paytonreed

Gotcha. Yeah, no overclocking. First time builder, so I want to keep it relatively conservative.

My build is: - 5820k CPU - 16GB DDR4 Ram (will be 32GB sometime in future) - X99-A Motherboard - Nvidia GTX 760 (EVGA) - 550W Corsair PSU (RM-Series) 80 plus gold - 2 TB HDD WD-Black - 256 GB SSD (Samsung Pro) -750D Obsidian case A 550W Power Supply should be okay with this build, right?

Hey guys, I'm almost done purchasing all the parts to my new workstation. I just have a quick question. Will I be okay buying a 16gb kit of ram (8GBx2) to start and then upgrade with another 16gb kit (8GBx2) to reach 32GB later? Going to go with the advice from this thread and get the Crucial Ballistix DDR4 ram but I don't really want to spend the extra money to get the 32GB kit all at once. Thought I'd be okay doing half now and half later, but just wanted to be safe and make sure that would work?

This may seem like a silly question, but how do you know how many watts the power supply needs in order for the PC to run efficiently? I know it's determined by the components in the build, but where do you come up with the number? Also, is it smart to go with a larger power supply if the goal is to upgrade to two graphics cards in the future? btw, thanks Nikolaos for the advice! You guys have been a huge help.

Hey guys, does this look right? Motherboard: Asus X99-A ($279.00) CPU: i7 5820k ($389.00) GPU: GTX 980 ($549.99) RAM: Crucial 32GB kit (8GBx4) DDR4 2133 MT/s ($439.96) PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750W 80Plus Gold? (Does that sound right?) ($102.59) Case: I dunno? What do you recommend for this type of build? 1TB Hard drive ($57.24) 250GB Samsung 840EVO SSD ($129.99) Windows 7 or 8.1? (~$130.00) Am I missing anything?

Good points Jason and Juraj. I really appreciate all the info. The PC I have now is a 4 year old Alienware. It has an i7 960 CPU and an ATI Radeon 5700 card. I bought that while I was still in school, needing something to work on projects with and also for gaming. I need something more serious now. Something that'll last and be upgradeable for when I eventually do get into more heavier workloads as I try to integrate myself into the industry. I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind: - Is it possible to upgrade from a 5820k to a 5960x down the road if I wanted to? Or does that not work? - How comparable are the new GTX 900 cards with the 780, as far as viewport/gpu rendering go? I haven't begun looking into the new ones yet. - Finally, what motherboard would I need for a 5820k CPU? Motherboard terminology is the most confusing thing to me. From my understanding, the new Haswell-E CPU's fall under the new LGA2011-3 socket and X99 chipset, but looking at sites like Amazon, there's like 100 different kinds of X99 motherboards at varying prices. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=X99%20motherboard

Crazy!!

For some reason I responded yesterday, but my post never showed up. Must not be allowed to hyperlink web pages or something.. Anyways, yeah, I agree with you about the ddr4 ram. All that would probably take me well beyond my budget, and the Xeons are crazy expensive. Might as well save an extra $800 bucks on the CPU and go with an i7. From everything I've been reading, it sounds like the 5960x and the 4960x are still pretty comparable, as far as performance -- or at least close enough to not warrant spending the extra money on the newer parts. I do game on the side, so that extra clock speed would probably help. What kind of motherboard would I need to pair with a 4960x? And is it possible to use a GTX 900 series card with that CPU? Or can I only use it with a 5960/30 Card?

Yeah, that's true. How long does it usually take for those prices to come down? The Xeons are crazy expensive, I think you guys are right. I'd be better off with an i7 and save about $800 bucks on the CPU. From everything I've been reading, the 4960x is still pretty comparable to the 5960x. Factor that in with the more expensive DDR4 ram, and the money starts to add up. I think the most confusing thing for me to wrap my head around right now is learning motherboards. I just finished reading this comparison review and I have no idea what some of that chipset stuff means, haha.

Thanks, Krisztian! I think buying the 4960x might be a better idea as well. I was just curious as to whether double xeon's at lower clock speeds were any better when it comes to rendering than the i7 4960x? Or for that matter, the new Haswell-E i7-5960X?

I'd like to build a workstation PC, mainly for using 3ds max (arch-viz related) and the adobe products like photoshop, illustrator etc.. If possible, I would like to leave some room for expansion (2 CPU's? 1 now, one later? Or would that even make sense?) What kind of build would you recommend? I really don't have a particular budget at the moment, but something in the $2000-2500 USD range seems reasonable for starters. Eventually, once I feel my portfolio is up to snuff, I'd like to use this PC for free lancing projects in the future, or as part of a business. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My knowledge on computer hardware is lacking right now for me to be able to figure out which parts suit certain apps better than others. What I have learned, from reading this site, is that most people are in agreement that GTX 780's are the way to go over the expensive quadro cards, which surprised me. Let me know if I need to be more specific about anything.