Building a system for my nephew, need advice.

[helusay]

Hey folks,

I am building a PC for my nephew so he will be able to do some of his college projects at home instead of relying heavily on the computer labs. He is currently attending Art Center College of Design taking majoring in Environmental Design. He has given me a budget of ~$1000 - $1200 and here is what I have come up with so far:

CPU: Intel i5 2500k 3.3 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo)

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen 3

RAM: 8GB G.SKILL Ripjaw Series DDR3 1600

PSU: Rosewill Green Series 630W

HD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda SATA 6.0 Gb/s

GPU: ATI FirePro V5800 1GB

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

My concern is this; every penny my nephew and his parents go to his education (this is one hell of an expensive school) and I want to make sure that every thing I am suggesting for him to purchase for his system is correct. I know that he uses AutoCAD (2012 I think) and does a lot of 3D modelling, and I am not sure what equipment he uses at school, but will the items I have suggested so far work for him? Will they be sufficient enough to do the things he needs to do at home with some efficiency, or do you have suggestions on things I should change to his build? Any help will be apprecieated. Thanks

[sam_m]

if this is a college/uni course then I'd possibly question the need for the workstation FirePro card - unless you know he's using software that is OpenGL and needs an OpenGL graphics card...  Autodesk software is now DirectX instead of OpenGL so a good "gaming" grade pc will work fine - and hate to suggest a college kid might once in a blue moon want to use the nice new pc for games too...

In my opionion I'd swap the ATI FirePro V5800 1GB for a GeForce GTX 570 and save some cash.  I'd also change around the hard drive setup for a 120GB Sata 3 (assuming the mobo is compatable) SSD for OS and applications and a slower 1tb mechanical drive for data storage (ie no need for the baracuda - could even drop down to 5400rpm as there should be plenty of space on the SSD for "active" work and archive off old data to the mechanical drive).

just to chuck a few ideas into the mix ;D 

[entropist]

I think Sam's comments above are right on the money. It seems the days of openGL are nearing an end.

One thing to add though, based on a friends experience with Asrock motherboards (specifically their driver support)... I would recommend choosing a more reputable brand of motherboard.

[helusay]

Actually, after speaking with him, I found out that he is using some software called Rhino (I have never heard of it) and looking at the system requirements it states "OpenGL graphic card recommended." Now, I have read that some have had success using a gaming level card with this software. So now I am back to confused. And I need to find a forum for that software too.

Thanks for your replies.

[OMCUSNR]

I guess I'd stick with the ATI card.  From the sounds of it, he'll be doing some intense rendering in more than just his adsk stuff (Rhino & acad).  I've used a "gaming card" (see my sig - I got all that at newegg for $1400) for C3d and most acad drafting for a long time and never had a problem, but with high rendering tasks, it's a little light.

I'm not sure about the Seagate 1tb drive.  My brother makes machines that makes harddrives.  His current recommendation is Western Digital for reliability.  I just purchased an Intel 120gb SSD to replace a dying Seagate in my wife's computer ($144.99 from newegg).  I looked at a few of the big name (corsair, etc) SSD's that were a bit cheaper by use of rebates, and came away with the conclussion that IBM might be $20 more, but was way more stable, and had all the stuff needed to install.  Also, I'd question the need for a terrabyte of storage.  If you go with the 120gb SSD, get a decent western digital HD in the 300 to 500 gb range.  You don't need to be clutering up a system for school or work with a bunch of DVD's, games & music.  You need them to work & train to work, not play.  I've never yet gotten close to filling up 500gbs.

As a side note for the stuff in my sig, I was looking to maximize my system at the lowest cost I could.  I chose the mobo for it's sata 6.0 & usb 3.0 and support of the new Intel Sandy Bridge procesors.  I chose the I5, because I couldn't see me using the extra cache on the I7 for $200 more.  I got a good deal on the case/PS, and added some extra fans.  I chose the WD Velociraptor as the fastest, most stable SATA 6 drive available, and chose not to use a SSD because I thought they were still a bit spendy for their size, and you need at LEAST 120 gb for a C drive if you load your OS & most programs.  I got a DVD burner (not a blu-ray unit - I don't watch movies at work) and card reader to round it out.  Win 7 64 pro, because I have older software that still needs XP compatibility and no HOME version of 7 supports that.  You can get an OEM install of Win 7 Pro for $139+/-.  I got the gamer ASUS GTX card as a good balance between price & performance w/out heavy rendering.  I happen to lijke Nvidia driver -  they seem to be very stable with adesk products.  (all the stuff was from newegg.com, purchased last mar 2011).

HTH,

Reid

(After reading this, it sounds like I'm a shill for newegg.  They're on the west coast, as am I, and they have very good service and shipping.  Most of their prices are highly competitive, and it's a pretty good "one stop shop".  I alsow like dealing with B&H out of New York.  Good customer service and decent prices.)

[helusay]

Hey OMCUSNR,

We have decided to go with a GTX560 graphics card because he wants to be able to blow off steam once in a while. As far as the 1TB HDD it will be partioned into 2 or 3 partitions so that the system/program files will remain on it's own partition for reduced clutter. As far as Newegg, I have been shopping there for years and I have been extremely happy with them. Now that they offer "Will Call" and I live close enough, we will be ordering it and picking it up from them to save on shipping.

Thanks for your reply, good stuff.