PC build thread

[fastbilly1]

Well its like Chrono said. If he wants to game, and compile lots of numbers, they are a good fit together. That xeon will smoke a cuda rendering setup in performance and price. Cheaper than two different pcs, and far less headache than say a gaming pc and a rendering farm.

[Cronozilla]

It's just a little odd. And NintendoDork mentions it's a hypothetical first build, so it's sounding more like maybe misinformation and less like, "I know I need that for my computing needs". The only need mentioned is Warframe.

If you need a Xeon for computing, that's fine. But if you're playing games and other desktop nonsense ... that's wasting your budget on something that isn't necessarily going to do a better job.

You could go AMD or get an i5 for similar cash and dump the difference into the GPU. Which would far better serve those purposes. Or even some SSD, which would also be a better use of the budget than a server CPU.

I don't even know if underkill or overkill are the terms for it. It's more like esoteric.

[Nintendork666]

Nintendork666, are you just using it for gaming, or do you do heavy cad/adobe work?

It's a video editing/gaming build, with the primary focus being on the editing. I was able to get the processor for $200 flat at Micro Center. The Pc is already built, no turning back now lol.

[fastbilly1]

How well does it handle cutting and rendering 1080p at 4:4:4? It should be super quick in 4:2:2.

Ive got a job coming up that might require an upgrade, and I was looking at that xeon for the same use. Most of my work right now is in 1080p 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 but this job is 6k in whatever chroma space r3d uses. I dont think my rig can handle 6k in any justifiable time.

[Cronozilla]

Hooray, legitimate reasons.

[Nintendork666]

How well does it handle cutting and rendering 1080p at 4:4:4? It should be super quick in 4:2:2.

Ive got a job coming up that might require an upgrade, and I was looking at that xeon for the same use. Most of my work right now is in 1080p 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 but this job is 6k in whatever chroma space r3d uses. I dont think my rig can handle 6k in any justifiable time.

Honestly, I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet. I literally just put this thing together last night. I can only assume the Xeon will handle anything I could ever personally throw at it though.

[isiolia]

Being fair, it's a Xeon, but it's a socket 1150 part. It's basically an i7 without the integrated GPU. Barely more expensive than a good i5 anyway. I'd probably consider it too.

[marlowe221]

Being fair, it's a Xeon, but it's a socket 1150 part. It's basically an i7 without the integrated GPU. Barely more expensive than a good i5 anyway. I'd probably consider it too.

That's true. I guess I was looking at it from a gaming perspective where an i7 doesn't really get you many FPS or eye-candy goodies over an i5, especially when you consider how much an i7 typically costs over an i5. For gaming, the price per performance just isn't there to my way of thinking.

But hey! Video editing is a different world and it sounds like he got the CPU for a great price. At the current pace of CPU development that $200 could get him 5 solid years of great performance!

[marlowe221]

Well, my MSI GTX 970 came in the mail yesterday!

Installation was smooth. It was literally just taking the 660 out and putting the 970 in - the two cards are supported by the same driver so there was very little messing around with software once the hardware was installed.

Right now, the only game I have that can really do the card justice is Witcher 3. I was basically able to max everything out except shadows (ultra vs high is just not worth the performance gap). I also don't use blur or motion blur in any game so that is turned off. And of course, Hairworks is off because no one cares about that.

On my 1600 x 900p monitor, I was getting frame rates in the high 60s to low 80s. I am very happy with it!

I want to get Far Cry 4 since I am a fan of that series. I may also get Battlefront (not sure yet). I am also looking forward to then new Deus Ex game and Just Cause 3.

[Nintendork666]

Well, my MSI GTX 970 came in the mail yesterday!

...

Right now, the only game I have that can really do the card justice is Witcher 3. I was basically able to max everything out except shadows (ultra vs high is just not worth the performance gap). I also don't use blur or motion blur in any game so that is turned off. And of course, Hairworks is off because no one cares about that.

On my 1600 x 900p monitor, I was getting frame rates in the high 60s to low 80s. I am very happy with it!

...

That framerate is sick Marlowe, congrats!

I'm actually playing through W3 myself now, and have the game on very similar settings. Everything is on ultra, except for shadows and foliage visibility which have turned down to high, and Hairworks is off, but I've kept motion blur on. I'm pulling an average of about 45 - 50 FPS with this setup through my R9 380 (slightly OC'd).

Still though, this gets me thinkin' that maybe I should've dropped that extra $100. It'd likely have paid off in the long run.