Serious Machine - Will this setup work?!

[garethshaw]

Hi

All after a LOT of thinking, posting a stupid ask everything message, watching videos and reading reviews, I've come up with the following spec. I'd love some feedback, will it work? Is it over spec'd? What could I improve and on the memory front... which ones?!

It will be used for... in order:
Lightroom 4
Photoshop CS5
Illustrator CS5 & the rest of the suite
Premier Pro CS5
Final Cut Pro
Blender 3D

Might start gaming, love Sniper style games. Been a while since I've played but with dual 26" screens it'll immerse me.

It is mostly CPU raw power and rendering that I need this machine to cope with. I can max out 10Gb ram on my current MAC in minutes when just working in Lightroom 4. The MB supports SLI so I could put in 2 graphics cards by adding a 2nd down the line. Thoughts on that?!

The 4 Seagate HDD's are going to be put into a RAID 10 off the MB's RAID for both increased storage and security with an SSD for the OS.

CPU:
Intel BX80619I73930K Core i7-3930K 6-Core Processor (3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo), Socket 2011, 12MB L3 Cache, Turbo Boost 2.0) - Intel


Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 (GA-X79-UD5) - Gigabyte


Memory: (Which is better?)
64Gb => 1 x RAM DDR3 64GB / 1600Mhz CORSAIR Vengeance [8x8GB] KIT CL9 1,5V rt (X79) - Corsair - £421
OR
64Gb => 2 x Corsair CMP32GX3M4X1600C10 Dominator 32GB 1600MHz C10 DDR3 Memory Quad Kit - Corsair - £397.92
OR
32Gb => 2 x Corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 16GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Four Module Kit - Corsair - £140



This maxes the board out in terms of slots (8 in total), plus it's a max of 64Gb on the board. BUT if I must install OSX using a max of 4gb, with either option 1 or 2 I'd have to buy another stick wouldn't I? Either 1 x 4gb or 2x2gb to actually install the OS?!

Graphics Card:
Asus Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX 670 DirectCU II Graphics Card - Asus


OS SSD:
OCZ AGT3-25SAT3-240G Agility 3 240GB SATA III 2.5 inch SSD - OCZ


Data HDD:
4 x Seagate Barracuda 3.5 inch 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB 6GB/S Internal SATA Drive - Seagate


CPU Cooling:
Corsair CWCH100 Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance CPU Cooler - Corsair


PSU:
Corsair Professional Series Gold AX850 - Power supply ( internal ) - ATX12V 2.31/ EPS12V 2.92 - AC 90-264 V - 850 Watt - active PFC - Europe - CorsairC

Case:

Cosair Special Edition Graphite Series 600T Mid-Tower Gaming Case - White - Corsair



Am I missing anything?!

Thanks
Gareth

 

[MechSoup]

This maxes the board out in terms of slots (8 in total), plus it's a max of 64Gb on the board. BUT if I must install OSX using a max of 4gb, with either option 1 or 2 I'd have to buy another stick wouldn't I? Either 1 x 4gb or 2x2gb to actually install the OS?!

If you do not have access to a Mac to purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store and have to go through the Snow Leopard Route then you will need a 4GB stick. If, however, you are using the UniBeast Method then you do not need a 4GB stick.

UniBeast:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

iBoot + MultiBeast
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/iboot-multibeast-install-mac-os-x-on.html


Also, although powerful, your system will not have sleep or power management, I assume you are okay with this?

 

[garethshaw]

Hi

Not sure I follow... I have a Mac Pro so can buy and download Mountain Lion, I've already got an official install DVD of Snow Leopard and have upgrade my Mac to Lion 10.7.4 which I've re-downloaded ready to install.

So if I install Mountain Lion i can install with any amount of RAM?

When you say about sleep and power management what exactly does this mean? So shutdown is my only option? How can I get power management to work? Change any of the kit?

Is it overkill the setup? Which is better Vengence or Dominator?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Asus-Freak]

Hi

Not sure I follow... I have a Mac Pro so can buy and download Mountain Lion, I've already got an official install DVD of Snow Leopard and have upgrade my Mac to Lion 10.7.4 which I've re-downloaded ready to install.

So if I install Mountain Lion i can install with any amount of RAM?

When you say about sleep and power management what exactly does this mean? So shutdown is my only option? How can I get power management to work? Change any of the kit?

Is it overkill the setup? Which is better Vengence or Dominator?

Thanks for your help!

You can download ML on your Mac Pro and make a Unibeast boot disk. The Vengence is faster mem than the Dominator but not enough that you'll ever notice the difference. The 2011 socket motherboards are not supported by apple, and you will not have sleep or powermanagement. If you don't know what that means, search goggle or whatever to be sure you're willing to live without that functionality. As far as the build being overkill, I certainly think so, but the choice it yours...

 

[Koalaman]

Dominator is faster is it not? Vengeance is a "value" ram right?

 

[Asus-Freak]

Dominator is faster is it not? Vengeance is a "value" ram right?

The timings are tighter on the Vengence, yet who really cares or would know the difference... Don't you have something else to do?

 

[Koalaman]

The timings are tighter on the Vengence, yet who really cares or would know the difference... Don't you have something else to do?

I was just stating.

 

[MechSoup]

Hi

Not sure I follow... I have a Mac Pro so can buy and download Mountain Lion, I've already got an official install DVD of Snow Leopard and have upgrade my Mac to Lion 10.7.4 which I've re-downloaded ready to install.

So if I install Mountain Lion i can install with any amount of RAM?

When you say about sleep and power management what exactly does this mean? So shutdown is my only option? How can I get power management to work? Change any of the kit?

Is it overkill the setup? Which is better Vengence or Dominator?

Thanks for your help!

The difference between the LGA 2011 and LGA 1155 socket is minimal for most users. The only way that you would tell a difference is if you were to work the guts out of the 3930k. The LGA1155 socket is so good at over-clocking that it can, in most cases, match or beat the performance of the LGA 2011 socket. This is good because the LGA 1155 is fully supported by OSX. Therefore the most advanced system that you can get at this point for OSX with the LGA 1155 socket is listed below:

3770K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

GA-Z77X-UP5 TH
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128559

With both the products listed above you will have sleep, speed stepping, powermanagment, etc. It will be 100% functional under the right installation setup.

Follow the guides that tonymac put together and the recommended parts and you will be in good shape.

As far as ram goes, to be honest, I would get the Corsair LP Vengeance 1600Mhz Ram and call it a day. If you want 32Gbs, then get a 4x8 set:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233304

glhf

 

[garethshaw]

I do some very heavy work and with my current setup which is realise isn't really comparable, within about 15 minutes of starting work in lightroom with my 23Mb 5d mkIII files I can max the entire box out and grind it to a crawl.

That's a 2 x dual core Xeon 3Ghz with 10Gb RAM, I am often running at 100% with no other programs running.

I will be editing a video feed in realtime in Final Cut Pro X in about 4 weeks so wanted something that would cope with that. Horsepower is essential.

I must admiit I just went for the highest spec that was listed on the front page of this site, ignoring of course the 3690X due to the price hike for not a lot of increase.

When working in PS CS5 I often open/create files that are 4 or 5Gb due to the sheer number of layers. So are you saying that the 1155 would be the better option overall, ignoring power management.

Will Apple ever fully support 2011? I would have thought so i which case I would get those features down the line?

Thanks for your help all. Why do you think it is overkill? What would you change obviously other than the mobo and CPU?
Gareth

 

[MechSoup]

I do some very heavy work and with my current setup which is realise isn't really comparable, within about 15 minutes of starting work in lightroom with my 23Mb 5d mkIII files I can max the entire box out and grind it to a crawl.

That's a 2 x dual core Xeon 3Ghz with 10Gb RAM, I am often running at 100% with no other programs running.

I will be editing a video feed in realtime in Final Cut Pro X in about 4 weeks so wanted something that would cope with that. Horsepower is essential.

I must admiit I just went for the highest spec that was listed on the front page of this site, ignoring of course the 3690X due to the price hike for not a lot of increase.

When working in PS CS5 I often open/create files that are 4 or 5Gb due to the sheer number of layers. So are you saying that the 1155 would be the better option overall, ignoring power management.

Will Apple ever fully support 2011? I would have thought so i which case I would get those features down the line?

TonyMac says:
"These rigs are the most powerful single CPU (2011 socket) systems you can build. Warning: Power Management is NOT working, and may not ever work. This means no speedstep, sleep, etc... "


I found some benchmarks with Lightroom:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4673/intel_core_i7_3770k_lga_1155_ivy_bridge_cpu_review/index9.html

As you can see, the 3930k does have improvements over the 3770k, but it is up to you to decide if the time differences are worth the lack of powermanagement.

Thanks for your help all. Why do you think it is overkill? What would you change obviously other than the mobo and CPU?
Gareth

It all looks good, but you could go with a 750-650 Watt power supply.