Buying a new computational device!

    Quote from twiz

    I too have heard the Intel Core processors are the bee's knees.. I went newegging to see how much it'd be to upgrade my system, and decided against that rather quickly $300 for the cheapest core i7's.. up to a grand+ Then I looked at some AMD processors and a quad-core 3ghz is a hundred bucks, great reviews, take well to overclocking, etc... Unless you have cash to burn, seems to be the smart way to go! You get an L3 cache with the i7's, but I've read the performance increase is minimal for the additional cost. An AMD Phenom X2 quad core, 3.4ghz with a 6mb L3 cache is $150, just about half as much as the i7 you have specced.

    I've also heard really good things about the Samsung Spinpoint F3 drives, fast and quiet. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152185

    $5 more expensive than your specced drive, but it has a better Newegg rating, fwiw. Occasionally they'll go on sale for ~$60, so maybe snap one up during one of those sales.

    I see dux has mentioned the spinpoint already

    Don't compare the Phenom X2s to the i7s, compare them to the i5's. Intel's i7 push is practically trolling typical computer buyers with extreme high end shit completely inappropriate for anyone not using their computer to cure cancer or make videogames.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115215

    That's a quad core i5 for $195. $30 more than the Phenom ii but benchmarks notably better, and that's before OC'ing it to equal clock speed. It also uses far less power.

    Is the hyperthreading and L3 cache really the only things that the i7 has over the i5? their whole i-series has me confused... I've got a core 2 quad at 2.83Ghz and I'm always just confused when trying to figure out why the i7's are so spendy...

    edit* when did newegg get the website facelift

    Oh I'm not gonna build it myself, I'm buying from a company called Komplett which offers 3 years warranty.

    And yeah, the computer will mainly be used for gaming and level design stuff.

    are you just going for the crazy gamer pc or something where you can select 5~10 different types of hardware for each component?

    the "build your own pc" thing?

    ah okay, then just go for whatever intel processor you like (quad right?)

    get an ATI gfx card .medium range will do, or high end if you really wanna OOMPH it (not really worth your money).

    get 6~8gb of ram, 4 is too small. (OCZ is a good brand, make sure its the same Mhz as your motherboard can handle).

    get one SSD disk for your windows+photoshop+3dsmax/maya/Program Files. (it really is worth the extra cash, you might have to buy this on the side)

    get one huge samsung disk for your games/downloads/music/movies etc.

    get a really good motherboard. The motherboard is something people usually dont think is something you should pay attention to and they always fuck it up and buy a shitty one that cant handle the amount of IO that you need and it ends up beeing your bottle neck. If you are like me and not a super-sound geek then you can get one with integrated sound so you dont have to buy an additional sound card. (same with network, if you want wireless then buy an usb stick).

    I'd say do not get OCZ brand memory if you're getting DDR3 (unless you're on a super tight budget you should be getting ddr3) as they've been having significant QC and mobo compatibility problems lately with their DDR3 line. Though this doesn't really matter if some company is building the computer- obviously they're gonna deal with RMAs and stuff like that. It'll probably delay when the computer's ready though.

    I'm building a new PC and would appreciate some input. I will be mostly doing level design with some gaming, and maybe a little 3D rendering on the PC. Any thoughts on the AMD Hexcores versus an Intel i7? I'd love nothing more than to move away from 15 minute lightmass builds.

    Quote from dux

    Honestly, the list I made is what you want to look at having in your PC. It's good for everything. Same for Serenius.

    Except for the mediocre ram brand and massively overpriced gpu?

    I don't remember the specifics of the hardware but over 2 years ago I spent $1000 on a PC that still runs every game I've thrown at it with max settings. Just Cause 2, Crysis, Mass Effect 1&2. I used it as a digital audio workstation for almost a year as a hackintosh running Reason/Logic studio pro. Not to mention I'm running all this on a 30" display in 2560x1600 resolution and a 22" 1680x1050.

    Hardware as I remember is:

    Intel Q6600 quad core processor

    Geforce 8800GTS

    8GB ram (don't remember specifics)

    2TB (1 TB x 2)

    I'm sure you could buy all the parts in my PC for less than $500 today. If I ever do need to upgrade in the future I probably will buy from a company like Dell. Even mid level hardware can max out most software these days. Why spend an extra $500 for bragging rights when I can have a 3 year warranty instead.

    One of smart things to do these days is to buy a small (32 or 64 GB) SSD (Solid-State Drive) where you install the SO and other "heavy" applications, since SSDs are substantially faster than regular HDDs you will get a significant performance boost while runnings the applications installed on them. You then set two 500Mb/1Tb HDDs in a RAID1 array for storage. Using a RAID1 array your files will be saved on both HDDs at the same time (one of the HDDs mirrors the other) so when one of them fails (and they will fail) all your files will be safe in the other HDD. The only downside is that the writing speed decreases when using a RAID1 array, but it's the best way to avoid loosing important files. Off course you should to keep doing regular backups to an external hard drive just in case

    As for brands/models, for the SSD I would choose a model from the Kingston SSDNow V Series (they are more reliable), and for the HDD I personally prefer the Western Digital Caviar or Velociraptor series (depends on your budget), but the Samsung Spinpoint series are also a good choice.

    And don't buy a cheap motherboard or power supply, buy the best you can from a brand with good reputation (usually Asus motherboards and Corsair PSUs are the best choice). Buying a cheap MB or PSU usually leads to a unstable system and can damage your other components.

    Exactly what i wanted to say.

    I also run 2Tb of hdd's, a Q6600, 6gb of ddr2/800mhz and uptill a month or so ago i used the 8800gt (i swapped it with 5870). 2 displays as well.

    Honestly even with the 8800gt i could run most of the games and applications without any issues whatsoever. I think the 6600 is more than enough and will be for few years.

    My friend got a great new i7 rig and he kind of regrets it because there was no noticable performance boost that he hoped for. He had the same rig as i do/did (q6600/8800gt).

    So seriously you should really consider this.

    Quote from barrakid

    One of smart things to do these days is to buy a small (32 or 64 GB) SSD (Solid-State Drive) where you install the SO and other "heavy" applications, since SSDs are substantially faster than regular HDDs you will get a significant performance boost while runnings the applications installed on them. (...)

    I had those tested, not worth the price tag tbh (yet).

    Quote from barrakid

    One of smart things to do these days is to buy a small (32 or 64 GB) SSD (Solid-State Drive) where you install the SO and other "heavy" applications, since SSDs are substantially faster than regular HDDs you will get a significant performance boost while runnings the applications installed on them. You then set two 500Mb/1Tb HDDs in a RAID1 array for storage. Using a RAID1 array your files will be saved on both HDDs at the same time (one of the HDDs mirrors the other) so when one of them fails (and they will fail) all your files will be safe in the other HDD. The only downside is that the writing speed decreases when using a RAID1 array, but it's the best way to avoid loosing important files. Off course you should to keep doing regular backups to an external hard drive just in case As for brands/models, for the SSD I would choose a model from the Kingston SSDNow V Series (they are more reliable), and for the HDD I personally prefer the Western Digital Caviar or Velociraptor series (depends on your budget), but the Samsung Spinpoint series are also a good choice.

    And don't buy a cheap motherboard or power supply, buy the best you can from a brand with good reputation (usually Asus motherboards and Corsair PSUs are the best choice). Buying a cheap MB or PSU usually leads to a unstable system and can damage your other components.

    RAID is not a backup. It is not file protection. Do not use RAID expecting it to save your shit. Running two drives at once, putting them both through the exact same workload next to each other inside the same computer, attached to the same power supply and motherboard, means that if one has catastrophic failure most likely both will. Take that extra HD and stick it in an external enclosure. Keep it off unless you're actively using it and make backups every time you do something worth backing up.

    Quote from Jetsetlemming

    Except for the mediocre ram brand and massively overpriced gpu?

    OCZ is a good make and I've never heard or encountered your problems before. If nothing, it's an incredibly rare case you've mentioned. And that GPU is the best you can get of the last model without breaking the bank with the stupidly priced new ones. Sure a 4870 will suit, but why not spend a little more and get a 5800 series.

    And as for SS drives they are NOT worth the money yet. They are for serious enthusiast with money to burn. They are the future definitely, just not yet.

    That GPU is way more power than you need unless you're using the eyefinity feature. If you are, then great, but if not you can still get fine performance out of a card two hundred dollars cheaper.

    And SSDs are here but only for the newest models, and properly set up. Then they're worth it if you've got the extra cash. It's a very low priority expense though.

    Edit: For the OCZ ram:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 20-227-495

    A full 1/4 of the reviews are one egg "Didn't work" posts.

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