Yogi

Nice find & GL

mushrooshi

Well, after a bit of silly flipflopping on the mobo, I resettled for the Pro-e.

I haven't changed anything else, after looking everywhere. I think that for $1030 after shipping and rebates, this seems pretty good.

vdek

A few things I'd like to mention, if you're doing CAD work with large assemblies, you will really want a fast hard drive. A SSD would be out of your budget, but you should look into getting the fastest possible hard drive... Especially when your assemblies hit 200mb+

Also, if you are going to be doing primarily CAD work, you should look into squeezing in a QUADRO graphics card instead of a GTX 260, much much much much better 3D CAD performance.

mushrooshi

I do CAD work for fun, although I am interested in a bit of freelancing... and arent the QUADRO cards pretty expensive?

I changed the mobo to the $240 EVGA.

Specifically Autodesk Inventor, are Inventor, video editing, and 3D modeling primarily CPU, RAM, or GPU intensive? I might want to downsize to a Phenom II if that is the case, from what I understand, the Phenom II is the middle space between the i7s and the C2Qs, and the total cost for a Phenom II setup is far less, and that I'd be able to use the components long aswell...

vdek

Inventor isn't very intensive as far as CAD apps go, and the top end Quadros are very expensive, but you can get a reasonably priced one that will make all your applications run faster, according to benchmarks and from personal experience, there is a HUGE difference between a system with a quadro and a system with a gaming card in certain CAD apps.

Although I should mention I haven't tried soft modding any of the current cards.


Edit: Don't get me wrong, most of your CAD apps will run just fine, but for anything intensive, like 100+ Part assemblies, you WILL have issues without a Quadro.

mushrooshi

Well, at school, the machines are pretty well equipped with Radeon 4850s, and I've had assemblies of over 100 parts with no massive lag. Granted, only 50 of the parts moved, but it was still pretty good.

EDIT: Well, the benchmarks say that the MSI Pro isn't terrible, but compares to the bloodrage even, according to

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...sance-review/1

Ill trust the benchmarks over people's perceptions.

The Pro-e is an improved MSI Pro with SLI, 3x PCI exress 2.0 slots, and better cooling, so I really think I should take the plunge and get it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130226

Ive gotten the rig down to $1010 too after rebates, combo deals, etc, and I think I am ready to buy components.

mushrooshi

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/Sh...px?Submit=view

Well, here it is, the 17th build so far I've came up with.

1001 dollars after rebates and shipping.



Green: Finalized, 95% sure to buy
Orange: Seems alright
Red: Completely unsure.

CPU: i7 920
CPU Cooler: MUGEN 2, with Tuniq TX-2 thermal compound.
Mobo: MSI Pro-E X58
GPU: XFX Core 216 GTX 260
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 700w
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB DDR3 1600
Case:Antec 300 (140mm+120mm) + 3x 120mm additional fans
HDD: 640GB WD Caviar Black
Optical: Samsung DVD burner with Lightscribe
Freebies: COD5 WaW, 6 issues of CPU magazine, 4gb OCZ Diesel flash drive

Yogi

HDD: 640GB WD Caviar Black
Fixed!!

Also those fans don't look to great. Get some Yate Loons from Petras
http://www.petrastechshop.com/12yalod1cafa1.html

lockdownx1x

You might want to get a Guaranteed D0 from Antares Digital for the same price your paying for it at the Egg .

http://www.antaresdigital.com/custom...cat=282&page=1

__________________

Yogi

CM 690 $70 with free shipping, comes out to the same price as the 300 with shipping.
http://www.overclock.net/online-deal...0-atx-mid.html