Archinect
anchor

Computer suggestions for Architecture school

bigredog4

Hello All,

I'm enrolling in an architecture program this fall, and would like to know if anyone can help shed light on the following:

  • My program says they provide computers for students to use. My guess is they're not ideal. Should I get one of my own for back up?
  • A buddy of mine doing his masters at Yale said that he has a back up computer at his apartment that he can control remotely, and use to complete renderings while he tinkers with other models on his school computer. Does anyone else have any examples of this sort of time-saving way of working between two computers?
  • Does everyone buy the legit licensed software product using student discount or do they just get bootleg copies?
  • Can some of you recommend your preferred computer build? I'm trying to cap all of this at 2k USD max.

Many thanks in advance for whatever answers you guys can give me. Also, feel free to comment in general about your experience with computers in architectural education programs.

 
May 3, 15 9:48 am
anonitect

This has been asked a million times already. Search the forum before starting a new thread, please.

May 4, 15 4:42 pm  · 
 · 

The guts of it: you'll want a X99 MOBO, DDR4, and a I7-5xxx Processor(constituent on budget). SSD is incredibly important, install windows revit etc on it. Glorious boot speeds and an IPS monitor (Good colours) 
Graphics card isn't that important, unless you're doing flythroughs/gaming. 

 

Should cost ~2000. Use PCPartPicker. 

May 6, 15 7:26 pm  · 
 · 
bigredog4

Thanks Nick, I had a buddy at my firm recommend an NVIDIA Titan card? Super pricy, but he insists it's important for renderings. I will investigate the parts you recommended; appreciate your suggestions.

Anonitect, sorry to bother you, I'll be sure to search before posting next time. In the spirit of non-repetitious content, perhaps it's best to focus on the question of working between two computers remotely. If anyone would like to add on that I'd be grateful.

May 10, 15 10:42 pm  · 
 · 
curtkram

your friend doesn't want you to get a 2k usd computer.

if you're using the card every day all day, i recommend the quadro series.  others here would tell you they're a waste of money because you get less and spend more compared to gamer cards, but i still believe in their stability.

i wonder if you can connect a titan card to a raspberry pi?  that could get you around 2k.

there should be performance monitors, something like http://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner, where you can do a rendering on your current setup and see what resources are actually being used.  that should help you see where your bottleneck is.

the video card is probably more important for viewing the model clearly while you're building it rather than speeding up rendering times.  it can also make games look better, and make some photoshop filters work better.  i think video processing stuff sometimes uses the gpu, but i don't do video processing so i don't know much about it.

May 10, 15 11:05 pm  · 
 · 
sameolddoctor

I am one of the ones that will recommend not going for a quadro. Had the IT dept at the large office I work for change a bunch of quadros to the geforce gt 740 and have not had any issue with running Rhino, Revit, sketchup for the last 6 months. Save on quardos and get yourself a larger/faster SSD and processor...

May 11, 15 12:12 am  · 
 · 

I wouldn't waste your money on a titan, unless you're doing real time rendering.

Honestly, get as much RAM and the best processor you can afford. That's the be all and end all for Arch programs. 

May 11, 15 1:56 am  · 
 · 
toosaturated

Focus your budget on the a good cpu and a ssd drive and extra storage. A gtx graphics is more than enough. With your budget of 2k I dont think you should have any problems finding something suitable. The programs we use in architecture are not super crazy.

May 11, 15 9:57 am  · 
 · 
archhopeful

What school is this? My guess is that if the program says they provide you computers, that they are perfectly usable for your needs. Maybe you should talk to several current students before dropping $2,000 on something unnecessary.

May 11, 15 10:14 am  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: