System build help/tweaking/input needed

[Treehuggerish]

Right, I'm gonna start of with filling out the questionaire

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

It will be used for midrange 3d work (for serious rendering I have access to a farm but I still do test renders all the time), Heavy duty photoshop/illustrator/InDesign work (1gb+ filesize, tons of raw files, nasty psd's with 100's of layers etc.) and ofcourse gaming in my free time.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread


With the current state of the financial system doing conversions is a bit hard, I have a maximum of 14000 DKR which at the moment is around 2450 USD. On the other hand hard and software is much more expensive in denmark than in the states, as far as I know.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Denmark

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

I have always had good experiences with ASUS parts and intel processors, I have a completely non-tested supersticious feeling that ASUS gfx cards works well with ASUS mobos but .. other than that... no fanboyism.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Well I have a spare sata HDD that I guess I'll use for... more storage... but other than that.. nothing. (well yeah my monitor and other peripherals ofcourse.)

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Yeah I've been reading through threads but like every other egocentrical child of capitalism and the individualization of humanity I want help with MY system

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Well I am in no way an expert on overclocking, I have some underclocking experience (to keep my P4 from running too hot ) But I'm guessing I'll OC the core i7 920 a bit.. I don't think I can resist the temptation.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Within a week or two, two at max.

Allright, onto what I think I'll be doing and what I need input on.

Due to the aforementioned liking of asus and intel I'm going for a core i7 machine and I'm thinking of building it on a ASUS P6T, Let me put it in a more structured way.

Antec p182 case (Its silent as far as I know)

ASUS P6T Deluxe (mobo, good reviews and I like ASUS)

Intel Core i7 920 (The faster ones are way to expensive for the gain and I can OC this one I guess)

ASUS GTX 260/280 (I really don't know if the 280 is worth it, I haven't even looked at ATI Cards.... I like Nvidia I guess but.. I can be converted here)

Now.. I would like to smack as much RAM in there as possible, well, not really but I'd like to get at _least_ 6gb and I'll probably upgrade that to 12 at some point if I don't buy 12 now. I have tried rteading up on RAM but everything I've read have apparently become defunct due to the way the new CPUs from intel works.. so I'm utterly lost in choosing which RAM to use.

What I need help with is picking a PSU, determining which HDD I should use for system/applications (AFAIK The samsung F1 1TB spinpoints are still king of the 1TB drives?)

and I'm open to any input, I don't know nearly enougnh to spot any bottlenecks in my system or things like that.

I would like the system to be as quiet as possible. I realize that a powerful GFX card probably wont be silent when running demandin ggames etc. But it'd be nice with a quiet system when idling and doing menial tasks.

So... input is... appreciated a lot..

Best regards
-Me

 

[Denithor]

Well, for industrial-strength Photoshop & rendering, you want three things: fast CPU, fast hard drive and lots of RAM.

The CPU you've got covered.

For the hdd, consider a pair of 300GB Velociraptors (one with OS & apps, the other for data & Photoshop scratch disk) or even go nuts and get an Intel X25-M (spendy but everyone says this is the single upgrade where you can actually "feel" the difference).

For the RAM:
-First, understand that there's virtually no difference between different speeds & CAS timings. The same is true for double versus triple channel memory configurations (read the AT "Dark Knight" review on the i7 if you want more detail).
-With the apps you're running you just want as much RAM as you can afford to toss in there. I've found that the 4GB kits (2x2GB) seem to be cheaper per stick than the 6GB kits (in fact, here we can get a 3x2GB kit for $145 or two 2x2GB kits for $160 - go figure), if you see the same thing don't worry about getting two kits (8GB) and adding another kit later if you're a bit short on funding (or even get 4GB now and two more kits later once prices fall further). I got a 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 kit six weeks ago for $125; today the same kit is $80; and I expect prices to continue falling as DDR3 production continues to ramp up.

Gaming: what games & what resolution do you play? For 1680x1050 a 4850 or 9800GTX will probably do the job, a GTX 260/192 or 216 definitely will. At 1920x1200 (or higher) you want at least a GTX 260/216, better yet a 1GB 4870 or a GTX 280. If you want to play Crysis at 19x12 in DX10 mode on Very High detail you need a 4870X2 or a GTX 295.