Gaming / Design Workstation

[Asera]

Kinda funny the CAD machine my dad uses at work is about a $800 PC with a $2000 monitor (2500x1600ish)

That's common.

[baiyne]

One last question, and I think I'll be good to go.

Is it possible to use two completely different graphics cards on the same motherboard? For instance, a GTX 570 for gaming, and a Quadro 2000 for AutoCAD and 3D Studio?

Now, it seems I just have to wait for intel to replenish the 1155 mobo stock....

[llDemonll]

the 570 will perform better in CAD applications than the quadro 2000, no point in having both

[baiyne]

the 570 will perform better in CAD applications than the quadro 2000, no point in having both

Just what I wanted to hear. Thanks everyone for all of your help and advice.

By the way, this is what I think I've settled on:

Motherboard Asus P8P67 PRO $189.95 I chose this for future expandability, the Maximus IV seemed like overkill
CPU i5 2500k $219.99
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D14 $89.99 This may be overkill, but I've had issues in the past and want to cover my bases
GPU EVGA Superclocked GTX 570 $369.99 I may eventually go for an SLI build
PSU Corsair AX850 $189.99
RAM 2x G.SKILL Ripjaw Series 8Gb (2x4Gb) 1333 $169.98
Hard Drive 1 OCZ Vertex 2 120Gb SATA II SSD $219.99
Hard Drive 2 WD Black 1Tb 7200 $89.99
Optical Drive Asus Black 24x $18.99
Case CM HAF X $199.99
OS Win 7 Pro 64-bit OEM $139.99

It comes in at about $1900.00 which was over my budget, but I did have some reserve left over. I'll probably go for a new monitor a few months down the road

[Voltage-PC]

Please be aware that Intel has released a semi "recall" on all motherboards with revision 2 intel chipsets for socket 1155. That means the 2nd Generation processors are effected but if you have already bought one its fine. The processors themselves arent effected. Only the motherboard. This is any motherboard shipped since Jan 1, 2011. Which is almost all.

This circuit design error has to do with the transistor in the chipset that controls the SATA 3GB/s controllers voltage. It has a tendency to leak higher voltages over time(2-3 years) causing possible data loss. The SATA 6Gb/s lanes are not effected. If you plan on doing anything like RAID5 I would suggest either going with the older core i7 processors or waiting. If anything Socket 1366 would be better due to higher bandwidth on memory channels and PCI-E lanes.

Also, now that GPGPU is getting more common place in software it wouldn't be BAD to get a higher end gaming card. It would just not run as well as a FirePro or Quadro card for 3D apps. I agree that the 570 is a good choice.

Edit: Hope you read this before ordering. You could have a problem with that motherboard as you are running 2 hard drives with that build you mentioned and heavy data crunching will result in a faster failing of the controller. Sorry for the news lol. Also if you already have ordered the parts and dont want to switch you could route the hard drives to the 2 SATA 6Gb/s ports.

[baiyne]

Due to the recall....just about every reputable vendor has stopped selling all P67 boards; so I haven't ordered anything yet. This is simply my plan. For the HD's, I planned on using both the SATA 6 slots for them, and using a SATA 3 for the DVD.