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- the BIOS version that came with the asus p9x79 motherboards were considerably out of date.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 I spend quite a bit of time looking at my drivers, to see what was out of date, before I realised it was the bios that was the problem.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