I just started my junior year in Arch school and I am in the market of buying me a new desktop. After several discussions with professors and classmates whether I should take the Mac vs PC route. I decided to stick with PC. I have a 3-year old Toshiba laptop showing signs of it's eminent death. I know there are plenty of threads covering this issue. But with how fast technology evolves these days I would like to get an up-to-date recommendation.
So here it is. I was checking out HP's website and found the HP touchsmart 610 which I customized to the following specs. I don't know if people even use all-in-ones for arch-y tasks. But this looks like a good deal.
Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 quad-core processor w Turbo-Boost [up to 3.8GHz, 8MB cache]
10GB DDR3-1066MHz SODIMM [3 DIMMs]
2TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2010
FREE UPGRADE to Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
FREE UPGRADE to Blu-Ray writer from Blu-Ray player
Premium Wireless-N LAN card and Bluetooth(R )
6-in-1 memory card reader, 4 total USB (2.0), Beats audio [with I/O for TV Tuner option]
TV tuner, ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
Integrated sound
HP wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
HDMI Game Console, HDMI input [for discrete graphics]
This comes up to 1400+ tax. So this is pretty much my budget.
On paper this looks really good. But then again I have no idea how a desktop should be built. Last time I owned one was 10 years ago.
I couldn't find a good custom-built PC website.
In terms of CPU, RAM, Video/Graphics card, etc. What would you guys recommend? Links would be helpful also. If anyone would like to suggest specs to go about and build my own. That would be appreciated too.
And in terms of programs. The usual cad/revit/photoshop/sketchup/etc.
I want a stout setup with plenty of ram space and a nice monitor.
If I don't make sense please excuse my English. I am not from the U.S or any English-speaking country for that matter.
my understanding is that the 3rd gen intel processors are a significant improvement over 2nd gen. A smaller 7200 rpm hard drive would offset some of the cost. unless you are doing some crazy stuff i doubt you'll ever need more than 1 tb. my laptop has less than half that with no problems.
"Wow, nobody? seems I have posted this question on the wrong website."
you got two answers. that's two more than nobody. A simple search of the forums would have told you this question has been beaten to death. Over and over again.
"FREE UPGRADE to Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month"
Whoa! Go for it guy! This offer only happens once every 15 years
"Wow, nobody? seems I have posted this question on the wrong website."
you got two answers. that's two more than nobody. A simple search of the forums would have told you this question has been beaten to death. Over and over again.
"FREE UPGRADE to Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month"
Whoa! Go for it guy! This offer only happens once every 15 years
Mmmyeah. You can obviously see that the info they provided wasn't enough in terms of specs. Although they are appreciated. Second, If you don't have anything constructive to say that is related to the topic then please keep it to yourself. I needed specific recommendations/advice from pro's about various aspects of a desktop (processor, ram, graphics,etc) . You my friend seem to provide me with neither.
I stated that since technology is evolving quickly specs change and this is why I posted this thread. It's a good thing I didn't go out and buy an all in one nor did I jump on a deal with a 2nd gen i7.
Desktop dilemma: Custom built, Beefed-up All-in-one, or brand-name tower.
Hello everyone,
I just started my junior year in Arch school and I am in the market of buying me a new desktop. After several discussions with professors and classmates whether I should take the Mac vs PC route. I decided to stick with PC. I have a 3-year old Toshiba laptop showing signs of it's eminent death. I know there are plenty of threads covering this issue. But with how fast technology evolves these days I would like to get an up-to-date recommendation.
So here it is. I was checking out HP's website and found the HP touchsmart 610 which I customized to the following specs. I don't know if people even use all-in-ones for arch-y tasks. But this looks like a good deal.
Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
2nd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 quad-core processor w Turbo-Boost [up to 3.8GHz, 8MB cache]
10GB DDR3-1066MHz SODIMM [3 DIMMs]
2TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2010
FREE UPGRADE to Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
FREE UPGRADE to Blu-Ray writer from Blu-Ray player
Premium Wireless-N LAN card and Bluetooth(R )
6-in-1 memory card reader, 4 total USB (2.0), Beats audio [with I/O for TV Tuner option]
TV tuner, ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
Integrated sound
HP wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
HDMI Game Console, HDMI input [for discrete graphics]
This comes up to 1400+ tax. So this is pretty much my budget.
On paper this looks really good. But then again I have no idea how a desktop should be built. Last time I owned one was 10 years ago.
I couldn't find a good custom-built PC website.
In terms of CPU, RAM, Video/Graphics card, etc. What would you guys recommend? Links would be helpful also. If anyone would like to suggest specs to go about and build my own. That would be appreciated too.
And in terms of programs. The usual cad/revit/photoshop/sketchup/etc.
I want a stout setup with plenty of ram space and a nice monitor.
If I don't make sense please excuse my English. I am not from the U.S or any English-speaking country for that matter.
Thanks,
AZ.
my understanding is that the 3rd gen intel processors are a significant improvement over 2nd gen. A smaller 7200 rpm hard drive would offset some of the cost. unless you are doing some crazy stuff i doubt you'll ever need more than 1 tb. my laptop has less than half that with no problems.
Buy a Dell Refurbished Workstation. Saves you a lot of money.
Wow, nobody? seems I have posted this question on the wrong website.
Screw Dell and HP. And DO NOT use an all-in-one for "Archi" tasks.
You need to get a proper workstation, with graphics card that can support two monitors. A good company is:
http://www.cybertronpc.com/home~cat~gamers.htm
Some of them are pretty good, and I've heard their customer service is also quite good...
"Wow, nobody? seems I have posted this question on the wrong website."
you got two answers. that's two more than nobody. A simple search of the forums would have told you this question has been beaten to death. Over and over again.
"FREE UPGRADE to Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month"
Whoa! Go for it guy! This offer only happens once every 15 years
"Wow, nobody? seems I have posted this question on the wrong website."
you got two answers. that's two more than nobody. A simple search of the forums would have told you this question has been beaten to death. Over and over again.
"FREE UPGRADE to Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month"
Whoa! Go for it guy! This offer only happens once every 15 years
Mmmyeah. You can obviously see that the info they provided wasn't enough in terms of specs. Although they are appreciated. Second, If you don't have anything constructive to say that is related to the topic then please keep it to yourself. I needed specific recommendations/advice from pro's about various aspects of a desktop (processor, ram, graphics,etc) . You my friend seem to provide me with neither.
I stated that since technology is evolving quickly specs change and this is why I posted this thread. It's a good thing I didn't go out and buy an all in one nor did I jump on a deal with a 2nd gen i7.
After all this is a technology thread isn't it...
My workstation is an Intel i7 chip with 8gb ram and a 1gm NVIDIA GPU and it is not enough.
I am having my employer upgrade me to an Alienware Xeon overclocked 8 core, 32gb RAM, dual 3GB AMG GPUs with solid state drives.
I do alot of very detailed production design with huge files though.
Thanks for the input guys.
I decided to go with an ibuypower desktop.
i7-3820 overclocked
16GB RAM DDR3
Nvidia GTX650 2 GB graphics
2TB HDD
Liquid cooled with dual arc fans
650 w power supply
mated with a 27 LED screen
all for sub 1800$ mark.
I hope this is more than enough for architecture tasks.
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