Mistake in choosing new PC for graphic/3d work - necessary to cancel and re-order?

[zhutee]

Hey guys,

I'm getting a new pc to stay on top of my work, which is mostly 2d graphics (photoshop, illustrator, indesign etc) as well as 2d/3d CAD applications (autocad, sketchup, 3dsmax etc) and the occasional video editing thrown in.

I chose my pc and ordered it last night - only, reading the forum later, to find out that I've gone down the wrong direction by chosing a gaming GPU rather than a workstation GPU. Now I'm torn between cancelling the order (if that's even possible) and building a new pc, or to stick with my current order.

The only major change is the motherboard/GPU unit, but I'm unable to amend my current order as Quadro cards/ the necessary motherboards are not available as options.

Budget is £900 give or take a little - current build comes in at £822, alternative workstation spec further below comes in at £928, while that is within sight of my budget it is £100 extra nonetheless...

Any comments or suggestions much appreciated!

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost

Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER

Alternative Build

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost

Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 WS SUPERCOMPUTER: 3 way SLI™, CUDA Support, DDR3, SATA 3.0GB/s

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
PNY QUADRO FX580 512MB GDDR3, CUDA ENABLED - 2 x DP, 1 x DVI-I

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

 

[Sleinous]

Yes if youre 100% in 2d design, a Quadro card (in my opinion) is a must here! However, i'd do away with teh i7 870 and go for an i5 760, most of the hard work will be done by the GPU and not the CPU in this instance so the 870 isnt really necessary.

Here is another spec to consider:

8GB RAM instead of 4GB, £1 cheaper than your 2nd spec. Same Quadro card. i5 760.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 WS SUPERCOMPUTER: 3 way SLI™, CUDA Support, DDR3, SATA 3.0GB/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
PNY QUADRO FX580 512MB GDDR3, CUDA ENABLED - 2 x DP, 1 x DVI-I
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
2 x ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £927.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[zhutee]

Hi Sleinous, thanks for your suggestions.

I work with 3d modeling software, although I always finish my work with 2d graphics software. I've noticed that (in my current pc) working with huge files in photoshop is inevitably slower than the actual 3d modeling, so that was why I started thinking a Quadro card capable of handling 3d work would be more suitable in my case.

Did your spec include Windows 7? I have a legitimate copy of Windows 7 Professional that I will use, that'll be £79 saved...

Also, something I don't really understand is cases. I was planning to buy the cheaper if not the cheapest one, but nobody else does it on this forum. Is paying the extra £ for the better cases necessary? I gather that the case will play a huge role in ventilation and cooling, is that the only/major reason? Same for the processor cooling - how does one decide which cooling system to use?

Thanks again Sleinous, it looks like I will indeed be cancelling and reordering.

 

[Sleinous]

Ah, yes it had Win7 in it, I could indeed do alot more with that extra money!

OK here is my revised Mark II

So... bumped up warranty to silver, £5 more.

and... the HDD to a Caviar Black instead of Green, some say this is slightly better for having your OS on if youre not using a solid state drive. Seeing as there was spare cash, I've upgraded it. My rig currently uses a WD1002FAEX too, I must say they are very nice drives! Computer takes about 1.5minutes to boot up to firefox just to give you an idea.

Ive also bumped the PSU up to a 600W if you ever wanted to swap out that Quadro and go for the next one up in say a few years time?

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 WS SUPERCOMPUTER: 3 way SLI™, CUDA Support, DDR3, SATA 3.0GB/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
PNY QUADRO FX580 512MB GDDR3, CUDA ENABLED - 2 x DP, 1 x DVI-I
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
2 x ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £903.00 including VAT and delivery.

Personally, I chose my cooling based on my case. Lets give an extreme example, say I had a completely open case, one of those ones where its just a lump of metal with stuff screwed on to Then, if im not overclocking id stay with stock cooling, however, if I went for a case with one exhaust fan at the back and, a few holes at the front for ventilation, i'd go for the triple heat pipe of even the Fenrir depending on the CPU of course. If I had an Intel Atom in there i'd still go stock (lol) and not go for a 3rd party cooler. Hope that makes sense.

The £59 case is (I think) is one of the most popular is it offers the basics and good ventilation

 

[zhutee]

I thought with the savings I could go for the i7, but you immediately found other stuff to replace it with

I originally chose the Caviar black, but elsewhere in the forums people were saying there wasn't much difference between green and black, hence the downgrade.. I generally keep my HDD rather empty, as I save and backup all my stuff on externals..

the 600w is a good point, I haven't been playing any games for a couple of years but you never know... and seeing that I don't know much about cases + coolers, I'll just go with your recommendations.

no matter how I tweak it, the Quadro Fx 580 is the best card I can get, so I suppose this spec is pretty much it....

thanks!

 

[Sleinous]

Maybe consider the 640GB then, yes, the green is cheaper and nearly same performance, so you could still stick to that one. There is mixed debate about it powering down to a lower RPM when not in use though, this has never been admitted by WD but...who knows?


and yes, the PSU is a good idea because, later on, you can take out that FX580 and put the next Quadro card up inside instead, and possibly sell the old one.

 

[zhutee]

Just checked the 640GB version - a difference of £7, so looks like 1TB is the way to go. I guess everything's decided, now just to see if PCS allows me to cancel and reorder. Out of curiosity though, what adverse effects are there if the rpm of the hdd is powered down when not in use? I thought that might actually be beneficial but then I don't really know what that means..

 

[Sleinous]

Apparently, it takes a while to get back to 7200RPM, meaning you get a small lul in performance, say, if you went to eat and HDD was inactive, (unlikely as most of teh time the computer is always buggering about doing something it shouldnt be doing ) well when you get back you may have to wait 5-10 seconds while it spins up to regular speed again.

 

[zhutee]

Ah well as long as it eventually gets back to full speed, don't think that matters much to me heh. You've been a great help so far, thanks!

 

[Sleinous]

No probs, let us know how you get on

 

[Meds]

Just a quick one (as I think Sleinous has hit the nail on the head & helped a lot with the spec ) I'll just add that you shouldn't need to cancel/re-order as this would put you to the back of the queue again. Just give our Sales Team a call in the morning (0844 499 4000) and they will be able to make the changes for you and take payment/refund the difference in price

 

[Sleinous]

Yes good point actually! I hope you haven't cancelled yet

 

[zhutee]

No - I didn't cancel because I had no idea how to do so, couldn't find the relevant link...

Anyway - gave them a call, changed everything, paid the difference, and now waiting in anticipation. Thanks guys!

 

[Sleinous]

Excellent! Now to play the patient waiting game (should be shorter) than if you went to the back of the queue again