"Workstation" Gen. Purpose Build reccomendations

[ZXCXX]

1. What my pc will be used for: Windows 8 "Workstation rig" little bit of everything: coding, photoshop, illustrator, rendering, 3d cad, and a bit of gaming (not a big gammer since my current pc won't allow me to play anything, but with a new rig a might venture and play a few games in the off chance)
2. Max Budget 900$. I want this to be a bang for your buck workstation. I would preferably want this system to cost 800$
3. Buying components in Canada. NCIX seems to have the best prices when shipping is included for those in Canada: http://www.ncix.com
4. Brand preference: intel and nvidia
5. Not using my current parts
6. Not overclocking
7. I already have a monitor, keyboard/mouse, windows 8 os software, i might end up purchasing updated speakers and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo so that's another reason why I'm hoping to make this build more cost effective.

Also I would consider an mATX sized motherboard since I like smaller sized desktops

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Black Gaming Case ATX 3X5.25 4X3.5 $69.99
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M 550W ATX Modular Power Supply Active $64.99
Corsair XMS3 CMX16GX3M2A1600C11 16GB 2X8GB DDR3-1600 CL11-11-11-30 1.5V Dual Channel Memory Kit $76.99
NCIX Gaming Bundle Deal Intel Core i5 3570K Quad Core & ASUS P8Z77-V Lk SLI DDR3 Motherboard $399.99
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6Gbps 3.5in Internal Hard Drive $69.99
Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5in SATA3 MDX Solid State Disk Flash Drive $159.99
EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1058MHZ 1024MB 5GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E DX11 Video Card $112.78
YOUR TOTAL $954.72

Since I like smaller sized desktops I have also considered mATX sized mobos, however, I may instead purchase the small full ATX sized case
LIAN LI PC-A05FNB Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for 110$ including shipping since

All help is welcomed

Thanks

 

[Sleepingforest]

Here's a physically smaller build (15.75" x 8.27" x 14.73", or about three shoeboxes stacked on top of each other) aimed mostly at rendering and photo editing. It uses a Xeon because it is basically a cheaper form of i7 (4 cores and 4 threads). It can also get at least console quality gaming in (medium at 1080p). I aimed low so you have budget space for other peripherals or even upgrading the CPU to a Xeon E3-1240 V2. I think that's around $260, or about $55 more than what I put below.

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($206.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($67.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Intel 335 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($106.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($42.39 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $823.19
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-21 20:24 EST-0500)

 

[Ken g6]

Looks like you're paying way too much for a motherboard. Here's a nice non-overclocking Gigabyte B75 for $70.

With that cheaper mobo, you should be able to get a more capable Xeon E3-1230 V2 processor. It won't do much for gaming, but PS, rendering, and CAD will benefit from its hyper-threading. The 1220 doesn't have HT iirc, so it's no better than an i5.

@SleepingForest:

Spoiler

Canada!

 

[ZXCXX]

Thanks Ken g6 for the mobo reccomendation didn't realize that. That mobo looks pretty good are there any other mobos in that range that you would recommend me to look into? I'm assuming the main difference between ATX and mATX mobos are the number of pcie slots?
I can also reduce costs by purchasing this case using the mATX mobo:
Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX Computer Case

 

[Sleepingforest]

Looks like you're paying way too much for a motherboard. Here's a nice non-overclocking Gigabyte B75 for $70.

With that cheaper mobo, you should be able to get a more capable Xeon E3-1230 V2 processor. It won't do much for gaming, but PS, rendering, and CAD will benefit from its hyper-threading. The 1220 doesn't have HT iirc, so it's no better than an i5.

@SleepingForest:

Spoiler

Canada!

Doh! I didn't see that. Good catch. Here's a Canada build:
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($231.99 @ Computer Valley)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: Corsair XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($68.14 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.79 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Intel 335 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($109.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Memory Express)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($43.99 @ Computer Valley)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS72 DVD/CD Writer ($17.06 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $853.93
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-21 23:07 EST-0500)

It follows Ken_6g's suggestions on the CPU, and generally improves on the capabilities of your own (OP's) part list. On the difference between mATX and ATX: these days, it's actually not much. Generally, they have less expansion slots (as you suspected) but they're just as good in pretty much every other way, and equally good for most users.

 

[ZXCXX]

Thanks for the suggestions here is an updated list:
Not sure whether the samsung or intel ssd is better. Looks like the samsung SSD preforms better than that intel ssd you selected although the intel ssd has double the capacity for basically the same price. I also opted for the nvidia card


http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/yVkZ

The total cost is 830$ including shipping

Not sure however on the mobo and graphics card if i'm getting the best bang for you buck?

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the suggestions here is an updated list:
Not sure whether the samsung or intel ssd is better. Looks like the samsung SSD preforms better than that intel ssd you selected although the intel ssd has double the capacity for basically the same price. I also opted for the nvidia card


http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/yVkZ

The total cost is 830$ including shipping

Not sure however on the mobo and graphics card if i'm getting the best bang for you buck?

The Samsung 840 Pro is faster than an Intel 335, but it's not so much faster that it's worth giving up almost half the capacity. Realistically, you're not likely to notice a difference in performance between one SSD and another.

The rest of your build looks fine except for the PSU. I would avoid Cooler Master PSUs (actually anything that has Extreme in the name is safe to avoid). You can get the CX430M for the same price, which is a better PSU

 

[ZXCXX]

Thanks for the tip. I'll go with the corsair instead.
By the way I realized that the Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H only has 1 SATA3 port thus I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the SATA3 harddisc drive

However the GA-B75M-D3P, for 90$ I think has enough SATA3 ports for the ssd and harddisc.

But I am a bit confused reading the spec sheet. Do all the boards come with the Marvell 88SE9172 chip? And is there 2 SATA3 ports or 3 SATA3 ports?

Chipset:
1 x SATA 6Gb/s connector (SATA3 0) supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
5 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 1~5) supporting up to 5 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Marvell 88SE9172 chip:
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6~7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1​

Also this board has a display port. Once i decide to use a discrete graphics card i wouldn't be able to take advantage of the displayport in the future right? And especially since the xeon processor does not have integrated graphics?

Thanks again

 

[Sleepingforest]

A hard drive, other than maybe a hybrid drive (like the Seagate Momentus) will not saturate even a SATAII channel. You'll be fine with the cheaper motherboard.

Yes, once you go with a dedicated graphics card, you'll use the ports on the card, not on the motherboard.

 

[ZXCXX]

Didn't know that. I'm not sure what then is the point of advertising the HDD as SATA3 if there is no advantage to using the SATA3 port.

Just to clarify only SSDs then can take advantage of SATA3 or are SATA2 sufficient as well?

 

[Sleepingforest]

SSDs (well, modern ones) will take advantage of the full width of SATAIII.

 

[mfenn]

Just to clarify only SSDs then can take advantage of SATA3 or are SATA2 sufficient as well?

That's correct, only a new SATA 6 Gb/s (aka SATA 3) SSD will take advantage of the increased bus speeds over SATA 3 Gb/s (SATA 2).