My budget is $1000 I will be mainly using it for gfx design, mostly with the creative suite 2 (illustrator, ps, etc) progs i will be running possibly all at same time -creative suite series -itunes (or winamp) -opera -dreamweaver (or webuilder 2005) -utorrent -wordprocess -game (wow or hl2) here is one i've been considering iBuyPower I have been thinking about getting one from walmart option 1 option 2 my main concerns are -what is the best processor type for gfx design -what are good (affordable) video cards for gfx design -are the video cards that are for gaming good for gfx design -will the x200 ati radeon video card be enough for games like hl2 and wow any other suggestions for comps? remeber my budget is about $1000 including LCD monitor
I would stay away from the Walmart PC's the one from IBuy dosent look like that bad of a system. They only thing that I would change is the memory. Running graphics software 512 isnt going to cut it really. I have 768mb of memory and run Photoshop on a regular basis and I can use atleast 1 gig or 1.5 gigs of ram. It will be well worth it in the end.....
1. For Media design e.g. GFX, Video editing, etc. Intel is still the king, but for gaming go with AMD 2. A good video card vould either be the nvidia 6600 GT or the Ati 9800 Pro. They are both very similar, and are very affordable (I have a 9800 Pro myself) 3. Yes, a video card that will play HL2 at reasonable Fps will be good enough for GFX designing 4. Nope, it's a rather slow card
Here is a full system, also my system really . But its best you can get, of course this is without a monitor so idk about that.. Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800 x2 Graphics card: connect3d Radeon x800gto RAM: Corsair 1gb dual channel XMS MoBo: Asus A8N-E PSU: Epower Puma II (not what I got but as good if not better) DVD Drive: NEC ND-3550 Case: XION II XON-103 (this can change if you want, let me know of your setup of where you will put it first, like where the walls around it would be, and if its on the ground or up high, etc.) Total: $900 Thats for a build it yourself thing... I dont like the walmart options personally. And go with AMD not Intel. Also, for Ibuypower try this setup: (workin on it)
Here is what I suggest opertron 165[or athlon x2 3800+](OC it to about 2.4 or 2.6Ghz) 320$ 2GB DDR 400 ram 160$ x800GTO or 7800GT or x1800XL. decent motherboard 100$ OK case 30$ decent PSU 50$-100(depending on GFX card) two 72GB raptors in RAID0 260$ (2*130) DVD burner 40$ should all be under 1000$ and will walk circles around the walmart PCs. FYI: best procs for GFX design are the athlon X2s and the Core duos, the Core duo are not on the market yet though and they are slightly weaker(nothing really noticeable)
That is nearly exactly the same setup my friend has. It is a really good PC, and suitable for gaming, GFX Designing, Video editing, etc.
Thats about 1100-1200 I believe. and thats only counting the cheap gfx card. what kinda gfx do you plan on doing with this?
The only thing that i can suggest you is: BIG RAM. If you want to do all those programs in 1, with some other things on i think (MSN, Firefox etc.) you'll need a big ram