Phenom II x4 840 with what?

[jake24a]

I'm working on a new rig and want some input. I'll be using it for a lot of multitasking, NO gaming, and a little bit of 3D modeling but nothing too crazy. Here's what i'm thinking so far...

Ram: CORSAIR XMS 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 1600
GPU: ATI V7700 512MB
Power Supply: SILVERSTONE 850W
Case: COOLER MASTER
DVD Drive: LG Black 2MB Cache SATA DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive - OEM
HDD HITACHI: Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX80G 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Solid State Drive

CPU: Phenom II x4 840
MoBo: MSI 890FXA-GD65

I"m really unsure about the Mother board and CPU. I'd like to stay under 300 for the two of them but I want as much speed as I can get for that. Any Suggestions?

 

[jake24a]

AutoCAD and Solid Works. but I don't use them very much. Most of what I do is mutitasking with Visual Studio, Eclipse, web browsers, and Microsoft office.

 

[jake24a]

I haven't picked a monitor yet. I"m not going to worry about GPU right now I have one that will work and I can upgrade later.

What mobo should I go with?

Why the change in HDD? the Hitachi is $59 for a 1Tb also. Is the Samsung better?

 

[enzo matrix]

1. Might want to consider a more powerful CPU such as the phenom IIx4 955 or the phenom IIx6 1055t-1090t. The Phenom IIx4 840 is actually an Athlon; it doesn't have the L3 cache the other phenoms have. All under $200.

2. Get a Samsung or Western Digital hard drive. From everything I have heard, the hitachi is not the most relable. From experience, My Western digitals have served me well [500GB Black, 1TB green, 1.5TB green (EARS)]

3. The vertex 2 is a good drive, I have one myself. Be aware that the Vertex 3 is being released soon and will have theoretically twice the maximum speed.

4. You seriously do not need an 850W power supply to power that system. a 500W will suffice of a decent brand.

5. You might want to consider 8GB of ram. My 4GB holds me back in multi-tasking before my Phenom IIx6 does. Although, my uses are different from yours. That said, 3D modelling sounds like it could use quite a bit of ram. And Get 2x4GB not 4x2GB so you can upgrade easier along the lines if you need to.

6. I don't know much about workstation graphics cards but I do know the v7700 is from way back in 2008. That seems like it would be equal to a 4000 series in raw performance but obviously much better at your rendering tasks. You might want to consider a newer firepro card based on the 5000 series or the 6000 series, if you can afford it or find something for a similar price. Actually, my mistake. After a bit more research: The v7700 is based on the radeon 3870 from 2007.

Ok, let me do a quick hunting around based on the v7700 newegg price of $175 and the raw Gflops of 496
Ok, now, to the best of my limited research, the V4800 performs better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195096&cm_re=v4800-_-14-195-096-_-Product
Remember also that I do not have much experience with rendering, workstation cards and your uses. So check up with some other members who might know better first.
Also, it's from a different line, so it might not be what you are looking for.
Edit: they are from the same line. The FireGL series was renamed to the FirePro 3D series.

 

[enzo matrix]

The 5770 FLEX is not a workstation video card just because it supports up to 4 displays. Workstation graphics are based on the desktop cards but the drivers are completely different and only work with the workstation cards unless you do some soft modding. The performance difference because of the driver differences is quite a lot. In workstation tasks I am more than willing to bet the older v7700 would perform better or at least the same as the 5770.

 

[enzo matrix]

Just because it "does the job" does not allow you to lie and say it is a workstation graphics card when it is not.

it does the job just as well if not better than one

...
No comment. I've already explained why that is simply not true.

Anyway, let's just agree to disagree since he isn't getting a video card now anyway

Consider a RAID 10 array, an hybrid HDD/SSD or a SSD if you work with large files that read/write a lot to the disk.

+1

A basic video card (Radeon 5550, 5770, 4670X2 or Geforce GTS 250, depending on your monitors requirements.) will help speed up the UI and free the CPU from some tasks

I've not heard of this before. Can you back it up? Sounds sketchy. Why would a 5550 free the CPU from any tasks? The only advantage I see is freeing up a few MB of ram vs IGP.

Why the change in HDD? the Hitachi is $59 for a 1Tb also. Is the Samsung better?

Yes? Then again, that could just be me saying that because of the high reputation of Samsung and Western Digital. I have nothing to back it up.

I"m not going to worry about GPU right now I have one that will work and I can upgrade later.

Are you saying that you already have that v7700?

 

[jake24a]

Is the Chip set on the ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO 880G SATA6Gb/s USB3.0 going to be able to bottle neck me at all?

Also I need some more guidance on CPU's. Right now i'm leaning toward AMD but my main question is what's a good CPU and then Motherboard for multi-tasking (Visual Studio, Excel, Word, Web Browsing)? I want a very solid pair for around $300.

 

[stevem2k3]

If you are not doing much gaming or just light gaming then why get a sli/crossfire board...save some change and get a board with one PCI-E x16 slot. A particular chipset won't bottleneck you except for in the graphics area or overclocking...and then only maybe...since all modern CPU's have integrated memory controllers the modern chipset only controls peripherals (usb, sata, ethernet, etc.)