Specs for a new machine

[architectandy]

Hi there

 

Any chance any of you guys can help me out? I'm buying a new desktop, and have been given these specs. Not being the most technical minded guy in the world, I just wanted to check that this was worth the £2K I've been quoted!

 

Oh - I run Max9 and VRay for architectural visualisations.

 

Case : X20i-64 Midi Case - 670W PSU (No Hotswap)

Mainboard : Intel S5000XVNSATA Mainboard

Graphics Card(s) : ATI Fire GL V5200 256MB DDR3 (PCI-Express x16)

or

 

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 256MB DDR3 (PCI-Express x16)

Hard Drive (1) : Western Digital / Seagate 250GB Serial-ATA II (Hard Drives can be configued in RAID 0 or 1 if required)

Hard Drive (2) : Western Digital / Seagate 250GB Serial-ATA II

 

Optical Drive(s) : Samsung 18x DVD+/-R/RW/RAM (Dual Layer) - Black

Sound Card : Intel High Definition Audio (2-Channel)

Network Card(s) : Dual Intel Gigabit LAN

Floppy Drive : External 1.44MB Floppy Drive

CPU(s) : 1xIntel® Xeon® Processor X5345 (4x 2.33GHz / 1333FSB / 2x 4MB Cache) ..... 2nd QUAD cpu can be added later

Memory : 4GB DDR-2 667MHz - Fully Buffered ECC RAM (PC5300) (4x1GB) ......4 Empty slots so can add 4-8 GB later if required

Mouse / Keyboard : None

Operating System(s) : Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition (32 or 64bit)

Any comments or advice will be gratefully recieved.

 

Thanks!

 

Andy

[Macer]

It looks quite good IMO. Can't comment on the mainboard (don't know it) but I think I'd prefer to swap the graphics card for the NVidia 8800GTX (cheaper - top of the line gaming card - better for max 9 running in directX) and put the extra money towards a X5355 processor or 800MHz memory.

 

You've got me thinking now. Where abouts are you getting it from? (if you don't mind me asking?)

[Limbus]

If you don't plan on adding a second Xeon CPU I would go with a Core Duo Quad System. This should make things much cheaper since you would not need the buffered ECC Ram and could go with a cheaper motherboard. I would switch the graphics card to a GeForce 7950 GT or 8800 GTX with 512 MB RAM in any case. I also would get an extra Harddrive just for the OS and the programs. 4GB RAM only really make sense if you go with XP 64.

 

Florian

[architectandy]

Thanks for the input guys! The system comes from X-works and that price was exc VAT. I think I will go with the Nvidia card, and within 6 months I will be getting the second CPU, just got to earn enough first!! I dont know if the Core Duo Quad is an option but I'll ask the rep tomorrow.

 

Thanks again for the input!

[Tommy L]

Looks expensive to me. Are you getting any peripherals thrown in wth that? For that money I would expect it to make coffee as well : )

[architectandy]

Really? I thought it was good value - . Where's the best (UK) place to get a good value machine? Any recomendations anyone?

[Tommy L]

Its a while since i looked , but try overclockers and ccl. They were my benchmarks a couple of years ago. Look for the parts individually, add up the cost, add 50 quid labour, that'll give you a ballpark.

[Macer]

I had a look at prices (like I said, you got me thinking about buying a new pc) but OC & CCL don't seem to stock much in the way of workstation class goods. I checked a few prices at scan.co.uk and googled a few and I think that you'd be hard pushed matching the spec'd items for under about 1700GBP, and thats not including the case and PSU, so the price isn't too bad by UK standards.

 

I'd still recommend going with the 8800GTX graphics card - Its based on the latest G80 chip. There is a quadro version but the prices start from US$2000 upwards! I checked up on the mainboard and it seems to be based on intels dedicated workstation chipset (5000X) which is good, it can't handle faster memory (ignore the comments in my first post!) but for an extra 100 or so pounds you should be able to get the 5355 CPU - if the budget stretches that far!

 

After all, in 6 months time (or whenever you can afford it) the price of your second CPU and memory will have gone down, making for a reasonably affordable upgrade that will give you twice the power!

 

I'd double check with the rep to ensure that you don't have to get matched CPU's - ie; bought together. (Just know that in the good'ol days they had to be - but I'm sure thats changed)

 

Good luck, I'd be interested in knowing what you settled on getting.