advice: Antec300 i5 passive Nexus430

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:33 pm

Hi guys,

im planning a computer for my father.
it will be used for standard stuff, including 3d rendering.

Here you can see the list of all the components:
http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=WL-69618

we are going to get a nexus 430 psu

What do you think? Are we save and ready to order?

Thanks for your help,
cheers

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 2:24 pm

I don't know what sort of 3d rendering your father will be doing, but in my limited understanding I thought nvidia graphics cards offered some GPU-based coding that could help with that - CUDA? (I could be wrong though).

Also, the HDD, while quiet, may be a little slow for 3d rendering work if it is HDD intensive. You might want to look at the Samsung F3 series instead, which is apparently still pretty quiet but a bit faster.

Also, I think there may be better heatsinks than the Ninja you are looking at. Have a look at the list of Recommended CPU Coolers on the main part of the site and see if any of the higher ranked coolers are available and within your budget.

Finally, you may want to look at replacing the stock Antec fans that come with the 300. Look for fans from Nexus or Scythe.

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:54 am

thanks for your inputs!

will look into the other hdd. good hint about cuda.

according to the reviews, there are a number of cpu coolers that are better when used actively but the ninja still seems to be number one for passive operation. and we want the spu to be cooled passively

phil0079 · Post by **phil0079** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:00 pm

JamieG wrote:I don't know what sort of 3d rendering your father will be doing, but in my limited understanding I thought nvidia graphics cards offered some GPU-based coding that could help with that - CUDA? (I could be wrong though).

Also, the HDD, while quiet, may be a little slow for 3d rendering work if it is HDD intensive. You might want to look at the Samsung F3 series instead, which is apparently still pretty quiet but a bit faster.

I work for an animation studio, so i can say this with experience in mind.

i would only recommend Nvidia Quadro series cards. We currently use the Nvidia QuadroFX 1800. This is a midrange card but works great for 3D rendering.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_qu ... 00_us.html

As for the hdd, i wouldn't recommend Samsung. I would though recommend Western Digital. I've had good luck with the 1TB version of the WD Caviar Black.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hit ... 017-3.html

if you check this graph you'll see the seak time is much much better on the WD drive versus the samsung

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hit ... 017-5.html

I would get a 500GB drive for the main drive and use the 1TB as the scratch disk. Also, i would RAID that 1TB. The black series is also good when it comes to RAID, ive heard issues with the green series of WD drives. As they can cause false read errors as say the drive is dead when in actuality its fine.

just my 2cents