New PC - what should I get?

[Nestor Makhno]

I am planning on getting a new PC very soon. This is what I am looking at ATM...

Computer Case Thermaltake Element S
CPU Intel Core i7 930 (4 x 2.8GHz) 8 MB 4.8GT/s
Motherboard Asus Rampage II Gene (Intel X58)
Memory Corsair 12GB (6x2GB) XMS3 1600MHz - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 - 1 GB - 2xDVI/VGA (Asus)
Power Supply Cooler Master 1000W Pro Modular - Silent
Sound Card Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 (PCI-E)
Firewire Card 1 Port Firewire IEEE 1394 (Built In)
Networking Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
USB Ports 8 x USB 2.0 Ports
CPU Heatsink Corsair Hydro Series H50 V2 (Advanced Liquid Cooling)
Hard Drive 1 1 TB (1000 GB) Western Digital (WD10EARS) - 64 MB - Caviar Green
Hard Drive 2 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB
Optical Drive 1 Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM Black (IDE)
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)
Backup Solution Windows Backup
Surge Protection Belkin Maximum 8 UK Outlet Surge Protection 2M Cable

What do you guys think?

[fiftyone]

GPU, look at the GTX470 for a few €s more...

One mean machine there Nestor.

[Nestor Makhno]

Hmm - actually I am wondering whether it's better to SLI a couple of 285's rather than get a 400-series

[fiftyone]

Originally Posted by Nestor Makhno

Hmm - actually I am wondering whether it's better to SLI a couple of 285's rather than get a 400-series

Direct X 11/12/13 needs to be considered...

[Tomcat_ha]

why get an nvidia card?

[Nestor Makhno]

Good question - why?

srsly

[Discoisntdead]

12 gigs of RAM? Not worth the money.

[Nestor Makhno]

12gb is needed for the kinda renders I will be doing tbh - that is pretty much the only part that is absolutely mandatory. Was toying with the idea of 24GB - ouch!

[Discoisntdead]

Oh, I see.

[Zennousha]

Looks like a solid rig excluding the nvidia stuff. However, the Gene mobo has a built in sound card (I'm currently using the said mobo myself). The SupremeFX X-Fi 8-Ch. Audio with EAX4.0 support is just awesome. Just a forewarning though, don't expect to dual GPU AND use PCI cards on this motherboard. It's quite the tiny little thing.

Everything else looks great though.

[=GG= Mr Moe]

Originally Posted by Nestor Makhno

Hmm - actually I am wondering whether it's better to SLI a couple of 285's rather than get a 400-series

Personally I think SLI is overrated. When I built my rig two years ago I opted for two 512mb 8800GTs instead of the better 768mb 8800 Ultra(?) at the time. I saw some improvements in Crysis when running SLI, but not much. Also, using SLI required me restarting my computer at the time (because of several versions of faulty drivers that they eventually remedied) and I am only able to use one monitor when in SLI (I have two monitors). I think its still that way now.

Looking back, I think I should have opted for one Ultra instead of two GTs

Just my opinion.

[Zetsumei]

Go with a DX11 card, you never know if at some point UE3 will get DX11 support or TWI implements it them selves, you want to have the ability to utilize it if it gets implemented to see certain effects and crap.

You could either go with a GTX480 (super rare, heat monster) or an ati 5870 / 5950 (super rare ) since you map go with a 2gb version, to leave you more headroom to keep things somewhat playable before you optimize a map. If you want to have physx with an ATI card you could get a second cheaper nvidia card to go with it. New refreshes of the ATI line of videocards come in the autumn but I guess you need it now.

Next to that that processor cooler is practically ****e, if you go with water cooling go with the real deal. Otherwise you're better off with a good air cooling set. Get some good cooling paste to go with it as well, OCZ freeze works pretty ok with a smooth surface cooler, AS5 with a rougher surface. You could ask for some cooling advise on the forum at www.overclockers.com just read around or ask a question.

Don't go overkill on the psu either, a good reliable psu is important but one that is too big can be bad too. Powersupplies are the most efficient around a 80% load. Pretty much 1kw is overkill unless you go with a heavy multi gpu setup. You could use antec's psu calculator http://www.antec.outervision.com/ (then you know for sure it will always recommend a PSU higher than what you need). And look for a good psu in your wattage range on http://www.jonnyguru.com/ the best psu review site there is.

Beside that you haven't told us what monitors you have. A big multi monitor setup really saves you a lot of time with everything. So you can be busy more with mapping and less with moving windows around :P. If the budget is limited personally I would rather save some on the hardware and just get some additional screens. (remember that if you go over 2 screens with ATI that the rest of the screens will need to support a displayport connection, and with nvidia you'll need an SLI setup). Remember that 30" screens are super expensive, and that buying multiple smaller (22") screens give you a lot more working space for less money.

Rather than say 1 system hard disc and 2 secondary hard discs. You could think about getting like 3 or 4 of the same harddiscs in a raid 3, 4 or 5 setup. By using a raid setup you gain higher transfer speeds than an individual harddisc can obtain, next to that with a raid setup 1 random hard disc can fail without you losing any data.

[Nestor Makhno]

Actually I won' be doing any mapping myself - that's what we have mappers for

But the advice is sound and well taken - many thanks.

[Tomcat_ha]

basically all nvidia is good for: physx(for like both games that have it) and cuda(not for gamers)
Nvidia doesnt have the fastest, most power efficient or even reliable cards.

[Flogger23m]

I'd go with something better than the GTX 285.

In 4-5 months I imagine that AMD/ATI will be releasing new cards, so you don't want the 285 to be so out dated so quick.

Save a bit more for the current generation ATI or Nvidia.

Personally, I am not happy with the GTX 260 I have. The only drivers that work on my PC are ones from 1 1/2 years ago, all of the newer versions do not support the control panel.

Apparently ATI's drivers suck to.

So, I guess go with what is cheaper.

Also, not get Samsung DVD/CD drives. I bought one of them 1 1/2 years ago when I got my PC.

The first one started getting errors (not reading, popping out the disc randomly) after 5 or so months. My replacement had the same issues two weeks later.

I sent it back, and they refurbished the 2nd one.

It is only a matter of time before it goes. I only use my drive for installing programs and data back ups.

It costs $11 to ship it each time, and over a week to get a replacement.

Buy a quality brand, as the shipping costs will make it cost just as much anyways.

[Zetsumei]

Sony optiarc drives (like the AD-7240S) have the best quality in burning dvds atm, and they are cheap and pretty silent to boot. So that could be a good option. Its just that reliability of hardware is something different these days from the quality of the peripheral, and sadly no reviews really test on endurance. So Its hard to know which ones will last the longest.

[[TW]schneidzekk]

Don't get an ATI or a 4 series nvida card. 2 series is more than enough at the moment.

You do not need 12 gigs if you do not build maps with lightmass, but that would only save you like 150 bucks, not really a big thing. Which friggin program wants 12 gigs?

[Tomcat_ha]

Originally Posted by [TW]schneidzekk

Don't get an ATI or a 4 series nvida card. 2 series is more than enough at the moment.

You do not need 12 gigs if you do not build maps with lightmass, but that would only save you like 150 bucks, not really a big thing. Which friggin program wants 12 gigs?

Why not get an ATI? Much better bang for the buck? The fastest card out there is an ATI etc.

[Zetsumei]

In my opinion, the Nvidia 2 series when compared to the ati 5 series, are both hot, loud, expensive and lacking features. The drivers aren't really any better either.

[Nestor Makhno]

Originally Posted by [TW]schneidzekk

Don't get an ATI or a 4 series nvida card. 2 series is more than enough at the moment.

You do not need 12 gigs if you do not build maps with lightmass, but that would only save you like 150 bucks, not really a big thing. Which friggin program wants 12 gigs?

For Vue renders that take less than 24 hours for broadcast quality with a skydome, you need 12GB.