Hardware Opinion

[radiant]

G'day guys,

My sister will be getting a new computer for her work she does standard office work, photoshop, itunes and a internet surfer [youtube, facebook and google].
Pretty much what any 15 year old girl would do that involves some graphic work.

Now with that being said my grandpa will be ordering and my father will be paying.
He has ordered this [Please brace your self ]

• Cooler Master HFAX mini
  Intel Core i7 3930
  GA-X79-UD5 Mother board
  32 Gbs ram << Yes 32
  GTX 550
  700 watt power supp

Now apparently with this new motherboard and cpu you need 12 gigs of ram to even run it........ with the 2011 socket.
And since the supplier had a sh*t load of ram and that it was VERY cheap he got 32 gigs.

So my question is, is this correct?
Does this system even need 12 gigs of ram to even run it?

She should be getting nothing more then 4 gigs maybe 8 if she really got into it, but 32 ???? My dream would to have 24 gigs.
There has to be something wrong here.

The total price for this will be 2500 give or take.
PS it will be water cooled...........

Now you can read my system in my sig, everyday i use this to my full potential at what programs are available to me, and the only time that i have used 12 gigs of ram was when i did a 25000 cube explosion simulation. She will only use the office programs and alittle bit of photoshop.

Cheers,
Michael

[matej]

Does she do regular professional work in photoshop on say 16000px images? If the answer is no, then this rig is a complete overkill and a waste of money.

[pixelrush]

hmmm that mobo seems to have slots for 3x pcie3.0 graphics cards. - looks like all can be 2 slot - not sure.
I'm thinking why not spec it thinking of Octane and wait on network rendering to be implemented in the future You would have to ask @radiance about a timetable for that.
You could make use of your sister's rig to extend your Cuda powers then + in the meantime invite your mates around and use it for gaming... yeah I know you'll get into trouble for that
Could be a backup system in the event of problems with yours too - even 'borrow' bits if needed

In that case perhaps cut back on the ram to 16 gb and the water cooling and use the money on a good 4 connector 1000W power supply and a bigger case even they arent used to capacity yet.
How about a single slot GT520 or better a GT545DDR3 if you can obtain one, for pottering around now (useful later as display card) and add 1 or 2 new nvidia Kepler when they come out and the price settles say in 6 months.
I suppose a GTX550 is fine though but it is 2 slot wide and draws like 2x power...it is faster though and the same price as a 545. Yeah so provided it doesnt cause packing/heat issues later...

Should be able to make some creative deal there...possibly swap pc's if Kepler are fast...
If the plan doesnt sell itself tell her she can run her hair drier on the 1000W while she does her face-book.
Hey just trying to be helpful

[radiant]

lol nice pixelrush, there is no way in hell she will let me borrow her computer.

I just want to see if a motherboard really needs 12 min gigs to even run it

[t_3]

lol nice pixelrush, there is no way in hell she will let me borrow her computer.

I just want to see if a motherboard really needs 12 min gigs to even run it

i'd say you're right with the 32 gig 16 gigs is already the serious minimum: 3d host: 4gigs (with open scene); octane (rendering the same scene): 6gigs, editing the hdri background in ps: 5gigs...