Build advice for a high end system (Power User) $2,700 budget

[bsoa]

Hello,

I am looking for advice and recommendations on parts for a new PC I am planning on building next month. I have a decent budget and I am less concerned with cutting corners and more concerned about getting the best performance out of my system. That being said, I would like to avoid burning money for no reason, so I am trying to avoid the absolute bleeding edge tech that comes with a ridiculous price tag.

This computer will be used primarily for rendering, video editing, CAD, benchmarking, and other resource intensive software. I except to see high demand on the CPU, RAM, and SSD specifically. In regards to the video card, I would like to stick with the Quadro series because it is certified specifically for my software, but I am open to other suggestions here as well.

Approximate Purchase Date: Soon (Next month)

Budget Range: $2,700 max

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Rendering, Drafting (CAD), Video Editing, Benchmarking, Power User

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: Building from scratch

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Location: US

Parts Preferences: Intel / Asus

Overclocking: Probably

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Looking for the best possible performance without paying through the nose for truly bleeding edge tech.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Its time.

Parts I am currently considering:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=32656107


NVIDIA® Quadro® K2000 VCQK2000-PB 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card

ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 64GB (8 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2800 (PC4-22400) Intel X99 Desktop Memory Model F4-2800C15Q2-64GRK

Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

ASUS X99-A LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Thermaltake TR2 TR-700 700W ATX 12V V2.3 & EPS 12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Thermaltake TR-700 Power Supply

Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W Desktop Processor BX80648I75820K

Intel Thermal Solution Air BXTS13A Cooling Fan & Heatsink LGA2011

Logitech MK120 Black USB Wired Slim Desktop

ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit - OEM

Western Digital Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive - OEM

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

 

[vailr]

Well, I was going to recommend an equivalent PCIe 3.0 Quadro video card, but the least expensive such full size card is $1,899:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133557
eBay for $1,809:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-VCQK500...547?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f3289d973
Maybe there's a less expensive Quadro PCIe 3.0 card available?
Used Quadro K4200 PCIe 2.0 card:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-NVIDIA-...it-GDDR5-PCI-Express-Video-Card-/271833959235

 

[mfenn]

The parts you've picked are are "reasonable" for the most part. What I would change is:

- PSU: You can do better than a TR-700 for this system. Something in the 550W range is plenty of power given that your budget doesn't support multiple high-end Quadros. Check out the XFX TS 550W (Seasonic S12G platform) for $55 AR
- RAM: Going to DDR4 2800 costs you $70 for very nearly zero benefit over a DDR4 2400 kit like this Ripjaws for $730.
- HSF: The Intel spiral cooler is really loud when stuck on top of a 130W chip. I would check out something like the Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 for $40 instead.
- HDD : I had to do a double and triple take on this one. $210 is a ludicrous price for a 1TB HDD. You can pick up a Toshiba 4TB drive for $140.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The parts you've picked are are "reasonable" for the most part. What I would change is:

- PSU: You can do better than a TR-700 for this system. Something in the 550W range is plenty of power given that your budget doesn't support multiple high-end Quadros. Check out the XFX TS 550W (Seasonic S12G platform) for $55 AR
- RAM: Going to DDR4 2800 costs you $70 for very nearly zero benefit over a DDR4 2400 kit like this Ripjaws for $730.
- HSF: The Intel spiral cooler is really loud when stuck on top of a 130W chip. I would check out something like the Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 for $40 instead.
- HDD : I had to do a double and triple take on this one. $210 is a ludicrous price for a 1TB HDD. You can pick up a Toshiba 4TB drive for $140.

- +1. TR never made particularly better-than-average PSU -- a lenient assessment.

- :thumbsup: That's pretty much the truth about high-end RAM. Just as well, set the latencies to stock values or pick "XMP" -- then set the command-rate to 1 and tweak the VTT, VCCIO or VCCSA until absolutely rock-stable.

- ?? Yes there is a WD Black around $210. I haven't visited these lately. But there are WD Black 1TB drives with different model-codes, ranging from maybe $90 to the range cited by the other poster.

HDD performance isn't much of a factor except for reliability, if you want to pick up a small SSD and use the varied potential of a good motherboard. I'm not sure how a caching solution would perform with your particular application requirements. Otherwise, sure -- the Toshiba or any other well-rated large capacity drive might fit your budget, assuming your boot-system disk is a decent SSD.

If it matters, I'd look at the phase-power-design spec for the X99-A motherboard. Over a couple generations, that model-code profile had too modest a spec, or even lesser VRM parts for getting a reliable result at the processor's higher speeds. You would expect to get a modest overclock result -- which might be fine. After all, the E processors are quite powerful anyway. You might want to see how that spec compares with mid-to-upper range ASUS X99 boards.

You could maybe (just maybe) find an air-cooler that could out-perform the Arctic i30 by maybe 5+C degrees. The review I saw at Hardware Secrets only compared it to an H100 and some so-so air-cooler choices. If the H100 provides a 12C improvement over the i30, I'm reasonably sure about one or two other coolers. But with a mild overclock, the i30 may "do."

 

[biostud]

'Power user' and 1920x1080 monitor is not compatible. Get a better one.

 

[cboath]

What softare are you running that you want a quadro card?

I ask, because unless the app is specifically OGL, they can be overkill. I know studio pro's using max who say to use the GeForce line as they're as powerful on directx and much cheaper than a quadro. FWIW, outside of softimage and Maya all Autodesk software is designed around DirectX and not OGL. Again, if it's maya, SI, Houdini, etc...yeah, the quadro is probably better.

I have a 4000 at work and and 560 and now 980 at home. Working on similarly large sized files I didn't see any real difference.

 

[Cerb]

If indeed you just need the GPU for support, more than performance, a K620 (roughly a GT 740) is a ton cheaper.

 

[bsoa]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. You are right about the WD Black drive being too expensive. I am actually planning on using one I already have, but just included it in the wishlist without double checking the price first.

I will take a look at the other items you pointed out as well mfenn.

Regarding the Quadro, I would appreciate it you have any advice or could point me towards a good article comparing the Quadro series to the GeForce series. Some of the hardware intensive applications I am running Revit and 3DS Max and I would be interested if there is any real benefit paying the premium for a certified Quadro card as opposed to just getting a current generation GeForce card.

 

[Cerb]

If you're going to use Revvit with the virtual preview views (I don't actually do this stuff, so forget what they're called), maybe a GT 740 might be a tad weak.

Unfortunately, apples to apples comparisons, beyond figuring out the hardware, is a bit difficult, due to software. That is, you want the certified product, that's really what you're paying for, and performance may be artificially manipulated by the drivers, on top of that.

But, hardware-wise, a K620 is a GT 740 (DDR3), a K1200 is a GTX 750, and a K2200 is a GTX 750 Ti. They are no more different in hardware from their gaming counterparts as Xeon E3s are from Core i7s, though sometimes less.

http://www.develop3d.com/reviews/Nvidia_Quadro_Maxwell_Kepler_CAD_Creo_Solidworks_CAE_iray_review
I did find that, though. It basically never pays to get a last-gen Quadro, rwhether you go low-end or not. The replacement models tend to be quite a bit better, for the price, generation over generation (the old FX-based ones from 10-12 years ago being the only exceptions I can recall). So, make sure it's a 2 as a the 2nd digit.

 

[lehtv]

'Power user' and 1920x1080 monitor is not compatible. Get a better one.

Why not? Could use multi-monitor for 'power using', 1080p for gaming. Cheap and effective.

 

[biostud]

Why not? Could use multi-monitor for 'power using', 1080p for gaming. Cheap and effective.

Yeah, I was thinking if it was a single screen, not a multi monitor setup.

 

[cboath]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. You are right about the WD Black drive being too expensive. I am actually planning on using one I already have, but just included it in the wishlist without double checking the price first.

I will take a look at the other items you pointed out as well mfenn.

Regarding the Quadro, I would appreciate it you have any advice or could point me towards a good article comparing the Quadro series to the GeForce series. Some of the hardware intensive applications I am running Revit and 3DS Max and I would be interested if there is any real benefit paying the premium for a certified Quadro card as opposed to just getting a current generation GeForce card.

After being the Autodesk world, ugh, 20+ years at this point - I can tell you that everything other than maya and SI and their high high end discreet editing line, they switched everything over to direct3D with their 2008 versions which was march/april of 2007. The best place to ask the question of quadro/GeForce - especially with max - would be the cgtalk.com forums. There, I've seen the pro's say GeForce over quadro. I'm not aware of any articles comparing the two.

I've asked my company for a long while to let me try out a top end GeForce card for what we do to no avail. You'd think the possibility of saving 1000 a card (or more) would rate higher on their radar with the amount of stuff they buy, but apparently not...

Best argument I've seen is 'what are you using?' If you're using stuff where they design around OpenGL, it's quadro. For Direct3D it's Geforce. Quadro's are optimized for opengl. Last I checked, autodesk hadn't done much with OpenGL in max in many years. Their default driver has been Direct3D/X since 2008 if not earlier and I think now it's Nitrous which is very Geforce oriented.

For max, you can check out the cgtalk forums. For Revit, there's Augi and RevitCity off the top of my head.

FWIW, I had a 12M face model in my work machine that ground my quadro to a halt. It'd crash after rendering a single frame. Even network rendering failed. Same file on a machine with a one generation old GeForce was able to render the full animation and I could manipulate the whole scene at nearly 30fps. Difference was night and day. not saying it'd always have that same effect, but that's the comparison I ran.

 

[vailr]

http://www.develop3d.com/reviews/Nvidia_Quadro_Maxwell_Kepler_CAD_Creo_Solidworks_CAE_iray_review
I did find that, though. It basically never pays to get a last-gen Quadro, rwhether you go low-end or not. The replacement models tend to be quite a bit better, for the price, generation over generation (the old FX-based ones from 10-12 years ago being the only exceptions I can recall). So, make sure it's a 2 as a the 2nd digit.

So: something like a used K4200 for $450 (that I linked to on eBay) would currently seem to be the best option, for the money.