help spec my pc for CAD and photo editing

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tris101

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Tristian
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Hi guys I need some help I’m looking at putting together a sub £1000 workstation for CAD mainly and a litle bit of photo editing. I have short listed the parts below, would you change anything?

It needs to be solid, reliable and reasonably silent. I will not be doing much overclocking.

Case must be no bigger the TJ08B-E

Pc spec:

Asus P8Z77-M PRO, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub (VGA)/ DVI-D/ HDMI, Micro ATX

BX80637I53570K - Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail

CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10 - 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 10-10-10-27, XMP, 1.5V

CWCH60 - Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 High-performance CPU Cooler, LGA1156 / 1155, LGA775, LGA1366, AM2 and AM3

AGT3-25SAT3-240G - 240GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD, 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s, SandForce 2281, Read 525Mb/s, Write 500Mb/s, 85K IOPS

Pioneer BDR-207DBK Blu-ray Writer 12x BD-R, x8 DVD±DL x16 DVD±R x6 DVD±RW SATA Black OEM

WL-GI-600-11N - Dynamode 11n (300MBps) Wireless PCI Adapter
SST-TJ08B-E - Silverstone TJ08B-E Temjin Evolution, Black microATX Tower Case, Aluminium/Steel with USB 3.0, w/o PSU

750W OCZ OCZ750FTY-UK Fatal1ty Series PSU, 85% Eff, 80PLUS, 135mm Fan
FQC-04649 - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM

I will also be using some parts I already have:

1TB Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black, SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms

VCQ4000-PB - 2GB PNY Nvidia Quadro 4000, PCIe 2.0 (x16), 256Bit GDDR5, 2x DisplayPort/ Dual Link DVI-I/ Stereo Graphics port, Retail

27" Dell U2711 A12 Widescreen IPS, 2560x1440, HDMI, 2xDVI-D, Display Port, 5 x USB, 8-in-1 reader

MFC-00007 - Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 BlueTrack Black Keyboard with 3 Button Scroll Mouse

Many thanks
 
Personally I'd change the SSD for either a Corsair Performance Pro, Plextor M3 Pro or even OCZ Vertex 4. Yes, they are more expensive but I have a dislike of Sandforce based drives as they suffer performance degradation with comprerssed data (i.e. pictures).

I'm also not sure of the track record of the PSU. Have a look through tis and related pages: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm to see what reviews well. Personally, I spend "a lot" on PSUs to get 80Plus Gold and as quiet as possible. The Fatal1ty may be good, but I've other things top do right now to check it out ;)

All else looks great though...
 
What CAD software do you plan to run? I know that card is a certified SolidWorks card but is that the same for the software you want to run, im guessing so to be honest.
 
many thanks...

I will look at other SSD drives and have read of PSU.

I have not built a pc in quite a few years so playing catch up on what good and whats not.
 
PDub said:
What CAD software do you plan to run? I know that card is a certified SolidWorks card but is that the same for the software you want to run, im guessing so to be honest.
Click to expand...

soildworks, inventor, autocad
 
My personal preference is the Corsair. They all have tradeoffs and the Vertex 3 is better at other areas than the Corsair.

Is there no way you can get a wired Ethernet connection in there?

Overclocking the latest gen Intel processors is dead easy - it's 2 or 3 settings in the BIOS. I have mine at 4.3GHz and it's rock solid...

You've done well on choice of everything though, so you're not too rusty ;)

What about OS?
 
arad85 said:
My personal preference is the Corsair. They all have tradeoffs and the Vertex 3 is better at other areas than the Corsair.

Is there no way you can get a wired Ethernet connection in there?

Overclocking the latest gen Intel processors is dead easy - it's 2 or 3 settings in the BIOS. I have mine at 4.3GHz and it's rock solid...

You've done well on choice of everything though, so you're not too rusty ;)

What about OS?
Click to expand...

For OS I was thinking:

FQC-04649 - Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM or retail

I can get wired via power network plugs but thought maybe wirless might be better.

I will read some reviews of the SSD drives and see whats best I can spend a little more but I would rather not if I dont need to.

I was thinking overclocking to 4>4.2 Ghz to keep heat in check and still be nice and stable.
 
Win 7 Pro is probably a good choice. The difference between retail and OEM (in case you didn't know) is that OEM can't be moved if you change the PC. Practically though Microsoft allow you to do this as I've done it and the Microsoft servers have validated the OEM copy I have here.

(just in case mods want to edit this as circumventing EULAs, I've done the validation direct with Microsoft and they allowed it and I'm just reporting that fact here).
 
neil_g said:
i would change the OEM processor heatsink if youre going to look at clocking, the standard is as much use as a chocolate teapot (even on a standard clock).
Click to expand...

I know you're pulling your hair out with an Apple product ;) but did you not see:

tris101 said:
CWCH60 - Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 High-performance CPU Cooler, LGA1156 / 1155, LGA775, LGA1366, AM2 and AM3
Click to expand...

;)
 
neil_g said:
i would change the OEM processor heatsink if youre going to look at clocking, the standard is as much use as a chocolate teapot (even on a standard clock).
Click to expand...

Yes the std coolers are not the best...

I would maybe use one of these:

CWCH60 - Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 High-performance CPU Cooler, LGA1156 / 1155, LGA775, LGA1366, AM2 and AM3

or the H80 ver
 
arad85 said:
Win 7 Pro is probably a good choice. The difference between retail and OEM (in case you didn't know) is that OEM can't be moved if you change the PC. Practically though Microsoft allow you to do this as I've done it and the Microsoft servers have validated the OEM copy I have here.

(just in case mods want to edit this as circumventing EULAs, I've done the validation direct with Microsoft and they allowed it and I'm just reporting that fact here).
Click to expand...

I did not know you could transfer the OEM ver that was why I was looking at the retail ver.

I thought the OEM was tied to the motherboard on 1st install and locked. I did not like the sound of that as if the motherboard died and you dont replace like for like you would need a new OS

once again many thanks
 
should I go fo and i5 or i7 cpu?

i5-3570k or i7-3770k

and I was thinking patriot viper xtreme ram 16gb (2x8) pc3-15000 (1866mhz) as I have found some at £74

and for cpu cooling I'm now thinking of the Antec kuhler h20 620 as is cheaper than the H80 and if I add a 2nd fan it performs better too.

Any other things I should think about before I start ordering parts? Will the build be easy and straight forward or a pain? any think to watch out for?

many thanks
 
At the same clock speed, you get 5-20% extra from the i7 if you have an app that can utilise all 8 "cores" of an i7. That means something that can have 8 tasks in parallel will give you a small boost in performance. Do your apps run with 8+ threads at once (I have no idea on CAD), PS will though, but only in very short bursts).

My view on CPU cooling is that I want the quietest I can get, not necessarily the most efficient. I run an undervolted fan on my CPU coolers - simply to lower the noise levels. My temps suffer a bit though, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.
 
arad85 said:
At the same clock speed, you get 5-20% extra from the i7 if you have an app that can utilise all 8 "cores" of an i7. That means something that can have 8 tasks in parallel will give you a small boost in performance. Do your apps run with 8+ threads at once (I have no idea on CAD), PS will though, but only in very short bursts).

My view on CPU cooling is that I want the quietest I can get, not necessarily the most efficient. I run an undervolted fan on my CPU coolers - simply to lower the noise levels. My temps suffer a bit though, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.
Click to expand...

It looks like with windows 7 64 bit and autocad 2010+ you gain a boost by the extra threads when 3d rendering. It looks like I might gain around 30% by using an i7 over and i5 so for the extra £70 ish it might be worth the outlay.

Anyone have any more input of any kind in my parts choice?
 
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