Pc Help: A new pc

[803hart]

Hi, Im a student at uni doing a course on Computer Aided Design. I have been lookin to purchase/ build a pc for a while now, but haven't had the time to do so. Seeing as building a pc myself seems like such a daunting task I have hecided to turn to dell instead.

Will i be able to run cpu/memory/gpu intensive applications such as 3D Studio Max, Alias Studio tools etc. on this system:
(Main aim is to keep render times to a minimum + Id love to play games such as F.E.A.R and future games on it)

Cpu:
Intel Pentium D 930 Dual Core (3.00GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2x2MB cache)

Memory:
1024MD Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (2x512)

GPU:
128MB ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory graphics card

Hard Drive:
80GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB Data Burst cache

Monitor:
Dell E196FP 19" Midnight Grey (TCO99) Flat panel monitor.


(This is actually a Dell Dimension 5150 customised)

Total Incl. VAT; £585.87

[scrandman]

Biggest limiting factor is going to be that GFX card. You might want to spend less on the CPU to allow a better one.

[Steve B]

i'd also opt for some more memory, as 2 gigs now seems to be the standard, and its easier if ur running visually intensive apps, like rendering programs

[htid]

As you can see my system isnt as good as that and i manage to run XSI/Max/Maya. The scene does start to slow down with alot of polys, lights, textures etc but i guess for CAD the scene wont be as poly intensive as the stuff i do (im doing animation so the scenes have alot of polys for characters etc). Render time should be ok i reckon, as far as i know rendering uses the cpu most, which is why im waiting for some conroe benchmarks for 3d apps As for the hard drive, if you will be doing animations, id maybe go for higher, as the renders do use alot of hdd space, but if the renders will just be a single frame render there should be no probs.

[directhex]

now is a really bad time to buy Intel - their latest, actually useful chips are out soon - and their current chips will be seeing a corresponding price crash

factors others have mentioned apply - e.g. the graphics card may end up slower than a pen & paper at drawing anything complex, and more RAM is vital for complex work

[Hans Voralberg]

I have no idea about CAD, but that gfx wont even open up FEAR let alone playing it

[803hart]

Thanx for your helpful input guys... So basically, I should Increase my ram to 2GB and find a better graphics card... Out of curiousity, which graphics card would do the trick? And would an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ be a good enough cpu to perform the tasks at hand?

[Steve B]

just a point to note, the next generation of Intel Chips are due in July, and following their release, massive price drops will be seen in AMD's 64 series processors. I'd hold off until next month, allowing u to save a bit more, and then get more bang for ur buck when the time comes Plus, if its for uni, uv got plenty of time til next semester

[803hart]

just a point to note, the next generation of Intel Chips are due in July, and following their release, massive price drops will be seen in AMD's 64 series processors. I'd hold off until next month, allowing u to save a bit more, and then get more bang for ur buck when the time comes Plus, if its for uni, uv got plenty of time til next semester

I guess i should hold off till next month for the price drop... Could someone list the ideal specs for a machine that will be able to run Alias StudioTools, 3Ds max, Autodesk Inventor (3d intensive Apps in general) and play games such as F.E.A.R... My budget atm is about £600...

[Hans Voralberg]

Look here: I think it's a very decent spec comp
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=77094&page=4

Again no idea on CAD but for game i recommend something in the region of 7800GT/X1800XT and above, which is not all that expensive now.

[htid]

Off discreets website....

System Requirements
Hardware

* Intel® Pentium® III or AMD® processor, 500 MHz or higher (dual Intel)
* Xeon® or dual AMD Athlon®or Opteron® 32-bit system recommended)
* 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
* 500 MB swap space (2 GB recommended)
* Graphics card supporting 1024x768x16-bit color with 64 MB RAM
* (OpenGL® and Direct3D® hardware acceleration supported; 3D graphics accelerator 1280x1024x32-bit color with 256 MB RAM recommended)

Ignoring most of it and just looking at the gfx, they recommend 256mb at least so as Hans said, you should probably look at a 7800GT or the X1800XT

[scrandman]

7600GT is cheap, and performs almost as good as the 7800GT

[Clunk]

does the dell 5150 allow a graphics upgrade? im sure i read that they didnt have any pcie/agp slots, but i may have just imagined it.

edit: yes i think i imagined it.

[itswesty]

I wouldn't go down the dell route just yet, if at all. Making a pc will save you lots of money, and if you can't do that, you can just buy all the bits and find someone who can! People on the forum will make sure you buy compatible parts, but I would wait until conroe as prices will fall fall fall!

[scrandman]

Actually all things considered , buying a Dell is probably cheaper all round than building yourself.

I don't build many systems these days - if folks want a basic web browser, then I tell them to look at Dell & other pre-builts.

Building your own gives more satisfaction, but inevitably ends up more expensive unless you go for really low end stuff.

[803hart]

Ok so Ive been looking around and i might jus build my own system...
So far this is what I've decided:

Motherboard:
ASUS M2N-E NF570, Socket AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £68.73 (Incl VAT).

CPU:
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 3500 Orleans Core, 2.2GHz, 512KB Cache, Retail £76.79 (Incl VAT)

RAM:
1GB (2X512MB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4200 (533), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £56.17 (Incl VAT).

HDD:
80 Gb Samsung HD080HJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.9 ms £32.89 (Incl VAT)

GPU:
256Mb Sapphire ATI X1600XT VGA TVO DVI PCI-E Retail £96.84 (Incl VAT)

Total: £343.16

Any recommendations are welcome, remember my budget is around £600