[Sodaholic]

I'm building a new PC, my old one is too outdated and the MB is having some serious problems.

For some upcoming projects, I need to be able to render and edit high quality 3D models in real time for HD 3D asset production, and to actually be able to play the stuff I make and in general without struggling to get a decent framerate on demanding engines. Basically a multimedia production workstation PC, and to get good performance from very demanding emulators of not-so-old systems. (Dolphin and PCSX2 both run like shit on my current build, I just want to replay Metroid Prime and the Jak games)

I'm deadass tired and can't really think well at the moment. I'd go into more detail but I need to hit the sack badly. Here's what I've assembled so far, am I getting a powerful, long-lasting system from this parts list, and getting generally the best performance for what I'm spending? Is there anything you would recommend differently?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1NK0a

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by Sodaholic: 11 November 2013 - 02:14 AM

[winterhell]

There are couple of things that need adjustments.

RAM frequency makes absolutely no difference in real applications, be it games, emulation, 3ds max or Photoshop. Go with 1333 or 1600MHz istead of 2400.
As for the amount of memory, its not too easy to fill up even 8 GB and you have to have open multiple applications. You might want to consider putting only 1 8GB stick and at a later point you can always plug another one. I for one am with 8 GB of ram and turned off paging file and have no out of memory issues.

10000 RPM HDD wont make much of difference performance wise, but it sure makes a lot of racket. You might want to get a "slower" 2 or 3TB one for less.

As for the Sound Blaster, nowadays the integrated audio chipsets on the mainboards can rival those of the dedicated cards and most people cant tell the difference. And even then it may take a more expensive sound card and/or audio speakers to tell.

Cant tell you how they compare, but there are several times cheaper wifi N usb cards out there.
Also a thermal paste that is more expensive than the cooler itself? (btw most coolers have their own)

Things you might want to invest more in:
- better Power Supply. This is very crucial. Get at least 80 Plus Silver certified, for example from Seasonic.
- for cooling- Cooler Master Hyper 212. It'll get you good performance even without a separate thermal paste
- mainboard upgrade, Asus?

Hope this helps.

[Ell678]

I strongly suggest buying the Nvidia 780GTX. I run a surround setup on my machine (resolution of 5760x1080) and it handles itself very well. I bought myself Crysis 3 to test it, and on just one monitor, it gives a very smooth 50+ FPS at the Very High settings, with 8X MSAA. It could even play on all three, but I would have to sacrifice AA for that. Older games run flawlessly across 3, and even some newer games (Far Cry 3, Max Payne 3, etc). Also, you can just buy another if you need additional power.

[TmEE]

Get less fast memory and save money. As said earlier it makes no difference whatosever in any real life applications. Games don't run faster or slower nor will any other program.

10krpm drive in not worth it, it makes lots of noise and won't be whole lot faster than normal 7200rpm drive, and way slower than some SSD.
Buy a normal 7200rpm drive or 2 of them and RAID them, it'll be faster than the single 10kprm one, make just as much noise, but takes more power...

The PSU should be something more expensive and powerful, those heap things went back to warranty within a year half the times when I worked with computers.

Extra sound card is not worth it if you are not going to do actual recording which is what you really need separate card for, integrated stuff is adequate for any kind of playback and use of microphones. Line in is the thing that suffers and seems you will not be using that.

The extra fan is only going to make you more noise, and the case you have in mind already has some excess in it.

[Sodaholic]

Thanks for the tips. I'm taking almost all of your suggestions.

I cannot have integrated audio, I need low latency and high quality I/o. I want to play my guitar live while recording without getting disoriented and off beat as a result of the delay. I also have a pair of studio monitors as speakers, I want to take full advantage of their high fidelity when gaming and listening to music. A major concern of mine is Linux support. I don't want to get an expensive card that I can't even use in my preferred OS. I've had very bad experiences with Radeon HD integrated audio, I've always heard weird artifacts on every machine I've used that has it, and it even decayed in one machine!

As for the GPU, I will upgrade later on, but the 760 is fine to me for now.

Lastly, I'm selling my old machine to my friend, who requested AVG to be installed. I was rather amused when I saw this:

Not surprising given the PUP shit it installed alongside without my permission. :/ I cleared the PUP out, but I worry about AVG itself monitoring users for advertisers.

[winterhell]

Sodaholic, on 23 October 2013 - 11:15 PM, said:

I want to play my guitar live while recording without getting disoriented and off beat as a result of the delay.

Fair enough. Have you considered Creative's professional series E-MU?

EMU 0404 PCI Express for example is 118 Euro here in Europe and may be cheaper in the US.

[TmEE]

M-Audio offers really good stuff and has Linux driver support available.

[Oerg866]

As usual, I see this thread a bit too late, but anyway.

The $24 PSU is a joke, get a decent one please. This one will just burn up the instant you turn the machine on.

Also with R9-290X basically trashing any other graphics card at over nine thousand less dollars to spend, get that.

Don't get an MSI board. They have the highest failure rate, especially on Z77 boards.

The SSD has a goddamn SANDFORCE controller. Ditch it. Get a Samsung 840 Pro.

[Sodaholic]

TmEE, on 24 October 2013 - 08:24 AM, said:

M-Audio offers really good stuff and has Linux driver support available.

Ah, nice. This should ensure I won't actually need Winshit for anything. Good brand, too. I kinda wanted to avoid anything by Creative Labs anyway because I don't like their patent trolling.

Oerg866, on 26 October 2013 - 08:22 AM, said:

As usual, I see this thread a bit too late, but anyway.

The $24 PSU is a joke, get a decent one please. This one will just burn up the instant you turn the machine on.

Also with R9-290X basically trashing any other graphics card at over nine thousand less dollars to spend, get that.

Don't get an MSI board. They have the highest failure rate, especially on Z77 boards.

The SSD has a goddamn SANDFORCE controller. Ditch it. Get a Samsung 840 Pro.

Not too late at all, I saw your post in time before I actually ordered the bulk of the parts.

Here's what I ended up with:

Cooler Master HAF XB EVO (Not exactly standard, but I thought it looked cool, and the extra space will be nice to have)
Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 700w
Cooler Master TPC 612 CPU cooler
i7-4820K CPU
Asus Sabertooth X79 mobo
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600 Memory
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD (My wallet's already hurting, I couldn't go for the pro version)
EVGA GTX760 (I know there's better out there. I already had this card before I made the thread.)
M-Audio US41750


Also, my Oculus Rift came in yesterday. I tried it on my friend's machine (formerly mine before I sold it), we were both very impressed. If you have any doubts about the Rift, just try it. It really IS as good as everyone says it is.

[Oerg866]

Yup, that looks pretty good. I like that you'Ve gone for Socket 2011/X79. Great platform, albeit a little more expensive on the price to performance ratio, but the components are of better quality since they also build very expensive workstations with these. Only thing is, try to get a memory kit with 4 sticks, shouldn't cost more and you have the nifty bonus of having quadchannel =P (Or do that when upgrading from 8 to 16 GB sometime in the future).

I'm not sure but you should make sure the cooler is actually intended for mounting on a socket 2011 platform.

This post has been edited by Oerg866: 01 November 2013 - 09:32 AM

[Sodaholic]

I'm having a little trouble with it. I've got it all put together, but it won't turn on. I'm pretty sure it's more to do with the CPU than the MB. It turns on when the CPU itself isn't given power. Obviously, it's no good to me in such a state.

Is it possible that there's a problem with the connection, or is it more likely that I got a faulty unit?

[TmEE]

Are you 100% that the power switch is connected on the right pins ?

This connector (either 4 or 8 pins) in also essential, most mobos will not turn on if its not inserted :

[Sodaholic]

Unfortunately, those connections were already made. The only time it will turn on (fans, no actual operation) is when I deliberately deprive the CPU of its power. When it actually receives it, it won't turn on.

[Oerg866]

That means you're out of luck. It happens a lot here if a board is genuinely broken.

[Sodaholic]

Welp, it was the BIOS. I feel foolish. At least I got it up and running, as I'm now posting from it. Thanks for all the advice, it was invaluable! Got a much better system than what was in the OP specs. Glad I dodged a few bullets there, like Sandforce, I'm still unfamiliar with SSDs.