Monster Multitasker

[Xingster]

Hey, all. Been lurking around for a couple of years, but now i'm finally coming out into the open.
Alright, down to business.
I'm currently running a modified stock rig.
(Phenom X2 1065T, 560TI 2G, 8G Non-branded ram, 64g SSD, 1TB 7200rpm)
Now, i'm looking to build a machine, budget is between 2500-3000.
Might be willing to build it soon if i get enough feedback on my choices.
Now, this machine has to be able to Multitask like a monster- i also do alot of video editing and gaming, so power is a must.
I really just need the machine and maybe a set of monitors- 23" class @1920x1080, maybe?
Gonna buy most of the parts off of Newegg, and i live Stateside, so shipping's not really an issue.
I prefer Intel and Nvidia parts, thanks mostly due to the fact that i'm completely unhappy with AMD's power.

Now, i've got a machine speced out, and i just want to know if i should wait for next-gen tech or build it now.
I've already got my case- a Coolermaster 690 II
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
An Intel 3930 will be the beating heart of this monster. (More about this later)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116492&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-Intel-_-19116492
I can't decide between a pair of SLIed 680s (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130769), SLIed 670s (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782), or just break the bank and go for the motherlode, the 690 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130781)
Can't decide to get a Z68 or Z77 Mobo, either. Any help on that? Preferred brand is ASUS. Whatever it is, it has to have at the very least 12 USB slots- i'm using 8 passively right now, and i'm out of space on my current board.
Going with a coolermaster PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171049
Looking for between 32-64G ram, so a mobo that can take that would be nice.
Going to need a 256-class SSD as well, i'll settle for a 128 if i have to.
DVD Drive i'll just get cheap. Already have an OS pack as well, so dont need that.

Now, for the questions.
I'm willing to bust out major cash, but should i get the 3930 or wait for haswell?
If i wait for Haswell, should i wait for the 7xx series?
Or should i just build it ASAP?

Thanks in advance,
Xingster

 

[hellfire24]

please-
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice
thanks.

 

[N0BOX]

If you are set on using the Core i7-3930K, then you cannot use a Z68 or Z77 motherboard. The Z68/Z77 boards use the LGA 1155 socket, and the 3930K is an LGA 2011 socket chip. You will need to find an X79 motherboard that has the features you are looking for. I chose the Asus P9X79 Deluxe board for my build. You should check out newegg or your favorite online computer store for specs on X79 boards. I'm pretty sure all X79 boards support 32GB of RAM, with many supporting 64GB. There are boards that go as high as 128GB available, but I believe they depend on 16GB sticks becoming available.

I'd recommend trading your Cooler Master PSU for one from Seasonic if you are going to be spending so much money on these parts.

As for waiting for new tech to show up, I'm not sure what to tell you. While Ivy Bridge is now available, it doesn't compare in processor power to the Sandy Bridge E chips. Rumor has it that Ivy Bridge E is not due until 2013, and Haswell is slated for June of 2013. It is always possible to wait a year and get a faster computer, so you can always just sit on your money. In this case, you will have to wait a full year before anything that competes is going to be released, and even then I'd be willing to bet with a sealed liquid cooled system you could overclock the 3930K enough to still compete with the Haswell chips (they are supposed to have a 133MHz Bclk, compared to the 3930K's 100MHz Bclk).

I'm glad I pulled the trigger on a 3930K two weeks ago. I don't see myself needing anything new for quite some time.

 

[Xingster]

If you are set on using the Core i7-3930K, then you cannot use a Z68 or Z77 motherboard. The Z68/Z77 boards use the LGA 1155 socket, and the 3930K is an LGA 2011 socket chip. You will need to find an X79 motherboard that has the features you are looking for. I chose the Asus P9X79 Deluxe board for my build. You should check out newegg or your favorite online computer store for specs on X79 boards. I'm pretty sure all X79 boards support 32GB of RAM, with many supporting 64GB. There are boards that go as high as 128GB available, but I believe they depend on 16GB sticks becoming available.

I'd recommend trading your Cooler Master PSU for one from Seasonic if you are going to be spending so much money on these parts.

As for waiting for new tech to show up, I'm not sure what to tell you. While Ivy Bridge is now available, it doesn't compare in processor power to the Sandy Bridge E chips. Rumor has it that Ivy Bridge E is not due until 2013, and Haswell is slated for June of 2013. It is always possible to wait a year and get a faster computer, so you can always just sit on your money. In this case, you will have to wait a full year before anything that competes is going to be released, and even then I'd be willing to bet with a sealed liquid cooled system you could overclock the 3930K enough to still compete with the Haswell chips (they are supposed to have a 133MHz Bclk, compared to the 3930K's 100MHz Bclk).

I'm glad I pulled the trigger on a 3930K two weeks ago. I don't see myself needing anything new for quite some time.

If i wait for Haswell, should i pull the trigger on a 6xx card? I'm afraid that my current 1065t will bottleneck the hell outta it.

 

[N0BOX]

If i wait for Haswell, should i pull the trigger on a 6xx card? I'm afraid that my current 1065t will bottleneck the hell outta it.

Would you have a reason to buy a new video card for an old system? Is there something that you want to do that your computer can't handle right now? I doubt that going from a 560Ti to a 670 or 680 would really do very much good unless you are talking about something that is tied very heavily to the GPU.

Basically, no, I wouldn't blow any money on a GPU until either you get a new PC or some game comes out that desperately needs more GPU power. Your 560Ti benchmarks higher than my GTX 470, and I haven't run into anything I can't play, yet.

 

[Xingster]

Would you have a reason to buy a new video card for an old system? Is there something that you want to do that your computer can't handle right now? I doubt that going from a 560Ti to a 670 or 680 would really do very much good unless you are talking about something that is tied very heavily to the GPU.

Basically, no, I wouldn't blow any money on a GPU until either you get a new PC or some game comes out that desperately needs more GPU power. Your 560Ti benchmarks higher than my GTX 470, and I haven't run into anything I can't play, yet.

It's, erm, more for the CUDA cores. I do alot of HD editing, and i could use the performance boost.

 

[N0BOX]

It's, erm, more for the CUDA cores. I do alot of HD editing, and i could use the performance boost.

As I understand it, the 680 performs just slightly slower than the 580. It might be best to wait for the 780 if you are looking for a decent jump in CUDA processing for the amount of money you have to spend for the x80-series cards. Obviously, however, the GTX 690 totally and completely puts the 560Ti to shame.

Keep in mind that if you spend the money on an overpowered GPU, it is an investment that can follow you to a new system. As for CPUs being a 'bottleneck' to the processing power of a GPU, you have to consider what, exactly, the GPU is being used for. If you are doing huge amounts of processing on a small amount of data, then it doesn't matter if the PCIE bus is PCIE1.0 or 2.0 (or 3.0, now), because there isn't a lot of data being passed back and forth across the PCIE bus. If you are doing huge amounts of processing on large data sets, then you will see huge performance gains by upgrading your CPU/motherboard/RAM to catch up with the GPU.

For HD editing, I would imagine that there is quite a lot of data being transferred, so it would make sense to have a fast PCIE bus and the available CPU and RAM to feed it.

I'm not sure what you're really looking for here, though... Do you need a faster computer than you currently have? There's nothing I could tell you that could really serve to justify you waiting for new technology to surface, nor anything that I could tell you that would justify buying a new system now.

 

[Xingster]

As I understand it, the 680 performs just slightly slower than the 580. It might be best to wait for the 780 if you are looking for a decent jump in CUDA processing for the amount of money you have to spend for the x80-series cards. Obviously, however, the GTX 690 totally and completely puts the 560Ti to shame.

Keep in mind that if you spend the money on an overpowered GPU, it is an investment that can follow you to a new system. As for CPUs being a 'bottleneck' to the processing power of a GPU, you have to consider what, exactly, the GPU is being used for. If you are doing huge amounts of processing on a small amount of data, then it doesn't matter if the PCIE bus is PCIE1.0 or 2.0 (or 3.0, now), because there isn't a lot of data being passed back and forth across the PCIE bus. If you are doing huge amounts of processing on large data sets, then you will see huge performance gains by upgrading your CPU/motherboard/RAM to catch up with the GPU.

For HD editing, I would imagine that there is quite a lot of data being transferred, so it would make sense to have a fast PCIE bus and the available CPU and RAM to feed it.

I'm not sure what you're really looking for here, though... Do you need a faster computer than you currently have? There's nothing I could tell you that could really serve to justify you waiting for new technology to surface, nor anything that I could tell you that would justify buying a new system now.

To be brutally honest, my current machine is a mess of compromise- it was intended as a short-term (1-1.5 years) stopgap machine. It's modified stock, the inside is cramped and has NO cable management whatsoever, the case hits 90 easily when i start opening the taps, it has one tiny 80mm case fan pushing air out, and the processor sucks six ways to hell- it's an OEM processor and outdated when i got it.
Because of this, i have to keep everything on the down-low, otherwise the machine becomes incredibly unstable- BSOD is the least of my worries. The mobo also sucks something awful, there aren't enough expansion slots, and i've maxxed out what this machine can do.
I was thinking about piecing this machine out and selling it- i've only got about 400 invested in it personally, and most of that is the 560ti, which i've got a buyer for already.
I'm about to take the next step in editing and work on some really heavy effects, and i really dont think that this machine could survive it, that's why i was asking.
However, if i just swap out the mobo, i could put this into my new case for now and OC the hell outta it. The thing i'm worried about is, again, the bottleneck, even with the OC, as this processor is from late '10. The 560ti is a solid card, dont get me wrong, but the jump in the number of CUDA cores from the 5xx to the 6xx series is something to behold.
I just don't want to shell out the 3000+ (liquid cooling hasn't been added into the price yet), and find out that Haswell kicks six kinds of arse to sunday and my Sandy Bridge E has been beaten by the new i5.
So that's my problem. Stuck between two generations, willing to shell out the cash, but hesitant, since Sandy Bridge is an aging process.
If you could spec me a machine for me to build today, i'll talk it over with my buddy (He's helping me with the H20 cooling), that would be nice. I found a 4G version of the 670 that looks pretty nice.
If you think it's worth waiting for Haswell and to just shell out $200 for a new mobo and OC it, tell me so.

 

[Xingster]

Bump.

 

[N0BOX]

There's no way to know if the Haswell processors will be more amazing than Sandy Bridge E. I don't believe they have been seen before the eyes of anyone outside of Intel. I can tell you that the Intel estimate for their debut is June of 2013. To be honest, I doubt that there will be anything amazing about Haswell. It is just another line of standard consumer-grade processors. It will likely have somewhere around 16-20 PCIE lanes (the SB-E chips have 40), and the wikipedia page on it claims that they will use dual-channel memory, so that is another strike against them (it makes sense to believe this, because no OEM wants to have to load 4 DIMMs in a cheap box, nor do they want to have to pay extra for a motherboard with more than 2 slots).

The only technology to worry about being more amazing than SB-E is Ivy Bridge E, but again, the IB-E chips have been delayed to the second half of 2013. One advantage of choosing to go with SB-E now is that the future IB-E processors will also be LGA 2011 socket chips, and most of the current X79 boards will be able to handle the new chips if you decide it is worth upgrading. As a matter of fact, the motherboard I bought (Asus P9X79 Deluxe) supports PCIE3.0, which will only be available when an Ivy Bridge E CPU is used. I assume that the motherboard will need a firmware update to handle the new microarchitecture, but firmware updates on these enthusiast-grade motherboards is getting insanely easy.

I just upgraded my old system when I put together my X79 build. What I picked:

Intel Core i7-3930K
Asus P9X79 Deluxe
XX -- 16GB Patriot Viper Xtreme Division 4 -- XX Don't get this ram. You should pick something better!!

The motherboard and chip are seriously amazing. They destroy everything I throw at them. The RAM works perfectly fine, and I got it ridiculously cheap (I had to find a way to cut my build's cost or I wouldn't have been able to get it), but it is actually 1333MHz ram that only runs at 1600MHz because it is being overclocked and run at 1.65v instead of the standard 1.5v. I'll have to get some better RAM for some overclocking later.

I'd suggest getting some high quality 1866MHz or 2133MHz RAM but since I never purchased any I can't give any recommendations. I'd suggest a Seasonic power supply unit of around 600w for a single GPU or 750-800w for dual GPUs. If you are going to stuff the box full of hard drives for the purposes of a RAID array, then you should maybe grab a bigger PSU than that.

For SSDs, people around here have been recommending the Crucial M4 and Mushkin Chronos Deluxe models, among others. I've been somewhat confused by these recommendations, though, since the M4 uses the Marvel controller while the Mushkin uses the Sandforce, and some people have been saying the Sandforce controller was the problem. I don't have enough SSD experience to recommend one. I have an OCZ Vertex 2 in my HTPC which has been fine, but it is relatively old (it's SATA 2) and there could be issues with the SATA 3 controllers that I don't have experience with. People have been recommending against the current OCZ models other than the Vertex 4 (I think?).

My suggestion would be that you go ahead with the SB-E setup. You would have the opportunity to upgrade to IB-E later if it proves to be amazing in some way. I doubt that any consumer-grade CPUs are going to pack the punch that the current enthusiast-grade processors carry. It is always possible that there will be a more advanced chipset to go along with the IB-E processors when they come out, but it isn't likely to be so amazing an advance that you'll decide you have to give up on your X79 motherboard to upgrade.

 

[N0BOX]

Oh, as for the GPUs... I'm not sure what sort of video editing software you use, so I can't comment on what GPU would do you the best good. The word on the street is that two GTX 680s in SLI perform better than a single GTX 690. I am not sure if that is based on CUDA performance, gaming performance, or both. You should do some research to find out if the software you are using benefits from SLI over a single card. I'm not sure if Nvidia has managed to hide the difference between a single GPU and SLIed GPUs from applications. I think for the most part they have, but in the early days of SLI it could be a hit or miss problem, depending on the program or game.

 

[hellfire24]

Bump.

check my first post,fill the form.
if no one responds,then bump.