My new power PC- opinions and thoughts needed, before I order!

Hello guys!
I'm new to building a customised pc and just wanted to know if this configuration of components would work well together. I will be mainly using my desktop for graphic and rendering works (CAD related softwares, image and video editing). Also sometimes gaming.

Case: PCS Maelstrom T900
Processor (CPU): ASUS® P6T7 WS SUPERCOMPUTER
Memory (RAM): 12GB KINGSTON HYPERX TRI-DDR3 1600MHz
Graphics card: 2GB ATI Radeon HD 5970 PCI Express DirectX 11
2nd Graphics card: none

1st Hard Disk: WD 1TB CAVIAR GREEN HDD
2nd Hard Disk: WD 1TB CAVIAR GREEN HDD
RAID: None
1st DVD/Bluray drive: 10x Blu-ray rom drive, 16x DVD +R/+RW
2nd : None
Memory card reader: Internal 52 in 1 Memory Card Reader

Power supply & case cooling: 1500W Thermaltake toughpower modular psu
Processor Cooling: TITAN Fenrir extreme direct tough copper cpu cooler
Sound Card: Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio
Network Facilities: Wireless 802.11N 300Mbps PCI Card
USB Options: 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL
Firewire & Video Editing: 3 Port Firewire PCI Card
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

As for the Processor cooling unit I decided to go for TITAN FENRIR (fan based cooling unit) rather than the liquid cooling because I don't know much about liquid cooling system and seems like a high maintenance. (But hope TITAN FENRIR does the job well, as it's under the category of 'Extreme processor cooling')

Thank you so much for reading and I would like to hear your opinions and recommendations!!

Hi!

The spec seems to be missing the CPU model?

My comments would be on the PSU first off, its going to be overkill for what you want. I would recommend the Corsair HX1000W as fitting this system better.

Secondly for the GPU, the 5970 is a very high end 3D gaming card, would one of the high end 2D cards such as the Quadro series not be more appropriate for Autocad work i wonder.

NVIDIA Quadro® and Professional Solution Product lines provide excellent performance with leading professional software applications from the top software manufacturers. Through rigorous in-house testing, Quadro and Professional Products are certified on all industry leading applications.

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I will take a moment to spin a quick tale about the evolution of graphics cards which may make this clearer.

Back in the day (early 90's) the dedicated GPU was a 2D chip with a mb or two of dedicated memory, and so things were since the beginning of time.

And then one day in 1996 the gods gave unto us the 3Dfx Voodoo, a standalone 3D chip which did accelerate our 3d games greatly and there was much rejoicing and playing of Quake.

Slowly but surely as the people came to love the smooth lines and complicated models that the dedicated 3D chip gave us it spread throughout the land. However the people grew weary of having to stuff their PC's with a standalone 2D card for desktop work and a seperate dedicated 3D card.

In 1998 the peoples prayers were answered with the arrival of the Voodoo Banshee, a card which sported an adequate 2D accelerator and a beefy 3D accelerator on the same card! This was (give or take a few other cards no one cares about) the birth of the gaming GPU that we know and use today.

The people again rejoiced and there was much playing of Quake 2.

Over time it came to light that these new fangled gaming cards had very strong 3D capabilities but were lacking in the 2D department which made the Autocad and other graphic design people very sad.

As time moved on GPU's took two very different paths, we will use a modern series as a reference here, the Quadro took the path of strong 2D and adequate 3D which made the Autocad people happy and there was much designing of bridges and such. The Geforce series took the path of a strong 3D engine and adequate 2D engine which made the gamers happy and there was much playing of modern warfare etc.

And there we are today.

CUDA is supported in both families and when supported in the software can unlock even more potential by using the GPU for CPU work.

The 5970 is specifically a gaming card as it is a dual GPU card which using an internal crossfire i am not sure how it would benefit Autocad and the like.

There you go, clear as mud.

yeah i agree with gorman here about your PSU but everything else is good!

Steve

Gorman said:

And then one day in 1996 the gods gave unto us the 3Dfx Voodoo.

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Sorry to hijack, but god this take me back, I remember upgrading my 32MB to a 64MB Voodoo card and playing Delta Force ... the good old days

Sorry, my mistake!
CPU is Intel core i7 Six core processor i7-970 (3.20GHz) 6.4GTs/12MB Cache
Thank you Gorman, that makes things clear. But if I also want to play games, will it be an option to have ATI Radeon HD 5970 as a second graphics card?

minsungkimuk said:

Thank you Gorman, that makes things clear. But if I also want to play games, will it be an option to have ATI Radeon HD 5970 as a second graphics card?

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Good CPU you have there.

If gaming is a major consideration then yes you are better sticking with one of the "gaming" cards be it ATI or Nvidia, although Nvidia cards will enable CUDA acceleration if Autocad supports it.