Any advice for updating computer parts.

Dkgoose

Hello, after avoiding this site for way too long due to giving up doing anything remotely memory intensive on my computer, and got tired of purchasing stuff i couldn't afford but had to have only to get blue screens when i would try to set up a scene, i thought best to avoid the site to i wasn't tempted to buy stuff, but now with my taxes i'm really considering upgrading my pc parts, and as i don't know what the culprit is, i'm replacing almost everything in it in hopes of success as i can't take another failed massive floor weight, lol. Here are the parts I'm thinking of getting, I'm not sure on the video card though and I'm not sure what is considered good specs anymore with all the upgrades.

1. ASUS P8Z77-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131823

2. Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i53570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233

3. Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Edition 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PVI332G160C9QK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220713

4. ZOTAC ZT-60201-10L GeForce GT 640 2GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500256

Here is my current video card I don't think it's the issue but hesitant to keep it.

Palit GeForce 8800 GT Super+1GB Video Card - 1GB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, Video Card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3525668

Any advice on if it sounds like it would be a good system let me know, I just want something that will be a good system, the ram, cpu and motherboard are bundled in together on tiger direct but i wanted more ram, so i'm thinking they won't conflict with each other. I'm also considering getting 2 - 3TB hard drives to replace the my current 2 hard drives I have now, in the event those could be the problem as well, just want to play it safe. Thank You in advance for any input.

mjc1016

What operating system? (Version and bit count)

Dkgoose

windows 7 64bit

Harry Dresden

I would rather opt for an i7 or similar as rendering is mostly CPU based.

Also, get an SSS drive for your OS and main programs as the sheer speed of it will blow your socks off. You can add as many SATA drives for data as you want of course.

The 8800 GT is outdated and if your budget allows it you should upgrade to a more modern card. I have a GTX 660 and it's good value for money.

Here's what I have and it can handle anything DAZ throws at it with a smile:

i7 2600 (Sandy)
Asus Board
128GB SSS
500GB SATA HDD
12GB Corsair RAM
MSI GTX 660 2GB GPU
Windows 8 Pro 64Bit

mjc1016

Harry Dresden said:

I would rather opt for an i7 or similar as rendering is mostly CPU based.

Also, get an SSS drive for your OS and main programs as the sheer speed of it will blow your socks off. You can add as many SATA drives for data as you want of course.

The 8800 GT is outdated and if your budget allows it you should upgrade to a more modern card. I have a GTX 660 and it's good value for money.

Here's what I have and it can handle anything DAZ throws at it with a smile:

i7 2600 (Sandy)
Asus Board
128GB SSS
500GB SATA HDD
12GB Corsair RAM
MSI GTX 660 2GB GPU
Windows 8 Pro 64Bit

He's got a GT 640 listed in the wish list...the 2 GB version. Yeah the 660 is better, but the 640 should be more than enough. IT's not something I'd pick for a gaming card, but for handling the viewport and even light/moderate GPU rendering duties, it should suffice (much better than the old 8800).

And I'm not sure that the difference between that i5 and the next step up (an i7 with close to the same specs, but a $60 price increase) is going to matter that much...if there is room in the budget for the i7-3770K and a desire to OC it...then maybe.

Zylox

I have a GT 620 and it works well for me. The GT 640 and GT 660 will each improve on the performance. I doubt that you will need 32 Gb of RAM. I would suggest just getting 2x 8 Gb sticks for now and adding more later if you need it.

I would suggest taking a second look at the CPU. The integrated graphics are not something you need and they just drive the price up. You should be able to get a better CPU for the same money if it does not have integrated graphics. Do you absolutely have to have an Intel CPU? If not, you could get the equivalent AMD for about half the cost like I did, or get this for $30 less:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4904561&CatId=7339

I have to admit that an 8-core, 4 GHz cpu with 8 Mb of L2 and 8 Mb of L3 cache may be overkill.

3dLux

Harry Dresden said:

I would rather opt for an i7 or similar as rendering is mostly CPU based.

Also, get an SSS drive for your OS and main programs as the sheer speed of it will blow your socks off. You can add as many SATA drives for data as you want of course.

The 8800 GT is outdated and if your budget allows it you should upgrade to a more modern card. I have a GTX 660 and it's good value for money.

Here's what I have and it can handle anything DAZ throws at it with a smile:

i7 2600 (Sandy)
Asus Board
128GB SSS
500GB SATA HDD
12GB Corsair RAM
MSI GTX 660 2GB GPU
Windows 8 Pro 64Bit

Sweet! :cheese:

After Daz started crashing on my desktop I started saving up for a workstation that I would future-proof as much as possible. It handles Daz pretty well :-) :

i7-3770K
Antec Kühler H2O 920
Asus Sabertooth Z77
32 Gb RAM
180 Gb SSD
2Tb HDD
Quadro 4000
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

It seems the 240 Gb SSD is now out :gulp:

Dkgoose

Thank You all for the replies, I'll look into the processor and see the price difference, the video card I could maybe do the 640. My budget is about 600, maybe up to 800 because I'm getting everything off amazon. I only went 32gb to max the ram out, I could go 16gb ram and upgrade to more if wanted later. Also, I've never used anything intel from since I started having custom pcs always been AMD, I thought to switch hoping for more stability. I'm definetly willing to tweak within my budget for a good system lol. I spent about $900 for the barebones on my current pc and it was an major failure, so I'm hoping for a success and hopefully the new one can handle lighting sets.

Dkgoose

I guess I should note, I want something that can render video animation as well, and also renders at a decent speed, I tend to be a size freak though, on my better system before upgrading I use to render billboard sized images, but only because I liked to zoom in and see the details lol

Dkgoose

So I think this is my final decision for my pc build,

1. NZXT Guardian Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Case 921RB-BL, my other tower is a monster so I think something a bit smaller will be better for cooling and take up less space

2. ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

3. Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

4.Cooler Master Seidon 120M - Liquid CPU Water Cooling Kit with Pre-filled Coolant and Copper Heatsink

5. Kingston HyperX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory XMP HyperX Blu Model KHX16C10B1K2/16X

6. OCZ Technology 128GB Agility 4 Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive( SSD) With Up to 420 MB/s Read And 72K Max.IOPS- AGT4-25SAT3-128G

7. MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card N660 TF 2GD5/OC

8. Microsoft Windows 8 Pro - Upgrade

I'm unsure about Windows 8 since I haven't heard any good things about it but I guess it's worth a shot. I'm spending more in hopes that I won't have to upgrade for many years, aside from hard drives since you can never have enough of those, and a sound card and wireless card and more ram.