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Need help building workstation pc

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Hi,

 

So my Cousin asked my help to build her a workstation pc that she could use for school (architecture student)..however I have absolutely no clue where to start.

Budget is ranging from 800 Euro to 1100 euro (or arround 1150 US dollars).

I heard that a i5, a amd firepro w2100 and 16gb of ram would be good..but i take any help.She's not a gamer and she mainly uses it for Autocad (3D rendering) and the adobe stuffs (photoshop.illustrator,etc)

 

please help me out..

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Start at a good CPU.

 

Dont do what i did and think that more cores is better!

Go for a i5 4690k.

 

16Gb is good

 

GTX960 is also good for 3D rendering. (If you want a cheaper gpu go with a gtx750ti  ;) )

AMD FX-8350|8GB DDR3|GTX750TI|2TB HDD|CX-430 PSU|

 

 

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The Xeon would be good as a workstation CPU. Storage-wise, a 2TB HDD and 500GB SSD should suffice. Like you said, 16GB of RAM should be good enough. Since she's not gaming, the 380 will be good enough. And to top it off, a nice looking case from Fractal.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€267.18 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€112.33 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€80.07 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€161.12 @ Mindfactory)

Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (€94.27 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (€213.95 @ Mindfactory)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (€88.63 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€68.97 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Total: €1086.52

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-02 16:21 CET+0100

'Fanboyism is stupid' - someone on this forum.

Be nice to each other boys and girls. And don't cheap out on a power supply.

Spoiler

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K - 4.5 GHz | Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO | RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 | SSD: Samsung 850 EVO - 500GB | GPU: MSI GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6GB | PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2 | Case: NZXT Phantom 530 | Cooling: CRYORIG R1 Ultimate | Monitor: ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q | Peripherals: Corsair Vengeance K70 and Razer DeathAdder

 

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-snip-

 

There is some really bad advice in this thread, particularly in regards to the graphics card. This is is not a gaming machine. Do not get a gaming graphics card, get a Quadro as there is a qualification process for application drivers (Autodesk and Adobe Creative Suite).  

 

 
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 V3 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€218.68 @ Mindfactory) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€35.49 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: ASRock B85M-PRO3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€61.39 @ Mindfactory) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (€163.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€161.12 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: PNY Quadro K2200 4GB Video Card  (€474.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€49.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€49.90 @ Caseking) 
Total: €1215.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-02 19:08 CET+0100
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CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 V3 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€218.68 @ Mindfactory) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€35.49 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: ASRock B85M-PRO3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€61.39 @ Mindfactory) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (€163.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€161.12 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: PNY Quadro K2200 4GB Video Card  (€474.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€49.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€49.90 @ Caseking) 
Total: €1215.45

 

Is the extra cpu cooler necessary? afterall I doubt she will do any overclocking (and I have no clue on that)..or a SSD? Why not simply chose a hyprid SHD from Seagate?

but to be honest..this one looks like a good build. I kept wondering why the others suggested me gaming graphics cards when I clearly said "she isn't into gaming".. but I wonder..Does it need to be that Quadro or is an AMD Firepro not maybe the better choice?

 

Amazon Deutschland? Passt..nur bin ich mir nicht sicher ob die Qualität diesselbe ist wie bei einem "Fachgeschäft"

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The Xeon would be good as a workstation CPU. Storage-wise, a 2TB HDD and 500GB SSD should suffice. Like you said, 16GB of RAM should be good enough. Since she's not gaming, the 380 will be good enough. And to top it off, a nice looking case from Fractal.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€267.18 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€112.33 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€80.07 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€161.12 @ Mindfactory)

Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (€94.27 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (€213.95 @ Mindfactory)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (€88.63 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€68.97 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Total: €1086.52

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-02 16:21 CET+0100

 

Looks like a good build but why the Radeon video card? I thought that its better to use a "professional card" than a card that is mostly used for gaming?

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-snip-

 

I apologize if I selected the wrong vendors...lol I travel to Europe quite a bit for work but i have never had to select components for a build. Lol also i google translated your last line there...amazon is pretty solid if the price is right, especially in the US and UK. I do know that getting parts is kind of a pain and expensive.

 

My personal philosophy is to use SSDs in the workstations for scratch space and temporary storage and have networked storage (mostly mechanical drives in redundant arrays) for long term and archival.

 

The reason everyone suggests a gaming cards (and gaming hardware in general) is unfortunately due to the demographic of LTT...not many people here have workstation/server experience and all they know is gaming. To be honest though for low to mid-end stuff, a gaming card is alright to use but at a professional level, a verified product with qualified  is required. What people also dont understand is that professional computation uses way more resources than games.

 

I actually took another pass at the setup and got you a better motherboard:

 

 
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 V3 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€218.86 @ Mindfactory) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€35.49 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Motherboard: Asus B85M-G Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€84.59 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (€163.93 @ Mindfactory) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€161.17 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: PNY Quadro K2200 4GB Video Card  (€474.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€49.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€49.90 @ Caseking) 
Total: €1238.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-03 19:00 CET+0100

 

I prefer an Asus P9D, Asus Z87-WS, Supermicro X10SL() series, or Tyan S5535AG2NR-HE if you can get your hands on those. I also prefer 8GB minimum for the VRAM on the graphics card, so if you want to up to a M4000 you can, but it will be way pricier for an incremental increase.

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-snip-

My bad..I thought you spoke german because the choice of vendor was near me (nope I'm not from germany) so I was quite surprised.
 
Well my cousin isn't into gaming so I think that maybe your setup is the best and I will definitly tell her to buy those parts.What I noticed tho in your setup is that in one u use "Asrock" and the other setup has "Asus" .. any difference there? I use for example "Asus" in my mid-range (gaming) pc since I only heard bad stuffs about "Asrock"..also it seems like the Gskill 1866memory is maybe alittle bit overkill because the motherboard doesn't seem to support the speed..only up to 1600 (saw that on the productpage of said motherboard)..
 
forget what you read about my question on the motherboard..I just read it what you wrote..
 
thanks..I will go with your setup :)
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