Please Critique (Revised)- HD Video Rendering Desktop

K

kbailey

New Member
Before I purchase the components for my desktop I would like to get a second opinion. All thoughts and input are welcome. I need to know where I can save money, better alternatives, where I am over compensating, parts not compatible etc.

This desktop will be used mainly used for hd video rendering, autocad and solid works. Budget is under $850 but not including monitors, keyboard and a mouse. I am a little flexible on the budget for a subtantial gain in performance. Here's what I got:

Computer Case- Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower- $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Mobo- GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s- $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128510

Graphics Card- SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP- $155
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948

Power Supply- COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3- $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036

CPU- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz- $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

RAM- CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000)- $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233170

HDD (Boot Drive)- Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB- 320GB- $42
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770

HDD (Storage)- SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB- $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

Optical- ASUS 24X DVD Burner- $22
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Total (before tax)= $840 - $103(MIRs)= $737

Thanks :good:
 
well maybe get an SSD for your 'boot drive' and also do you have a limit on how much you can spend? there would be a couple things you could get a bit better if your willing to spend more lol
 
ixiboneheadixi said:
well maybe get an SSD for your 'boot drive' and also do you have a limit on how much you can spend? there would be a couple things you could get a bit better if your willing to spend more lol
Click to expand...

I really don't want to exceed $1000 including a monitor. Please share what you have in mind and how it will benefit me performance wise.
 
I don't plan on doing crossfire in the future. Thanks for the different mobo options. Any suggestions on SSD or what to look for? I'm not too familiar with those. Will look into different PSU.

Also, will I have any issues running a PCI Express 2.1 x16 GPU in a 2.0 x16 slot on the mobo?
 
Also, if not DDR3 1866 then what should I get and why? I am looking for substantial performance differences if I am going to spend more money in the build.
 
kbailey said:
Also, if not DDR3 1866 then what should I get and why? I am looking for substantial performance differences if I am going to spend more money in the build.
Click to expand...

try to get atleast 1600 DDR3, and make sure you get a good graphics card and one that will last, and a power supply dont cheat out on that either
 
1866 is faster, supported by the mobo, and that's a good deal for it,

search vertex 2 on newegg for the ssd, they are expensive for the size but will load programs much faster

and for the 2.1 in a 2.0 x16's, as long as it is x16 it works, con go in a 1.0 x16 if it had to
 
1866 is faster, but his 965 won't support those speeds and you won't see any difference in performance. Get some 1600 RAM with 1.5v and the lowest timings you can find.

So you have a caviar 320GB blue and a 1tb samsung F3? It would be faster just to have the OS on the F3, and just don't get another drive, if an SSD is too expensive for you.

If you're not gonna crossfire, go with this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128519

And if you can wait for the bulldozer CPUs, they're rumored to be released next month, and they're supposedly suppose to be great.
 
Id go with a SandyBridge setup,Just for a little bit more - $862.91

Has SSD and a 1.5TB storage drive...Im not sure if you do much gaming but if not to save some cash you could always drop the 6870 and go for a cheaper card thats still decent like GTX 550ti.

Anyway heres my list...



Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

GIGABYTE GA-Z68P-DS3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128520

Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220558

Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F60GB3-BK 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233194

SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948

Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EARS 1.5TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136513

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

ASUS 24X DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Xigmatek Utgard Original CPC-T90DB-U01 Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815009

You did not mention if you had already got an OS or not?
 
i mean for what he wants it would work, but a caviar green is frowned upon as it is a good bit slower than the others, anything below 7200rpm is going to be considerably slower

and for the ram, the 1866 is supported by the motherboard and will work with the cpu, same since the sandy bridge only "supports" up to 1333mhz, but who gets that with them, the motherboard can make the cpu use it by either lowering the clocks or overclocking the cpu some, and it works fine, this way he gets the best ram he can and at a good price too.
 
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jonnyp11 said:
but a caviar green is frowned upon as it is a good bit slower than the others, anything below 7200rpm is going to be considerably slower
Click to expand...

The greens are fine for Storage,Thats why i put an SSD on the build list as his main Drive.

Your forgetting the OP has a budget,Ive tried to keep it as close as that...if i were to be choosing WD Blacks and 1866 ram it puts the price up!
 
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jonnyp11 said:
the motherboard can make the cpu use it by either lowering the clocks or overclocking the cpu some, and it works fine, this way he gets the best ram he can and at a good price too.
Click to expand...

They dont get the board to support higher clocked memory by lower clocks or overclocking the CPU. (Which you can by raising the Bus).

But its done by the memory bus speed divider in the bios.
 
I can afford a 64gb SSD from Kingston for $63 but anything bigger than that is too expensive.

I'll be running Sony Vegas Pro 10 and I came across this article that recommended a CUDA-enabled NVIDIA card:

https://www.custcenter.com/app/answ...sion/L3RpbWUvMTMxNDAzMDM0Mi9zaWQvYkp4MjRiQ2s=

I'll grab a EVGA 01G-P3-1372-TR GeForce GTX 460 instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130571

Luckily it's the same price and I won't have to adjust the build.

Question: Is there a performance difference between these two mobos?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=6vp62ry68a3x

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262

If so I can save $30 and apply it towards a SSD.

As far as budget goes, I'm open to spending more if I get substantial performance gains.
 
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From my understanding if you have games on a Green hard drive then it will increase load times by somewhat. I would suggest getting the SSD you mentioned and a Samsung F3. I think you would regret getting a Green HDD later but it's up to you.
 
claptonman said:
1866 is faster, but his 965 won't support those speeds and you won't see any difference in performance. Get some 1600 RAM with 1.5v and the lowest timings you can find.

So you have a caviar 320GB blue and a 1tb samsung F3? It would be faster just to have the OS on the F3, and just don't get another drive, if an SSD is too expensive for you.

If you're not gonna crossfire, go with this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128519

And if you can wait for the bulldozer CPUs, they're rumored to be released next month, and they're supposedly suppose to be great.
Click to expand...

Instead of the 965, I'll be getting this instead:

GeForce GTX 460
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na&AID=10521304&PID=4169961&SID=5pmaiw10qkhf

What type of RAM would you recommend to go with the mobo you are suggesting and to compliment the GTX 460? I don't know how to tell just how fast RAM it is able to sustain.

No crossfire for me. I'm trying to determine if a 64gb ssd is large enough for a boot drive.
 
windows only recs 20gb's for win7 and it doesn't even take that much, 64gb is plenty. for the ram you want 1600mhz, any higher and the price is rediculous normally, but there is a set of corsair vengence 1866 for 75 with 10 mir making it 65
 
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