Advice on Xidax computer

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jsuarez388

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Jan 26, 2015
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I am a Digital Designer, and I've been working with a Macbook Pro Retina for about 2-3 years now. I think it's time to invest in a new more powerful computer, and I don't live in the US, so I've been researching computer building companies like Xidax, Origin PC, etc.

Xidax seems to offer the best deal, specially because of the Lifetime Parts Warranty and their customer service has been great so far. They've helped me with my build and answered all my questions.

I wanted to ask around if anyone has any reviews or experience with this company, specially because I am ordering from another country I want to make sure I make a good investment.

Here's the build that I am planning to buy:

MSI Z179 Krait ATX
Intel Quad Core™ i7-6700 Processor - Liquid Cooled
32 GB DDR4 RAM
Corsair 750W PSU
24x Asus DVD-RW combo
PCI-Express Wireless-N Adapter
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980ti 6GB - Overclocked
240Gb SSD + 1TB HDD (x2 in Raid 1)
Windows 10 Home Premium 64 bit
FREE Rise of Tomb Raider Game
FREE Lifetime Support
_______________________________________
$2,634 Total

Keep in mind that a budget made at Origin PC with 16Gb of ram and a GTX 970 came to about $2,800 so this is still a better machine and at a better price.

What do you guys think?
 


jsuarez388,

I can't comment on the system builders, but will make a couple of comment on the proposed system.

If I were reading the specifications for proposed system, I would assume that it's only use is intensive gaming. The MSI Krait extracts a lot of performance from the i7- 6700, the GTX 980Ti is at the top for 3D performance. However, liquid cooling on a 65W CPU seems entirely unnecessary- a good Fan /heatsink is sufficient and liquid will be noisy for working. Also a 750W power supply is also overly large. I have a 6-core Xeon workstation at 130W, 32GB RAM, the system is rated to use 2X 150W GPU's and the power supply is 600W. The dual 130W Xeon system (Dell Precision T5500) does have an 875W supply, but that one can use 2X 200W GPU's as it was made before GPU's became so much more efficient- a Quadro 6000 used 240W.

If this system is for work, and you're 3D modeling, rendering, and/or video editing /processing, I'd suggest using LGA2011-3. Even if you start with a 4-core, you can later change to an 8, 10, up to 18 core, 128GB RAM- whatever you need. There are also more PCIe lanes for double GPU's, and other peripherals.

This is a workstation system from 10.14. I'm listing it here only because it has prices in USD, EUR, and GBP. The $113 SSD listed today would buy a Samsung EVO 250GB.

BambiBoom PixelCannon Cadamodarendergrapharific iWork TurboBlast ExtremeSignature SuperModel 9000 ®©$$™®£™©™_ 10.8.14

1. Intel Xeon E5-1630 v3 Quad-Core Processor 3.7 / 3.8GHz 0GT/s 10MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU, OEM > $380 (About £309)
____ http://ark.intel.com/products/82764/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1630-v3-10M-Cache-3_70-GHz?q=e5-1630
____ http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=E5-1630V3

2. Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Fan For Intel LGA1366/1156/1155/1150/775 & AMD FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2 > $31. (£26.05 Scan.UK)

3. Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard > $240 (£188.39 Scan.UK))
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157543&cm_re=asrock_x99_extreme_4-_-13-157-543-_-Product

4. Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 (PC4-17000) Server Memory Model CT2K8G4RFS4213 > $244 (£152 Scan.UK)
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148839&cm_re=Crucial_16GB_%282_x_8GB%29_288-Pin_DDR4_SDRAM_ECC_DDR4_2133_%28PC4-17000%29_Server_Memory-_-20-148-839-_-Product

5. GPU: PNY VCQK2200-PB Quadro K2200 4GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Workstation Video Card > $459 (£378.26 Scan.UK)
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133559&cm_re=quadro_k2200-_-14-133-559-_-Product

6. Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ) > $113 (OS, applications, working files) > $113. (£78.30 Scan.UK)
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148820&cm_re=crucial_mx110-_-20-148-820-_-Product

7. Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA3/SATA 6.0 GB/s 64MB Hard Drive > $82 (£57.18 Scan UK) (Files, Backup, System Image)

8. CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI CrossFire 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready> $130 £119.70 (Scan.UK)

9. Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24X SATA DVD±RW Internal Drive w/o Software (Black) SH-224DB $17.99

10. LIAN LI PC-A75X No Power Supply ATX Full Tower Case (Black) CA-A75 >$170

10A . Corsair Obsidian 750D Large Tower Case Black with Side Window No PSU > £124.50 Scan UK)
____ http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-obsidian-750d-black-full-tower-case-aluminium-steel-with-side-window-3x140mm-fans-usb-30-e-a

11. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit w/ SP1 (1-Pack, DVD), OEM MSFQC04649 > $138.99 (£119.70 Scan U.K)
________________________________________________________

TOTAL = $ 2,008 (about £1570 UK) (about 2172 EUR)

This shows LGA2011-3 can be a reasonable alternative. The prices and surrency exchange rates have changed a lot and this doesn't reflect the cost of having someone build it of course.

The same system with a GTX980 or similar would work quite well for gaming also- Xeons are good gamers as they don't have integrated graphics and are selected and configured to run slightly understressed so they can be used in servers for years continuously- very reliable and long-lived.

Just as a comparison.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)
 


Thank you very much for your reply! Very Thorough :)

I didn't specify, but, this is not intended as a Gaming machine, this is intended as a Workstation and I specified to the customer service guy at Xidax that helped me build it that I wanted something that I can upgrade for more power later on. And yes, I work with Motion Graphics, heavy 3D and video editing, hence the GPU, RAM and CPU.

To my understanding, Intel Xeon Motherboards are more expensive, with this Krait motherboard that I have you are saying that I would not be able to upgrade to a better CPU/Ram/GPU later on?

I will take your advice on PSU and cooling, so thanks for that!

I know that I could build this system or a better one myself for less price, thing is, where I live its very difficult to get stuff shipped. So If I buy all the parts separate and get them shipped here and something gets damaged over the process or something doesnt work, sending back a part for replacement is going to mean even more money, hassle and time. So thats why i'm going for a pre-built and tested system with a warranty.

Here, https://www.xidax.com/desktops/x-6/?saveconfig=86160 I invite you to check my build and adjust what you think is right. To save it, just select "Save Configuration" and send to your email, then you can paste that link here.

I really appreciate the help man!


 
jsuarex388,

The Xidax system specification was confusing because it appears to be a gaming-only system.

My idea is that if you can have an LGA2011 or LGA2011-3 system it can be expanded to have more than 4-cores. If you doing rendering and video effect processing, you would be better off beginning with an 8-core CPU on dual motherboard on which you can add a second 8-core later. I had a four core HP z420 (E5-1620) and a very good GPU- Quadro K2200 (4GB) and the large renderings I was doing required about 1 hour. After upgrading a Dell Precision T5500 to have two 6-core processors (Xeon X5680), the renderings required only 8 minutes. Tthis was because I went from having 8 threads to having 24 threads. By the way, the T5500 cost only $171 and the upgrades totalled about $800.

The hardware for content creation is quite different from content consumption. So, my suggestion is to consider a specific workstation based on Xeon E5 and very possibly dual Xeon E5.

Here is another outdated system idea, but a way to have a pair of fast 6-core CPU's:

BambiBoom CalcuCannon Cadasimulicious iWork TurboSignature Extreme ModelBlast 9800 ®©$$™®£™©™_6.28.15

1. Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-7036A-T Dual LGA1366 Xeon Mid-Tower Workstation Barebone System (Black) > $658 (Includes case, motherobard, power supply, heatsink, fans)

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/tower/7036/SYS-7036A-T.cfm
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SY-736AT

2. CPU: 2X Xeon X5690 (6-core @ 3.47 / 3.73GHz) > about $500 ($250 each)

3. Memory: 96GB (6X 16GB) DDR3 1333 ECC Registered > about $900-$1000

4. GPU: PNY NVIDIA Quadro K4200 4GB GDDR5 PCIe Graphics Card (VCQK4200-PB) > $789

5. RAID Controller : LSI MegaRAID SAS 9341-4i (LSI00419) PCI-Express 3.0 x8 Low Profile SATA / SAS High Performance Four-Port 12Gb/s RAID Controller (Single Pack)--Avago Technologies > $175

6. Disk 1: SAMSUNG 850 PRO MZ-7KE512BW 2.5" 512GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) > $292.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147361&cm_re=samsung_850_512gb-_-20-147-361-_-Product

7. Drive 2, 3: Western Digital Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive, Black, WD2003FZEX> $246 ($123 each (Files, Backup, System Image)

8. Optical Disk: SAMSUNG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-224DB/BEBE - OEM > $18


TOTAL = $2,678

Again, these prices are out of date, but it shows the idea.

In this, the Supermicro Superworkstation provides a case, dual LGA1366 motherboard, two CPU fan /heatsinks, a 665W server-grade power supply. It's quite easy to do: plug in the CPU's, RAM, GPU. and drives- there's no wiring- and load the OS and programs. You could proably do it yourself. The good feature of this one is that it uses two CPU's that cost $1,650 new that are now $250. That gives a system with 12 cores /24 threads at speeds up to 3.73GHz. The Quadro K4200 (4GB) is now replaced by the M4000 (8GB) which costs about $890 in the US- fantastic 3D performance- GTX 960 level but with full viewport, 4K, 10 /12-bit color and up to 128X AA support. Saving money by having used CPU's means the GPU can be the best.

Even better, Supermicro also has an LGA2011 version:

SuperWorkstation SYS-7037A > $780

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/tower/7037/SYS-7037A-i.cfm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101679

_And this can use Xeon E5-2600 and E5-2600-v2 CPU's. For this I would suggest one or two Xeon E5-2680.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64583/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2680-20M-Cache-2_70-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI

These are 8-core /16 thread at 2.7 / 3.5GHz meaning you can 3D model on 3.5GHz and render on all threads at 2.7GHz. On Ebay Us these cost about $200 each- $2,050 new. Eventually add a fast RAID controller and SSD It possible you could have a 16 core / 32 thread- that's 4X the threads of the i7-6600- system running at a very good clip.

Your options may have some limitations but it's useful to consider the hardware that was made for your use specifically and to run with complete reliability for long periods continuously.

If you are set on a standard builder's system with a warranty, I understand and would be pleased to comment. I did want to describe some alternatives that I think would yield a greater benefit for the cost.

Are you in Spain?

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 
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