New desktop computer....any advice?

[GraphicDisorder]

Just build yourself one.  Very easy to do.   just built a BAD ASS RIG.

i7 2600k (3.4ghz)
32gb (yes 32 GIGS) of DDR3
240gb SSD Sata III
1.5TB Western Digital Black Sata III
GTX 560
Corsair Power Supply
DVD Drive
Cooler Master Case. 

Sucker is a rocket. 

If you are into designing and are serious about it you need 3 things.... LOTS of ram.  FAST hard drives.  Good graphics card.

If you do build yourself, look into workstation motherboards. Intel used to make good stuff. As mentioned, they run faster, are more reliable and use ECC (error correction and checking) memory.

pierre

Ive built my own computers for years, had some workstation stuff, used to be a much larger gap in performance, not so much anymore.  Just my opinion.

quite possible! I've closed the computer business few years back and have not kept up with the specs of the hadware. It would not surprise me if desktops caught up with some things. If the newer chipsets are running wider buses, they could be just as fast and possibly even faster. Workstations also have to compute the error checking which would slow them down. But even if they are slower, workstation boards are tested longer and built to higher standards. Same goes with the certified video drivers. They use similar components as the gaming cards, but the amount of testing, higher quality control and optimized drives drive the cost up significantly.

In the end, I think the Thinkstation will cost you less and give you more. Don't think you'll get anything close to it for $500 if you build it yourself . . .

pierre

To each their own I guess, but I haven't been impressed with most workstation stuff in several years. 

There is NO substitute for read/write and amount of ram and raw processor power.

Here is a benchmark score for the processor I just bought vs the one in the one you linked (guessed a little at which c2d it was).

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2600K+%40+3.40GHz

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Extreme+X9100+%40+3.06GHz

How would you even use that computer anyway, it only had 160gb?  Id have to upgrade that quick like.  LOL.

[ravenmark]

Haven't bought a comp in years being I build my own. I have found I prefer AMD over Intel for processors, AMD has a new quad core processor out now, built in graphics capabilities that will link to one of their video cards to give you a ton of graphics capability (think running dual video cards). They also have more traditional 8 core processors too, & great front side bus speeds. Other than that preference, lots of ram, a decent video card as well as faster rpm sata 6gb hard drives are the ticket (Solid state drive are too new for my tastes).

[ScreenFoo]

You guys have posted some great info here.  When building a computer, I always found it was worth the money to just replace something if the drivers didn't play nice with everything else.  Sometimes it's the weirdest things that trip you up.
My pops had a notebook that he though was just dead--turned out the HP software (which could have been corrupted or hacked) would literally slow down any explorer request to many seconds--if not a minute.  Took that crap out-bam.  Like a new computer.  You never know what weird crap is going on in the war between system calls.

I'd be interested in Gilligans take--from what I've seen SSD's are friggin awesome--if you have the coin.  Incredibly fast and no moving parts.  I'm saving my pennies for one right now.   

I always have to wonder though--I usually monitor my ram usage, my sweet newish notebook right now has six gigs of memory, and even with stupid massive files in photoshop, I can't get usage over half. 
What are you guys running that takes ten or twenty or thirty gigs of memory?  Photoshop, Illy, Draw, Excel, Premiere, Modern Warfare, and Skyrim at the same time? 

[GraphicDisorder]

I always have to wonder though--I usually monitor my ram usage, my sweet newish notebook right now has six gigs of memory, and even with stupid massive files in photoshop, I can't get usage over half. 

A lot of that will have to do with the software and the setting you have in it.  For example if its Photoshop CS3 you could have 10000 gigs of ram and it will never be able to use more than around 3.2-3.5gb of it.  Its a 32 bit program.  If you have CS5 you will be able to use more of the ram since it can then address more ram.  Stock install though, you'd want to check your preferences, it may be scaling you back because 6gb isn't that much.

What are you guys running that takes ten or twenty or thirty gigs of memory?  Photoshop, Illy, Draw, Excel, Premiere, Modern Warfare, and Skyrim at the same time? 

I have CS5, today I had a 1.5gb file open, Illustrator, Itunes, Outlook, AIM, Windows Calendar and so on.  My computer doesn't even struggle to do this and I am on my old machine still, just a i7 with 12gb of ram and a 120gb SSD, with a few TB of other drives in it.

[ScreenFoo]

Out of curiosity, what is your ram usage with all that stuff open? 

I don't know, I don't even flush caches anymore since I got this thing.  I am pretty old school and dealt with raster images when 4 megs of ram ran you two hundred bucks though, it might just be cautious use of resources, long ago rendered obsolete.

Oh, and I am running a quad core AMD--with the 64 bit version of Photoshop CS5.  I do not deal with 32 bit pixel depth images, and rarely work with images larger than 12x18--I'm sure that's part of it.  At this size, 300DPI, and a 24 bit depth, a single raster image is going to be around 55 megs, and even getting fancy pants with eight 16 bit spots I'm still under 300 megs in actual image data.

Heh, the i7 is still the fastest architecture available, from what I know (not much).    I know mine is somewhere around 1/5th of the speed of their fancy i7-3960X, but just the processor costs more than my whole computer. 

[GraphicDisorder]

Right now I have several things going on right now and I am using about 8gb of ram. 

I had some AMD quads a few years ago, they were fine, in fact I used to be a really big AMD fan....but Intel is just kicking their ass at this point.  I noticed a serious performance increase by going that route.  So I stuck with it for now. 

Right now my older PC which I am on right now still has a i7, but its several years old now, its a old 920.  Probably 4 years old now.  But my processor usage is very low, around 25% max

[IntegrityShirts]

Keep in mind newer 64bit software is necessary to maximize performance.  Also if you use adobe products get a processor with higher individual core speeds over total number of cores. Photoshop only has a few multithreaded processes that take advantage of multiple cores in the processor and illustrator is even worse with almost nothing utilizing multiple cores.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Anybody recommend a good laptop?

[RICK STEFANICK]

how about a mac classic with 28mb of ram and the 6" screen. thats what i'm gettin..

[Prosperi-Tees]

lol.

[Mr Tees!!]

...hey Gang, need to resurrect this thread if you dont mind. Im ready to bite the bullet and order something. Anyone have any renewed resources, or more importantly, some specific specs/parts that I need or should add? Pierre, I dont see many options on that link for the refurb now, maybe they dont have em? I am not at all savvy in the hardware dept, so any help at all is appreciated. The $500 sounded easy, but could go $800 or so if its worth it.

...thanks so much guys!!!

[Gilligan]

If your good with slapping the whole thing together you will come out with a very nice system for $800.

i5/7 or maybe a 6+ core AMD at least 8 gigs of ram (16 wouldn't be that much more if you had a motherboard that supported 4 sticks).

[blue moon]

If your good with slapping the whole thing together you will come out with a very nice system for $800.

i5/7 or maybe a 6+ core AMD at least 8 gigs of ram (16 wouldn't be that much more if you had a motherboard that supported 4 sticks).

itxchange seems to be out now, we were just looking for a system for Dan. He ended up buying a similar system from ebay for $250. ITX has a 90 day warranty and I have found theirs stuff to work with very little issues (probably on a level of few percent based on several thousand pieces purchased).

I am biased (as an ex IBM Business partner), but even if I was not running a Thinkstation, I would be running a workstation rather than a regular PC. Not everybody agrees with me, and my information is a little dated, but I did do this for living for about 15 years. The biggest difference is going to be the amount of testing done to insure the highest possible level of up time and compatibility.

If shopping on ebay, look for a Thinkstation running at at least 3.0GHz in S or D flavor (S10, S20, D10 or D20). You will need to get a copy of Windows &* to install on top of Vista, but IBM does provide the instructions and drivers you'll need on their web site. There are no compatibility issues that I am aware of.

So you spend $250 on the system, add 4GB of RAM to bump it up to 8 and get a copy of Windows 7. You should be right around $500. On ITX they are probably about $100 more. I would rather buy there, but as you said, they seem to be out.

Make sure you get a Quadro FX video card. 1700 or 4600 seem to be available. 370-380 series will work too, but the 4 digit cards are better. Once you get the system, make sure you install the photoshop drivers as they will give you some additional features and make everything run faster.

pierre


*EDIT:Windows& should be Windows 7

[mk162]

Pierre has made me a believer in Thinkstations.  I will never buy a different system unless I need a cheap compy for shipping or something like that.  For any place else in the shop, you cannot beat a Thinkstation...period.  I built my computers for years, and I can tell you that the Thinkstation I bought for $600 is better than my $1500 custom build...by a lot.

[Gilligan]

Pierre has made me a believer in Thinkstations.  I will never buy a different system unless I need a cheap compy for shipping or something like that.  For any place else in the shop, you cannot beat a Thinkstation...period.  I built my computers for years, and I can tell you that the Thinkstation I bought for $600 is better than my $1500 custom build...by a lot.

Obviously as a PC repair/builder/consultant I'm gonna need some convincing of this.

Can you explain how that is?  I've built many of machines and RARELY have any issues... on the other hand not many brand name systems that I haven't seen issues with.  Be it cheap ram or just plain odd hardware configurations that mean you can't drop in a standard replacement PSU (which is an issue of itself that I need to replace so many PSU's like that).

I'm not closed to changing my mind, I just can't see how it beats a well planned out "DIY" PC with good quality hardware.