I'm looking to build myself a computer capable of doing some pretty resource-intensive tasks for school. I have a rough idea of my ideal components, as shown here: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/TvgmBm.
However, I've never built a computer before and so I have no idea what parts I can afford to spend a little less on or which components might have a comparable and cheap alternative. I'm not really a hardware guy.
Any help downsizing these components to save some cash would be appreciated.

Here are the sorts of things I'm going to be doing:
- Running things like Unity3D, Blender, Maya3D and Photoshop all at once, and doing some pretty high resolution rendering
- Repeatedly editing and compiling huge libraries of code
- Running algorithms to deal with multi-million entry databases
- Running multiple VMs at once (Ubuntu, Lubuntu & Kali)
- /e Running algorithms to rapidly permute random strings of characters en masse so as to match them to another unknown string of characters
- Modding games to increase their resolution
- Playing some pretty heavy shit in 4K

If you can sufficiently help me with this, and are actually suggesting some good but cheap alternatives, I'll be more than happy to toss you whatever Fg I have left.

May as well SLI 980s at that price.

.. Still ISO cheaper alternatives. I know they're out there.

the thing is
if yur shit is on the professional level
you don't want to cheap on anyting

oh n without a doubt
x99 and ddr4 is a must for you

This post was edited by urbanshaft on Jan 23 2015 05:15am

If you want to do what you posted well, then you're not going to get the parts on a budget. You're going to need at least 16 GB of RAM and you probably would benefit from running x99 because of all the shit you're going to be compiling. On top of that, you want to run games at 4k res a high settings (I'm assuming since you said 'heavy shit').

Is this the bare minimum you'd recommend?






Alright, thanks for the heads up. I'm definitely not looking to cheap out on specs, but rather just find alternative hardware with similar specs but cheaper.
Regardless, if that's not possible, then I guess I'll just bite the bullet and go for it.

On that note .. is there any other hardware that you would consider essential for what I'm doing that I should add (aside from X99 and DDR4)?

This post was edited by Megalo on Jan 23 2015 12:48pm

x99 and DDR4 isn't necessary, but you would most likely benefit from the increased speed of DDR4.

If you want to run 4k (at 60 fps or higher) you're going to need at least 2 GTX 970's or R9 290x's. Two GTX 980's would be better though.


http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/zNWLYJ
Would be the bare minimum I would say. Although, you would greatly benefit from 32GB of RAM and, as previously said, DDR4.



http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/gq7F3C
290x
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/2gpLYJ
GTX 970
Either of the above would be much better.

Keep in mind, the 290x Crossfire and 970 SLI will perform similar - depending on the game. Even with two of either card at 4k res you'll only be getting 25-45 DPS at all ultra settings (with FXAA enabled) depending on the game. Even the GTX 980 SLI will only give you 33-55ish fps on the same settings. The 290x Crossfire even competes with the GTX 980 on some games, but at the cost of nearly double the power draw and more heat generated.


/e
Both links have a filter on the cases. Just pick one you like.

This post was edited by DeXaFiLaH on Jan 23 2015 01:21pm

For this:


You need an Intel CPU, 2x 970's or 980's and I would guess 32GB of RAM, (speed doesn't matter that much).


I would just get this... http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/nmFhTW you don't have to buy both vid cards now. But you will want two eventually, and for SLI the cards must match (same make and model, more or less)...so it would be smart just to get both at the same time.
The SSD will run those programs faster, the amount of RAM is pretty much necessary for running those program at the same time. I picked a 2TB HDD for storage purposes, and you can add a 2nd one of those later on.

Anyways that's what I would get for the programs you want to run. It's NOT the bare minimum, but it isn't much past the bare minimum. I think you will be happy with this build.