<£1K Workstation Build Advice - Modelling & Rendering

[GxTwo1]

First time building a PC so looking for advice on any changes that would be recommended.

Primary use will be Modelling and Rendering in 3DsMax and V-ray, with some photography editing in Photoshop.

Budget is £800-£900 but can got to around £1k if it's going to be really worth it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£248.98 @ CCL Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£125.89 @ Dabs)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£72.90 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£56.03 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£94.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Corsair 380T Mini ITX Tower Case (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £761.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 15:20 GMT+0000

NOTES

I went ITX because I really like the case and it will be sitting on top of my desk.

Didn't go for 6700K as I have no clue about overclocking.

PSU, no clue about this either. Done a couple online calculations and picked a higher rating. This is the component im most worried about.

GPU. Vray is a CPU renderer so I'm not sure if this card is overkill or if there is visible difference with a cheaper card.

Will be using old hard drives from laptops. But thinking about getting a 1or2TB since they're pretty cheap these days.

 

[logainofhades]

I see nothing wrong with any of those choices. Photoshop can make use of the GPU, so getting a bit better one, would not be a bad idea. A GTX 950 is substantially more powerful, and not vastly more expensive. PSU was an excellent choice. You have enough budget, that you may want to consider going with 32gb ram, if you intend to keep this system for awhile. I know some cad modeling can become resource hogs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£248.98 @ CCL Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£125.89 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£188.86 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£56.03 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£126.95 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 380T Mini ITX Tower Case (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £909.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 15:42 GMT+0000

 

[Victorion]

no overclock : don´t need cpu cooler / don´t need Z170 chipset motherboard.
16 GB is a little low, consider 32 GB
GPU is low, consider GTX 970

 

[GxTwo1]

Hi, Thank you for the fast replies. got some questions to fire at you, if you don't mind.

1) What is an alternative chipset if I'm not going to overclock?

2) I understand the 950 and up are more powerful. But I don't think 3DsMax or Vray will utilise this power as it's CPU based rendering. the price difference is pretty small I guees so might just go for it.

3)Am I better waiting until after the year for sales? I have no experience buying parts so I don't know if prices will go down like other consumer products.

 

[Victorion]

Hi, Thank you for the fast replies. got some questions to fire at you, if you don't mind.

1) What is an alternative chipset if I'm not going to overclock?

2) I understand the 950 and up are more powerful. But I don't think 3DsMax or Vray will utilise this power as it's CPU based rendering. the price difference is pretty small I guees so might just go for it.

3)Am I better waiting until after the year for sales? I have no experience buying parts so I don't know if prices will go down like other consumer products.

1) H-series or any that fits the socket of your cpu really. Depends on the features you want on your mobo.

2) vRay RT and iRay can render via gpu as far as I know. A good thumbrule for gpu-rendering time is to look for number of cuda-cores. (GTX 970 has 1664 CUDA Cores | GTX 750 Ti 640 CUDA Cores) - it´s not that simple really, as i.e. maxwell cuda cores perform better than keppler cuda cores.

3) January sales are right around the corner, so you might as well wait for it - but I doubt videocards are high on the sales list. nVidia graphics card doesn´t tend fall much in price even after years. Look at the GTX 660Ti or GTX 780TI, they are within 25% of their original price when released today.

 

[GxTwo1]

Hi, small changes to the parts. 32GB RAM, GTX950, H170 mobo.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£269.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.80 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£94.02 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£204.47 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£56.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card (£139.16 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 380T Mini ITX Tower Case (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.41 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £911.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-22 16:35 GMT+0000



N00b question about the Motherboard & RAM combo H170 is max 2133MHz and the sticks are 2400MHz. Will they still work but just run at 2133MHz? What about performance difference, should I just pay the extra ~£40 for Z170 or is it unnoticeable?

Increased RAM and better GPU, Is the PSU still going to be ok?

Sorry for all the questions, I really appreciate the help!

 

[logainofhades]

In theory, yes, they should just work, at 2133. To be safe, you can still choose a Z170 board. They are not exactly all that much more. That PSU is plenty, for that setup.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£248.94 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.80 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£118.18 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£184.66 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card (£129.54 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair 380T Mini ITX Tower Case (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £926.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-22 16:55 GMT+0000

 

[GxTwo1]

In theory, yes, they should just work, at 2133. To be safe, you can still choose a Z170 board. They are not exactly all that much more. That PSU is plenty, for that setup.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£248.94 @ More Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.80 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£118.18 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£184.66 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£58.74 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card (£129.54 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair 380T Mini ITX Tower Case (£97.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £926.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-22 16:55 GMT+0000

Great! Thank you for your time and help!

I'm going to go wait until the new year, hopefully some sales happen on the above parts or better ones!

Thanks again!