$1000 Workstation Build

[FunkTheWorld]

Hey everyone,

Friend of mine is looking to build a workstation for work in the CG industry. He's got $1k to spend on the tower (needs Windows 8.1) and will cover the cost of monitor and speakers, etc. outside of the 1k so no need to worry about those.

As I said, he wants something that can do well in workstation environments and CG Software such as Maya, Zbrush, NukeX, Photoshop and game engines such as Unreal and Unity (he's planning on creating games/character models).

He also wants something that can run Starcraft 2 and a few other PC games that don't seem very demanding, which I'm guessing at this pricepoint those games should run fine regardless of the hardware being intended for workstations rather than gaming.

He's got a mouse and Keyboard already, so the 1K is pretty much just for the tower and Windows.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Alpha3031]

The Quadro is a bit expensive, but should be much better than a 970 in WS builds.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PNY Quadro K1200 4GB Video Card ($347.49 @ Amazon)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $996.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-01 23:16 EDT-0400

EDIT: You may want to add a case fan to that too.

 

[Archaic59]

This is the cheapest I could build and still be what I consider an entry level workstation.
Trim it down as you see fit.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bwXtbv
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bwXtbv/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($119.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($105.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($114.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: PNY Quadro K2200 4GB Video Card ($420.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R Windowed ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($134.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1408.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-01 23:24 EDT-0400