Building new rig, just wanting to make sure I got everything right + couple of q's

[Glamorous]

Long time lurker here, and its finally time to upgrade from a core2 conroe, normally I'd wait 'til haswell but seeing as the tax year here ends before it comes out I figure I'll just write it off as an expense now and save some cash.

Basically I use my machine for 3D work (rendering animation etc) and 1080p gaming (or multi screen 1080p depending on the game eg supcom). As an experiment I want to try running a *nix host and virtualise windows hence my choice of the intel board below that supports vt-d which hopefully will allow decent performance in games. If it doesn't work I'll just suck it up an use windows full time I guess. I found intel has the best list for vt-d support:

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-030922.htm

While on GPU's I have a 5770 in my current rig that I'll reuse for the time being, and perhaps update to a mid-range Nvidia later on. Based on my understanding on better *nix driver support.

The things that I'm stuck on are the case and possibly the ram.

Case wise I like the silverstone ps-07 for its size, and I imagine leaps and bounds better cooling over my current case (Gigabyte GZ-M1). My other choice was a corsair 200r however if I'm being picky I think its a bit big, and extra fans might be needed. I was also thinking in the ps07 of using a converter bracket to hold one or two drives in the 5.25 bays (I'm undecided whether the DVD drive will stay internal) if it helps the airflow.

With the ram I can save a few $$ by dropping down to a 1333mhz set, but the savings are small enough I don't really mind keeping the 1600mhz set. Or maybe it makes no difference at all, I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

In summary:

1 Used for: 3D rendering, virtual machines, 1080p games

2 Price range: NZD ~1100-1200ish, I'm happy spending extra if it really helps, but I'm obviously interested in it being as cheap as it can for its purpose.

3 New Zealand; at the stores www.ascent.co.nz , www.computerlounge.co.nz and possibly www.pp.co.nz if they are cheaper (fair warning: pp's site is pretty awkward to use)

4 detailed above

5 CPU side id prefer intel. GPU I'm reusing anyway.

6 Reusing: I'll reuse my current PSU, DVD, HDD's, monitors and a 5770 to use for the time being. Also no need for a new windows license.

7 Overclocking: Not really planning on overclocking and by all accounts the K series chips dont have vt-d so its kinda out.

8 Resolution: 2x 1080p, possibly later on I'll add a third screen but I game on a single screen, with the exception of supcom.

9 When: within the month

The build:

Case
Silverstone PS07 or
Corsair 200R

Mobo: A lot of the ones listed on that intel sheet are out of my price range but these 3 aren't, by the look of things the B75 will do what I want the cheapest
Intel BOXDH77EB $169
Intel BOXDZ77SL-50K $189
Intel BOXDB75EN $130

CPU:
Xeon E3-1230V2 $377

SSD
SAMSUNG 840 SERIES 120GB $149

RAM: Could save $50 potentially
Corsair Vengeance 4x8Gb 1600mhz $460
2x Corsair value 2x8Gb 1333mhz $410

Fan: for the 200r if needed
Arctic Cooling PWM 120mm $14

Converter brackets $10 (if needed)

Hopefully that wall of text wasn't too much but it should be all the info you need Your thoughts/critiques would be much appreciated.

 

[Ken g6]

Well, first, the cheapest i7-like processor is a Xeon: E3-1230 V2, $377.

Probably any B75 mobo will do what you want there.

If you want a cheap, fast SSD, get a Samsung 840 for $150. If you really plan to use it hard you could upgrade to the 840 Pro, but it's not essential.

Your RAM prices are astronomical! Probably twice proportional to the CPU as in the States. I wonder if it would make more sense to get just 16GB RAM and a second SSD for swapfile and temp files?

 

[Glamorous]

D'oh! Good catch on the Xeon, those didn't even cross my mind.

Recently the price did go up on that intel ssd so yea that samsung does make sense.

I'll poke around a bit more for other possible mobo's, ive never seen vt-d mentioned on the summary specs on store pages (just checked pp - no mention) so i'll want to make sure before I change to a diff board.

I generally don't look at US prices as I find them far too depressing compared to ours but the extra ssd idea is interesting, wonder if its worth using a generic brand if its only for swap (eg a-data)?

I updated the build. Thanks for your input, solid points all round

 

[mfenn]

Basically I use my machine for 3D work (rendering animation etc) and 1080p gaming (or multi screen 1080p depending on the game eg supcom). As an experiment I want to try running a *nix host and virtualise windows hence my choice of the intel board below that supports vt-d which hopefully will allow decent performance in games. If it doesn't work I'll just suck it up an use windows full time I guess. I found intel has the best list for vt-d support:.

VT-d doesn't work like you're hoping it does. What it does is remap the entire PCI device to a (single) VM and makes it inaccessible to the host. Furthermore, the PCIe device doesn't "know" that it's being attached to a VM (that's the whole point), so it continues to output like normal.

So, to get VT-d working for gaming, you would need:

1. Two GPUs. One for the gaming VM and another for everything else.
2. A dedicated display for the gaming VM.

There are hypervisors out there that will intercept OpenGL and DirectX calls from the guest and attempt to pass them through to the host driver, but they have severe compatibility problems. Not really due to any fault of the software, but mostly because 3D game engines are giant piles of speed hacks that break every standard known to man.

 

[Glamorous]

VT-d doesn't work like you're hoping it does. What it does is remap the entire PCI device to a (single) VM and makes it inaccessible to the host. Furthermore, the PCIe device doesn't "know" that it's being attached to a VM (that's the whole point), so it continues to output like normal.

So, to get VT-d working for gaming, you would need:

1. Two GPUs. One for the gaming VM and another for everything else.
2. A dedicated display for the gaming VM.

There are hypervisors out there that will intercept OpenGL and DirectX calls from the guest and attempt to pass them through to the host driver, but they have severe compatibility problems. Not really due to any fault of the software, but mostly because 3D game engines are giant piles of speed hacks that break every standard known to man.

That does explain the incredibly low amount of information I found when using vt-d and gaming as search terms. Although I could have sworn there was some excitement around the time it launched (nehalem?) and virtualbox doing something for performance.. could be just a coincidence of timing though. Although all of my displays have multiple inputs so I could use the onboard Intel for the host and my 5770 in a guest. Thank you for the clarification though, certainly food for thought.

 

[Ken g6]

Although all of my displays have multiple inputs so I could use the onboard Intel for the host and my 5770 in a guest.

For further clarification, you can't do that with the Xeon I mentioned. Its onboard graphics are disabled. So you'd have to go back to that i7, which is surprisingly close in price.

 

[Glamorous]

For further clarification, you can't do that with the Xeon I mentioned. Its onboard graphics are disabled.

Oh damn you're right. Guess I will go back to the i7. Thanks for pointing that out.

Back to the ram, seriously considering what you said and just using 16gb and perhaps picking up another 16 later if needed (my 3d work is more part time than anything so perhaps 32 is overkill for my limited projects) my understanding is I shouldn't notice any real world difference between 1333mhz and 1600mhz correct?

 

[mfenn]

Not unless you run benchmarks all day long. I would get the DDR3 1600 if the price is within a few bucks, otherwise DDR3 1333 is fine.

 

[Glamorous]

Ordered everything today, thank you both for all your help

 

[mfenn]

Let us know how it goes!