Hi, I am finally taking the plunge and building my first custom system. The component list and build info can be found below. It will be mainly used for 2D and 3D design work, modeling, animation, some video editing (i.e using Autodesks Maya and Adobe CS5 products). My budget is pretty low for a workstation but i just need a new system to work off asap (as my laptop has finally bitten the dust). I want to create a decent base system and will look to develop upon it over the next few years. Any advice on parts, changes and other recommendations or general thoughts will be very helpful, as this is my first system build. Also links to anywhere I can buy parts at decent prices in the UK and Ireland would also be helpful (aside from the obvious online component retailers). Thanks!! Colin. Build Info: Approximate Purchase Date: early Feb at the latest Budget Range: £600 - £700 max Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitors, speakers, OS Country: UK and Ireland Overclocking: Maybe at a later date Crossfire: Maybe at a later date Components: Case: Bitfenix Shinobi (windowed) PSU: Antec Neo Eco 620w CPU: Intel Core i5 2500k (retail) Mobo: ASRock z68 Extreme4 Gen 3 Mem: Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600 mhz Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 HDD: undecided Optical: undecided
Most of that looks great! Good component choice. Personally, ASRock motherboards are a little iffy but they seem to be getting rave reviews recently.
Probably because it's going to be more expensive as Intel has nobody to compete with. I can tell you right now, the 2500K will be just as good a buy in a few months.
the word is they will be around the same price http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2011/2011121902_Prices_of_Ivy_Bridge_desktop_CPUs.html and will have better overclocking ability aswell as better graphics and lower power consumption the 2500k is a great cpu tho and this is just a thought if you can wait a little longer.
This is all very true. IMO there isn't enough of a difference though to be worth wait and possible bugs when a prime CPU is right there. Basically a personal decision though.
Awesome!! Need the build asap, so just going to go ahead with the Sandy Bridge, but thanks for the info on the Ivy variants. Changed out the ATI card for a GTX 560 (equivalent NVIDIA). Utilises CUDA tech when rendering from the GPU when using programs like Premiere CS5 and Maya Plugins etc. So makes more sense going for this card. Thanks again everyone for your advice, very much appreciated!!
