Advice & Suggestions on first build under $3k budget

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by allikat

The creative cards are only better in one or two games which are coded specifically to take advantage of creative's codecs. In everything else, they're just as good within a reasonable margin of error

There're no Creative "codecs" for "one or two games". What you're talking about is EAX hardware acceleration, which is pretty much dead. Some engines (like Unreal 3 or Codemasters' EGO) still use EAX extensions through OpenAL. Though, hardware or software acceleration matters little at this time and date. Now that CPU's are so fast any other card can do what a Creative card does with EAX just as good, if not better depending on it's components.

The components of a sound card (DAC's/ADC's, OP-AMP's etc.) is what matters, not the sound chip, which is why Creative cards are inferior. They're built like a POS with those Jamicon capacitors whereas Auzentech's offerings come with Nichicon Muse ES caps for deep sound and bass, along with film capacitors for converters and polymers for VRM. Asus cards also use Nichicon fine-gold caps.

There's not a single Creative card I'd prefer over a Bravura (which is what I use), and that card sells for $90 refurbished.

Fact of matter is, there's absolutely no reason to pick a Creative card over anything else.

[ufster]

"Extensive gaming and production/rendering in autodesk and other 3D/CG art software"

If you're going to use this single rig as a workstation and a gaming rig, I would suggest you get a mainboard which supports VT-D and use a virtualization platform (such as XCP, ESXi) to run both your gaming rig and workstation on separate virtual machines simultaneously. This way, you can have seamless switching between the two (using separate gpus) and a crash, failure, virus on one VM doesn't effect the other. Many times production machines are best left alone so long as they work, whereas you can freely experiment on a gaming / entertainment rig.

edit: my suggestion is to get this board (it should be available soon)
Supermicro X9SAE-V
http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...16/X9SAE-V.cfm
and this CPU
Intel Xeon E3-1245 v2

so you'll have proper ECC, VT-D, AMT/vPro support, all critical for a workstation.

[walterm]

If you are thinking July, do not get too married to GPU sugguestions. Another generation is due before then.
Same same for SSDs and their pricing, and to some extent hard drives.
The popularity of the Korean import IPS monitors may have a pricing effect.
Possibly we will see some 8GB RAM cards from Samsung.

Power Supply features may change, but quality is quality and will remain so.
Sound cards I have no clue except some "do not" impressions.

Get a case you enjoy looking at, with switch placement you like. Go large enough for comfort "building" inside and room for large air coolers.

Plan on a hot swap bay for hard drives, and fan choices.
Air flow should be what is needed, too much defeats itself, as does dead air areas.
Filters are gonna be important in a basement, I think.

My thoughts, as multi forum lurker and novice builder.

I did find a 50 pack of thumb screws, extra brass motherboard Standoff screws, some platic nuts (6-32), cable ties and velcro cable organizers from the equivalent of Home Depot. Philips head screw starter. Quality philips #2 screwdrivers one normal, one long( to reach screws in corners or next to side of case).
I like a nut drivers (can be super cheap) for standoffs [usually prevents overtightening] and the 6-32 nuts.

A couple top rated fans, (NCIX periodly has has Gentle Typhoon ~1200-1500 fans on sale). You are probably spending enough to avoid the "bad fan" syndrome, but a couple spares on hand do wonders.

Think about plastic organizers (I like zip lock bags and food storage containers) so you can save paperwork and unused parts and accessories you REALLY want to find later.
One of the tall plastic draw units (around $25) can help you save things and/or put things away during build sessions and after.

[TBJ]

Ditto on storage for used parts, lifesaver.