Advice on a new computer rig
polycounter lvl 13
Hey,
I am not very good at all at putting computers together, I am totally new to custom rigs, so I plan on getting a new rig by the summer, and I do not make a lot of money so I am aiming for building a rig for around $500-800 (hopefully thats possible)
Here is what I would use this rig for:
- Modeling
- Sculpting
- UDK
- Probably play some games once in a while.
I want to be able to have 3ds max, zbrush and udk up at the same time so I can go back and forth. With this laptop im using now I just can't even get close of doing that.
Any advice on custom computers? I know I will get parts from newegg.com I just have no idea about whats the best brand of whatever part and I am unsure of the specs for the parts too. What do typical 3d artists or game developers have as computer specs?
Thanks,
John
I am not very good at all at putting computers together, I am totally new to custom rigs, so I plan on getting a new rig by the summer, and I do not make a lot of money so I am aiming for building a rig for around $500-800 (hopefully thats possible)
Here is what I would use this rig for:
- Modeling
- Sculpting
- UDK
- Probably play some games once in a while.
I want to be able to have 3ds max, zbrush and udk up at the same time so I can go back and forth. With this laptop im using now I just can't even get close of doing that.
Any advice on custom computers? I know I will get parts from newegg.com I just have no idea about whats the best brand of whatever part and I am unsure of the specs for the parts too. What do typical 3d artists or game developers have as computer specs?
Thanks,
John
Replies
Tomshardware.com and Anandtech's builds are a great place to do some research/see what they're doing with that budget.
I don't really see the need for UDK to be up at the same time as Max and Zbrush. Even then, I don't see the need for having any of those open with the other. Do your work in one, switch over, complete work there, switch back, export, import into UDK. You'll need your RAM free'd up for what you're working on.
Yes, as long as you're willing to accept that it won't be the best machine in the world with the newest parts. I've been builing my own set ups for years and I've never once spent over $700, and they tend to last at least 2-3 years minimum.
Two quick bits of advice. First, look at what you can reuse. Builds typically get expensive when you want to replace everything. If you've got a decent case, a serviceable PSU, a working DVD-R, a monitor, etc, and you're just going to replace the guts, you're going to come off a lot cheaper. It's easy to spend just as much on all that peripheral stuff as it is the core of your system.
Second, use the Newegg reviews to your advantage. Go for well reviewed parts with a lot of feedback on them. It's a pretty easy way to get a feel for what problems you might encounter with a piece of hardware in daily use. After that, it's just a matter of sussing out what you can afford.
Oh, and as it's been mentioned in another thread, more RAM and an SSD are the cheapest ways to get more performance out of a machine. I'd look at those before spending way too much on a CPU or GPU.