justifiable price for a computer? or overkill
whats the most you guys have spent on building (or just buying) a computer? was it a good value over time? or was it just overkill? I'm curious to find out how much value other people put into their rigs.
I put together some parts on newegg and it just broke the $3,000 mark.
i7 3.2, 2 gtx 285s in SLI, 6 gigs ram, an 80 gig solid state drive and a 750 gig hard drive, and two 24 in monitors. + mobo and case.
I put together some parts on newegg and it just broke the $3,000 mark.
i7 3.2, 2 gtx 285s in SLI, 6 gigs ram, an 80 gig solid state drive and a 750 gig hard drive, and two 24 in monitors. + mobo and case.
Replies
$3000 means you're buying top of the line shit, paying much more for only marginal performance gains. Look into prices related to mid-high end equipment, and then compare the performance differences with the super high end stuff.....
Oh, i see you're getting 2 24" monitors, which makes you price much more sane, but still a little overkill. One thing to consider: SLI is practically useless for gamedev, so spending $1000+ on just video cards is insane. Also, with pretty much any I7, you'll be able to throw in a geforce 8800GT or better in it and max out every game on the market. Before going SLU i would definitely look into getting 12 or even 24gb of rams.
I've heard some mixed reviews on solid state drives, something about very good performance in some situations, and very very poor in others. Editing multiple files at once maybe? I would look into that. I think they may still be a ways off as far as value is concerned.
You should post links to each component, and we can give you better feedback.
edit: just a quick comparison
I7 920, $280
I7 960, $588
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
For virtually double the price you get 20% in performance gains, in no situation would it be worth that to me. In a year there will be a CPU faster than that 960 for half the price too. When you start checking into stuff like this, it becomes easy to decide what to get. Always go lower-high end, never extremely-high-high-high-end.
the only reason for going for something like that monster is to increase your e-peen. i wouldn't consider spending more than 1200 on a tower and with 2 monitors maybe 2g's max. ive gone top of the line once before and regretted it within a couple months when all the parts came down hugely in price.
the i7 is hot i love mine, and the 6 gigs of ram is wonderful. and why get a 750 gig drive. I have 2 TB and i filled it up pretty quick i think 750 is not only a poorer value but also sort of behind the times.
Also in terms of solid state drives they are fast. But you would prob save money just setting up a stripped raid array which will offer more storage and great speeds. Also in general you file transfers are going to be to a storage drive so that will be the bottleneck, meaning the only advantage of solid state would be faster loading os and a faster page file, but with 6 plus gigs of ram you wont be relying on the page file that much anyways.
as Earthquake has said aim for mid grade parts. You will always get a better value in the mid range. The high range stuff is purely aimed at the enthusiast market which will pay a premium for 5% more performance. so why get an i7 3.2 i have the 720 which is 2.66 and its so fast. I overclocked it to 3.2 with no issue at all and it runs flawless, hell ive had it all the way up to 4ghz but i never really saw the advantage as everything was so fast already. But really just buying the top of the line will kill your budget. I always buy mid range and save my money for fancy keyboard mouse wacom tablet speakers etc etc.
Links to products is always good.
but price range could vary depending on what all you need. My last build coast me under 900 bucks for an i7 6 gigs of ram Mobo, and 1TB drive. However i already had a power supply and 8800gtx.
Is buying this rig an urgent matter?
Because otherwise you might want to wait a bit more for the Nvidias 470 and 480 to come out before making a final decision for your GFX. For example, I'm sticking to my 8800GT for now because I've already waited this long, why waste this opportunity on a card thats not much cheaper than a new card thats coming out. Future proof is the key here, and DX11 is a comin.
SSDs are overpriced for what they're worth for the moment IMO, unless you're gonna go raid, i hear some good things about that
But these are all based on personal experience and reading reviews. :P
edit: doh i type slow!
I have a question about RAM though (ive tried searching online to no avail.) My motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614) requires triple channel memory. I know this means that i need 3 identical sticks and they have to come in one pack. The trouble is, the most i could find on newegg are 3 x 2 gig sticks, for a total of 6 gigs.
If i want 12 gigs, am i supposed to find 3x4 gig sticks? or can i order 2 of the 3x2 gig packs and put them both in there? the Mobo has 6 slots for RAM. I have a feeling that its possible to do this since in the picture 3 of the slots are blue and 3 are black. I know if i use one pack then i have to have a space in between each stick. so if i get 2, i can fill them all?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614
Power Supply - $229
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817379009
Memory - (x2) $459
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104178
CPU - $279
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
GPU - $399
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.342620
SSD Hard Drive - $224
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167023
Hard Drive - $79
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136283
Plus a case, windows 7, aftermarket heatsink for CPU and some other trinkets.
Total cost = $2420
I doubt you'll get a lot more productivity out of this rig vs. one half the cost. At least instead of investing in SSDs or SLI invest where it matters - buy more ram or a nice wacom...heck for that money you can get a decent work PC and Cintiq!
If you're going to throw down serious money for a rig, then at least put the money into the main components like the mobo, CPU and GPU that determine how fast your comp is.
Have you tried an SSD? Having Photoshop start up from a cold boot in under 2 seconds, that IS something that matters i'd say.
00Zero: six 2GB ram bars need to fit in your mobo. I don't think you'll need that many: just 3 will do. I have 6 Gb and I have never ever managed to fill it up. I think you only need that much if you do the ultimate kind of highres baking like the guys at Epic do.
The SSD is gonna be worth the money a lot more than that large amount of RAM.
i'd like to see what the case and other trinkets are, because they total around $250 if you went with win7 home retail, i'd go for the oem version personally, but you seem to enjoy spending money
The $309 board is a good deal IF you'll use the extra features you're paying for:
- SATA 6Gb/s Not too many of these drives floating around yet, and you picked out a 3gb/s drive? and a SSD so this feature is a waste.
- USB 3.0 could be useful if you have USB 3.0 devices.
- Intel Turbo Boost Technology That's if software developers take advantage of this, they are normally slow to adopt so it might go unused for a long time?
Saved $80
Don't just buy the biggest power supply. Do you really need 1000w PSU? Do a little research find out the wattage you actually need and make an appropriate buy. 1000w is way past over kill. All this is going to do is generate heat, noise and run up your power bill.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 $99
This isn't the cheapest but in my book its the best bang for the buck.
Saved $130
Exact same ram, sucks down a little less juice and delivers the exact same performance and you save $60 bucks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231306
Saved $60
DX11 cards are right around the corner. Take a step down and get great performance that will last until DX11. $204-$329
Saved $130
Total Savings: $400
400 goes a long way toward buying some other gear, like a tablet, some nice monitors? If you drop the SSD you could probably go even farther toward a CINTIQ?
I've built a few now for friends which came to around the same.
I would never spend 3k on a computer. My 1300$ computer from two years ago is still serving me well, but it could definitely use some upgrades. Two high res monitors seems to be really stressing the video card.
Everyone I know who has gone overkill has been disappointed.
Good luck getting the most for your money, it's fun trying to make a good build.:)
I'll probably send back the power supply. I forgot to change it back to a 650W after removing one of the SLI cards. I'll just buy one from Fry's and return this one to newegg.
For the SSD argument, i dont think its fair to look at it from a price per gig standpoint. theyre not really for storing most of your files. its just for OS and installing programs. I'm tired of waiting 15 seconds for UDK to load up.
I still have a perfectly good 3 year old computer with Q6700 and an 8800GTS. Maybe i can sell it...or give it to a friend or something.
anyway. I'm all giddy, cant wait to open all 14+ boxes. And Pixelmasher, the growth i will see in my e-peen after i put this together will be worth it, yea i admit it.
Are we thinking about the same UDK? Because I've never seen it load up in under three minutes on anything ever no matter how beastly the machine.
i stand corrected
I feel SSD drives are worth it.
Then you should get an SSD, mate. I just timed it here: 15 seconds for the editor to get to fully loaded, and that includes losing one or two seconds on the "do you want to rebuild database" dialog. That is on a fresh boot, without having started it before during this session.
Earthquake: I'm gonna be using my 24" HP w2408 that ive had for 3 years (its a great monitor). and the one i just ordered is a 24" Asus VK246H for $230. Its a TN panel but oh well.
They also suck less energy than a hardrive, which will help (slightly) with getting a less power hungry power supply.
Personally, I'd keep the 300 MB.
Vigs memory link doesn't work. But look at the Cas latency. If his has the same its worth it. If its a higher latency. Get yours.
I have tons o'RAM - I start PS and it's gonna stay up all day long
Seriously, things like app startup time and PC boot time have never been a concern of mine. I keep my PC tidy and clean and rock solid. There's little need to restart apps or reboot very often during the day.
So what is PS takes 2 mins to load? I just check my mail during that time. I have to do that anyway...
Just saying, 2 sec load time looks like a huge advantage if you time it, but just think about all the other things you do on a PC where you "waste" time - like e-mail, MSN, etc. Optimizing your workflow around those time sinks may work better than spending cash to optimize your gear.
Shutting down takes about 10-15 sec.
What exactly was your final specs?
6 gb ram
80 gig SSD
nvidia gtx 285
about 800-900 for a machine with a lifetime (techwise) about 2 years.
3K is if you want the best consumer money can buy that will last you something like 4-5 years considering that it will have the most powerful and latest tech.
I had an intellistation Z once.. never regretted the 4k
I also had a simple dimension Dell desktop, for about 1200 i actually still have it about 8 years later, upgraded with the latest it could take and use it as a render\internet machine... plays WoW and older favourite games just fine and general game work with max 9 is still comfortable.
It actually depends on how much work you do at home how much it earns you.
For gaming a +3k machine with automated air intakes is definitely an overkill for people who don't care about throwing some extra money on a system.
That cost does not include the monitors or all the harddrives I take out of old builds but it did cover:
Case
Fans
i5 750 CPU
OCZ 700W PSU
GTX260 Golden Sample
4GB G.skill RAM
1TB Harddrive 32mb cache, 10,000RPM
GIGABYTE something-or-other Motherboard
Sure, it's not the best system, but it runs whatever I want and has room for improvement. Don't go overboard on spending loads as you'll regret it when a few months later Intel or Nvidia announce some kick-ass awesome project that you wish you could get but spent all your cash