Workstation

[Gigby101]

hi guys,

I wanted to ask a question about the rig i'm planning on setting up soon… actually i initially wanted to ask just this : i want to get a NZXT phantom 410 white and i was going with a blue and white theme but my graphics card is red… any solutions?

If you have an answer for this that would be great… but i thought while i'm at it i'd ask if anybody has any advice for me about my rig… I'm new to everything i started looking around a month ago at all of this so i may be saying things that don't make sense but please be patient …

I'm actually a student in architecture (in brussels) and i need a WS cuz i do a lot of 3D modelling and rendering (still a beginner though). Problem is i have a limited budget… VERY limited … So here is the config i made :

- I went with the Phantom 410 white cuz i just love it!! [117,99€]
- An ASUS P8Z77 WS motherboard [319,99€]
- Intel Core i7 3770K (still confused about the Xeon and ivy bridge and sandy bridge stuff ) [336,95€]
- ATI FirePro V4800 for now (this is the red one… but i'm not too sure about it) [175,99€]
- Corsair Value Select 2 x 8 Go DDR3 PC10600 CAS 9 (don't know what half of it means … my cousin insists i get ECC Ram but i read somewhere that nowadays it doesn't really make a difference, or at least it's not really necessary)… that would be [103,19€]
- Antec kühler H2O 620 cpu cooling… again for now… (i'm actually not sure, might get the corsair version of this ) [56,49€]
- Cooler Master GX Lite 700W power supply (cuz it's white ) [72,99€]
- Seagate Barracuda Green SATA II 1 To (cheapest on the site i was looking on) [78,89€]
- and a Sony Optiarc AD-5280S - OEM black i would probably only need for installing the os (again… cheapest) [15,99€]

And we're coming at about 1280,96 €… actually even that's a bit high but i could deal with a price at about 1200€

So my plans for later are to add an SSD of course, hopefully do the same watercooling as the one in the NZXSPC project (don't know if you've seen it, the one with the NZXT phantom 410 gun metal case) although i just watched a video where a guy uses EK parts, i liked it because it was transparent and you could see the liquid go through the heatsinks (that's the part where i might be saying something stupid )… anyways… I would also change the graphics card when i have the money to buy a nice one… oh and ECC ram, 32 gigs of it.

So... any advice?

Actually i'm only sure the motherboard is good, think that the processor is good, love the case, but i'm not sure about everything else… not even sure the 700w power supply and the WC will be enough as i will be overclocking (which i still have to learn how to do )

Anyway, i'm planning on doing a bit more research on this forum since i haven't really checked it out yet but while i'm doing that, i thought i'd ask
Waiting for your answers
Cheers and thanks a lot

 

[MadMarc]

1. red graphics card: WS cards are not designed to look pretty, there is not much you can do about that.
2. Not sure if the Asus WS board is worth it, a "normal" Z77 mb does the job just fine for a budget WS imo. Same for the CPU, don't go with a Xeon
3. I'd definitely recommend going with a SSD instead of the green drive

 

[Gigby101]

Thanks MadMarc, i guess i'll have to learn to live with the red although i don't think because it's a WS it shouldn't look nice. Also i'd love to get an SSD but i do need a lot of space. I'll see if i can find something cheaper. But i'll definitely check out the Z77 and see how it compares to the WS for what i want to do. Thanks

 

[VengeanceUK]

there are plenty of cheap small ssds (60-128gb area), just look for crucial, samsung etc but not ocz. put programs and windows on there and use normall large hdd to save data

 

[MadMarc]

Yes red, blue and green pcbs suck, don't know why not just all are black, in about a year I'll also have to get a WS card as I start studying in Zurich (architecture or engineering). For the mb you could go with something like the Asus P8Z77-V PRO or the MSI Z77A-GD65, both are about 100€ cheaper than the WS.
Even if you need a lot of storage I wouldn't go with a "green" drive as the bootdrive, get a Caviar Black instead, otherwise it might slow down your work with the CAD programm.

 

[Gigby101]

Thank, if the Asus you're talking about does the job that would be great!! 100€ to spend on something else ... I will have to carefully look into that though because it's something i wouldn't want to change for at least 1 or 1 and a half years.
VengeanceUK, i was actually looking at 120gb SSD but now you made me think of it and i really don't need that much for boot + a couple of softwares (eventhough they're big ones). Thanks I'm on it!