Build Advice

Hi guys, I'm thinking about building a PC for programming/games development. Budget is around $5500US max.

Some background - I'm upgrading from a machine with three monitors, I find the high resolution useful for work. I would be using a lot of virtual machines. I'm not big on gaming on multiple monitors. I also want the machine to be pretty quiet even when under load.

It also has to run OSX. So, I'm not waiting for the new intel processors (LGA1150 socket), new motherboards (I presume), and the Radeon 8xxx series to come out. My thinking is that there would be a big delay before OSX would work with those.

See spec below!

Other bits like webcam, headphones, mouse, keyboard etc I already have/can take from current PC.

Result!

 

Well I've specced a system out now. Might post pictures when I finally order parts. Prices are on the high end/pessimistic, but everything seems to cost more in the UK than in the US. Thoughts anyone?

Tower
Intel Core i7 3770
Gigabyte SKT-1155 Z77-DS3H Motherboard
Corsair 16GB 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Kit
Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II
Fractal Design Define R4 Case
Samsung 840 Series Pro 128GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive
Samsung 840 Series Pro 512GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive
Seasonic M12II-620 Semi-Module 620W ATX12V Power Supply Unit

NAS
Synology DS213+ DiskStation (Diskless) 2 Bay High Performance All-in-One Desktop NAS Server
WD Red 3TB 3.5inch SATA6 Internal Hard Drive * 2
Anker Uspeed USB 3.0 & eSATA Enclosure

Other stuff
ASUS RT-N66U - 900Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Router

Monitors
Dell U2713HM * 3 (DVI-D cables included)
Displayport to DVI-D cable adapter

--

I switched to an Nvidia card because the 7xxx Radeon series aren't fully supported on OSX 10.8.3 (beta) yet. Case is a quiet one, took the Samsung SSDs because the new Crucial SSDs aren't out yet. Altogether it comes a little shy of £3000.

 

What cooling options are you going with? If you used the extra cash left in your budget you could upgrade to a liquid cooling option and overclock the i7-3770k to a higher degree. Would you consider running crossfired GTX 680s/690s using the extra budget you have left? You'd get a better performance long term, and you have access to the nvidia particle effects present in some games that are played with an nvidia GPU.

 

What's the use of the computer going to be? If you don't tell us we can't help you.

Personally an i7 is a waste, and if you're gonna splash that much cash, fork out a 670 and you can OC to 680 speeds, or get a galaxy 670 which is factory OCD to over a stock 680.

 

/facepalm didn't see the first post.

If you're going to run multiple VMs you can chuck in perhaps 24gb ram? Overkill in a way, but it depends on how much ram you will be allocating per VM, since 512-1024 would be ideal.

Personally I would go dual 680s.

How many extra fans will be in the case also? If you use more than 1 GPU make sure you get a good 750W PSU.

 

Good points.

I haven't thought about special fans or cooling. I'd like it to be really quiet but also not run hot. I am told the Antec P280 case is quiet, it has 2x120mm on top and 1x120mm on rear though which I guess will generate some noise.

Ahh, I want to make games for mobile/tablets so I don't need multiple graphics cards. I have a Radeon 5750 in my current machine which is fine for games I play at 1920x1080, or for coding with three monitors at 5760x1080.

 

7850 is fine, maybe get something a bit beefier if youre planning on playing any games @ w/e res the 3x27"s are.

imo, for case if you want quiet Fractal R4 is apparently quiet as fuck, whilst providing good cooling, probs better then the P280. and grab a good 550-650W PSU(you wont need anymore then 650ws for a single card rig, just get a silver+ rated psu and youre set) that turns the fan off when its not under huge load(only one i can think of off the top of my head is the AX series from corsair, but theres many others.) thatll reduce noise by a bit.

could also drop the mobo down to a lower end model like the asrock extreme4/6 or Gigabyte UD3H etc if you arent going to be using the features. no point spending money on stuff you wont use.

heck you could also splash out on a 2011 rig, mobo + 3930k, and grab either 4x4, or 4x8(quad channel ram ) depending if the programs youd use would benifit from the extra 2 cores.

just my 2cents.

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CQ1z
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CQ1z/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CQ1z/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£431.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard (£180.37 @ Dabs)
Memory: GeIL EVO CORSA Series 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£319.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£128.34 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£262.69 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£283.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£283.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred ATX Full Tower Case (£91.13 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 1250W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£179.99 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (£47.12 @ CCL Computers)
Other: 3x 27" 2560x1440 (Catleap Q270) (£750.00)
Other: Other stuff listed (£880.00)
Total: £3929.59
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-11 15:58 GMT+0000)

that's like £400 more than your max budget, but it's worth it, I'd say remove one 7970 and get a lower end CPU+ lower end PSU+ less RAM.

Specs in a few lines:
i7 3930k 6 core 12 thread CPU cooled by Corsair H100i, in Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4
7970's in CFX along with a 1250W 80+ Gold
3 27" 1440p monitors, and all the stuff you listed above.
Nice Antec case+Blue-ray drive
250GB+500GB SSD, and imagine, 64GB of RAM.

 

I was thinking about a socket 2011 build, but I'm not sure how much the extra 2 cores will help. I guess the higher TDP means the water cooling is important. Will look at the cases some more.

I'll probably get the Catleaps. I'm going to skip on the blu-ray drive though since I won't use it. Also going to stick with the single 7850.

 

you dont need an aftermarket cpu cooler, stock will work fine if you arent ocing.

fractal r4, reviews kgo.

grab 650w gold psu like i recommended before imo.

 

What I suggested is a BAD-ASS Build, if you have the money, buy it, if you don't, get 1 7970 and drop the blu-ray drive, get a cheaper PSU and probably cheaper mobo, drop the cooler if you don't want to OC (it makes a really big difference), 1 7850 won't be as good as you think, espicially in a $5500 build!

 

True that for gaming getting 7970s would be worth it, but since I am not planning to do that then surely a 7850 is enough?

Would a Seasonic G-550 would be enough for the build up top, even with a 3930K? Or should I go for a different power supply?

I'll probably not overclock, since I don't want to void any warranties. Still looking at cases.

 

IMO I'd grab a good 650w just to be safe + 650 should be fine for any beefier single gpus/ cfx 7850 if you want too.

 

Turns out I needed this computer sooner than I thought so I've ordered parts. Here's the rundown, hope I didn't screw up:

Tower
Intel Core i7 3770
Gigabyte SKT-1155 Z77-DS3H Motherboard
Corsair 16GB 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Kit
Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II
Fractal Design Define R4 Case
Samsung 840 Series Pro 128GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive
Samsung 840 Series Pro 512GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive
Seasonic M12II-620 Semi-Module 620W ATX12V Power Supply Unit

NAS
Synology DS213+ DiskStation (Diskless) 2 Bay High Performance All-in-One Desktop NAS Server
WD Red 3TB 3.5inch SATA6 Internal Hard Drive * 2
Anker Uspeed USB 3.0 & eSATA Enclosure

Other stuff
ASUS RT-N66U - 900Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Router

Monitors
Dell U2713HM * 3 (DVI-D cables included)
Displayport to DVI-D cable adapter

--

I switched to an Nvidia card because the 7xxx Radeon series aren't fully supported on OSX 10.8.3 (beta) yet. Case is a quiet one, took the Samsung SSDs because the new Crucial SSDs aren't out yet. Altogether it comes a little shy of £3000.

 

Why dell monitors, shouldve gotten korean ips ones for 30% of the price.
Gtx 660 in a 5000$ build?

 

I'm getting the monitors for about $480 each, so it's not a massive difference from a Korean import. The casing isn't as ghetto as the Korean ones and you can swivel them, cable management, internal power bricks and warranty.

This build is for productivity, not multi-monitor gaming, so there is no point getting the very top end cards.

 

Is that the mobo with thunderbolt? Also, do you plan on going vanilla? Because that build looks like it's capable of that.

 

$480 for the Dell U2713HM? Where?

 

Swap out those Samsung 840's for something from Corsair, Crucial or OCZ. Seeing as you said you will be programming/game development you will want some decent write speeds and the 840's have 50% of the write speed of traditional SSD's.

Secondly upgrade to either 3 or 4 of those WD drives and put it in either a Raid5 (3 drives minimum) or Raid10 (4 drives minimum)

Raid 5 will offer redundancy support for up to 1 failed hard drive, raid 10 can have 2 hard drives fail before losing any data.

Since you are programming/developing games you will definitely want to make it a priority to have redundancy in your storage. And you might also want to even buy an external drive to regularly backup files because as a standard backup measure you want to have essential files stored in at least 3 locations, one of those not being connected to the other 2.

As far as the rest goes, if you are developing games that would include 3d rendering right? If so I would go with a gtx 670 over the 660 you have there, will be enough to power your monitors and render anything you need quickly.

 

There were some on eBay UK for that much, but when questioned the seller seemed a bit clueless, turned out the monitors in his warehouse were U2711s. Still not bad but I didn't want CCFL monitors and the manufacturers warranty on those had expired.

Got three U2713HMs for £374/$560 each new from Dell with three years onsite warranty instead, there was a 40% off coupon on the web which I use. It looks like they are clearing out the first manufacturers revision of the monitors to clear way for the next lot or something.

The Samsung 840 uses TLC and has slower writes, but what I've ordered is the Samsung 840 Pro. The branding is confusing.

Agreed but mostly the NAS is for movies and stuff like that, so the two drives I've ordered will go in RAID-1. I also keep my code backed up through various cloud services so there's not much risk of losing anything important.

Developing for mobile so don't need a beefy card.