[motogami]

I was looking to be critiqued on my choices of hardware

cpu - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge
cpu cooler - CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i Water Cooler
mobo - ASUS Maximus V Gene LGA1155 Z77 mATX
gpu - Radeon HD 7970 GHz
psu - SeaSonic X Series X650
ssd - Corsair Force Series GS CSSD-F128GBGS-BK
case - Lian Li PC-V355B mATX Mini Tower
hdd - 500GB Velociraptor
ram - ?

not for certain on the type of ram, but would like 16gb (2x8gb)
have been leaning towards either gskill or corsair though

the gpu is not a definite either, nor is the hdd

if there are better options for the money id be more than happy to know

 

[adridu59]

Just go with the Plextor M5S and WD10EZEX as the HDD, it's a Blue but it has great sequential speeds, the Velociraptor will be pricier and noisy, plus you won't be noticing significant difference as you'll be running it alongside the SSD.

An HD 7950 would be better than a 7970 GHz value-wise and it will crush anything you throw at it in 1080p.

You could go with the cheaper Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H for the motherboard if you don't need the expensive ROG board, the Gigabyte is a pretty nice board already.
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigabyte_z77mx-d3h_review/1

Also, a 550W PSU would be fine for this build, look at the Seasonic G Series it's cheaper and the internals are still great w/80+ Gold cert.

 

[motogami]

changed to Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR90GB as the ssd instead of the 128. good or bad choice? $100

and with the ram. im going to oc the cpu, so what would i go with as for the speed of the ram? probably going for 4.4 or 4.5ghz
have been looking at gskill trident series. these are the two i have in mind
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=%20600006072&IsNodeId=1&Description=gskill%20trident%20ddr3&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareItemList=%2D1%7C20%2D231%2D589%5E20%2D231%2D589%2DTS%2C20%2D231%2D628%5E20%2D231%2D628%2DTS

and for the 7950, which brand would be the better choice?

namely will be using the pc for games. maybe 10% of the time for 3ds max and such

 

[DaFirnz]

I agree with adridu59 but add go for a 250gb SSD. they are the sweet spot as far as bang vs buck right now and can be had for $150-$200.
For the storage drive as long as it's 7200rpm you're good.
For the $15 go for the ddr3 2400. a better deal might be had on something else though.

 

[adridu59]

The Plextor M5S is a much better choice and it's cheaper.

Since Sandy Bridge days you can OC the CPU with multiplier only, means that you don't have to raise the memory frequency at the same time.
The Trident is surely one of the best when it comes to memory these days but it will make almost no difference unless you're benching - for an average user it's mostly overpriced stuff.

Also since you're doing 3D modeling, AMD video cards not only have better value but have more than 2x the performance the GTX 600 Series in GPGPU tasks; in fact, even the GTX 500's are better than the 600's at this.
Kepler was designed for gaming and isn't too good for that kind of tasks.

See here for example, the 600 Series perform poorly:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/15-GPGPU-Luxmark,2971.html

I didn't find any 3DS Max benchmarks. It has Nvidia optimization with the "Iray" technology which is CUDA accelerated but not sure about AMD's...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/302413-15-rendering-3dsmax

Lastly, I would go with the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3. It's a beast of a board, cheaper than the Maximus V Gene and has some nice additional features like the Creative onboard sound and such. There's a review here at Vortez:
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_g1_sniper_m3_review,1.html

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120XL 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($165.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: A-Data XPG Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.52 @ Amazon)
Storage: Plextor M5S Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($295.66 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1040.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-22 16:46 EST-0500)

 

[motogami]

minus the benchmarking, wouldnt the timings of the ram affect the performance? cas 7 vs cas 9 (is a $40 difference though)

between the two cpu coolers for the price the 120xl performs better for the $15 (minus the $20 rebate) difference?

 

[adridu59]

Quote:

Originally Posted by motogami

minus the benchmarking, wouldnt the timings of the ram affect the performance? cas 7 vs cas 9

CAS latency affect much less performance than frequency (e.g bump from 1600 to 1866) and even then 1600 CAS9 is the sweet spot imo, the next performance increases are very minor then.
Quote:

Originally Posted by motogami

between the two cpu coolers for the price the 120xl performs better for the $15 difference?

The Seidon 120XL has just been announced so it's hard to say about it's performance but it's been said to be in competition with the H80i on various sites... dunno about the fan performance either but at that price you could replace them and still be cheaper than the H80i.

 

[motogami]

i really appreciate your help within this post.
do you think that i should wait for haswell or go ahead with the previous build stats?

i have another setup for more of a media center pc for my mother. the specs are as follows

cpu - AMD A6-5400K Trinity 3.6 socket FM2 $75
mobo - ASRock FM2A75M-DGS FM2 $55
ram - Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 $38
psu - COUGAR RS Series RSB400 400W ATX12V 80 PLUS $45
case - COUGAR Spike Black Steel / Plastic MicroATX $35
hdd - Western Digital WD Green WD10EARX 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" $80
optical - LG Black 12X Blu-ray Combo Drive SATA Model UH12NS29 $40

im looking to keep the carbon print low too
as with before if there are any items with better bang for the buck please feel free to inform me

 

[adridu59]

I'd get a WD10EZEX, faster and cheaper.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex

That PSU isn't recommended by OCN... I'd get the Corsair CX430 v2 instead.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu430cxv2

Other than that you could go with a better motherboard but this one will be fine for HTPC. Onboard sound (ALC662) is pretty mediocre through.
Quote:

Originally Posted by motogami

i really appreciate your help within this post.
do you think that i should wait for haswell or go ahead with the previous build stats?

If you need it now go for it, else not.

Haswell will be focused on decreasing power consumption and better integrated graphics, but will also have ~10% of raw performance increase.

 

[motogami]

thanks again