Ordered my new computer

sketchymick · 4 May 2012, 05:16

Hi Folks, well... after much deliberating and not a small amount of indecision regarding video cards, I finally ordered the bits for my new desktop.

Intel i7-3930 CPU
Asus P9X79 Motherboard
EVGA GTX680 GPU
Intel 520 240Gb SSD
Seagate 7200 1TB HDD
G.Skill 16Gb DDR3-1866 RAM
Win7 Pro 64
Asus 27" VE278Q Monitor (planning to get a 2nd one if this is OK)

In a moment of madness I did consider getting a Quadro 2000 graphics card as well, so I could test the 2 cards side by side definitively, but then sanity (and my bank account) prevailed, and I went for the consumer card.

The parts will be a week or so away yet, but will post a review when tested.

Cheers

Mick

solo · 4 May 2012, 05:43

How much?

Great machine.

I'd have gotten at least 2tb HD, and two 27" monitors (Asus is good choice)

sketchymick · 4 May 2012, 06:25

@solo said:

How much?

Great machine.

I'd have gotten at least 2tb HD, and two 27" monitors (Asus is good choice)

Yeah thanks. The cost is $3,200 Australian, including other stuff not listed (Corsair 850AX PSU, 550D case and other bits and pieces). We seem to pay about 20% more than the US for just about everything over here. It's still way cheaper than what I could get through Dell, etc.

As I mentioned, I'll probably get 2 of those monitors, but wanted to try out 1 first for a while to make sure I liked it. Monitors are a pretty personal thing, it's either you love them or hate them but I find I need a bit of time to decide. I'd never used one before, but Asus seems to get pretty good monitor reviews, so I went with it without seeing one in the flesh.

My main file storage is at my work office, so the HDD for this computer is more for live/recent projects. I agree though 2TB is pretty easy to fill these days. I guess my case has got enough space to add another drive if needed.

Cheers

Mick

utiler · 8 May 2012, 04:19

That looks good, Mick! I'm shouting myself a new system in July and I don't think it will look much different to yours... Be interested in the next few weeks about its pros and cons....

sketchymick · 8 May 2012, 10:36

Hi utiler, I saw your other post... good to see the new office computer goes well.
I got word today that my parts (including a hard to get gtx680) is on its way, so hopefully I'll build it over the weekend

utiler · 8 May 2012, 17:41

Zoom, zoom.....!

ely862me · 8 May 2012, 20:05

Pff !!! Guys ,you are definitely running some machines over there , and I am struggling with my dual core 2.8 ghz , 2gb ram ,160 gb hdd , and 1 gb nvidia gt 8600 .

Your recent machines look like 22 century for me , lol !!

If you don't mind,guys, what are your recently configuration, and what are you doing with them? I might buy some parts(or the entire) from you , if you are not going to use them further of course !
Cheers !

And keep it under the radar speed will you !

sketchymick · 8 May 2012, 22:36

@ely862me said:

Pff !!! Guys ,you are definitely running some machines over there , and I am struggling with my dual core 2.8 ghz , 2gb ram ,160 gb hdd , and 1 gb nvidia gt 8600 .

Your recent machines look like 22 century for me , lol !!

If you don't mind,guys, what are your recently configuration, and what are you doing with them? I might buy some parts(or the entire) from you , if you are not going to use them further of course !
Cheers !

And keep it under the radar speed will you !

I think that is one of the great advantages of sketchup in that it will work reasonably well with low spec machines.
I have a number of machines as part of my business (which although only 2 or 3 years old, are all definitely "old"), but I'm not looking to sell any. thanks for the interest.

rv1974 · 9 May 2012, 06:31

@sketchymick said:

@ely862me said:

Pff !!! Guys ,you are definitely running some machines over there , and I am struggling with my dual core 2.8 ghz , 2gb ram ,160 gb hdd , and 1 gb nvidia gt 8600 .

Your recent machines look like 22 century for me , lol !!

If you don't mind,guys, what are your recently configuration, and what are you doing with them? I might buy some parts(or the entire) from you , if you are not going to use them further of course !
Cheers !

And keep it under the radar speed will you !

I think that is one of the great advantages of sketchup in that it will work reasonably well with low spec machines.
I have a number of machines as part of my business (which although only 2 or 3 years old, are all definitely "old"), but I'm not looking to sell any. thanks for the interest.

The SU is just initial point. The Max+Vray+Evermotion stuff eat huge amount of CPU.

ely862me · 9 May 2012, 18:40

I am glad I use Sketchup then !

Someday....

sketchymick · 12 May 2012, 14:04

Well... put the computer together today. One thing surprised me... it worked first time ! (it was my first build )
Not surprisingly it's pretty fast. Probably the main thing to report is that the gtx680 card seems to work very nicely, no glitches, very smooth orbiting, etc. this was the only area that I was questioning myself.
I threw all my biggest models at it and I couldn't fault it, so not much more to report from the sketchup side I think.
Haven't done any renders though... maybe in a few days.
Cheers

Mick

sketchymick · 6 Jul 2012, 08:56

I thought I'd give an update here on this build, as well as a 2nd computer I put together pretty quickly after the first:

Both have:

i7-3930K CPU
ASUS p9x79 motherboard
16Gb ram
SSD system drive (240 and 256 Gb versions) and HDD for data storage

The main difference between the two computers is the graphics card. First one has GTX680, my 2nd one has GTX670 (both EVGA reference). For my 2nd computer I was perilously close to buying a Quadro card, just to satisfy my curiosity... in the end I went with the 670 for the 2nd one because it is only slightly lagging behind the 680 in performance, but runs cooler, less wattage and was about $200 cheaper. I posted some performance figures in a speed test thread on this forum. I have a bias for nvidea cards, but I understand that the AMD 7970 card is the man if you want GPU computational power (the 680 apparently is a poor performer in this regard... if you google it you'll find some articles). Having said that, I haven't been able to stall sketchup with any model I've previously put together and I get smooth orbiting, etc. at all times. I stayed away from the GTX580 because it is pretty power hungry, but otherwise I understand it is pretty good performance for money.

The 6 core i7-3930 chip is only used fractionally with sketchup (1 core), so it is wasted if that is all you're doing. I tend to run things in the background a lot, so that's how I justified the cost, and I don't regret it.

The reason I went with the p9x79 board is that it has 8 ram slots, so I filled 4 and have a 2nd set free for future upgrade. Honestly, I think 16Gb is wasted, so 24 is not likely to provide value for money. I used autocad, sketchup, photoshop, office, etc. often all at once and have never had any ram issues.

I went for ASUS VE278Q 27in Widescreen LED Monitors - good price and no complaints at all.

Problems: well these were my first 2 builds ever, and I was patting myself on the back thinking everything was going perfectly, but in the end I did have some hiccups...

the BIOS version that came with the asus p9x79 motherboards were considerably out of date. I had some hard lockups that I was getting frustrated with, which instantly went away when I upgraded the bios (quick and simple !). I spend quite a bit of time looking at my drivers, to see what was out of date, before I realised it was the bios that was the problem.
my first computer was built in a corsair 550D case. It was fractionally too large for the space I have in a desk recess at my office (the CD tray couldn't open fully), that computer is my home office version now. My second build was based on the corsair 300R case which is a bit smaller.

Hope this helps someone

Cheers

Mick

utiler · 13 Jul 2012, 03:25

Great reporting, Mick! Good to have some feedback on someone that has done comparisons....

Going to the computer shop now to discuss specs!!

utiler · 24 Jul 2012, 00:52

Hey Mick, I'm just finalising my new computer specs and have a question for you. You say you run a lot in the background when using SketchUp; I assume AutoCAD, PS, etc but do you run a render program such as Maxwell or SU Podium while flicking back to AutoCAD or any other program and if so; do you notice any stalling..? Currently, if I want to export a reasonable quality render I have to drop everything and leave my system run as even as much as open Windows Explorer makes everything hang....

Be good to know if either of your systems have this happen...

utiler · 2 Aug 2012, 01:51

Any comments on this before I sign the check? I'm keen to get some feedback.....

Thank!!

sketchymick · 30 Aug 2012, 10:08

Hey utiler ! sorry, I only just saw your posts here... I guess you've got your new computer now - how's it go?

Cheers

Mick

utiler · 31 Aug 2012, 03:53

Great Mick, Ta!!! Loaded it last weekend and its pretty slick!!!

sketchymick · 3 Sept 2012, 10:15

@utiler said:

Great Mick, Ta!!! Loaded it last weekend and its pretty slick!!!

Good to hear ! I don't think you'll regret the 3930K and I bet you are already impressed with the SSD ! My 2 machines have been going flawlessly now for quite a while. Not so much sketchup work at the moment, but heaps of autocad. Pretty keen to get into another sketchup project soon.

Cheers

Mick

utiler · 4 Sept 2012, 00:59

Magic mate!!! Drop that autocad and you'll never look back.....!