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There are 17 replies to this topic

-Tyson
Senior Member

3 years ago

Hey everyone. I'm just about to buy a new machine and I wondered if I could get people to recommend
a machine they would choose or have chosen. basically I can go up to just under 2000. preferably less.
I wanted to try and build one with a quad core and all the best components I could find but I need one pretty quick now and I don't trust my PC building skills. I can change a video card, install an OS, swap out a harddrive etc... but building a whole machine is pretty scary.

this is one spec I found after doing some research $1799.00 what do people think.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 CPU
GA EP45 DS3 R Motherboard with Raid
2G DDR II Kingston PC6400 800 MHz
2 x 750G HDD Samsung SATA II with 32mb Cache
896mb Geforce GTX 260 PCI Express
iCute Case 220mm Side fan 550W Power USB in front
Logitech Ps II Keyboard and Ps II Wheel Mouse
22" LG 2252TQ 2ms 10K:1 LCD Monitor
20 Speed DVD RW LG or Pioneer
Built in Gigabit LAN, 12 Port USB 2.0, 8 Channel Audio Firewire

+Steve Martin
Moderator

3 years ago

Looks pretty good for that price. Would a quad core push you over the price limit? More RAM might be good as well.

[Link to www.3dprevis.com]
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+Jamie
Admin

3 years ago

Yea the only thing I would say is the processor could use some love as well as the ram.

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-Altopais
Member

3 years ago

more ram would be great, it's not that expensive, also a quad core, you could probably sacrifice one hdd for a cheaper one. i just recently upgraded from 4g to 8gb rather cheap, i think it was 250kn (local currency) that would be 50-60$ i think, only thing i need to replace is my cpu, dual core pentium 1.6ghz overclocked to 2.4ghz haha

The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
-Albert Einstein
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-Tyson
Senior Member

3 years ago

Yeah, I'll see if they can do this same machine with the core 2 quad. the i7 processor is too pricey and needs a whole different chipset.
I'm just a bit conflicted because I really wanted to break the 32bit barrier and get a machine that could really render some of the more intense scenes I have without needing to use all sorts of tricks like vray proxy and such. I'm not sure if these core 2 duos are 64 bit or not. My laptop has one and it is 32bit. but then again, I havent gone to vista or xp 64 for compatibility reasons. and windows 7 is apparently coming along soon.
I dunno. when is there ever a good time to buy hardware hey...

-Altopais
Member

3 years ago

i think most of, if not all dual or quad are x84 and x64, probably a good idea would be to check online

The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
-Albert Einstein
2nd Place: Teapot Challenge

+VarnishedOtter
Admin

3 years ago

The core 2's are 64 bit. Would reccommend a core 2 quad, or I think AMD have released Phenom 2 now.

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--Matt
2nd Place: Teapot Challenge

-Tyson
Senior Member

3 years ago

good to know. yeah, I've just been on the phone to them and having upgraded the ram to 4gig ($45 more)
ditched the monitor and the OS The final choices are processor and the graphics card.
After doing some research the choices are between the geforce GTX 260 and the ati HD 4870
the GTX 260 comes with this machine which I think means that the motherboard supports SLI and not crossfire (I could be wrong) but I'm not intending to get sli anyway,. the reviews all say to go for the HD 4870. what would you guys do?

+Jamie
Admin

3 years ago

Well I have always been an nvidia man since two of my ati cards fans died after 6 months and blew my mobo and cpu. But that is me.

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-Tyson
Senior Member

3 years ago

I've always had nvidia aswell. fact of the matter is they will probably both run most things well enough for quite a while and considering i play games on the xbox anyway. its mainly max performance I am worried about and theres no way I'm going to get a quaddro again. too expensive. anyway. thanks for the input folks.

+Jamie
Admin

3 years ago

Yea stick with nvidia man.

Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

2nd Place: Photography - High Contrast B&W

+Steve Martin
Moderator

3 years ago

Iused to think that until my nvidia $750 880GTX constantly gave me BSODs. I sent it back to nvidia for fixing and when I got it back 4 months later it was still stuffed. Never work properly, what a waste of money. I got an ATI 4870 and it's been perfect ever since. I think either way you go you could have problems, it's a bit of a lottery.

[Link to www.3dprevis.com]
2nd Place: Absurd Plants Challenge

+Jamie
Admin

3 years ago

Yea I agree.

Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

2nd Place: Photography - High Contrast B&W

-Tyson
Senior Member

3 years ago

Ok heres the final spec. I'm ordering it tomorrow so if theres anything I'm missing let me know

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU
GA EP45DS3R Motherboard with Raid o and raid 1
8G DDR II PC6400 800 MHz 4 x 2G
2 x 1TB Samsung SATA II with 7200rpm (RAID 0)
icute Case with 550W Power and USB in front
896Mb Geforce GTX 260 PCI Express
No Keyboard and mouse
No Monitor
20 Speed DVD RW Dual Layer
No Windows
Built in Gigabit lan USB 2.0

Total price is $1,630.00

+Jamie
Admin

3 years ago

All I can say is I wish I had a spare $1,630.00

Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

2nd Place: Photography - High Contrast B&W

+Steve Martin
Moderator

3 years ago

We got the baby bonus the other night. Hmmm, tempting.

[Link to www.3dprevis.com]
2nd Place: Absurd Plants Challenge

+Jamie
Admin

3 years ago

hahaha

Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

2nd Place: Photography - High Contrast B&W

-Tyson
Senior Member

3 years ago

yeah, I wish I had it spare too. this is going onto my credit card. Its too easy to get stuff when you have one but I figure its probably the biggest piece of business related stuff I will get all year so its a tax deduction.

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