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p!tu

Shiz-lakin-a-craka-lakin™
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Well im looking to get a new computer. I know a little about them and would like some input from the guys the know more. anyway heres what i use it for.

After Effects
3D Max
Syntheyes
Photoshop
Combustion
Premier


plus Music internet and all that crap.

I would like to know what are the best stats the i need to look on a computer.

Thanks any help is appreciated!:rock
 
Heh, i actually have a unit for the exact same job,


Its old, but works;

First note - FORGET Vista...go XP all the way

3ghz P4 (which now would be a 2.4ghz Core2Duo)
2gb Ram (i tend to put 4gb in all units i build now-days)
250gb HDD (For Software - can be higher is you wish, it all depends on what your going to put on there along with what you've mentioned)

1TB HDD (Storage - yes its alot, but if your anything like me, you get a backlog)

This is about all i can suggest, i've found that GPU type isnt really important for a hobby user, if your doing more in depth/film grade stuff a good set GPU could be an asset.

Case and cooling - again depends on what your aiming at, long periods of rendering/film creation can heat up a unit to egg-frying quality (i prefer mine sunny-side up), I've taken to the using Antek cases, functional and pretty, but with great cooling abilities.

I personally keep away from Liquid cooling, its expensive, its risky...and i am not too comfortable with 2 grands worth of computer being cooled by something that could spring a leak.


Hope this is at least a little helpful Pitu,


SJ
 
i'm actually interested as well in what i should be getting - i am using similar stuff to you P!tu. i'm actually still on teh fence between PC and Mac at this point.
 
i'm actually interested as well in what i should be getting - i am using similar stuff to you P!tu. i'm actually still on teh fence between PC and Mac at this point.


different people have different preferances...i tend to favor PC's over MAC's (which cost me a teachers-assistant job as a media and film technician at my local college). I've always found the Mac to be over-rated, but then again i'm a PC user, and will be till the day i croak.

The spec's i've listed are well, my own choices...there is no SET IN STONE list of whats needed to have a great rig. Its personal choice, experience and a firm knowledge of what you intend to do with it.

I always love the saying "Its not the power of the rig, but the tallent of the artist", i've seen folks work on projects with laptops 10-15 years old, and they have outdone people with the most high-powered, up to date computers available.
 
Well I f you use the similar stuff you need a PC don't you?


I use all those as well P!tu and will be buying a new system soon.

Right now I have at work
XP
Intel core 2 CPU
6300 @ 1.86GHz
1.58GHZ,2.00 GB of Ram

I'd say this is the bare min of use... it works, is fairly fast but really on one use at a time.

your main programs that take up the most will be the 3DSM and After Effects. so as long as you gear it up for those the rest will preform fine.
 
thanks phantom. yeah, i agree with you on it not being simply the power of the computer. i have a very crappy computer right now, with no memory on my video card whatsoever, and have been doing ok with my film projects. but it's definitely time the upgrade!
 
Phantom, good specs you've put together. The last PC's I was building for my old job thats pretty much what I was using. Cache is always good to look out for the more the better. I also recommend the XP Pro OS.
 
different people have different preferances...i tend to favor PC's over MAC's (which cost me a teachers-assistant job as a media and film technician at my local college). I've always found the Mac to be over-rated, but then again i'm a PC user, and will be till the day i croak.

The spec's i've listed are well, my own choices...there is no SET IN STONE list of whats needed to have a great rig. Its personal choice, experience and a firm knowledge of what you intend to do with it.

I always love the saying "Its not the power of the rig, but the tallent of the artist", i've seen folks work on projects with laptops 10-15 years old, and they have outdone people with the most high-powered, up to date computers available.


sorry but i dont agree with that full statment on the end, yes if you have 2 machines the same and one is used by a guy that knows what hes doing then it could possibaly will be tweaked a lot faster, but a machine that is 10 years old, saying its faster than a gameing rig of today is a load of cr*p

the advances in the computer world happen for a reason there faster and quicker, you have to be crazy to compare a 10 year old pc to a new one of today no matter how much you tweak it.....

i build a new pc every 2 years because i allways play high end games and no matter what i had 10 years ago it would be no where near what i have now no matter how much it was tweaked
 
For high-end editing and such, I would highly recommend a 64 bit system that can support more than 4GB of RAM. You could start with 4 Gigs, but leave room to expand and if you can afford it right off the bat, get 8GB, it will be cheaper if ordered with the computer. Most software has or will have 64 bit versions soon. Get the best processor bang-for-the-buck you can get; this is usually a couple of steps down from the best processor available.

Get the best video card you can afford, with at least 256MB of RAM or more.

Get a lot of disk space... 1TB at a minimum.

If you have a home network, make sure the computer has Gig Ethernet; Gig switches are dirt cheap now, and there is no sense in limiting your connection between computers.

Make sure it has firewire connections, as that will be your fastest connection to many external devices such as hard drives.

There you go... now go configure a machine like above, and be amazed at how inexpensive they can be if you do a little research and comparison shopping...
 
Thanks Elek,


I spend too much of my time working on Movies, FX shots, scripts, editing, pre-vis...so HD space is always an issue, sadly my editing unit is dead (it served me well, and got burried with honour...at the bottom of a dumpster) so i need to attain the funds to build its replacement, the specs i listed are pretty much what i'll aim for, just throw in 2 extra 1TB HDD's, as i've got 3 films of my own in pre-production along with behind the scenes materials building up for video's.

Its a fun life, just a pitty it leaves me broke 9 times out of 10. LOL!


Oh and Raider, i'm not talking about multi-use rigs, ones you use for gaming and work. I'm on about Creative Rigs only, ones used in art work/design.

If the machiene is also going to be used as a gaming rig, then forget everything i've said, as it wont be half-a-bucks worth of crap in 3 years.

SJ
 
you might want to mention how much you are able to spend P!tu because that might help in everyone knowing the budget, then they can tell you what to sacrifice and what to spend money on.
 
I'm in this right now, so I can give you some tips.

Intel system--AMD dual core is great, but upgrading with an AMD system would be expensive without much improvement.

I recommend one of the new Intel quad-core processors, they're a pretty managable price.
At least 4GB of RAM, I recommend DDR2 800mhz, it's the cheapest and it still runs great.
I recommend 2 500GB SATA hard drives.
Windows XP 64-bit (without 64-bit there's no point in having extra RAM).
Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX *uses PCI-express 2.0 so make sure the motherboard has that. Unless you're going to do SLI now, then it's most likely you won't ever do it so that probably isn't an issue.

So that's what I can say right now quickly. Remember, building a computer is always cheapest.

EDIT--also, try and get 3ds Max 2008, with 2009 most plugins aren't supported yet. And Max 2008 runs great. Also, if you are a student you can get extreme discounts on those programs so make sure to check.
 
they may be local (in Miami) but I beg you to stay away from Alienware.
they are complete and utter s***!!
 
^That's true, they have extremely overpriced computers, and while they look really high-tech high-quality, I've heard they're computers have a lot of problems. My animation professor has an Alienware laptop and has had tons of problems with it.
 
^That's true, they have extremely overpriced computers, and while they look really high-tech high-quality, I've heard they're computers have a lot of problems. My animation professor has an Alienware laptop and has had tons of problems with it.

funny enough 3 years back i had got a laptop built by them, worked great for 11 months, then it broke down, 4 months later i was still fighting to get the damned thing sent back for repairs. When i threatened legal action they accepted it back, "repaired" it and sent it back, to which it broke down again. I sent it back, they then returned it to me in a water-trashed box, the Laptop was soaked through. I complained, they told me that it wasnt they're problem.


After a year of fighting with the Dell loving b****s i took it to be repaired somewhere else, they fixed it, and i recently sold it for £900....


Original cost - £3500 - total use out of it, just over a year.

talk about being taken for a ride.
 
funny enough 3 years back i had got a laptop built by them, worked great for 11 months, then it broke down, 4 months later i was still fighting to get the damned thing sent back for repairs. When i threatened legal action they accepted it back, "repaired" it and sent it back, to which it broke down again. I sent it back, they then returned it to me in a water-trashed box, the Laptop was soaked through. I complained, they told me that it wasnt they're problem.


After a year of fighting with the Dell loving b****s i took it to be repaired somewhere else, they fixed it, and i recently sold it for £900....


Original cost - £3500 - total use out of it, just over a year.

talk about being taken for a ride.

yeah, i had similar issues with my laptop.
within the first year of having it, it went back to Miami 3 times. by the time it was over and done with they replaced the motherboard, the graphics card and the LCD. by the last time i was arguing with their supervisors that i wanted my money back. of course that didn't fly.

and the last time i got it back, it came back with the corner of the case cracked out. they of course said it came to them that way, despite the fact i packed that thing to within an inch of its life with foam.

and don't get me started on their customer service!
:banghead
 
Thanks guys! and vader al I dont have a budget in mind. i just want you guys to tell me the est of the best no matter the cost. so i have an idea! :rock
 
Just based on what I know I'd go with a Mac. I know from several of my friends that do a lot of that they tend to go with Mac as I said, and thats where I'm leaning with my next laptop purchase.
 
I had been a PC user since the mid-90's and then I started non-linear editing on a MAC in college around 1999 and I haven't bought a PC since. I couldn't see one running Final Cut, Compressor, DVD Studio, iTunes, Firefox, and Photoshop all at once w/o imploding. :computer
 
Just based on what I know I'd go with a Mac. I know from several of my friends that do a lot of that they tend to go with Mac as I said, and thats where I'm leaning with my next laptop purchase.

Mac's are seriously overpriced. For laptops it's somewhat unavoidable (although they're still more than other laptops) but for desktops it would be ridiculous. For the same price you could have a system with twice the power.


Plus---3ds Max doesn't have a Mac version. And I know there's bootcamp so you can dual-boot Windows on a Mac, but if you're going to do that then you might as well buy a Windows-based PC. Also, just as a point--the next release of Adobe software will finally support 64-bit-----on Windows only, since they have to do more work to get the programs on the 64-bit Mac architecture.

EDIT--although Final-Cut is Mac-only
 
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