Going back to PC gaming and 3D Work, building a new PC help for Bday

[Northelim]

Hello everyone ^_^ I am new to the forums and this is my 1st thread.

I been lately out of the PC gaming area for a few years now, just playing my wii, ps3, and 360 but after many years I realized that consoles will always be inferior to computers. Not saying that they suck, I still like them but I cannot stand playing FPS games anymore on my consoles.

I am looking forward to upcoming releases such as StarCraft 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of Pripyat, Diablo 3, Aliens Versus Predator, Rage, Bioshock 2, DOOM 4, Half-Life 2 Episode 3, Crysis 2, and so on and so forth....

However, I also do 3D CG type of work and planning on perusing a career once I graduate in the game industry or cinematic or wherever I can get a job first, but gaming industry is my goal.

I use Maya 64 bit, ZbRush, Photoshop CS 4, 3ds max 2010 32 bit and 64 bit..

So I need a powerful computer all around for gaming and for 3d work, especially for high polygon count and rendering.

My Bday is coming up in about 2 months, and it's when I am planning to upgrade. I am not sure how much I will be able to spend oh and also I have never built a computer before, so I'll either have a friend do it for me or a computer store.

What is the latest out there right now? Is there anything new in the next two months?

I need a computer that will be able run majority of the newest games on 50-60 fps at maxed out settings and of course also for rendering process.

I am currently on a laptop with a 1600x1200 hd resolution, Blu-ray player, Windows 7 64 bit., 6 gigs of ram, ATI Mobility HD 4650 512mb vRAM, it runs some games pretty good, but not good enough, however I mainly use my laptop for my university/college classes... Costed me exactly $1000 which is in my mind a good deal for a new modern PC laptop as opposed to the crappy Mac Book Pro that is weaker and is a complete rip off...

I want a new built Desktop PC, I haven't upgraded since 2005... and it's really ****ty now lol

What can I do, where should I look? What do you recommend?

I am looking at spending 1 K - 2 K maybe higher...

Thank you all, hope for replies soon!

 

[patonb]

Can you fathom a price? say under a grand, upto 1500, etc.

Youre needs involve some possibly higher valued parts.

Give a possible estimate, and we can start.

Oh, and wheres aboot are yee?

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Northelim]

Can you fathom a price? say under a grand, upto 1500, etc.

Youre needs involve some possibly higher valued parts.

Give a possible estimate, and we can start.

Oh, and wheres aboot are yee?

Welcome to the forum.

Not quite sure, well.... 1 K - 2 K somewhere around there, maybe a bit higher but for now let's focus on 1 K - 2 K.

1500 prolly would be a good estimate...

I am in Orlando, Florida and yerself?

Oh and do you happen to have AIM or MSN? It will be easier to discuss there..

 

[patonb]

I'm useless to you on solid builds... I'm also up in canada.

However for 1-2 k your at the upper end so there will be no issues getting a rig that'll do everfything you need for a while.

A lot of people come looking and want top, but got only a middle budget. Fortunately, your wants is close to your wallet.

 

[Northelim]

I'm useless to you on solid builds... I'm also up in canada.

However for 1-2 k your at the upper end so there will be no issues getting a rig that'll do everfything you need for a while.

A lot of people come looking and want top, but got only a middle budget. Fortunately, your wants is close to your wallet.

So what's better ATI or Nvidia these days?

Do I need SLI or Crossfire, what does it exactly do? Can I get away with 1 real good card?

What's a better processor right now AMD or Intel?

Should 6 gigs of ram be enough? or should I go for 12 gigs?

 

[Ste]

Let me configure one for you.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=i7-_-19-115-202-_-Product
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231260
OS: 64 bit windows 7 pro
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049
Video card (Sli): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125280&cm_re=gtx_285-_-14-125-280-_-Product
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
2x burners: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335
Case: Your choice so long as ATX full tower
Harddrive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136358
Harddrive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

 

[farinha]

Well if you're planning to upgrade in two months I will advise you to come back in two months and we'll set a build for you. Technology changes very fast, the new i9 will come out, maybe the NVIDIA gts300 series. The i7 920 will be replaced by the i7 930.

Answering to your questions, right now ATI it's the king of GPUs. The new HD5970 it's the most powerful GPU out there.
SLI is for NVIDIA and Crossfire is for ATI. It's when you combine two cards of the same model so you can have more processing power.
Intel has the most powerful processors while AMD have better performance/cost ratio. In your case you should get Intel.
In my opinion you should buy 6GB of RAM and if necessary buy another 6GB later on.

 

[Northelim]

hm... I see... well interesting...

By the way is it worth buying 8 or 12 core processors?

Also, what do you mean by Full ATX Tower?

 

[meat_helmet]

hm... I see... well interesting...

By the way is it worth buying 8 or 12 core processors?

Also, what do you mean by Full ATX Tower?

No such thing yet im affraid. But the idea is right, the more cores the better for 3D work. The majority of 3D renders (such as Mental Ray that comes with 3ds Max) greatly benifit from multithreading, ie. more cores.

Unlike with other programs and games, if you say, double the amount of cores you will pretty much double your rendering power and pretty much halve your rendering time. The LGA1366 i7 processors will be the best for you (4 cores, 8 threads), however, you will want to consider the i9 coming out soon (6cores, 12 threads). That is your best bet.

Graphics cards wont have an effect on rendering, so keep that it mind. It will help with general viewport use and speed up moving around complex scenes. So if you have millions of polys in your scenes, then you will want some serious graphics power such as a HD5870, or even two. But I run a single GTX285 (a fair bit slower) and its still good for fairly heave scenes (say a million polys).

A full ATX tower is a type of case. There are different form factors like ATX, miniATX and so on. A full tower is a larger case to allow for more equipment, better cooling etc. and will be based on the ATX form factor.

 

[Northelim]

What do you guys suggest for a case? Which brand, Antec, Cooler Master, Thelmatek? What price range should I be looking at?

Also what would be a good decent 20-26 Inches or higher monitor?