Computer for my friend

[Deleted]

Next month my friend is going to buy a new computer and he wanted me to build it for him. Hes budget is 10,000 SEK or 970£. He's gonna use it mainly for gaming and he's really into editing and montages.

We live in sweden and prefered stores would be Komplett.se, Webhallen.se or Proshop.se.

How much diffrence is there really between the i5 2500k and i7 2600k when rendering?

[OhpUldum]

Depends on the quality being rendered but most rendering programs these days can actually use the video card hardware along with the CPU. I liked this review from Anandtech.

[Fuzzykins]

Well, let's use some logic here...
If he's really into editing and montages, a 2600k should be strongly considered. Since he's into gaming, a mid level gaming card should also be considered. (For all intents and purposes, we'll use the 6870/560ti.) A decent ~500W power supply should be sufficient to power this rig, but you should be able to snag a TX650 and still be within budget.

So far, we have:
Processor : i7 2600k
Graphics : AMD 6870
Power Supply: Corsair TX650

This leaves the case, motherboard, HDD, ODD, and RAM.

For the motherboard, we need a P67 or Z68. Since he's editing video, and Z68 has a great feature geared toward video editing, we'll choose a Z68. AsRock is a solid and reliable, yet refreshingly cheap brand. We'll go with the AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, a new motherboard which seems to be a restyled Pro3. For the case, we should consider something medium sized, as that's the "standard". Since we don't need INSANE airflow, as he's not doing heavy overclocking, a cheaper medium tower will suffice. We'll choose the Fractal Design Define R3 for this circumstance, but this is very much subject to his opinion and your own. You could go with a CoolerMaster HAF 912, 922, etc. Either way, so far, we're standing on...

Processor : Intel i7 2600k Unlocked Processor [Overclockable]
Motherboard : AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Socket Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Mid Tower Chassis
Power Supply : Corsair TX650 650W Power Supply Unit
Graphics Card : AMD 6870

We still have yet to decide on a CPU cooler, a brand for the graphics card, and the HDD/ODD. We're going to address the cooling first, and the graphics card brand last. Since I'm certain we don't have the budget for a Noctua NH-D14, we're going to go with a very standard CoolerMaster Hyper 212+. It's a great cooler that offers reliable clocks and will get him to where his 2600k performs aptly under stress and remains cool. In regards toward the HDD, we're going to consider two options. Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB with a 64 MB cache or the Samsung Spinpoint F3 with a 32 MB cache. While the cache size effects the speed of the hard drive, so does the seek time. Research shows that the Samsung Spinpoint F3 has a lower seek time than the Western Digital Caviar Black, while being cheaper. This means that the Spinpoint is as, if not more, fast than the Caviar Black, while being significantly cheaper. As far as optical drives go, the availability was far too limited for me to choose, so pick whatever's cheap, you really don't use it much anyway.

So, let's see what we've got so far.

Processor : Intel i7 2600k Unlocked Processor [Overclockable]
Motherboard : AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Socket Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Mid Tower Chassis
Power Supply : Corsair TX650 650W Power Supply Unit
Processor Cooling : CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Hard Drive : Samsung Spinpoint F3
Graphics Card : AMD 6870

And last, let's regard the elephant in the room, the manufacturer of the graphics cards. GPUs are distributed to manufacturers who either
A.) Manufacture their own PCB (Essentially the motherboard of the card.)
B.) Choose a reference PCB (The stock PCB that AMD provides.)
While this has no relevancy to the 6870, at one time, the 6950 2GB version was able to be flashed to a 6970 level for a cheaper price, on reference PCB cards. However, what does relate to the 6870 is the reliability of the manufacturers. Just as with Power Supplies, there's manufacturers for graphics cards you need to regard highly and stay away from. In this case, the manufacturers we're looking for are Asus and Sapphire. Since they are pretty much the same, we'll chose Asus's DirectCU II under the basis that the graphics card cooling is superior. So in resolution, your build should look something like this...

Processor : Intel i7 2600k Unlocked Processor [Overclockable]
Motherboard : AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Socket Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Mid Tower Chassis
Power Supply : Corsair TX650 650W Power Supply Unit
Processor Cooling : CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Hard Drive : Samsung Spinpoint F3
Graphics Card : Asus 6870 DirectCUII

If my guess is correct, we should be over budget right now. However, I don't have the time to check prices. If you're over budget, drop the 2600k to a 2500k and enjoy.

[Deleted]

Well, let's use some logic here...
If he's really into editing and montages, a 2600k should be strongly considered. Since he's into gaming, a mid level gaming card should also be considered. (For all intents and purposes, we'll use the 6870/560ti.) A decent ~500W power supply should be sufficient to power this rig, but you should be able to snag a TX650 and still be within budget.

So far, we have:
Processor : i7 2600k
Graphics : AMD 6870
Power Supply: Corsair TX650

This leaves the case, motherboard, HDD, ODD, and RAM.

For the motherboard, we need a P67 or Z68. Since he's editing video, and Z68 has a great feature geared toward video editing, we'll choose a Z68. AsRock is a solid and reliable, yet refreshingly cheap brand. We'll go with the AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, a new motherboard which seems to be a restyled Pro3. For the case, we should consider something medium sized, as that's the "standard". Since we don't need INSANE airflow, as he's not doing heavy overclocking, a cheaper medium tower will suffice. We'll choose the Fractal Design Define R3 for this circumstance, but this is very much subject to his opinion and your own. You could go with a CoolerMaster HAF 912, 922, etc. Either way, so far, we're standing on...

Processor : Intel i7 2600k Unlocked Processor [Overclockable]
Motherboard : AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Socket Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Mid Tower Chassis
Power Supply : Corsair TX650 650W Power Supply Unit
Graphics Card : AMD 6870

We still have yet to decide on a CPU cooler, a brand for the graphics card, and the HDD/ODD. We're going to address the cooling first, and the graphics card brand last. Since I'm certain we don't have the budget for a Noctua NH-D14, we're going to go with a very standard CoolerMaster Hyper 212+. It's a great cooler that offers reliable clocks and will get him to where his 2600k performs aptly under stress and remains cool. In regards toward the HDD, we're going to consider two options. Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB with a 64 MB cache or the Samsung Spinpoint F3 with a 32 MB cache. While the cache size effects the speed of the hard drive, so does the seek time. Research shows that the Samsung Spinpoint F3 has a lower seek time than the Western Digital Caviar Black, while being cheaper. This means that the Spinpoint is as, if not more, fast than the Caviar Black, while being significantly cheaper. As far as optical drives go, the availability was far too limited for me to choose, so pick whatever's cheap, you really don't use it much anyway.

So, let's see what we've got so far.

Processor : Intel i7 2600k Unlocked Processor [Overclockable]
Motherboard : AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Socket Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Mid Tower Chassis
Power Supply : Corsair TX650 650W Power Supply Unit
Processor Cooling : CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Hard Drive : Samsung Spinpoint F3
Graphics Card : AMD 6870

And last, let's regard the elephant in the room, the manufacturer of the graphics cards. GPUs are distributed to manufacturers who either
A.) Manufacture their own PCB (Essentially the motherboard of the card.)
B.) Choose a reference PCB (The stock PCB that AMD provides.)
While this has no relevancy to the 6870, at one time, the 6950 2GB version was able to be flashed to a 6970 level for a cheaper price, on reference PCB cards. However, what does relate to the 6870 is the reliability of the manufacturers. Just as with Power Supplies, there's manufacturers for graphics cards you need to regard highly and stay away from. In this case, the manufacturers we're looking for are Asus and Sapphire. Since they are pretty much the same, we'll chose Asus's DirectCU II under the basis that the graphics card cooling is superior. So in resolution, your build should look something like this...

Processor : Intel i7 2600k Unlocked Processor [Overclockable]
Motherboard : AsRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Socket Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Mid Tower Chassis
Power Supply : Corsair TX650 650W Power Supply Unit
Processor Cooling : CoolerMaster Hyper 212+
Hard Drive : Samsung Spinpoint F3
Graphics Card : Asus 6870 DirectCUII

If my guess is correct, we should be over budget right now. However, I don't have the time to check prices. If you're over budget, drop the 2600k to a 2500k and enjoy.

Very well written post, thanks for the dedication. Anyways, I came up with this.
http://www.komplett.se/k/shoplist.as...8-98ED847D925F
Put in a new case because it looks awesome, upgraded GPU and added a monitor since he has a good ol' square monitor right now. XD All of that is 10,100 SEK after shipping.

Damn it, forgot the RAM, sec.

[Uggorthaholy]

I would recommend an NVidia processor for video encoding - I believe CUDA has more widely accepted/supported features now, and as such, performs better on encoding/rendering/etc. plus, they also take the cake for folding.

[Deleted]

I would recommend an NVidia processor for video encoding - I believe CUDA has more widely accepted/supported features now, and as such, performs better on encoding/rendering/etc. plus, they also take the cake for folding.

So a 560Ti?

[Uggorthaholy]

So a 560Ti?

That's why I would personally use, yes.

[sharpy]

Very well written post, thanks for the dedication. Anyways, I came up with this.
http://www.komplett.se/k/shoplist.as...8-98ED847D925F
Put in a new case because it looks awesome, upgraded GPU and added a monitor since he has a good ol' square monitor right now. XD All of that is 10,100 SEK after shipping.

Damn it, forgot the RAM, sec.

Fuzzy knows his stuff i would take his advise.

[Blackspur]

Next month my friend is going to buy a new computer and he wanted me to build it for him. Hes budget is 10,000 SEK or 970£. He's gonna use it mainly for gaming and he's really into editing and montages.

We live in sweden and prefered stores would be Komplett.se, Webhallen.se or Proshop.se.

How much diffrence is there really between the i5 2500k and i7 2600k when rendering?

Don't put the '£' symbol after the amount, remember the uproar when Boub did it :P

OT: I don't know specifics, I just know that it is significantly better, and a difference can easily be seen.

[Deleted]

Don't put the '£' symbol after the amount, remember the uproar when Boub did it :P

OT: I don't know specifics, I just know that it is significantly better, and a difference can easily be seen.

Hehe, I always forget to put it in front, if you heh, know what I mean. heh, hehe, heh.....

[Deleted]

To go a bit further on the Anandtech Sandy Bridge review Culadin posted:

In video encoding, the difference is there. The longer the encoding, the more significant the time difference between the 2500k and the 2600k. For any lighter projects; say a 10 minute clip every week, you will probably not notice any substantial difference between the 2500k and the 2600k, maybe a 2-3 minute gain per week in render times. However, if you start to look at effect rendering (Adobe After Effects), 3D Rendering, Folding, larger scale video rendering and software to develop console and graphical interface applications you will notice a pretty substantial advantage going for the 2600k. However, in applications like Photoshop the advantage is miniscule unless of course you go to much larger (professional) scale. In essence, the 2500k is enough for the hobby video creator, that does a video every now and then.

Then of course there is the rumor that BF3 will benefit from hyperthreading.

[Deleted]

To go a bit further on the Anandtech Sandy Bridge review Culadin posted:

In video encoding, the difference is there. The longer the encoding, the more significant the time difference between the 2500k and the 2600k. For any lighter projects; say a 10 minute clip every week, you will probably not notice any substantial difference between the 2500k and the 2600k, maybe a 2-3 minute gain per week in render times. However, if you start to look at effect rendering (Adobe After Effects), 3D Rendering, Folding, larger scale video rendering and software to develop console and graphical interface applications you will notice a pretty substantial advantage going for the 2600k. However, in applications like Photoshop the advantage is miniscule unless of course you go to much larger (professional) scale. In essence, the 2500k is enough for the hobby video creator, that does a video every now and then.

Then of course there is the rumor that BF3 will benefit from hyperthreading.

He doesn't do very long edits. You can check out his youtube channel and see what he usually does and say if it's worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dasbootol12#p/u

[Deleted]

He doesn't do very long edits. You can check out his youtube channel and see what he usually does and say if it's worth it.

I believe that the "is it worth it" part is up to the individual. Judging by the Youtube channel you linked, he does some work in Cinema 4D, which is a 3D application and as such I would say the 2600k. But, I also see that there isn't that many videos there, and they are usually smaller projects. Is he looking to expand this hobby of his? If yes, 2600k. If this is only a minor side project/interest of his, the 2500k will suffice.

Edit: The only reason I bring it up is because a 10k SEK budget is pretty slim for a rendering and gaming machine. If gaming is his primary interest, I would personally try to get as good of a GPU as possible with that budget. It boils down to a compromise; higher FPS while gaming or potentially better editing experience with faster render times.

[Deleted]

I believe that the "is it worth it" part is up to the individual. Judging by the Youtube channel you linked, he does some work in Cinema 4D, which is a 3D application and as such I would say the 2600k. But, I also see that there isn't that many videos there, and they are usually smaller projects. Is he looking to expand this hobby of his? If yes, 2600k. If this is only a minor side project/interest of his, the 2500k will suffice.

Edit: The only reason I bring it up is because a 10k SEK budget is pretty slim for a rendering and gaming machine. If gaming is his primary interest, I would personally try to get as good of a GPU as possible with that budget. It boils down to a compromise; higher FPS while gaming or potentially better editing experience with faster render times.

Recently he wiped off about 100 videos from hes channel. He's editing pretty often but he likes doing pretty short clips.

[Deleted]

Recently he wiped off about 100 videos from hes channel. He's editing pretty often but he likes doing pretty short clips.

I find that the length of the clips is less interesting compared to how much he plans to evolve this hobby. I was into 3D rendering myself for about a year, but the interest eventually faded a bit. If your friend aims to do this kind of work in larger scale I would opt for the 2600k, but if it stays a hobby with a short video per week then I reckon a 2500k will be sufficient.

[Deleted]

---------- Post added 2011-09-01 at 01:20 PM ----------

I find that the length of the clips is less interesting compared to how much he plans to evolve this hobby. I was into 3D rendering myself for about a year, but the interest eventually faded a bit. If your friend aims to do this kind of work in larger scale I would opt for the 2600k, but if it stays a hobby with a short video per week then I reckon a 2500k will be sufficient.

I think we'll go with the 2600k, What diffrence does it make if I downgrade to a P67?

[Fuzzykins]

---------- Post added 2011-09-01 at 01:20 PM ----------



I think we'll go with the 2600k, What diffrence does it make if I downgrade to a P67?

A Z68 with a 2500k will perform better in video rendering than a P67 with a 2600k. However, in 3D rendering, Z68's don't help AFAIK.

[Deleted]

A Z68 with a 2500k will perform better in video rendering than a P67 with a 2600k.

Fuzzy, I usually trust you when it comes to these things, but do you have a source to back up that claim? I find it hard to believe that the features of the Z68 would outweigh hyperthreading on the 2600k.

Edit: I found something about the Quick-Sync feature being profitable for video rendering, and that Z68 enables the use of both the on-board as well as the (potential) discrete GPU for certain software. Still, I would like to see some reliable benchmarks before I believe that claim of yours.

[Fuzzykins]

Fuzzy, I usually trust you when it comes to these things, but do you have a source to back up that claim? I find it hard to believe that the features of the Z68 would outweigh hyperthreading on the 2600k.

Edit: I found something about the Quick-Sync feature being profitable for video rendering, and that Z68 enables the use of both the on-board as well as the (potential) discrete GPU for certain software. Still, I would like to see some reliable benchmarks before I believe that claim of yours.

There isn't anything that flat out says it.
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4083/35054.png
The speed at which the 2500k with Quick Sync encodes is nearly twice as fast as without.
Using http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288 as a frame of reference, we never really see the 2600k twice as fast as the 2500k in anything. Therefor, under this basis, I find it safe to say that my claim is correct. ^^ <3