply does not matter nor does it affect performance--specs do. Simply put: Ram is ram. In most normal usage cases, the cheapest CL9 1600 ram is the way to go.

 

For Wifi cards, any of TP-link's pci-e cards are excellent. This will do nicely: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/tp-link-wireless-network-card-tlwn881nd

This is what I ordered yesterday though for some heftier file streaming over the network: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/tp-link-wireless-network-card-tlwdn4800

 

Unless you are settled on a the 780. I'd recommend getting a single 7970 for working/gaming at 1080p and adding another one when you need more power since they're currently a great value and will only get cheaper when the 9000 series comes out. That's unless of course unless you require CUDA.