Dell XPS 8700 - good price

[dharmaone]

I'm looking to buy a PC for 3d rendering and after effects, to run 24/7 and to remote desktop into when not at home. I could get this for £700 -

 

Dell XPS 8700 workstation

 

i7-4770

12gb RAM

2tb HD (will add another one for RAID 0)

GTX 645 1gb (might swap for a 670 4gb)

 

I don't mind doing a custom build but doubt I could build a similar one for cheaper.

 

The only thing with this setup is the GPU - is the GTX 645 1gb going to be beefy enough to run VrayRT? If not, what sub £400 card should I get?

 

Many thanks!

[numerobis]

incl. VAT? http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-8700/pd#overrides=

 

- Core i7-4770 = ~£240 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/intel-core-i7-4770-bx80646i74770-a930986.html )

- Mainboard ASRock B85 Pro4 = ~£60 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/asrock-b85-pro4-90-mxgqb0-a0uayz-a953112.html )

- Kingston HyperX 12GB (6x2GB) = ~£65 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/kingston-hyperx-dimm-xmp-kit-12gb-khx1600c9d3k6-12gx-a480176.html )

(there is no 12GB kit with 1.5V so i take one with 1.65V, but 12GB doesn't make sense anyway...)

- The GTX 645 is an OEM card so i will take the GeForce GTX 650 = ~£75 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/msi-n650-1gd5-ocv1-v809-285r-a860535.html )

(It's possible that the 645 could perform a bit better, judging from the number of cores, but they are clocked lower and the RAM too, so i don't know http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-650-vs-GeForce-GTX-645)

- HGST Deskstar 7K3000 2TB = ~£75 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/hgst-deskstar-7k3000-2tb-hds723020bla642-a588432.html )

- Case Cooler Master elite 334U, 460W =~£60 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/cooler-master-elite-334u-rc-334u-kkp460-a760277.html )

- Windows 8 x64 DSP/SB = ~£70 ( http://skinflint.co.uk/microsoft-windows-8-64bit-english-pc-wn7-00403-a835946.html )

 

= £645

 

+ assembling/installation/shipping = ~£50

 

= £695 incl. VAT

 

I can't understand why they use 12GB for a dual channel setup and not 8GB or 16GB. My only explanation would be that they had some 2GB modules left - to use 4GB modules would not fit...

This setup only includes the cheap PSU coming with the case and the boxed CPU cooler but i doubt that Dell uses much better components.

 

So i think for these components the price (incl. the 1 yr Next Day In-Home Service) is ok, if you can't/want assemble it yourself.

The video card is useless for serious 3D work i think - at least for v-ray RT, with only 1GB RAM and only 576 cores. But maybe it's a bit better than a 650 (but still not good)

 

For v-ray RT performance you could look here http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthread.php?52415-GPU-benchmarks

 

Some values from this thread:

 

2x GTX580 3GB = 1m 28s

1x GTX 690 4GB = 1m 31s

1x GTX Titan 6GB = 1m 46s

1x GTX 780 Superclocked 3GB = 1m 56s

1x GTX 780 3GB = 2m 5s

1x GTX580 3GB = 2m 44s

1x GTX680 2GB = 3m 03s

1x GTX670 4GB = 3m 07s

1x GTX570 1.26GB = 3min12s

1x GTX470 1.26GB = 3min57s

1x GTX560Ti 1GB = 4min50s

1x GTX460 1GB : 6min40S

 

i couldn't find any values for the GTX 760 or 770 but since they are still based on the GK104 like the GTX680 with slightly higher clocks they should be in the same range, maybe the 770 or the overclocked 760 a bit faster. They are also available with 4GB.

Looking at the prices for 4GB cards, the GTX 670 overclocked could be a good choice - or a GTX760 @1085MHz

http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gra16_512&xf=1439_GTX+780~1439_GTX+770~1439_GTX+760~1439_GTX+680~1439_GTX+670~132_4096#xf_top

(not sure about the power draw and cooling...)

Edited August 26, 2013 by numerobis

[dharmaone]

Yeah it's £700 inc vat with a £80 off voucher they're doing ATM.

 

Thanks your build looks good! Shouldn't I get a z87 instead of b85 if building myself?

 

Also going to get the new 2013 MacBook Pro in October.. Thinking the performance in bootcamp might come pretty close to desktop so not sure I should get a separate workstation. I think they'll end up using i7-4950hq, geekbench scores look similar to i7 4770. Just not sure what the vrayRT performance will be with mobile nvidia chips, even if they go for top of the line (gtx780m)