- Joined
- Feb 9, 2011
- Messages
- 318
- Motherboard
- Z68X-UD3H-B3
- CPU
- i7 2600k
- Graphics
- Radeon 6870 1GB
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
I have a system similar in specs to your list. By far, the greatest investment in computing I've ever made. I love this machine. I use it for Final Cut 7, Photoshop CS5 and similar as your needs.
I'd second the advice just go for the i7 2600K. I feel it gives the best measure of future-proofing if staying with SandyBridge.
As for graphics, I'm very happy with my Radeon 6870 (by the way, the 'brand' rarely matters much for graphic cards, so a Gigabyte-branded card doesn't make any difference. In fact, the only time I ever used a Gigabyte brand card on a system for a friend the stupid thing burned itself out in a month because it had a crappy heatsink/fan. IMHO, brands known for GPUs -eVGA, XFX, etc- are your best bets. )
Anyway, if I were picking parts now, I'd probably go with an nVidia card over the 6870, for two reasons- 1: setting up dual monitors on my 6870 was a bit of a PITA. It requires a custom boot flag in my Boot.plist file. Adding the boot flag was no big deal- but the process of finding exactly the right flag for my exact card was where the PITA part came in. I also notice one graphic glitch- whenever I move a file from one drive to another if I hover over the destination with it for a second or two I'll see the screen fill with artifacts. Other than that, no problems at all. As far as I know, compatible nVidia cards don't require any futzing to make multiple monitors work. And 2: the nVidia cards are CUDA enabled for Adobe apps and I don't get that advantage with my Radeon card.
My only other advice:
AVOID LIKE THE PLAUGE the OCZ Agility 3 SSD! No matter how 'good' the price seems to be. Read user reviews of them. I'm on my 2nd RMA with the 120GB OCZ Agility 3, and had the exact same problem with both of them. The drive reads on my system fine at first, installs fine, works great. Then randomly I'd boot and the drive is no where to be found- the system simply can't see it. Sometimes a reboot or two or ten (or removing from power for a few minutes or more) would make the drive show again and I'd be on my way with no problem. But eventually, both of them just simply stopped showing up altogether, and nothing would bring them back. So basically, not only would I never trust these POS drives to boot an OS I'm depending on using, I wouldn't begin to trust my valuable data on one. Do yourself a huge favor and don't play Russian roulette with your drives. I'd recommend purchasing any other SSD brand over OCZ at this point, or at the very least with OCZ stay away from the Agility 3 series.
I'd second the advice just go for the i7 2600K. I feel it gives the best measure of future-proofing if staying with SandyBridge.
As for graphics, I'm very happy with my Radeon 6870 (by the way, the 'brand' rarely matters much for graphic cards, so a Gigabyte-branded card doesn't make any difference. In fact, the only time I ever used a Gigabyte brand card on a system for a friend the stupid thing burned itself out in a month because it had a crappy heatsink/fan. IMHO, brands known for GPUs -eVGA, XFX, etc- are your best bets. )
Anyway, if I were picking parts now, I'd probably go with an nVidia card over the 6870, for two reasons- 1: setting up dual monitors on my 6870 was a bit of a PITA. It requires a custom boot flag in my Boot.plist file. Adding the boot flag was no big deal- but the process of finding exactly the right flag for my exact card was where the PITA part came in. I also notice one graphic glitch- whenever I move a file from one drive to another if I hover over the destination with it for a second or two I'll see the screen fill with artifacts. Other than that, no problems at all. As far as I know, compatible nVidia cards don't require any futzing to make multiple monitors work. And 2: the nVidia cards are CUDA enabled for Adobe apps and I don't get that advantage with my Radeon card.
My only other advice:
AVOID LIKE THE PLAUGE the OCZ Agility 3 SSD! No matter how 'good' the price seems to be. Read user reviews of them. I'm on my 2nd RMA with the 120GB OCZ Agility 3, and had the exact same problem with both of them. The drive reads on my system fine at first, installs fine, works great. Then randomly I'd boot and the drive is no where to be found- the system simply can't see it. Sometimes a reboot or two or ten (or removing from power for a few minutes or more) would make the drive show again and I'd be on my way with no problem. But eventually, both of them just simply stopped showing up altogether, and nothing would bring them back. So basically, not only would I never trust these POS drives to boot an OS I'm depending on using, I wouldn't begin to trust my valuable data on one. Do yourself a huge favor and don't play Russian roulette with your drives. I'd recommend purchasing any other SSD brand over OCZ at this point, or at the very least with OCZ stay away from the Agility 3 series.
and 
for both 
