Help me build a workstation PC

[PeterJun21]

One of my hardrives recently crashed and the computer is pretty old so I'm planning on starting from scratch.

My budget: ~$2000

I use the computer mostly for web design - Lots of Photoshop and Flash. I'm planning on using it for 3d as well in the future. I play absolutely 0 games lol.

What I have already:
Monitor, Keyboard/Mouse, and speakers.

What I need:
(Also these are choice I made from the readings I've done in the forum, if you can recommend something else that would be great)

Processor:
AMD Dual Core Opteron 275 Italy 2.2Ghz $748.00 or
AMD Dual Core Opteron 270 Italy 2.0Ghz $495.00

I've been told that I should go with the Opterons. However, I was wondering if I would really see a difference between the 2.2 Ghz and 2.0 Ghz. I've been using Intel all my lifetime and I want to change to AMD. I'm wondering if the ~$250 is really worth is for .2 more Ghz.

Motherboard:
I've I heard I should get a Tyan board. Which model I'm not really sure it would be really helpful if somone can recommend me one. I'm guessing the motherboard will be around $400.

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811112089 $220.00
Wanted a case sort of like the Powermac G5's, this is the closest I could find lol.

Graphics card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133142 $499.00
I'm using the computer as a workstation so I'm thinking I dont need a gaming card. This is the card I use at school and it runs pretty well so I'm thinking I shuold just purchase this as well. But $500 is pricey for a video card so I'm wondering if I would be fine with something like the 7800GT.

Memory:
I'm not too sure whats a good brand.

Hardrive:
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

Operating System:
I'm not sure if I should go with the Windows XP Pro or Windows XP 64.

Also has anyone expierenced with Monarch Computers? I see they can build the "barebones" system (http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...Code=80233&Category_Code=AMDBarebones)
so I'm guessing all I would have to do is add the video card and hardrive.

I'm sort of new to building computers so I'm trying to get it prebuilt and I heard Alienwares are rip offs. Also if you think I'm missing or forgetting something please let me know. Sorry for so many questions and thanks a ton!

 

[Malladine]

Asus and MSI are good brands for your mb, among others.

If you are not playing any games or doing any 3d work you shouldn't spend more than $100 on a vid card. In fact on board will probably be fine.

 

[ribbon13]

Tyan K8WE. Accept no less. You can start out with one cheap single core if you really had to, and uprade all the way up to dual 280s. Only contention is the second PCIe slot (and NIC) needs the second CPU to be addressable (since theres nothing to interface with the 2050 otherwise)

Corsair 512MB CAS2.5 DDR400 Registered
Corsair 1GB CAS2.5 DDR400 Registered

Video. Don't listen to the BS about get $100 cards if you actually plan on doing anything other than just fiddling. Maya and Discreet work gets very stressful if you're always waiting for the preview window. Otherwise go with the cheapest 256-bit memory, OpenGL 2, Dual DVI card

I suggest forgoing the raptor for a WD4000KD

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

With a $2,000 budget, I doubt very much you should go with a s940 board. Socket 939 seems like a much better choice.

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: Malladine
Asus and MSI are good brands for your mb, among others.

If you are not playing any games or doing any 3d work you shouldn't spend more than $100 on a vid card. In fact on board will probably be fine.

He said right in his post that he will be doing 3d in the future.

 

[ShellGuy]

I would have to say you would be good off with the Tyan board running 4gb ram 2 for each processor using the Raptor for ur boot disk maybe another for scratch disk in Photoshop and a 500gb for ur storage drive. 2000 is kinda low for a photoshop system but could be done. You can try XP64 ifyou like but from what i hear there are still driver issues with it. Next off you could get a Nvidia 6800GS or GT or ultra card or go with like a 7800GT card. Don't really thinkyou need SLI for what you are doing right now. If you want i can post a system i made for a friend of mine and he seemed to like it.



Will G.

 

[PeterJun21]

Do I really need 2 processors? I'm confused... Dual Core is single processor right? Couldnt I jsut go with one processor on a tyan board

 

[ShellGuy]

I jut did some searching on newegg and didn't find a single 940pin single processor mobo. On there as they are mostly made for servers which is where you will find the mobos listed under server mobo. You may find one on Tyan's site but not on newegg at the moment. 2k is a hard goal to stay under when you start talking about a photoshop machine or a 3d machine.



Will Gl.

 

[PeterJun21]

can i put a single duo processor on a deo proceessor mobo? or would that not function well

 

[996GT2]

If you plan on running 1 processor you don?t need an Opteron 2XX series processor (the 2XX means a max of 2 processors, where Opteron 8XX means max of 8). I think an Opteron 170 or 175 Dual Core Processor should work fine in a single-processor application. Plus you?d save some $$. Also, if you do a lot of graphics work, you might want to shell out some cash for a good graphics card, such as a 7800GT (which isn?t specifically a workstation card), or a Quadro FX series (which is).

 

[potato28]

Well if you want to make a cheaper card into a workstation card(ie 7800GTX-FX4500) use Rivatuner. Then you could spend your money elsewhere.

 

[PeterJun21]

Originally posted by: 996GT2
If you plan on running 1 processor you don?t need an Opteron 2XX series processor (the 2XX means a max of 2 processors, where Opteron 8XX means max of 8). I think an Opteron 170 or 175 Dual Core Processor should work fine in a single-processor application. Plus you?d save some $$. Also, if you do a lot of graphics work, you might want to shell out some cash for a good graphics card, such as a 7800GT (which isn?t specifically a workstation card), or a Quadro FX series (which is).

So would a Opteron 170 Dual Core 2 ghz have the same performance as the Opteron 270 Dual Core 2 ghz? Would a athlon fx/x2 be better?

 

[pkrush]

Yes, they're the same thing except that the Opteron 170 is Socket 939 and the Opteron 270 is Socket 940, and you can use 2 Opteron 270's on a board for a quad-core setup.

 

[PeterJun21]

Is there a big difference performance wise from socket 939 and socket 940. So that would mean a dual 270 would outperform a 180 right?

 

[pkrush]

Well, that would be 4 cores at 2 ghz versus 2 cores at 2.4 ghz, so it would depend on what you're doing (some programs take advantage of multiple processors, some don't). There isn't an inherent performance difference between Socket 939 and Socket 940 except that Socket 940 requires slower registered memory and supports multiple CPU's (not the same as multiple cores, they make dual cores for Socket 939 too)

 

[Dubb]

Originally posted by: potato28
Well if you want to make a cheaper card into a workstation card(ie 7800GTX-FX4500) use Rivatuner. Then you could spend your money elsewhere.

7800 series isn't moddable.

ebay has lots of cheap 3400s and 1400s right now

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: PeterJun21
Is there a big difference performance wise from socket 939 and socket 940. So that would mean a dual 270 would outperform a 180 right?

Depends on the application. For an app that doesn't make good use of more than 2 CPUs, then no, the 180 will still be better. For other things, it will get smoked.

Yes, You can get the dual-socket Tyan K8WE and use a single processor, but you wont be able to use the second PCIe slot until you have 2 CPUs, but thats not a big deal for most people.

 

[PeterJun21]

thanks guys, i think im just gonna go with the single duo core. would you recommend getting a OEM or a RETAIL w/fan.

 

[996GT2]

OEM just means you don't get a Heatsink/Fan, so if you want to add an aftermarket cooling solution, OEM is okay. If you don't want to go through the hassle of picking one out and don't plan to massively Overclock your Opteron chip, just spend a few more dollars for the retail box.

 

[Knavish]

Application:
I don't have any exprience with flash, but people who work on photoshop & 3D rendering tend to want as much ram as possible. I expect these types of applications will be some of the first to come out as 64-bit editions. For now, stick with Win XP 32 bit. 64 bit windows isn't much more than a beta test at this point.

If you're SERIOUS about building a workstation for specific software applications, check the application's specs. Will quad-cores help? Is a quadro card supported? etc. If you're just playing around with these apps, then build a fast dual core gaming workstation. If you're working with 1GB+ photoshop files and rendering complicated 3D scenes in Maya, get a workstation.
------
Quad Core Workstation setup:
Tyan Dual Socket AMD 8131 chipset board ($434)
2x Opteron 270 ($990)
4x Corsair ECC Registered 1GB DIMM ($440) ... i'd get more, but you're stuck with 32 bit XP for now
Quadro Vid Card ($500 to $1500)
Your Case Choice ($220)
RAID Raptor HDs ($690)
DVD, Large Storage HD, etc...
And we're well over $3000! Unless you're really, really serious you could probably skip on the Quadro and get a high end 7800 card BUT that still puts you up around $3k+
------
With $2000 you should just go with a high end gaming machine. You can get a Athlon64 X2 and a good gaming video card like a 7800. Unfortunately you're stuck with a max of 3.25GB of ram on any Nforce4 system, so hopefully that will be enough. Assuming you're not running some application that can run 4 threads at one time, this gaming machine will probably be as fast as the $3-4k workstation.

Right now it looks like you're running flash and photoshop. Those are both 2D apps. You don't need to spend any money on a fancy video card. A $150 card with dual DVI output (assuming you have 2 monitors) is plenty. If you're not going to get into 3D for a while, you'd probably save money buying a cheap card now and a next-gen 3D card in 6 months.

If you do want a quad core workstation class machine, you could always start with the dual socket mobo, 1 opteron and 2GB of ram. That would leave an open CPU socket and lots of empty DIMM slots.

Sorry for the long post.
-Knavish

 

[Knavish]

Retail = full warranty (~3yrs) + good heatsink

OEM = short warranty (??90 days??) + buy your own heatsink

 

[PeterJun21]

80327 Monarch Furia Custom Workstation (PCI-E) 1 $89.00 $89.00
Case: 100171 - No PS - Lian-Li PC-V1200B Plus Aluminum Q $199.86 $199.86
Power Supply: 101062 - PS 500W - Antec NeoHE 500 ATX 2.01 500W P $98.77 $98.77
Case Fan: 100987 - 120mm - Thermaltake 120X120X25mm Case Fan $9.98 $9.98
Motherboard: 110257 - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Audio/GB- $159.68 $159.68
Processor: 12A343 - AMD Opteron 175 Dual-Core 2.2GHz 1MB (per $461.63 $461.63
Thermal Grease: 800018 - Shin-Etsu G675 Thermal Grease (Cools CPU $14.99 $14.99
Heat Sink Fan: 130099 - Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu Silent CPU Cooling $46.74 $46.74
Memory: 140226 - DDR (400) 3200 - 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) OCZ Dua $218.88 $218.88
2nd Memory: None
Hard Drive: 150239 - SATA - Western Digital (WD740GD) 74 GB/10 $165.75 $165.75
2nd Hard Drive: None
3rd Hard Drive: None
4th Hard Drive: None
RAID Setup: None
RAID Controller: None
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW: None
CD-RW/DVD-RW: None
CD-RW Software: None
DVD-ROM Software: None
Floppy: None
More Storage: None
Sound Card: None
Video Card: 190958 - PNY Quadro FX 540 128MB DDR/PCI-E/DVI $10 $232.69 $232.69
Modem: None
Network Card: None
Wireless Network Card: None
Add On Card: None
Case Function Add On: None
Round Cable: None
Operating System: 800008 - None - No Software Support
Additional Software: None
Antivirus: None
Warranty: 800099 - Standard Tech Support, 6 Month Limited De
Hot Rush: None - Standard Order ( ships within 10-15 busines
Nero 7 Promotion: None
Molex Connector: None
Video Capture: None
TV Tuner: None
Lance Armstrong: 270447 - Lance Armstrong LIVE STRONG wristband
Free Giveaway: 270251 - Patriot Pen Blue and Grey - Free!
Lance Armstrong Jersey Contest: 270968 - Enter me in the monthly drawing for an au
Subtotal for 80327 with your selected options: $1,697.97

Heres what I got so far let me know if I should change anything. I'm going to add drives and xp later

 

[PeterJun21]

last question: for the Motherboard: 110257 - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Audio/GB- $159.68 $159.68 it doesnt list opterons as part of the cpu features. does it mean opterons wont function on this board?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: PeterJun21
last question: for the Motherboard: 110257 - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Audio/GB- $159.68 $159.68 it doesnt list opterons as part of the cpu features. does it mean opterons wont function on this board?

The Socket 939 Opterons will work; the Socket 940 ones will NOT.