Seeking input for new system build

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

08/12/2015 06:37:29 PM · #26

Originally posted by EstimatedEyes:

...and reviews say it doesn't ship with a full height one.

Well ain't that a kick in the pants! What are they thinking? So apparently there is a full-height bracket from another product that fits, but getting hold of it may be problematic... I actually wouldn't be opposed to building in an mITX format, but there appears to be a grand total of one mobo available for that form factor right now.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

08/12/2015 11:11:31 PM · #27

Well, the motherboard will have to wait a few more weeks. My daughter called this morning that her car was smoking and spewing oil. Sounds like a head gasket or something equally serious, so helping her get that fixed is certainly more of a priority than a new PC.

09/18/2015 02:52:07 PM · #28

Just wanted to post back so that this thread doesn't die an ignominious death... I'm still waiting for the i7 6700K to be available at or below the list price. On Newegg, it is not even in stock, and where it is in stock it is being sold way above list.
In the meantime, I've been researching my case & PSU (still waffling on that), MOBO (looking like ATX form factor, perhaps ASUS Z170 Deluxe. Don't wanna spend that much, but it does have all the feature I want...
Storage is still looking like the Intel 750 Series 400GB NVMe drive for boot/apps, and a 1TB SATA 3 (or perhaps M.2) drive for data. External rotating drive for backup will be my existing Seagate. Graphics adapter is looking like the nVidia Quadro K1200. I'll use my existing monitor for the time being until 4k monitors mature a little more.

09/18/2015 10:24:19 PM · #29

Originally posted by kirbic:

I just logged on for the same thing, and to report back on my new build ... completed last week and fine tuning this weekend, and its a screamer. Went with the i5-6600 Skylake CPU on an ASUS Z170-A board with 32GB of mushkin blackline DDR4 2800 RAM and that Intel 480 GB NVMe you are looking at, all in a Fractal Designs Define R5 case with an extra fan added at the front. Went with a Geforce GTX 960 card mostly because it was cheaper than the Quadro, and an EVGA 650W full modular PSU.

Take a look at the i5 if you get tired of waiting for the i7 to show up ... its rated at 3.5 GHz but I was able to easily overclock it to 4.8 GHz just using the ASUS one button 5-way utility -- and on an air-cooled system to boot (Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO). From what I've read the i7 hyperthreading really only matters for large batch exports; for everything else the i5 is just as quick. And check out the Define R5 case if you're still hunting around -- its a bit wider than my old box but cable management is a breeze; easiest build I've ever done and it is dead silent most of the time its on.

Real world after a week: Initial start up is about the same as my old machine, but everything else is much quicker. Lightroom 6 is so much faster. Edits are applied immediately without any lag like I had before. I put the program, catalog and previews on the NVMe, with the source files on a WD Green 3TB drive (eventually I will probably migrate all the LR stuff to a separate SSD/m2). It took about an hour and a half to generate 3700 1:1s for a project I'm working on -- that would have taken half a day on my old machine, at least. PS Elements is also way quicker, and it works off the WD mechanical drive. Filters, layers, masking etc are all lightning quick again, and I no longer dread post processing (well, at least not because of the computer that is!)

09/19/2015 11:57:17 AM · #30

Originally posted by EstimatedEyes:

...check out the Define R5 case if you're still hunting around -- its a bit wider than my old box but cable management is a breeze; easiest build I've ever done and it is dead silent most of the time its on.

That one is going on the short list! It's somewhat bigger than I was looking at, but frankly I am not seeing much that I am all that impressed with in the more compact cases. The attention to noise level is a big attraction for me.

Originally posted by EstimatedEyes:

Initial start up is about the same as my old machine, but everything else is much quicker.

This is right in line with what I've been led to expect. Boot times do not really decrease all that much, but app loading and performance seems to be greatly enhanced.

09/28/2015 12:03:39 PM · #31

Hey all, just a heads up that Newegg now seems to have the i7-6700k (unlocked Skylake CPU) in stock (for $369) and also has added locked versions of both the i5 (3.2 Ghz)and i7 (3.4 Ghz) available at $209 and $329 respectively. Strangely enough the unlocked i5 is now out of stock. ETA -- and they just added as well an i5-6400 2.7 Ghz for 199.

Message edited by author 2015-09-28 18:59:38.

10/06/2015 11:43:24 PM · #32

Typing this on the new system :-)

Not much of anything installed here yet, just getting the OS and all the drivers updated. Basic system configuration looks like this:
- Fractal design R5 case & Newton 600 PSU
- ASUS Z170 Deluxe Motherboard
- i7 6700K processor
- Corsair H105 water cooler
- 32GB of Kingston HyperX DDR4 2800
- Intel 750 Series 400GB NVMe SSD for OS & apps
- Mushkin Reactor 1TB SSD for data
- nVidia Quadro K1200 video card, driving a Dell U2711 monitor (from my old system)

ETA: finished installing Ps, Lr, Office 2016, and a few other goodies, and ran some benchmarks. As expected, the raw performance of the CPU is very good. It doesn't trounce a 6-core LGA2011 chip, but then again it doesn't burn 135 watts either. The memory bandwith is awesome, class-leading - and I haven't done any real overclocking at this point. The HDD performance is off the charts, we ware talking in the 1GB/s range for throughput and extremely low latency and high IOPS capability.
The performance of the K1200 graphics card was a really nice surprise. It kills pretty much all of the gaming cards in 2D performance, and holds its own against all but the high end gaming cards in 3D performance (which I really couldn't care less about), and to boot it consumes a miserly 45 watts maximum. The entire system is nearly dead-silent, I can barely hear the fans even with the case sitting on the desk right next to me.

Message edited by author 2015-10-07 13:31:17.

10/12/2015 09:17:24 PM · #33

Running some benchmarks this evening... one of the things this machine needs to excel at is stitching of large panoramas. I use PTGUI Pro, and they offer a canned "speed test" that involves stitching 336 6 Mpx images into a 1 Gpx panorama. This machine completes the entire task, including saving out a 1.5GB photoshop file, in 40 seconds, without ever paging to disk. Can't wait to try this out on real data!

10/14/2015 04:44:59 PM · #34

That looks like a sweet setup. Glad you like that R5 case. Seems pretty similar to mine, except you've got a better graphics card and faster processor. Even with the i5 I've been pretty pleased with the speed of the panorama stitching in Lr6, but haven't tried it out yet on other platforms.

Couple issues I am having that I'd be curious to know if you are experiencing since our rigs are similar. Computer won't post after enabling XMP. The 5-way tool can get my 2800 sticks to run at 2666 but no higher. Also, I have been having an issue with random restarts when waking from sleep ... one of the drivers (haven't yet figured out which one) seems to be not playing nice. More of an annoyance than anything else since it doesn't happen when I'm actually using the computer, only when I leave it alone and its been sleeping for a while. Appears to be a driver power state failure.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

10/14/2015 06:26:31 PM · #35

Originally posted by EstimatedEyes:

Couple issues I am having that I'd be curious to know if you are experiencing since our rigs are similar. Computer won't post after enabling XMP. The 5-way tool can get my 2800 sticks to run at 2666 but no higher. Also, I have been having an issue with random restarts when waking from sleep ... one of the drivers (haven't yet figured out which one) seems to be not playing nice. More of an annoyance than anything else since it doesn't happen when I'm actually using the computer, only when I leave it alone and its been sleeping for a while. Appears to be a driver power state failure.

On the first issue, I am currently in a similar, but not quite the same, boat. If I enable XMP for the memory, I have a choice of two profiles, one at 2666 and the other at 2800. The one at 2800 works, but eventually will throw errors that will result in a system halt. The 2666 profile is rock solid. I suspect that I can get to 2800 with manual tweaks, but I may not take the trouble. The real-life performance difference is probably a couple percent.
On the second issue, that I have not experienced. With my old system, my video card never would return from a sleep state, so it was on or off, no sleep for you!
I have not looked at whether there is a BIOS update available; I may try that and then re-try the XMP profiles. I also know that my processor will run perfectly at 4.4 GHz, but currently the system boots at 4.2.

justamistere

Nikon D3s

10/14/2015 08:53:51 PM · #36

Please see my extensive PC vs MAC thread reply here: //www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=1311120

My ASUS MB w/Intel i7 Extreme processor ( 45 nm Nehalem, now outdated, too), with 12-GB memory, rendered videos on a 128-GB SSD quite fast. I upgraded to a used 4 GB Quadro GPU processor this year. I once edited a multi layer 1 GB photo okay ( with a 2GB Graphics card )
I still feel my MacBook is faster for some tasks ( not tried rendering videos ) and portable, too.

Regardless of PC/MAC, Get all SSD's and a fastest processor. For live video f/x rendering Adobe Premiere requires certain ( see big list ) of nVidia graphics cards.
Photos for printing can be large, especially with High GB Cameras, if you get one your computer will be ready.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

10/14/2015 10:20:09 PM · #37

Originally posted by kirbic:

I have not looked at whether there is a BIOS update available; I may try that and then re-try the XMP profiles.

fyi if you do update I am on 901 which is solid; some of the asus boards are reporting cpu voltage errors with 1101 and an earlier update (1003) that was withdrawn.

tanguera

Nikon D750

10/15/2015 08:38:19 PM · #38

Just received the last of my components and about to start the build:

Mobo: Asus Z170-A
Processor: Intel i7 Core, unlocked
Power supply: EVGA 850 G2
Heat sink: Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX
On-board memory: SAM SSD SM951 256GB PCIE AHCI (it's so TINY!!)
RAM: 2x8gb DDR4, 3000 MHz (will expand later)
Case: Zalman MS800

I'll be adding three 3-gb internal (removable) drives, and switching my work in progress drives to internal (right now it's all external).

I'll be checking in to vent. Or gloat :)

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

10/15/2015 09:37:30 PM · #39

Originally posted by tanguera:

On-board memory: SAM SSD SM951 256GB PCIE AHCI (it's so TINY!!)

Ah yes, the Samsung 951 M.2 drive... that is one hot performer :-)

ETA:
If the H100 has the same mounting kit as mine (H105) I think you will be very pleased. One of the nicest, easiest cooler installations I've ever done, and that is saying something since it is a water cooler, LOL! How far we have come.

Message edited by author 2015-10-15 21:39:22.

tanguera

Nikon D750

10/15/2015 10:11:01 PM · #40

Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by tanguera:

On-board memory: SAM SSD SM951 256GB PCIE AHCI (it's so TINY!!)

Ah yes, the Samsung 951 M.2 drive... that is one hot performer :-)

ETA:
If the H100 has the same mounting kit as mine (H105) I think you will be very pleased. One of the nicest, easiest cooler installations I've ever done, and that is saying something since it is a water cooler, LOL! How far we have come.

Indeed!! My first water=cooled system :)

But my case also comes with a very large fan, so I should be chillin'!

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

10/15/2015 10:29:04 PM · #41

Originally posted by tanguera:

Indeed!! My first water=cooled system :)

But my case also comes with a very large fan, so I should be chillin'!

Just don't overdo it ...

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

10/15/2015 10:56:29 PM · #42

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by tanguera:
Indeed!! My first water=cooled system :)

But my case also comes with a very large fan, so I should be chillin'!

Just don't overdo it ...

Pffft... ice blocks. If I really need to cool something, I've got 5000 gallons of liquid nitrogen available at work 8-0

tanguera

Nikon D750

10/15/2015 11:26:39 PM · #43

Ha! There's the ticket.

NikonJeb

Nikon D850

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

10/16/2015 07:30:32 AM · #44

Originally posted by tanguera:

Indeed!! My first water=cooled system :)

But my case also comes with a very large fan, so I should be chillin'!

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Just don't overdo it ...

Originally posted by kirbic:

Pffft... ice blocks. If I really need to cool something, I've got 5000 gallons of liquid nitrogen available at work 8-0

Paul, that's just hysterical!

Fritz, couldn't you just tap a small line into the N tank and sneak it into the back of your 'puter????