So. Uhh.

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by `sparks, Aug 27, 2007.

  1. `sparks

    `sparks Jcoca

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    This is like my first post in Technology *yay*

    Ok. So I've heard building your own computer is a whole lot cheaper than buying it.

    So, around how much cheaper would it be?

    I'm thinking of getting a new computer soon, so how much would something capable of running:

    Cinema 4D/3DS Max
    Most Adobe products
    Basic stuff like word processing and stuff

    Fairly fast? My budget is hopefully somewhere below 1000 dollars, but I basically have no sense of computers, so maybe below 1000 dollars won't get me anything good.

    Right now I have 1GB of ram, a 300x/500x ATI Radeon graphics card, 3.1GHz of...whatever it is, and its a single core.

    But yeah.

    Also, how long would it take to learn how to build my own computer? O_O
     
  2. GR.Konvict

    GR.Konvict Well-Known Member

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    Well, punch me if i'm wrong, i was speaking to the nice chappy who built my current PC and he told me that reading up on the internets for tutorials on building PC's is good BUT the best knowledge, and needed really, comes from watching and learning from somebody you know building a PC first hand. Which is why when we get all the parts for my build we plan to meet the guy who done this system and i can build it with his guidance. He said once oyu have watched a few builds then you could proberbly do it fairly simpley, in concept it's easy but each build is slighty different from the last. GL old bean :P
     
  3. Phili G

    Phili G Well-Known Member

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    I taught my friends how to build a PC, I just learned by reading afew tutorials on the net, and having a crap load of nerves when I built my first
     
  4. Phritz

    Phritz Senior Member

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    I remember PCMag having a full article on building your own - funny since their reviews are so bad - I remember one about a product "smelling nice"
     
  5. RabidRifle

    RabidRifle Active Member

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    By most adobe products I don't know if you're talking about premier --- as well, if so I don't think $1,000 is a reasonable budget. Just a suggestion, since you're involved with graphics, get an 8800 Ultra *Only reason I say this is so you don't need to update it for a few years*, 2 gigs of ram *4 if you do video editing*, and a decent dual core *unless you want to save yourself the trouble of going to the store next year and buying a quad*. Save up about 1.5 grand and it'll probably be a better investment.
     
  6. `sparks

    `sparks Jcoca

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    Nah, I was mostly thinking of Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc, plus C4D and 3DS max.

    Uhh. and ill look up 8800 Ultra. ._.

    edit: holy wow, I think that was the PC :P

    The graphics card alone costs 600 dollars? D:
     
  7. xlink

    xlink GR's Tech Enthusiast

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    depends on what you want and how much effort you're willing to put into it. building a general use ssytem you could saved as much as 40% highend gaming system 70%. Conversely if you're one of those mroe extreme overclocking types or case mdoer types you'll ed up spending more than you otherwise would have(though admittedly for a better system)

    10-200minutes depending on how much depth you want to go into.


    and FYI 8800 ultra will be obsolete before it's price can be justified. not really a 3d rendering card as it has the needed instruction sets physically disabled on it via laser locking. Kickass gaming card though. Not worth the cost difference over the 8800GTX though.


    for what you listed assuming no voerclocking

    q6600 - $300
    2GB RAM- $70
    board - $80-150
    harddrive - $80-200 depending on what you want in terms of space and speed
    optical drive - $30
    case - $30-300 depending
    heatsink - $30-60
    GFX card - $30-500
    PSU $50-150

    the above gives you a fairly good idea of what it would cost. the lower bounds on each price is likely "good enough" whereass the higherbound edges on towards overkill in a lot of situations. If you're willing to overclock for additoinal performance, basically up the board to atleast 100 and go with the better cooling


    ask for us to dig up links


    as for a DIY guide for the actual assembly let em dig up a good one
     
  8. Cast

    Cast Well-Known Member

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    if you do alot of c4d and really want to keep render times down, try and get yours hands on at least a C2D e6600 and 4gb of ram (XP may only be able to see 3gb but if you run vista go 4gb for sure)


    o and xlink that 8800GTX will do wonders for c4d work.
     
  9. Aedus

    Aedus Senior Member

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    GTX is worthless for non-gaming rigs

    RAM over 2 gigs is also worthless unless you use an extortionate amount of HyperNurbs, my RAM barely goes over 70-80% when I render, so 4 Gigs wont make a difference really, unless you really do use alot of Nurbs, High poly models and animations.

    The thing that will cut render times majorly is a quad CPU, but with rendering it takes up 100% CPU usage, unless you use BES, so a good CPU cooler will be needed to.
     
  10. xlink

    xlink GR's Tech Enthusiast

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    [/quote]
    I'd always heard that they don't support the necessary instructions. Past generations of cards you could re-enable them but now nVidia and ATi prevent that.
     
  11. Cast

    Cast Well-Known Member

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    well all gfx card are capable of rendering images, its more based on the amount of memory in the card aswell as the type of ram, and the speed of it.

    so an 8800 with GDDR3 would blow away a 7600 with GDDR2
     
  12. `sparks

    `sparks Jcoca

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    Wow, I barely understand what was just posted, but I just wanna say I definitely won't be playing games of any sort. :)

    xelink: for the hard drive, I don't need that much space, probrably just between 100-200 gigs of storage. And I heard that speed doesn't matter as much as cores now, so I don't really mind the speed.

    Thanks for all the help :eek:
     
  13. xlink

    xlink GR's Tech Enthusiast

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    [/quote]
    if by speed you mean switching speed/clock speed, then that's entirely irrelevant as it's NOT a measurement of performance in and of itself


    EG a 300mhz Pentium III outperforms a Pentium 1 @ 333mhz.


    a core 2 @ 2.4Ghz(or rather just one fo its cores) is comparable to a 4.6Ghz Pentium 4
    then you have 3 more cores...
    and 3d rendering is highly parallelized so it scales well.
     
  14. `sparks

    `sparks Jcoca

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    Ok. D:

    So I'm mainly looking for a dual core? D:
     
  15. Ohms Law JR.

    Ohms Law JR. Well-Known Member

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    it aint hard to build a computer of ur own, ill post a tut i found on the net i just have to find it

    anyway this build should do u fine
    Motherboard -
    MSI K9N Neo-F V.3 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 560 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813130123
    $72.99

    Processor -
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103030
    $114.00

    Video Card -
    MSI RX2600XT Diamond Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 OC Edition Video Card
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127305
    $134.99

    Ram -
    A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820211066
    $79.99

    Hard Drive -
    Maxtor DiamondMax 21 STM3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822144099
    $57.99

    DVD Drive/Burner -
    LITE-ON Black 20X IDE DVD Burner
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827106078
    $27.99

    PSU -
    APEX SL-8600EPS ATX12V / EPS12V 600W Power Supply
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817154023
    $79.99

    Case -
    XION Hydraulic XON-566TB Black with Blue LED Light Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811208019
    $79.99

    Total = $679
    (added $30 for shipping costs)


    and which os will u use? vista or xp?
    vista here:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16832116202
    $111.99

    or xp:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16832116056
    $89.99
     

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