Loading...
> >

Build your own pc

muller252muller252 Posts: 42
edited December 1969 in The Commons

Hi,
I need up get a new pc, as mine is just too old, and I feel the better way would be to build one.
Could anyone recommend a fairly good spec, for rendering, and possibly a little gaming, but mostly rendering. I want something that can take graphic heavy packages such as DAZ, Poser, Bryce etc. I've never built my own, so I'm pretty green. Thanks.

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,747
    edited December 1969

    You need to give some indication of your budget, and which country you live in.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited February 2013

    I would assume UK, but I could be wrong.

    I would never chance building my own, have mine built for me by this company. http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 11,503
    edited February 2013

    Also, an indication of your level of PC technical expertise, and your expectations from the computer would help set conditions.

    If you're not technically inclined you may want to reconsider.

    If you just need a good computer significantly better than your old one then you might be satisfied with an off-the-shelf unit.

    If you want a super graphics cruncher then yeah, a custom one would be the way to go if you've got the skill and are willing to take the risk of failure or unending frustrations. (ask some of the people in this forum about frustrations 8-o )

    The advantage of an off-the-shelf unit is a system that has been designed by experts so that all the parts work together properly, and a manufacturer's warrantee & customer support if they don't.

    The dis-advantage of an off-the-shelf unit is the price/quality ratio often skewed too low on the quality end or too high on the price end.

    A decent off-the-shelf modern desktop unit from a major manufacturer (HP, Dell, Toshiba, Viao) will probably be at least $500 (US) but a $500 modern machine would run circles around a $1000 eight year old XP machine.

    A decent off-the-shelf or custom unit would have:

    1) At least an Intel i5 quad-core processor (careful, some i5 processors are only dual-core), or preferably an i7 quad-core processor.

    2) At least 8GB of RAM upgradeable to 16GB or more.

    3) At least 1GB of storage.

    4) For primarily graphic design use, you should consider an nVidia graphics card or an nVidia motherboard chip (Sorry I cant' specify exact type. nVidia model numbers are insanely obtuse and confusing and I'm not familiar with the current catalog) If you get an off-the-shelf system classed as a "Media Center" then it probably has a decent chip. Depending on your gaming needs you might want to go with an AMD chip but I know nothing about them. However, the advanced features of a graphic chip are used primarily for display of your design for rapid model movements and texture display. The actual rendering of a final image is often a software only process not needing the special chip features.

    There's a whole zoo of possibilities for a custom machine but something that is coming of age and becoming popular is USB3 external connectors for super fast external hard drives that are USB3 compatible. (note: existing USB2 drives will work in a USB3 socket but only at USB2 speeds)

    I'm sure others here will specify some interesting custom designs but if you don't need an uber-machine consider an off-the-shelf machine from a major manufacturer in the range $600-$1000 US.

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • thd777thd777 Posts: 943
    edited February 2013

    I have just put together a fairly high end system with following components:

    ASUS P9X79 Pro ATX LGA2011 Motherboard
    ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 980MHZ 2GB Video Card
    Intel Core i7 3930K 6 Core 12MB 3.2GHZ
    Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H100I CPU Cooler System
    Corsair Vengeance Blue CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 32GB 8X4GB DDR3-1600
    Corsair Obsidian Series 800D Full Tower Case
    Corsair Professional Series HX1050 1050W ATX Power Supply
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA3 64MB Cache 3.5in Internal Hard Drive
    Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5IN SSD
    ASUS BC-12B1ST Internal 12X Blu-Ray Reader & 16X DVD Writer Combo Drive

    This clocks in at just under $3000 with taxes here in Canada. You can get it cheaper if you put it together yourself. Mine is being assembled and should get here next week. I designed it to be highly upgradeable and with good cooling.

    Ciao
    TD

    Post edited by thd777 on
  • StratDragonStratDragon Posts: 3,167
    edited December 1969

    muller252 said:
    Hi,
    I need up get a new pc, as mine is just too old, and I feel the better way would be to build one.
    Could anyone recommend a fairly good spec, for rendering, and possibly a little gaming, but mostly rendering. I want something that can take graphic heavy packages such as DAZ, Poser, Bryce etc. I've never built my own, so I'm pretty green. Thanks.

    if you have had limited experience with computer hardware it might not hurt review some basics on line.
    the CompTIA A+ is the recognized computer hardware/software test in the United States and a necessity for any IT job here. It covers the basics but standard practices for computer repair people
    there is a harware pretest here
    http://www.proprofs.com/certification/comptia/a-plus/exams/HW-E1/exam.shtml
    you can take these and pass or fail you may lean some stuff about hardware you never knew, though not all of it is relative..

    There are builders and modders on this site who will help you, but knowing what parts you have, and what they are called is half the battle.
    My own experience is a good gaming machine makes a good rendering machine since most of this software was not written to take advantage of high end workstations, and most gaming systems wont be nearly as expensive as a laptop that performs at or about the same benchmarks, but not knowing your budget it's hard to recommend anything. My personal tools of choice at this moment in time
    Intel i7 CPU (Yes, I've used AMD's and priced them, I prefer Intel right now)
    Corsair RAM
    Corsair Case
    Corsair Power Supply
    Corsair Hard Drives (SSD)
    Asus Motherboard
    Asus Video Card with NVidia chipset
    Segate Hard Drives (Mechanical)
    Windows 7 64 bit Advanced
    Samsung LCD

    while you can get parts cheaper from other vendors and they may work just fine I found these products to be for the most part the best quality, and support for the price (except for Asus which has excellent product but crap support IMHO)
    you can check out user reviews over at
    tomshardware.com
    and prices and user reviews at
    newegg.com and tigerdirect.com
    these places will generally be substantially cheaper then the guy on the other side of town.
    If you have a budget it will be far easier to narrow down the parts that will best suit you.

  • dv8FXdv8FX Posts: 23
    edited December 1969

    I'm also looking around for a new build and use this site's configuration page where I get to learn more about mix and matching parts and get too know the prices of such a build.... http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

  • ArchWorksArchWorks Posts: 43
    edited December 1969

    You can get more info here On which parts to get www.reddit.com/r/buildapc they already have complete builds depending on your budget...

  • UrumikeUrumike Posts: 16
    edited December 1969

    One maybe important hint:

    If you want to render fast, maybe not now but in the future, you later may consider switching from CPU rendering to GPU rendering.
    Means the final image is calculated on a graphics card. (Google Octane if you like)
    I'm not aware of any GPU renderer working with Radeon cards, may be wrong though.

    So my advice:
    Get a good rig suitable for your needs now, with a decent NVidia graphics card.
    And now the most important part:
    Get a mainboard which fits three dual slot PCIx 16 cards, so you can upgrade.

    I use the already mentioned ASUS P9X79 Pro ATX LGA2011, with two GTX 660 ti for rendering and one smaller card for the display.
    Like this you could switch cables and have two powerful cards SLI'd for gaming... ;-)

  • icprncssicprncss Posts: 3,694
    edited December 1969

    Is you current system a branded system.

    If it is and you wish to build your own system, you will have to add the cost of the OS.

  • jorge dorlandojorge dorlando Posts: 1,157
    edited December 1969

    Urumike said:
    One maybe important hint:

    If you want to render fast, maybe not now but in the future, you later may consider switching from CPU rendering to GPU rendering.
    Means the final image is calculated on a graphics card. (Google Octane if you like)
    I'm not aware of any GPU renderer working with Radeon cards, may be wrong though.

    So my advice:
    Get a good rig suitable for your needs now, with a decent NVidia graphics card.
    And now the most important part:
    Get a mainboard which fits three dual slot PCIx 16 cards, so you can upgrade.

    I use the already mentioned ASUS P9X79 Pro ATX LGA2011, with two GTX 660 ti for rendering and one smaller card for the display.
    Like this you could switch cables and have two powerful cards SLI'd for gaming... ;-)


    you said:
    " with two GTX 660 ti for rendering"
    what software do you use?
  • UrumikeUrumike Posts: 16
    edited December 1969

    jorge dorlando said:
    Urumike said:
    snipped my post...

    you said:
    " with two GTX 660 ti for rendering"
    what software do you use?
    Octane, waiting for a soon to be available plugin for Studio 4.5
    Octane needs a lot of VRAM and CUDA cores, but scales, use one card, 10 mins a render, use two cards 5 mins a render...
    Have a simple scene rendering now, one Genesis, one backdrop, three lights, 1500x2000 in about 35 mins to 1000 samples per pixel...
  • StratDragonStratDragon Posts: 3,167
    edited December 1969

    Fast renders often depend on how your scene is set up. Unnecessary settings can slow the most powerful GPU or CPU to their knees (do you really need displacement on hair if it's not a portrait shot?)
    The result of faster render that retains quality is knowing what your setting do, especially if you're on a budget. How many times should light bounce off a surface? How long will it take the rendering engine to draw a shadow on a surface with a displacement with a surface that has another displacement and could I consolidate that in a texture beforehand or some postwork after?

    I'm rendering in 3Delight, LuxRender and Cycles, they each have their strong points and weaknesses, but one solution does not fit all. Your computer is only going to be as fast as it's slowest necessary component in the rendering pipeline.

    Consider that a render at 1000x1000 takes 4 times the resources as a the same render at 500x500, not 2 times, it goes up tp 16 times at 2000x2000


    500x500
    ]500x500]


    1000x1000
    [500x500][500x500]
    [500x500][500x500]


    2000x2000
    [500x500][500x500][500x500][500x500]
    [500x500][500x500][500x500][500x500]
    [500x500][500x500][500x500][500x500]
    [500x500][500x500][500x500][500x500]

  • muller252muller252 Posts: 42
    edited December 1969

    Richard Haseltine said:
    You need to give some indication of your budget, and which country you live in.

    I live in broke and corrupt Ireland, and am looking at around €1,000, or 1,300 USD

  • muller252muller252 Posts: 42
    edited December 1969

    muller252 said:
    You need to give some indication of your budget, and which country you live in.

    I live in broke and corrupt Ireland, and am looking at around €1,000, or 1,300 USD and I have never done this before. All the tech terms mean nothing to me. I need a machine thats powerful, reliable, upgradeable.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited February 2013

    I have just asked our Irish CV to come and have a word with you, may take a few minutes, as he is a busy guy. He is ex-tech support, currently studying as a mature student at Dublin Uni

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • NeilV_1NeilV_1 Posts: 442
    edited December 1969

    muller252 said:
    Richard Haseltine said:
    You need to give some indication of your budget, and which country you live in.

    I live in broke and corrupt Ireland, and am looking at around €1,000, or 1,300 USD
    I am in Ireland as well but I buy all my parts from the UK as they tend to be around 25 to 35% cheaper if you are building yourself I use company's that sell through e-bay/Amazon but I also tend to update bits at a time .

    this is one company I use regularly (don't forget to convert to euro) http://stores.ebay.co.uk/COMPUTER-TECHNOLOGY-STOKE-LTD/Computer-Tech-Systems-/_i.html?_fsub=1569646015&_sid=786750405&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 and I have not had any issues with returns, they also sell form their own site or from Amazon as well I recently got a mainboard and FX processor bundle from them

Sign In or Register to comment.