Need help with spec and pricing for 5 PCs

[s.ritam]

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run?
Ans: Gaming, Animation development using a software that works on a Gaming Engine (DirectX11)

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans: 50k to 65k

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans: I dont know how to do it, and if it is a 'techie' stuff than I would not even attempt

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: Win 7 Professional 64 bit (would love to use Linux, but havent checked if my animation software works on it or not)

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: 500GB would suffice

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: Yes, WideScreen, around 19 inches, decent resolution for the needs in #1

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans: No reusing

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans: This week

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans: Assembler

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans: Hyderabad, yes open to buying from other avenues

11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: I am looking to buy 5 PCs for my small company. I have been advised to go for
a) a Z68 chipset - but I dont know which of the Z68 chipsets to opt for. On flipkart.com I can see 3 and a few more options on ebay.in.

b) PSU - min 550w because some high end graphics card need more power

c) a decent graphics card - if I wont overclock manually - do I go for GTX 560 or GTX 560Ti? Any other card which is close to the performance of gTX 560, but cheaper (non-AMD ONLY) . I repeat that the Graphics card has to support the DirectX11 standard.

 

[Jripper]

Though it is obvious,just for clarifications sake, your budget is 50-65k for each of the pc's right(Surely that is the case)?
And also, all new GPU's are Dx 11 compliant and the amd 7xxx series might even be dx 11.1 compliant. So no issues on that front.
And lastly,why the non-amd agenda on the gpu front?

 

[s.ritam]

Yes, you are very right the budget is for an individual PC.

I do not know about GPUs or hardware in general, and hence this post. I didnt even know that AMD supported DirectX11 etc.

Also, I was made to believe that nvidia GTX series is better than the AMD ones - but then non-AMD is not really a strong preference - and am open to being convinced in favour of AMD.

So some advice on specc and pricing ?

Regards
Sharad

 

[skeletor]

AMD HD 6950 2GB is 5-8% faster than GTX 560 Ti.

I didnt even know that AMD supported DirectX11 etc.

lol..AMD was the first company to get a DirectX 11 product out. nVidia was like half a year late.

 

[s.ritam]

And what is the price of AMD HD 6950 2GB ?

 

[SlashDK]

Please mention the softwares you are going to use so that we can tell whether nvidia or AMD is better for you.

 

[skeletor]

And what is the price of AMD HD 6950 2GB ?

16,000.

HD 6950 1GB is 14,000. GTX 560 Ti is 14,000.

HD 6870 and GTX 560 are 11,300.

I was only making a point. Graphic card is your choice.

AMD's next generation cards will be out next week. HD 7950/7970. The mid range HD 7850/7870 are coming out in February. These all support DirectX 11.1 and are highly power efficient. So, you might want to get these.

Hard disks are expensive. Most likely, you'll have to spend more for more space.

Slight modifications from the configuration in the PC Buying Guide by Jaskanwar Singh:

Component | Make | Price Processor |Intel Core i5 2500k|11700
Motherboard |GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3R|12000
RAM |2 * Gskill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL (2 * 4 GB)|3300
Graphic Card |Sapphire HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB|15750
HDD |Seagate 250GB 7200.12|3400
DVD Writer |ASUS 24X Sata Black DVD|1150
PSU |SeaSonic S12II 620w Bronze|4600
Case |NZXT Gamma|2200
Monitor |Benq G2220HD|6950
Keyboard and mouse |Logitech Media Keyboard K200 combo|700
UPS |APC 1.1KVA|4300
Speakers |Altec Lansing VS2621|1700
| Total |66000

 

[s.ritam]

Thanks a lot. I think my major confusion is on the following points:

1) Which Z68 motherboard to go with? I checked flipkart and there are a few models?

2) Is a fan/cooler (excuse my terminilogy) needed? I have seen some mid-range gaming PCs being spec'd to include an additional component for cooling.

3) Which PSU is the best - between the 500w to 700w category?

Regards
S

 

[skeletor]

1) well, I suggest exclusively Gigabyte. Because their boards and support - both are top notch. Flipkart has Asus. Asus has excellent boards but the guys who handle their support are known to be idiots.

2) yes, you can buy a CPU cooler if you want. Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo costs Rs. 2200. Cooler Master Hyper TX3 costs Rs. 1300. Get either of the two according to your needs.

3) The PSU you have been suggested is the best. Seasonic S12II 620w. The Corsair alternative is Corsair TX650v2. But TX650v2 is a Seasonic S12II 620w under Corsair branding. You can get any of these.

Read this thread regarding PSUs btw: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/power-sup...89-power-supply-blacklist-thread-newbies.html

 

[mithun_mrg]

@op u can also go for this MB has all the features except SLI
Flipkart: Biostar TZ68K+ Motherboard: Motherboard

 

[SlashDK]

People if his software uses CUDA shouldn't we be suggesting an nVidia card?

@s.ritam please mention the software you are going to use or if it uses CUDA or APP (if you know what they are).

 

[skeletor]

CUDA and APP aren't being used anywhere on a very generic basis. And general purpose apps which support one, will also support the other. Take Adobe apps and video encoding apps for example. At the moment, they are merely paper weights, nothing else. Long-time myth because "CUDA helps in rendering" and people were suggesting Geforce for Autodesk products - yup it does, but only in Quadro and Teslas. Geforce drivers are crippled for Maya viewports to a huge extent.

Game development = straightly through DirectX stack or OpenGL if you prefer. For GPU compute, use DirectCompute as it is neutral. No point in going for a biased i.e. CUDA (nVidia) or OpenCL (AMD) way.

and I seriously suggest delaying the Graphic card purchase and picking up HD 7870 in February for the price of HD 6950.

 

[SlashDK]

^^ 0.0 thanks for the info.

 

[s.ritam]

Dear Ico,
Thanks for the advice to defer the decision to buy a graphics card until Feb...would you happen to have some additional information?

When in Feb is it likely to be released?
What is the expected price going to be?
I am assuming it is going to be much better than GTX 560 Ti?
I am also assuming it'd be compatible with a Z68 motherboard, as above.

If it was for personal use, then deferring would have been easy, but I need these machines for work, and I will have to think about an alternative graphics card (in the range of 3 to 5k) which would be decent enough? Any suggestions? We are able to (somehow) manage with a GeForce® 210/8400GS.

Regards
S

 

[skeletor]

^^

well, you have to buy now. In that case get HD 6950 2GB or GTX 560 Ti 1GB now itself and be done with it.

Because if HD 7870 is only slightly better than HD 6950/GTX 560 Ti, at the same price. then the added cost of Geforce 210 (which you will have to purchase now) will make no sense. Waste of money there.

imho, performance will be slightly better than both of them but power consumption is going to be very low in comparison. DirectX 11.1 support and lots of other new stuff. AMD's new architecture is really good and promising.