I need some advice , I'm buying a new pc

psychoticprankster · Sep 2009

Hello everyone, My old pc is broken and I no longer wish to use it.
I'm looking to get a new pc, and to also transition from using Blender 3D to 3D studio max. what type of system would be best suited to use 3D studio max on ? my budget will be around 2,000 to 2,500 for the computer itself hopefully.

Ben Apuna · Sep 2009

The PC perna built for himself a month or so ago looked really good. Do you want to build it yourself or buy a pre-made one?

Per's hardware adventure, 2009 [image heavy]

ZacD · Sep 2009

Ben Apuna wrote: »

The PC perna built for himself a month or so ago looked really good. Do you want to build it yourself or buy a pre-made one?

Per's hardware adventure, 2009 [image heavy]

That rig is small, hard to build, and spendy.

Do you need a monitor/keyboard/mouse?

psychoticprankster · Sep 2009

ZacD wrote: »

That rig is small, hard to build, and spendy.

Do you need a monitor/keyboard/mouse?

I'm gonna buy the tower without a moniter keyboard or a mouse!
Since I already yhave them.

ZacD · Sep 2009

2K should be more than enough for a i7 920 processor, 12 gigs of ram, and a GTX 285, and I'd go for this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160&cm_re=Haf-_-11-119-160-_-Product

rasmus · Sep 2009

Apparently the newer i7 860 is faster overall and consumes less power than the 920, and is the best bang for the buck as the 870 is a lot more expensive (http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641). I'm going for that one. 2k should have you more than covered if you're not even including a monitor etc.

ZacD · Sep 2009

rasmus wrote: »

Apparently the newer i7 860 is faster overall and consumes less power than the 920, and is the best bang for the buck as the 870 is a lot more expensive (http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641). I'm going for that one. 2k should have you more than covered if you're not even including a monitor etc.

Nice catch, I haven't been following the i7's much since it was launched, it'll be another year or more before I get a new PC, probably just need to upgrade my video card then...

System · Sep 2009

i7's just came out just after I finished building my system, that sort of sucked.

Small article on i7's here.
Discussion about gaming performance of i7's here.

Personally I wouldn't trust the new i7's yet, it's not an Intel proven architechture as it is radically different than all it's predecessors. If you want a pc now with complete reliability,compatibility and performance, go with Xeon. Just my 2 pennies.

Here's a couple of links for pricing i7 vs Xeon;

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel-Xeon-E5430P-Quad-Core-Sok-771-Harpertown-Core-266GHz-FSB-1333MHz-12MB-Cache-Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel-i7-920-D0-(SLBEJ)-Socket-1366-(B)-Nehalem-266GHz-QPI-48GT-s-Cache-8MB-130W-Retail

EarthQuake · Sep 2009

2-2.5k is too much to spend on a workstation(without monitor, etc), honestly for 1250-1500 you can get a VERY good system that will do everything you could possibly want for a few years min.

You get into a bad situation when spending more than that, as the value degrades the higher you go in price, you can buy top of the line stuff for $2500, but it will be obsolete nearly as fast as the more reasonable mid-range stuff. So you end up paying a lot more for something that is a small amount better, and you'll have to replace it in about the same amount of time anyway.

I would go to www.newegg.com, price out a system for $1500 and then research what sort of money you need to put into it to really see a noticable, worth-while difference, and see if thats worth it to you.

Cody · Sep 2009

I built a system for 800 bucks almost 3 years ago, and a year ago I bought a new graphics card for 120 bucks. Not only can I play almost every game on its highest settings [Crysis on Medium to High], but I can handle multimillion poly meshes in Max and Mudbox. I can even run Max, Unreal editor, photoshop, firefox, music and instant messaging all at the same time.

I could build this system for like 400-500 today, and it does everything I need. 1,200 bucks if you want the fancy stuff. 800-900 and you are set. Build a cheap system and you can have leftover cash for a big wacom and dual monitors!

ZacD · Sep 2009

Quad monitors is where its at.

System · Sep 2009

Cody wrote: »

I built a system for 800 bucks almost 3 years ago, and a year ago I bought a new graphics card for 120 bucks. Not only can I play almost every game on its highest settings [Crysis on Medium to High], but I can handle multimillion poly meshes in Max and Mudbox. I can even run Max, Unreal editor, photoshop, firefox, music and instant messaging all at the same time.

I could build this system for like 400-500 today, and it does everything I need. 1,200 bucks if you want the fancy stuff. 800-900 and you are set. Build a cheap system and you can have leftover cash for a big wacom and dual monitors!

That's strange. I have dual quad core e5472 processors, 8 gigs of 800Mhz ddr2 Supermicro ecc ram and Radeon hd4870x2 graphics with a kickass mb to match. Just now in max 9 x64 with a mesh of 4 million poly's there was a latency of at least 20-30 sec in operations. Couldn't run anything else and have uninterrupted quality so how do you do that at $800 dollars when my system cost me £3000 pounds!!??

Edit : I did a task manager check at the time and the memory useage was 7.6Gb of 8 with 100% CPU useage.

Cody · Sep 2009

Then you have some massive problems sir. First of all, I have Max 2009 32bit. This runs way better than 9. I can have meshes with 2 million polygons without massive slowdown. I even build my low poly meshes around it. This is with a dual core AMD 6000+ [thats a dual core 3.0Ghz] and 3 gigs of ram. And i can run other things at the same time still.

4 million polys? You better believe that would give me slow down. But how often will you have 4 million poly meshes in Max? Not that often I hope. At least polycrunch it before you retopo. And I always bake in xNormal.

I just looked up my invoice and it was 2 years and 4 months ago, and cost me $700 without a case, add that in and it was 800 bucks. Tower only, which is what this guy is looking for. And as I said before, 8 months ago I spent another $120 on a 9800GT. And it runs everything!

Edit-Just saw you are from Ireland, psychoticprankster, so everything cost you double, or however more expensive computer shit is over there. Sorry!

Wahlgren · Sep 2009

Hey guys. Hijacking this. Need a good comp for portfolio-making-goodness.
How does this sound?

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica]ANTEC MIDTOWER THREE HUNDRED ATX SVART though i do have a good case at home hmm.

Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D P55 S-1156 ATX
Memory: CORSAIR 8GB DDR3 XMS3 INTEL I5/I7 PC12800 1600MHZ ...
Power: CORSAIR TX 750W N

System · Sep 2009

Cody wrote: »

First of all, I have Max 2009...

Hmm, seems like the newer versions of max handle alot more poly's then, gonna have to get saving for an upgrade:poly142:

Richard Kain · Sep 2009

Holy crap! I spent about 1.5k on the first computer I assembled, over ten years ago. Since then I spend less and less with every new rig I assemble. I spent just under $300 for my latest box. It's no beast, but its more than adequate for my purposes, and even runs most games that I throw at it to my satisfaction. I wouldn't even consider spending 1K on a new rig, let alone 2K.

What kind of uber-machines are you attempting to assemble that require that much scratch?

ZacD · Sep 2009

Richard Kain wrote: »

What kind of uber-machines are you attempting to assemble that require that much scratch?

Deep Thought

I need some advice , I'm buying a new pc

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