New Computer - Please Assist
polycounter lvl 10
sup dudes. so i'm looking to buy a new computer. what i know for certain is:
i want a desktop.
i don't want to build a computer again.
i have $1000-1100ish to spend, because i also need a monitor.
i want at least 8 gigs of ram.
i do not, under any circumstance, want the latest video card. there is a huge price markup that i've found to never be worth it. a cheaper video card that can still do alright would be perfect. (very easy to upgrade, not very worried about it)
a decent motherboard so i can upgrade parts if needed
a pretty powerful processor, but not anything very pricie.
any help on this front would be much appreciated. i'm checking out newegg for their desktops, even looking at costco's collection (funny, but they caught my eye last time i was there and they're not bad at all). so if any of you know of a particular package that works and fits most of those criteria, i would be very happy. thanks much, friendos
i want a desktop.
i don't want to build a computer again.
i have $1000-1100ish to spend, because i also need a monitor.
i want at least 8 gigs of ram.
i do not, under any circumstance, want the latest video card. there is a huge price markup that i've found to never be worth it. a cheaper video card that can still do alright would be perfect. (very easy to upgrade, not very worried about it)
a decent motherboard so i can upgrade parts if needed
a pretty powerful processor, but not anything very pricie.
any help on this front would be much appreciated. i'm checking out newegg for their desktops, even looking at costco's collection (funny, but they caught my eye last time i was there and they're not bad at all). so if any of you know of a particular package that works and fits most of those criteria, i would be very happy. thanks much, friendos
Replies
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Essentio+Desktop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i5+Processor/9699025.p?id=1218152464094&skuId=9699025
And what will you use it for? As far as I understand, for 3d? Or also for gaming or stuff like that...
as far as what i'm gonna use it for, main focus would be 3d. i use maya, zbrush, and blender. zbrush is mainly ram, maya is video card, from what i understand. not positive though.
i just checked newegg for monitors and i think costco has theirs beat with:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11528777&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|1680&N=4001499&Mo=4&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=1680&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=
i'm going balls to the wall with monitor, because i can keep that for my next 4 computers and still probably be satisfied.
that monitor takes my price range to 800-1000$ for the desktop though, and i'm fine with that
some potentials:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883241027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113119
(for instance, not sure if 3.2ghz i5 is better than 2.8ghz i7, or GeForce GT 220 vs. ATI Radeon HD 5450)
i'll look some more, but any input still much appreciated
And both 220 and ati 5450 are quite bad for that price, but since you do 3d, again, get nvidia, it's supported a lot more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147090
or a costco bundle
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11531627&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|84|56671|78518&N=4035050&Mo=47&pos=1&No=10&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=78518&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10600-Cat56671&topnav=
(not bad, looks like slight sacrifice in CPU/GPU)
of course the one with i7 has radeon gpu and i5 with nvidia. just have to make my life difficult...
"Hyper-threading (officially Hyper-Threading Technology, and abbreviated HT Technology, HTT or HT) is Intel's term for its simultaneous multithreading implementation in their Atom, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Itanium, Pentium 4 and Xeon CPUs."
are you sure it's just i7?
But you should really check yourself. If after all it doesn't have HT, you will lose some speed while rendering.
Sure i5 is good, but I guess since you want 3d you want maximum rendering speed.
i5 is more of a "gaming" cpu because games don't use HT and it is cheaper than i7
While theres still speed loss between cores just not as much as there used to be running dual chips, in short overall, yes for rendering your better off with the i7.
Maya uses multi cores for rendering, and I'm not a super-knoweldgable guy about the loads programs pull from hardware, but I'd figure that maya's dependency on gpu power isn't much more than max, because when going from my desktop to my laptop, my graphics power was cut in half, but my processing power was quadrupled, and maya runs much smoother on my laptop.
As for gaming, as I'm to understand most games still only run utilizing one core, or a minimal amount extra core's as coding to utilize multi-cores is more complicated than a single one, but I'm not a code guy so, seeing as thats hearsay I can't say how accurate it is.
Maya is wanky with ATI in my experience compared to Nvidia, however, its not a super big problem, as my last desktop and laptop both run ati, and have had only a few extra issues since I strayed from Nvidia (driven by price point rather than personal preference), mostly it just comes with momentary lag spikes in smooth mesh previews in complicated mesh, and that lasts for less than a second, when initially roating after selection and mesh preview.
PCs for Everyone <--a little more expensive than Newegg, but they're customizable so you can get exactly what you want, for the most part. a blend between the two.
I was speaking specifically as to the models he had listed in his last post :thumbup:
The Dual Core OP - I5
The Quad Core OP - I7
and you can set the number of processors maya utilizes for rendering under the rendering subsection f6 or f7, can't remember off the top of my head.
i5 build should be out then, you don't want dual core and 3d rendering with it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147089
vs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883241027
then.
nvidia video card on the hp vs. radeon on zt. amd 3.0ghz processor on the hp vs i7 2.8ghz on the zt (both are quadcore).
any recommendations one way or the other? how is amd processor vs intel? which video card is better/how much would a non-nvidia gpu affect 3d work?
Anyhow from the two you listed, the zt by far.
Thanks!
however, how much of a difference between an i7 2.8ghz and an 15 3.2ghz would i actually notice? where would the major differences be, render times?
your argument is also guaranteed to be hypocritical, there is no way you go out of your way to get the best deal on absolutely everything at the sacrifice of any enjoyment. i cut coupons when i can, buy cheap food when possible, get gas at costco when i'm near the area, but sometimes i'm allowed to go get sushi or gas at the nearest station for a relative increase in price. that is a use of money that people are allowed to have; their own enjoyment. unless you're buying nutrient-rich mush with everything you need to survive, every investment in food is something you're paying more for relatively less food.
for your tv did you call every outlet and look for the cheapest refurbished model? likely not. just like some people pay their accountant, or gardener, or maid, or employees, it's ok for me to occasionally spend my money on something i COULD do myself, but is not worth it to me right now. i get it. thank you for your input
Anyway, sorry if I offended someone, I just got a bit carried away.
You're right, it's your money and you can buy stuff at the price you want to, sorry about that.
ati makes alot of less headache lately and works fine with maya and max and the other common tools, nvidia gives me some issues touh, with photoshop blendmodes and random crashes
getting i7-860 2.8 ghz quadcore
8gb ram
ATI Radeon HD5770
1 tb hd
should be fine
How do those phenom's compare to intel CPUs these days? I used to be a big AMD(orig 1ghz athlon, athon 1700, athlon 2500, athlon 64 3000+) fanboy because of the lower price, but have recently converted over to intel, i've also built/have used some much more stable systems based on intel CPUs, i'm not sure if that is luck or whatever, i know the intel dev machines i've built myself and have been given to use at studios have been more stable than the AMD ones, but probably too small of a sample size to really form a real opinion there.
It seemed like with the core2/quad stuff intel had amd beat on both price and performance, has AMD came up with anything that really challenges intel lately?
Also i've had nothing but bad experiences with ATI cards and dev work, even when i get one that seems to work correctly, the support for features is generally lacking compared to nvidia, IE: nasty unfiltered shadows in all games/3d apps.
Good choice I got a similar PC and a thread along the same lines is on Game artisans so I am going to just post what I replied there:
My (two weeks old) new system if you want options:
CPU: Intel Core i7 930, 2.80ghz, 4Core, 8 logical Processors
OS: Win7 64 Home.
Ram: 6.0 GB
GFX: 2 ATi Radeon HD 5700's, 1GB Ram each.
Case: AZZA Solano 1000 Full-Tower Advance Cooling Case w/ Dual 230mm Fan + Extra 3 Fans
It was $1600.00 I think it's decent haven't played with any 3D yet but gaming is top notch
I think the best option would be to get it pre-built as buying a pre-built PC will limit your stress, if something is wrong they have to sort it out such as a bad GFX card, oops this one doesn't work let me just pull a new one from the shelf, takes 5minutes for them takes you about 1-3 weeks waiting for the new one.
Let us know how it goes!