My computer recently crashed, 1 week before final presentations of course. But I was happy with my Dell for the 5 years it lasted me. So looking for a new one, Dell or other PC perhaps, top of the line video card etc. hopefully under $1,000 any suggestions?
Thanks
They can do overnight rush deliveries on stuff i do believe, as long as they have what you want.
I just did a build of a new pc that's very powerful for under $1000 but you likely won't be able to waste time building one if your presentation is in a week.
Some pointers:
1. Do not skimp on a CPU, get a Core i7 or Core 2 Quad, this is what your rendering engines actually render through so the faster your processor the faster the rendering times.
2. Do not skimp on RAM, again you will render faster if you have more of it. You can have max 4gigs on 32bit win xp or 32bit vista.
3. Don't worry about the video card too much, I bought an $80 ATI Radeon 5670 512mb and it runs all my 3d apps perfectly. You wont be able to use the massive power high-end gaming cards come with in CAD environments. If the pc is mostly for work, I would suggest skimping on GPU and spending more on CPU and RAM. Unless of course you feel like spending north of $500 on a workstation card.
4. Try to get a PC with a decent power supply, it will save you headaches if you ever want to upgrade components and the low-end cheapass ones have tendencies to fry themselves after a year or so.
5. You probably know this already, but get XP if you can instead of vista.
I also am all about some newegg... Just built a comp for under 500 that can run just about anything. I splurged on a 22" monitor (bringing cost to 700), but you should be able to use what you have already Apurimacs comments are spot on...
One addition to processors, don't just look at megahertz... check to see how much level two (maybe listed as L2) cache the chip has. I went with a 2.4 mHz chip with 4 megs of L2 cache and it works great. A chip with good cache but lower megahertz will generally outperform
You can still get OEM versions of XP on newegg.
If you don't want to build it yourself, a similar route would be to use Cyber Power. You don't need their expensive crazy boxed gaming pcs, but they have a 'configurator' option that starts with a basic box and lets you add power or components as you please, and see the cost of upgrades very clearly as you go. They then put everything together for you so you're all set. I looked at using this but went the newegg route because I'm a dork and like putting these things together (it's similar to the satisfaction after building your own home), but an IT friend of mine highly recommended cyberpower as well.
Enjoy!
Mar 12, 09 5:43 pm ·
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Looking for a new PC ASAP
My computer recently crashed, 1 week before final presentations of course. But I was happy with my Dell for the 5 years it lasted me. So looking for a new one, Dell or other PC perhaps, top of the line video card etc. hopefully under $1,000 any suggestions?
Thanks
One word: newegg
They can do overnight rush deliveries on stuff i do believe, as long as they have what you want.
I just did a build of a new pc that's very powerful for under $1000 but you likely won't be able to waste time building one if your presentation is in a week.
Some pointers:
1. Do not skimp on a CPU, get a Core i7 or Core 2 Quad, this is what your rendering engines actually render through so the faster your processor the faster the rendering times.
2. Do not skimp on RAM, again you will render faster if you have more of it. You can have max 4gigs on 32bit win xp or 32bit vista.
3. Don't worry about the video card too much, I bought an $80 ATI Radeon 5670 512mb and it runs all my 3d apps perfectly. You wont be able to use the massive power high-end gaming cards come with in CAD environments. If the pc is mostly for work, I would suggest skimping on GPU and spending more on CPU and RAM. Unless of course you feel like spending north of $500 on a workstation card.
4. Try to get a PC with a decent power supply, it will save you headaches if you ever want to upgrade components and the low-end cheapass ones have tendencies to fry themselves after a year or so.
5. You probably know this already, but get XP if you can instead of vista.
I also am all about some newegg... Just built a comp for under 500 that can run just about anything. I splurged on a 22" monitor (bringing cost to 700), but you should be able to use what you have already Apurimacs comments are spot on...
One addition to processors, don't just look at megahertz... check to see how much level two (maybe listed as L2) cache the chip has. I went with a 2.4 mHz chip with 4 megs of L2 cache and it works great. A chip with good cache but lower megahertz will generally outperform
You can still get OEM versions of XP on newegg.
If you don't want to build it yourself, a similar route would be to use Cyber Power. You don't need their expensive crazy boxed gaming pcs, but they have a 'configurator' option that starts with a basic box and lets you add power or components as you please, and see the cost of upgrades very clearly as you go. They then put everything together for you so you're all set. I looked at using this but went the newegg route because I'm a dork and like putting these things together (it's similar to the satisfaction after building your own home), but an IT friend of mine highly recommended cyberpower as well.
Enjoy!
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