With all the new software coming out, and this modeling challenge coming up, I need a new computer to handle such tasks. 2 x 2048 would be intense on my 566. Also, learning new tools and techniques, such as normal mapping would be good as well.
I have around 1800-2000 dollars to make a computer without the computer screen. I would be really appriactive if someone could put something for me (as I am really uncertain about the compadability with the hardware to other hardware), with the names and prices of the parts in which I could purchase. Thankaz in advanced.
Hi Codyalday
Could you give us a little bit more information.
*what sort of system do you have at the moment?
*What do you want to use it for? Playing highend games, heavy rendering
*what res do you run games at?
You have to be very careful when buying a pc at the moment, most vendors I?ve seen are selling cheap and outdated parts. If your not careful you'll end up with a computer that you can?t upgrade in any way without forking out a grand! ...just like me[V]
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lorien's right on the money.
wait a while!
new amd proccessors in a few months and dx10 cards around the corner.
make your decision after the new processors come out , is my opinion.
but if u want to buy one now , id suggest a x2 4400 , middle range SLI motherboard - midrange nvidia gfx card. + 1-2 gigs of ram would be sufficient.
then u can just upgrade to a new dx10 gfx card for vista, while still having a leet pc.
i just got this a month or so ago:
AMD 64 3800+ Dual Core
Geforce 7800GT 256MB
2GB Ram
Ultra Infinity Motherboard
as well as a case, DVD burner and HDDs. all up it cost me somewhere between $2000 and $2500, but with smaller and cheeper HDDs, a cheep case, no OS, etc. it would easily be below $2000 (my HDDs probably cost me close to $400 - though the 10000rpm Raptor is bloody fast!).
Thankaz all for the info. The computer will be mainly for modeling, rendering, ect. ATM it just use it for q2 and modeling, on 400x300 for the game, so nothing heavy, but to learn high poly modeling, normal mapping ect, I would need something better. It is a Celeron 566, 64MB RAM, 4MB Intergrated Graphics.
I would wait for the next gen stuff to come out, but I really need a new computer quickly.
A celeron 566, 64mb RAM and 4mb Integrated Graphics - Dude I have to say firstly, your a brave man to even run 3D Modelling software on that machine paticularly rendering using a Celeron - oh I know that feeling.
You will crap your pants with excitement at the leap in speed a new machine will bring, it will seem phenominal if you jumped from your current rig to something even half as good as LiveWires Rig above!! Seriously! [:D]
My recommendation is definatly dual core athlonFX, MINIMUM 2GB ram, Geforce 256mb 6800GT MINIMUM. You could pick up a fairly quick machine for the budget your looking at.
Good Luck!
I don't know where you live, but buy from a computer fair if you can. The stores that sell there are happy to build you a computer from selected parts if you buy mostly from them (or build it yourself if you're a hardware geek), and they come in anywhere between 20-40% less than a retail shop.
In and around NSW (well the Canberra & Sydney area) you can see locations and times for them at: http://www.computermarkets.com/
For rendering I'd recommend a dual core CPU if you can afford it (but go a couple of steps down from the top speeds to save money). Graphics card isn't so important, so maybe a 6600GT with the most RAM on it you can find (512MB? if they make 6600GT's with that much), 2GB of RAM and at least a 200GB hard drive (SATA of course).
Buy reasonable brand parts, Asus or Gigabyte are usually good bets (but we've had a few Asus ones here that have shit onboard network cards - they randomly stop working until a complete poweroff of the motherboard). DON'T buy a Graphics Card without a fan on it. A few have ungodly heat sinks with no fan - they have a nasty tendancy to overheat.
I'd suggest good brand parts. No no-name crud at all. Make sure you get a good power supply (coolermaster or thermaltake for example) and case or you will have fun with overheating.
I'd also suggest an NForce4 based mobo (I like ASUS), AMD dual core CPU, and NVidia GPU (sorry, ATI's drivers aren't so great imho). If you aren't planning on overclocking the default CPU cooling will be fine. SLI is nice (but I'm told it's none to easy to code for).
Something else: lots of really fast really good RAM. CAS 2 latency. Mushkin and Corsair are great, but you pay for them. 2 gigs would be minimum.
It's a good idea to ask a hardware freak to tweak your bios settings.