Software I generally use:
- Visual Studio 2012
- MS Office 2013 - mainly Excel, and including Visio 2013 + Project 2013
- Eclipse with ADT plugin
- VirtualBox - 2 Linux VMs, 1 Windows Server VM
- Adobe CS6: Fireworks, InDesign, Illustrator
- Google Earth
- Trimble Sketchup (with high-res textures, shadows + lighting)
- QGIS
In terms of applications running concurrently, my typical daily usage involves having one of the IDEs open (either VS 2012 or Eclipse), one of the Adobe products open, 2 Virtualbox linux VMs open, and Google Chrome with about 16+ tabs open...don't ask
I also won't be playing games on this machine, and will probably encode a video once or twice a month. Video encoding is not critical to me, and I would probably get it started, leave it to do its thing, and hit the gym or whatever.
My proposed build is as follows:
- CPU: Intel Ivybridge LGA1155 i7-3770T, 4C8T, 2.5GHz, 45W max TDP
- Motherboard: ASUS P8H77-I, all-in-one LGA1155
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile, 16GB (8GB x2)
- SSD: Samsung Pro 840 128GB
- HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Black WD7500BPKT
- GFX: Sapphire HD6670, 1GB 128bit 4ch. DDR5, LowProfile ... I probably should be using a professional Graphics card, and would need your advice on a low profile, low power drawing alternative.
- PSU: any 250W SFX PSU --> unsure about this, as I was also keen on a Pico-PSU, but the graphics card may be too much for this to handle
I'm led to believe that there is not much difference between IvyBridge and Haswell for desktop CPUs, so I'll stick with IvyBridge as its a lot cheaper than the Haswell equivalents. My main concern is the CPU. The 3770T is rated at 2.5Ghz ... if I max out the processing capability of the chip, it should consume 45W. However, if I go for another CPU say the standard i7-3770 rated at 3.4Ghz with a max TDP of 77W, I may end up not maxing out the CPU, thereby causing it not to reach its max TDP. Would this be a correct assumption? Also, would an i5 suit my requirements better?
Thank you