PC for Architecture/Graphics? Sensible Build?

• 

  IceCreamBandit on 10/07/2016 - 23:53

  +6

  I don't have any intentions of OC'ing

  If so, you don't need a Z170 motherboard. H170 series will do. 'Z' series boards are for overclocking.

  I assume stock standard cooler will be okay? (Although rendering may have it tough on the CPU)

  Yep stock cooler is fine, but if you're really worried you can get something like a Coolermaster Hyper 212X. $49, not too expensive but will definitely keep things cool.

  i7 Skylake 1151pin (i7-6700) - $425

  Check out this comparison between the i5-6600 and i7-6700 here. $120 difference but only 100MHz and the availability the Hyper-Threading the difference. If you know you need HT then no problem, but otherwise you can save that for other parts e.g. GPU.

  Asus Z170 ROG MAXIMUS VIII RANGER - $299

  If you don't need it for overclocking, you definitely don't need a high end motherboard like this. Were there any features in particular that you needed/wanted? Otherwise you can spend $150-170 and get something like an Asus H170 Pro.

  Corsair 80 Plus Gold Full Modular RM750i - $187

  You won't need that much power, you could probably even get away with a 550W and save $20-30, but nothing wrong with that PSU really.

  • 

    chartparker on 11/07/2016 - 07:49

    +4

    If he's doing rendering jobs he'll probably want all the threads he can get, so I think i7 will make enough of a justifiable difference in this case, but otherwise agree with all the points.

    Also if you can buy all the other parts and hold off until GTX1060 release you might find that the 970 prices either plummet or the difference to go a GTX1060/RX480 is small enough to justify.

    As for monitors, I have a Samsung 27" 2560x1440 and a 21.5 1920x1080 screen. I'd highly recommend getting just a single 27" WQHD screen for now and then adding a second screen later if you want dual monitor. The difference the extra pixels and screen real estate makes for CAD is worth it.

    • 

      klaw81 on 11/07/2016 - 08:41

      +1

      What CAD software are you planning to use? I ask because AMD gaming cards don't play nice with some CAd software in my experience. The GeForce cards are much more compatible.

      I'd keep the i7 rather than dropping back to an i5 - I believe most CAD programs can make use of HT and the bit of extra clock speed will help too.

      Having an SSD and 2 separate 1TB HDDs doesn't make a lot of sense to me - what are you trying to achieve with that? Get a 500GB SSD and maybe a single 1TB or 2TB HDD if you need the extra storage space.

      Your PSU is massive overkill and you can comfortably come back to 500W since you're not overclocking. You don't need the Z170 board either, a H170 board will be perfect.

      I agree that the 1060 would be perfect for this application - the 970 is good, but the 1060 will be better if you can wait. Quadro cards are way overpriced and don't give anything near the benefits that they claim.

      I reckon a single ultra-wide 29" screen is better for workflow than two separate 24's because the bezels are annoying. But depending on your software, you may find that having a single large screen for work, and keeping tool palettes and other data on a another screen is helpful.

      • 

        chartparker on 11/07/2016 - 09:20

        Unfortunately ultra wide screens are still Uber expensive. 27" WQHD are the best bang for buck at the moment in the screen real estate and picture quality vs dollar ratio.

        Quadro cards definitely don't offer as much value as consumer cards, but they're worth it for larger businesses as they're inherently more stable due to better binning and also offer higher accuracy when drawing images. These may not be worth the price premium for the op, but worth mentioning because for medium to large businesses any downtime would instantly justify the higher price.

        I have a feeling the OP was asking whether to go WD blue or black maybe? If personally just go with black because I hate the thought of buying slightly slower storage to save 30 odd dollars

      • 

        revo on 11/07/2016 - 19:47

        @nytrojen:

        Thanks for the discussion! It's giving me a really good insight. As for the hard drives..
        I was thinking perhaps I save some money by going 1tb blue (purely for storage + backups) and 1tb black for installations.

        Is it better to just get 2tb black instead?

        Will switch over the z170 to the H170 PRO GAMING.
        However RAM selected is currently 16gb DDR2666 and ASUS H170 Specifies:
        4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
        Dual Channel Memory Architecture

        Will this be an issue?

      • 

        chartparker on 11/07/2016 - 21:44

        +1

        @revolushenary: Shouldn't be an issue. Your RAM will just run at 2133Mhz. RAM speed has very little impact these days anyway. Some motherboards can be picky on what brand of RAM etc. See if there's a compatibility list on the Mobo website to be sure.

        I'd personally just go with a 2tb black instead to save myself the headache of running out of space and moving stuff around, but if you can live it your plan is sound

      • 

        revo on 12/07/2016 - 22:20

        @nytrojen:

        Thanks for your help so far! (And everyone else's) really appreciate it :)

        I'll probably build it myself… but as a final sanity check..

        Do these parts all seem compatible with each other.. (as in I'm not buying the wrong M/B for the CPU type.. enough SATA ports… etc etc.

        i7 Skylake 1151pin (i7-6700) - $425

        ASUS H170 PRO GAMING - $213

        Samsung 850 EVO - 500gb - $205

        WD BLACK 2TB HDD - $174

        4gb ASUS GTX970 TURBO-OC - $409

        16gb 2133 Kingston Hyper X Fury - $98

        Corsair 80 Plus Gold Full Modular RM650i - $175

        FRACTAL R5 Case (BLACK) - $159

        USB 3.0 All in one card reader internal (BLACK)- $19

        ASUS DVD RW Writer (BLACK)- $17

        TOTAL: $1894

        Thank you!

      • 

        chartparker on 13/07/2016 - 10:46

        +1

        @revolushenary:

        Looks pretty good to me - that's pretty much exactly what I'd pick, including the PSU as well. My only comment is still to hold off buying GPU until GTX1060 release if you can. Don't forget you can use the integrated Intel graphics until then, and the release date is only 6 days away (July 19th, including the aftermarket versions).

        Oh I also prefer the non-blower style video cards because blower style tend to be a bit louder

      • 

        scrimshaw on 13/07/2016 - 12:24

        +1

        @revolushenary:

        Don't bother getting the WD 2TB black. I have the Black and it's not that much faster than any other 7200RPM drive. There is an advantage to seek times…. but when you compare it to an SSD, the advantage is peanuts and you're paying a hefty premium for it!

        If you want the maximum performance out of your programs, here's what you do
        1. Buy an SSD large enough to fit all your programs and the data you work on.
        2. Install said programs to SSD
        3. Anything unimportant and not essential to work… that is, games, music, movies, 'adult' entertainment, should be stored on spinning disks.

        Just buy a regular 2TB Seagate or Toshiba for $99 bucks.

      • 

        chartparker on 13/07/2016 - 13:16

        +1

        @scrimshaw: I personally go black because of the longer warranty and because I've had 5 Seagate drives fail in the past (and swore off them completely after the fifth). Anecdotal evidence yes, but IMO the black is worth the premium - especially if it's going to be storing client's work/assignments. Even with a backup system in place, you'll still end up with downtime from a failed drive.

      • 

        humdingaling on 13/07/2016 - 13:35

        +2

        @nytrojen:
        same personal experience with seagate

        though i would just use 2TB WD BLUE @ 98 bucks instead of black
        with the money saved you can get a decent size SSD for boot drive/programs

      • 

        chartparker on 13/07/2016 - 14:27

        +1

        @humdingaling: This is also true

      • 

        revo on 13/07/2016 - 21:41

        @nytrojen:
        @scrimshaw:
        @humdingaling:

        All very solid points! I'll toss it up the next couple of days and try put something together.. and on that note mytrojen, about the gtx1060, I almost forgot the i7 chip had integrated graphics on board. Any idea on when the gtx1060 will be released? In a months time? 3 months?
        I could wait for it if it was in the ball park of a month, but any more than that and it might not be possible to wait it out.

        Thank you all!

      • 

        scrimshaw on 13/07/2016 - 21:54

        +1

        @revolushenary:

        It will be released 19th of July. Expect availability by end of this month

      • 

        revo on 13/07/2016 - 21:57

        @scrimshaw:

        Awesome! Cheers, will hold off for that until then in that case!

• 

  scrimshaw on 11/07/2016 - 00:02

  +2

  This is an alternative 'Workstation' build.

  $395 - Intel Xeon E3 1230 V5

  $199 - MSI Xeon E3 Krait Gaming V5 Workstation Motherboard

  [unchanged] $109 - 16gb DDR4 2666 (8x2) Kingston HyperX FURY

  $159 [Antec EDGE 80+ Gold Modular 620M]

  $328 - Samsung Evo 1TB (this could be overkill)

  [Unchanged] $68 - WD BLUE 1TB HDD

  $420 Nvidia Quadro K2000

  You might want to consider the RX 480 ($379) too. According to benchmarks, it is just right underneath the performance of a GTX 970 in AUTOCAD. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-polari…

  $159 FRACTAL R5 BLACK Case -

  $19 USB 3.0 All in one card reader internal -

  Skip the DVD burner.

  • 

    revo on 11/07/2016 - 19:48

    Interesting build there, quite similar to the ones we have at work! Do you know what might happen if I were to try and game on a 'workstation' build?

    • 

      scrimshaw on 11/07/2016 - 20:54

      +2

      Well gaming is all about the graphics card, and the drivers that tell the graphics what to do when a game is being played.

      Problem is, workstation graphics cards usually need a different set of drivers to be installed and these drivers are not optimised for gaming.

      So, if you were to install Nvidia Geforce (gaming drivers) on a desktop, and then inserted a Quadro workstation card, the card will not be able to use some of the driver's features.

      You can still play but at a loss of some performance and it will lose to a similarly priced Geforce card.

      https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Can-you-game-on-a…

      As for the Xeon processor, I chose it because it fits your purpose and secondly because it is a couple of dollars cheaper than a Core i7. It also runs slightly cooler because it doesn't have an onboard GPU. And it is the only processor that supports ECC memory — some users may not find ECC memory to be neccessary for Autodesk because they are kind of expensive and having a good, high end motherboard with stable electronics means ECC is also rather unneccessary.

      Xeons also don't have integrated graphics capability (meaning you need to have a video card to use a monitor) and you absolutely cannot overclock them. That's about the only trade-off.

      • 

        kywst on 14/07/2016 - 17:03

        Do consider ECC RAM if your use case involves mission critical calculation at high altitude though. Those neutrons are NOT cool.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 15/07/2016 - 14:16

  consider the i7 6700k not for OC but simply because it's base clock is 4gz vs 3.4ghz, if you can find a bargain :-) ask the seller to throw in a free stock cooler.