Picking a new PC; advice?

i just put together a workstation pc for a budget-minder friend of mine. He's a 3d-designer and needs serious horsepower, but he doesn't have 1000's of $ to spend

best bang for the buck imo

Intel Q6600 quad core (4 x 2.4Ghz)
4Ghz DDR2 RAM
500GB Hard Disk
P35 Motherboard
DVD Writer
HD3870 gfx card (not really necessary if you never play games...go for the cheapest card you can find then. If you do play the occasional game, you need this card or an 8800GT if you can afford it)

all this for 790€, assembled and delivered at your doorstep. Since the prices in the US are way lower than over here i would guess the same PC would cost you about 800$

 

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4Ghz DDR2 RAM ?

 

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lol typo

GB off course

 

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Are you sure I can save on a video card? I remember when Avatar was picking his new computer, he was advised to get a good one.
Which one makes better sound cards: Creative Labs or Sound Blaster? (Yes, I am under a rock....)

I looked at Falcon Northwest, liked it. I'll sleep on it. How many of you use a Falcon? Anyway, who uses what?

 

http://www.nvidia.com/page/home.html

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=Ati Radeon Video Cards&FORM=QSRE3

 

That's almost exactly my PC's configuration, only, I got an x38 instead of a p35 and an 8800GT instead of the HD3870. The beast can run almost anything.

With decent air cooling, and good memory, you can easily OC the machine to 3.6GHz. If you get one of the new quads (Q9450, slated to be released next week,) you could probably get it to 3.6 on just the stock cooling.. but you'll probably need one of the more expensive x38 motherboards.

Whitewolf, are you a gamer? If not, whatever integrated soundcard your motherboard comes with should be sufficient. Otherwise, I recommend the creative xfi gamer. It's great not only for games, but also music/movies.

 

Well, I don't remember the specifics, but that might have been because I required a card that's good for high definition video workflow and editing, as well as video effects rendering.

 

Build. You can't go wrong.

 

Actually, she can. It's quite cheap contact or to go to a local computer shop and ask them to build it for her with the parts she specifies.

 

I can't build my own, I think I explained why somewhere in this thread. But it don't matter. Nowadays, pretty much every brand lets you pick the specs you want on their web site and they put it together for you. They also let you know what's compatible with what. You can't go wrong that way and it saves you a lot of time.

I am not a gamer, but I want good sound that I won't hate in two years. I remember being told that Creative Labs are the best, but I'm checking.

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ASUS MOBO are very good and also have the sound built into them. Did you check out the links I provided you about video cards?

 

I have an asus mobo, and the 'supreme fxII' soundcard that came with it sucks. Not only are the drivers extremely poor, but the sound quality is OK only for second rate 2.1 speakers.

You could get a creative audigy for less than $30

 

Okay, I can't believe I've been munching on this for so long. Anyway, it's right after taxes and time of need. I'm sticking with Falcon. Specs:

Power Supply: Silverstone 750Watt strider - modular
Motherboard: nvidia nforce 750I-SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.66GH
CPU Cooler: ICON Watercooling Kit
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) 800MHZ DDR2 (I want 8 gigs, but they recommend to use 64 bit Vista instead of the offered 32 bit XP. Why is that?)
Video Card: nvidia geforce 8800Ultra 768 MB
PhysX Accelerator: Don't need, right?
Sound Card: Creative Labs Fatal1 ity
Extra Networking: Can do without it, correct?
Solid State Drives: Sounds good, but I can live without it.
Raid: No raid.
Hard Drive: Seagate 500GB 16MB cache SATA 2
Optical Drive: Plextor dual layer 20x DVD RW (I can wait a couple of years to get blu-ray, right?)
OS: Win Xp Pro
Productivity Software: Don't need
Monitor: Viewsonic 20in
Speakers: Still thinking. I need two sets anyway. Ready to take advice on this.
Surge Protector: Montser Power 800HP
Router: Don't need
Fans: Mag-Lev fans (I need them even though I'm getting water cooling, yes?)

All looks good? I want to be able to make this box more buff in the future if need arises.

 

I did, and it looks good, but I'm sticking with a brand and I have to pick from what they're offering.

 

WinXP can't use full 4gb of ram, it can use only 3,2GB max or smthing like that.
On the other hand Vista is a resource hog and will eat up the excess ram any way.

What's the model of the monitor, is it good enough?

p.s. I suggest you get two hard drives. One a smaller one 200gb for OS and programs, the other bigger one for your media.
That way your media will get priority read/write access and won't compete with OS.
Besides it's safer, if your OS hd crashes.

 

the motherboard you selected is superior in every way...

just to be painfully clear you got a Falcon NW?...

if so... you made the best choice possible in every way...

including in customer service and support after the sale...

a 32 bit Operating system can only address 4 gig of RAM total... this includes ALL mapped memory addresses... the memory on the video card... even the CMOS in some cases... memory caches on hard drives... depends on the exact config...

they were giving you good advice... you can buy XP-64 online for around $130 or so if you want... find the 64 bit drivers and scale the memory up if you want to...

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That's exactly what I thought. It needs extra 4 gigs of ram to run. Can't win with these people. =(

It says Viewsonic 20in, 1680x1050. I suppose that brand is fine. 20 inches is big enough for me.

Advice taken.

 

Thanks. Yes, Falcon NW. I saw your post a while ago.

I was told that Dell is a bitch to upgrade. Although as a 4 yr Dell user I say it is very durable and a good deal for the price they offer. They just don't have a wide enough selection.

 

Can you tell the specific model? Response time and contrast ratio matter.

 

Viewsonic 20" - 1680x1050
$479.00

Model: VG2030WM
Resolution: 1680x1050
Contrast: 800:1
Response: 5ms
Bightness: 300 cd/m2

Connections:
1 x RGB
1 x DVI-D

There are bigger Samsung monitors offered, with response time 6ms and contrast ratio 1000:1.