Hello all
My current PC is getting old (more than 5 years now), and the graphics card is on its last legs:
i7 first generation 2.7ghz
6 GB RAM (don't know the details, but from 5-6 years ago)
GTX295
1 TB 7200rpm hard drive (WD I think can't remember)
ASUS P(?? forgot) motherboard.
It all served me very well, but now after using any GPU-intensive program for about 5 minutes, I have to restart the PC, as everything starts to stutter and audio drops out. Once I restart, everything is fine for the rest of the day. I guess the GPU overheats and then stabilises upon restart? I've also disabled the one GPU as it caused screen flashing (strobe-like) in games. This card has been repaired once at Computer Planet (who I will never ever use again btw - that's another drawn-out long story).
Anyway - will the below specification offer me a drastic improvement in performance over my old PC (if the old PC was in tip-top shape)? Probably a silly question, as it must do, but it's also a lot of money, and I'm a tad hesitant. Consider my old PC is working, albeit in an annoying way.
I mainly use the following programs:
Autodesk Maya (modeling, animation, rigging, rendering etc)
Zbrush
Photoshop
Ableton Live 9 with Zebra 2 and Satin plugins(music production)
occasional game of Left 4 Dead 2, Diablo 3, Crysis, Borderlands 2
So mainly a PC for 3D work. After some research it seems the real expensive Xeon processors and Quadro cards are not worth it, and a GTX780ti will do just fine etc.
Thanks for reading!
Here is what I've been thinking about (around £1731 with 3 year gold warranty, which comes down to less than £4/month for insurance):
Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£79)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler (£29)
Extra Case Fans
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity 1
My current PC is getting old (more than 5 years now), and the graphics card is on its last legs:
i7 first generation 2.7ghz
6 GB RAM (don't know the details, but from 5-6 years ago)
GTX295
1 TB 7200rpm hard drive (WD I think can't remember)
ASUS P(?? forgot) motherboard.
It all served me very well, but now after using any GPU-intensive program for about 5 minutes, I have to restart the PC, as everything starts to stutter and audio drops out. Once I restart, everything is fine for the rest of the day. I guess the GPU overheats and then stabilises upon restart? I've also disabled the one GPU as it caused screen flashing (strobe-like) in games. This card has been repaired once at Computer Planet (who I will never ever use again btw - that's another drawn-out long story).
Anyway - will the below specification offer me a drastic improvement in performance over my old PC (if the old PC was in tip-top shape)? Probably a silly question, as it must do, but it's also a lot of money, and I'm a tad hesitant. Consider my old PC is working, albeit in an annoying way.
I mainly use the following programs:
Autodesk Maya (modeling, animation, rigging, rendering etc)
Zbrush
Photoshop
Ableton Live 9 with Zebra 2 and Satin plugins(music production)
occasional game of Left 4 Dead 2, Diablo 3, Crysis, Borderlands 2
So mainly a PC for 3D work. After some research it seems the real expensive Xeon processors and Quadro cards are not worth it, and a GTX780ti will do just fine etc.
Thanks for reading!
Here is what I've been thinking about (around £1731 with 3 year gold warranty, which comes down to less than £4/month for insurance):
Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£79)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler (£29)
Extra Case Fans
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity 1
