building a new computer.

Asherr

since the computer i had planned to buy yesterday seems to have been out of stock everywhere or just discontinued the week i go to buy it...

using the http://www.portatech.com/ site i'm trying to piece together a computer with the least amount of assembly i can get away with since i have zero experiance building computers.

from that site i chose Barebones with Intel CPU:

Core 2 Quad Q9300 ( 4 x 2.5GHz - 1333FSB - 6MB Cache) --- $345.00
the Interl motherboard --- $47.88
the Quiet Cooling package --- $57.95
no memory --- (included in price)
no harddrive --- (included in price)
no cd/dvd --- (included in price)
standard mid-tower case --- (included in price)
the 450 watt power supply --- (included in price)
no video card --- (included in price)
no monitor --- (included in price)
no sound card --- (included in price)
no operating system --- (included in price)
standard build option --- (included in price)
platinum delivery plan --- $6.75




from newegg.com i was planning to order:
Windows Vista 64bit --- $99.99 link
Seagate Barracuda 320gb harddrive --- $69.99 link
Corsair 650 watt power supply --- $109.99 link
EVGA Geforce 8800 GT 512mb --- $169.99 link
Corsair 4gb ram --- $86.50 link


for a total of $1043.04. slightly cheaper than the Gateway. more so with a couple of the pdf rebates.

comments? suggested replacements, alterations, or upgrades? any other parts i need to order such as cables? keep in mind my nonexistant computer building skills.

nacire

My only comment would be don't go too cheap on your motherboard. Everything you buy for your rig will connect to it or pass info through it. Buying nice components just to put them into a sub par motherboard never made a lot of sense to me.

Mitch Cosgrave

That looks like quite a monster of a PC. I am curious as to why you have chosen the 8800GT however, while a fine card and at a very good price point, could it be better value to go for something more recent with nvidia's new lineup of cards recently being released?
Best of luck getting that powerhouse into your room without anything breaking. Are you going to pick it up yourself, or will it be delivered? I tend to find couriers really don't give a shit about handling items, or packages that have bright red lables noting "Handle with care" often is interpreted as "Please drop kick this to my front door from the street".

Psyk0

I'd go with better motherboard and bigger power supply, or at least make sure the voltage on the rail is sufficient (i wouldnt go lower than 600). For vid card id go with a 8800GTS or 9800 GTX, the GTS performs better at higher resolutions than the GT.

katzeimsack

go for 8 gigs of ram, the 86$ more are a nothing and you will like it

Jeremy Wright

If you're going for a 64bit system, you may as well get as much ram as possible, or at least get a motherboard that will support more than 4GB so you can upgrade later. I've read that due to the increased memory usage by Vista, you should get more than 4GB.

Also, that motherboard isn't $47.88; it's $47.88 more than the one you get by default w/ the barebones system. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121337R&Tpk=BLKDG35EC. It looks like it may support 8GB of RAM, too.

Asherr

i think i've decided to go with the MSI motherboard from portatech.com and an evga geforce 9800 gtx video card from newegg.

katzeimsack: 4gb of ram will do for now. if i feel i need more i can easily order it in a couple months or so.

Toomas

Dont buy 9800GTX, better get 4850 or wait few weeks and buy 4870,
9800 is two year old tech.

Jonathan

Toomas wrote: »

Dont buy 9800GTX, better get 4850 or wait few weeks and buy 4870,
9800 is two year old tech.

And why is that, do you think?


(lack of competition )

Blaizer

I suggest you to wait for that "nehalem". Surely, you would buy a computer more cheaper than now, or if it's for the same price, a machine with the double of power.

Ati new cards are quite nice, consumes less watts, and you don't buy a "nvidia heater".

PolyHertz

Well the extreme edition (aka $1000 edition) of the Nehalem is supposed to come out before years end, but the regularly priced chips aren't scheduled to come out till next year.

Also, the newer Radeon cards do have a better price/performance ratio, but if I remember correctly they've had problems in some 3d packages for a while now, ever sense Nvidia more or less took over the market (and hence had everyone designing soft around their cards). Though haven't owned a Radeon card sense the x300, so I might be completly wrong on that

solar

My Ati 3850 has only now just started displaying meshes correctly in 3DSmax with the newest drivers. The card was bought in oct last year...won't be buying ati for 3D software again (although it did run games just fine)

jlewis

i haven't purchased a new system in quite sometime- last one was a single core unit. i've been researching the pros/cons of different components and haven't seemed to find any info on what is a good system for a 3d artist?

i currently run a dell at work and it's a pos. i've put together a personal unit over at ibuypower. the main components are...

- 750 Watt - Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU Power Supply Quad SLI Ready
- Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6700 (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L2 Cache/1066FSB)
- Thermaltake MaxOrb CPU Cooling Fan System
- [SLI] eVGA Nvidia nForce 780i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way PCI-E MB 3-Way SLI
- 4096MB [2048MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB w/DVI + TV Out Video
- 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]

looking for something that will "last a while" but am i over-doing it somewhere? i'm not too hardcore of a gamer. i'm just looking for something that run max, zbrush, etc and handle some renders every now and then.

any thoughts or opinions?

thanks!!

PolyHertz

jlewis: That setup looks fine, though 750 watt power supply might be overkill. Try to get a 64bit os as well otherwise some of your ram is going to go to waste.

jlewis

good to know about the power supply info.

i does it look like i can go 64bit with this exact set up?

Jonathan

IMO, it's not worth 64-bit with only 4gb of RAM, as you're dealing with the hassles of 64-bit for only a little bit more addressable RAM.

If buying just 4gb, then go ahead and stick with WinXp32 and use the "3gb switch." (just a simple workaround, just Google it).

PolyHertz

Yea, 64bit should be absolutely no problem with that setup.

edit: Jonathan, I disagree. I ran xp64 for a while and it ran everything (with the exception of a viewport glitch in maya) fine. That includes max, zbrush, mudbox, photoshop, Unreal3, and I'm sure a few other complex programs I'm forgetting.

jlewis

well, i was thinking about buying 4g more ram in the next few months for it anyways.

Jonathan

I use Xp64 every day with 8gb of RAM, and while for the most part it's fine and better than Vista 64, it's still slower than Xp32. But, if you are going to 8gb soon, xp64 would make sense, IMO.