Purchased but have I missed anything important ?

[kiteohatto]

Hello, new poster here looking for some advice .

This pc will be used for 3d rendering/animation/photoshop and gaming.



Onto the main bit......

I finally decided to go ahead and upgrade my cpu/mobo combo which was q6600/p35 neo2 which lasted me from 2008 until now.

Now, i've been doing "some" research and upgrading things along so it's not a completely fresh build.

"Relatively new" things that I will keep:
PSU - Corsair 850AX
SSDs - 128gb Crucial M4s (2 of them)
Case - Antec 900
HDD - Caviar Green 1TB
GPU -Unlocked and overclocked 6950 2gb

The new things which I bought are 3930k and p9x79 Pro board and Corsair Ram. I didn't want to go for a more expensive board and I heard good things about this one. My other choices were big bang power II(but its too big for my case) or one of the ASrock extreme's(but I would have had to pinch the pennies).


Things i want to know more about: SSDs and motherboard
Could you guys please explain how I take advantage of the "SSD Caching" with my ssd's and p9x79 motherboard ?


The way i have it right now is I have 1 for OS and 1 for important apps(photoshop, 3ds max, zbrush, etc) and just use the 1tb HDD for installing games/unimportant apps on, is this the right way to do it ?


Thank you for the help, its greatly appreciated, im clueless when it comes to SSD's as I only recently switched to them from HDDs.

 

[Sleepingforest]

Why are you spending so much on the CPU and so little on the GPU? What programs do you have that can actually utilize 12 threads? Why is your power supply so big when 500W is sufficent? Why did you get such freakishly expensive RAM? hy don't you just buy one SSD (you get better performance from a single big SSD)? Why have you not answered the stickied questions?

In other words, why are you spending so much in such a wasteful way?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

You're already doing it the way I'd prefer.

SSD caching works by copying frequently accessed data to the SSD and copying less-used data to the HDD. It's a hands-off thing; you don't decide, the computer does.

It's more for people who don't understand drive letters and directory structures, and can't decide where to put their data on their own - the computer takes care of it, and they get most of the benefit of an SSD most of the time. (Fast boot times, fast loads for frequently used apps, and a zippy write-cache for the HDD.)

OEMs like it because you can get away with using a small SSD and a big, cheap HDD, and then market the machine as having an SSD.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Why are you spending so much on the CPU and so little on the GPU?

...because he's not gaming, and he only upgrades his CPU/Mobo once or twice a decade?

 

[Sleepingforest]

...because he's not gaming, and he only upgrades his CPU/Mobo once or twice a decade?

Um... he is gaming. And he would have a better computing experience if he purchased more often with less money.

This pc will be used for 3d rendering/animation/photoshop and gaming.

 

[DSF]

While I might have worded it differently, I agree with Sleepingforest. There's a lot of wasted money here. If you're able to return parts I would do so. Even if you get charged a nominal restocking fee it's probably worth it.

Your CPU and motherboard cost nearly as much as my entire computer, and it's a great gaming rig.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I did word it a little strongly, it's just that I get personally upset a little when I see so much money going to waste . For that much, you could have bought a 30" monitor (possibly even two), a calibrator, and then an excellent computer on the side. I mean, the 850W power supply is really out of place, and then he only got 16GB of RAM--for $180. You can get that much RAM at an equally high quality for half as much. If he needs that 3930K, then fine--but then he doesn't get a cooler so he can get the full value out of a K designated CPU. Then there's getting the SSDs seperately, which is generally cost inefficent, and the SSDs will perform less well than a single larger one. And so on. At least the case isn't a Corsair 800D.

I see now that it's from a older build or something, so he can't return those parts. I can only hope that his new purchases are more reasonable.

 

[Torn Mind]

He says that the PSU, GPU, etc are those things he already has and will keep.

An unlocked 6950 should be around a 7870 performance-wise.

The Samsung 840 Pro is the fastest drive out in the market right now.

The 3930K is Sandy Bridge-E, so it has lower IPC that the Ivy Bridge 3770K. You need apps that will scale with the 2 extra cores very well. Otherwise, the 3770K will be on par or slightly better than the 3930K.

Although, if you need the memory bandwidth offered by quad-channel memory, then stick with the X79.

 

[kiteohatto]

Thank you all for replies !
When i was looking at CPUs it was a choice between 3770k or 3930k. From the benchmarks i saw that 3770k is better if one games a lot, however i use 3d applications, 3ds max, zbrush, cinema4d, maya and so on where i can take advantage of extra cores, plus if i get a 6 core now then it would be like getting a quad back when everyone was saying to get core 2 duo.

GPU wise, i have unlocked and overclocked Sapphire 6950 2gb(got it last xmas) which is bottlenecked by my old q6600, down the line I want to go crossfire 7970s GHZ edition and maybe even a medium range workstation card. I can't afford to seriously get into xeons for the time being.

As for ram, i needed low profile QUAD channel ones because of the aftermarker cooler and p9x79 motherboard and there wasn't much choice..., the platinum ones were £100(200$) more at least. In the future i'll get another 16gb.

I already had 2 SSD's (identical size) to test them out or maybe even raid them and then just purchase a single big one for "app storage".

I did actually buy an aftermarket cpu cooler but forgot to write in it(my bad), it's this one. I just hope it fits my case, the current one i have for q6600 is Tuniq tower and its HUGE.

As for monitors, i already have 2 1920x1080 ones and i don't "really" need a third one right now. I'll probably get another one when i get the cards for Eyefinity for those times when i do play games although its just 3(eve, tera and battlefield 3), but as it is my 6950 won't handle eyefinity at that resolution too well if i get a third screen RIGHT NOW.

The PSU was the first thing which i "upgraded" as i went because that would be the part that would stay with me the longest so I made sure to get a good one


I plan on getting a full tower case eventually and i have my eyes on cooler master stryker(with a window) as antec 900(1st revision) is getting cramped.

Hardware in UK can be pricy sometimes .


I have another question, is it possible to have crossfire installed AND have a workstation card installed at the same time ? I know some people use Nvidia GTX 500 series for 3D but I would rather get a proper workstation card.

 

[mfenn]

It would be helpful if you list out what prices you actually paid for your new components. Going by list pricing, you got seriously ripped off on the RAM (16 GB in a quad channel config should cost only about £80).

Also, the RAM you purchased isn't low profile, no matter how much Corsair's marketing department wishes that it was. It's standard profile, the same height as DIMMs have been since the 90's. It's only "low profile" in comparison to the ridiculous fins on the regular Vengeance. For comparison, this is low profile RAM.

 

[kiteohatto]

It would be helpful if you list out what prices you actually paid for your new components. Going by list pricing, you got seriously ripped off on the RAM (16 GB in a quad channel config should cost only about £80).

Also, the RAM you purchased isn't low profile, no matter how much Corsair's marketing department wishes that it was. It's standard profile, the same height as DIMMs have been since the 90's. It's only "low profile" in comparison to the ridiculous fins on the regular Vengeance. For comparison, this is low profile RAM.

Ah, i should have shopped around, i just wanted to get everything from 1 place and the only RAM they had in stock was corsair brand. Edit: I just checked amazon and some others and yeah its ~£82 on there, the site which i got it from charge extra for everything, i guess because its always next day delivery by default.

Now that you mention it i do feel ripped off , but oh well lesson learned .

CM Stryker case is due to arrive tomorrow

Here is the thing running

Core voltage fluctuates between 1.37 and what you see above, temps are 58-62c under full load.



If I had a chance to do it again I would have gotten a different motherboard though, Noctua barely fits and it only fits 1 way .

Do you think its a good idea to remove 1 of the fans on Noctua(NOT the middle one) ?. Right now it only fits if it blows towards my VGA(but the air isn't even warm), otherwise I can't put my card in the "recommended" VGA slot.

 

[mfenn]

Oh well, I guess you will know for next time.

As for removing a fan, you lose some cooling capacity, but it's not going to be crippling or anything like that.