New Work Pc

Good Morning,

I am having a few problems deciding what good pc i need with a reasonable price to for work my old system has

Intel core 2 duo E4500 2.20ghz

2 mb ram

250 gb HD

ATi Radeon ( cant remeber what type but is an old one)

the pc im looking at is

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 ghz

3 gb ram

250 gb Hd

Ati Radeon HD 4870 1024mb

Im not sure how much better the performance that would be

if you have any ideas or suggestions on a pc that would be very helpful. as basically. its for render perposes as my pc is not coping very well and printing from a render to.

Thanks

I would suggest bumping up the RAM to 4GB or more if the mobo can handle it.

What OS will you be running?

id prob use vista business 64bit

iv been hunting online and i thought this would be a good option

Intel Core 2 quad Q9550 12mb cache

4 Gb Ram

160 Gb Hd

1023 Mb Radeon HD 4870 express

that works out to be £943

and i have been quoted by a company for

Interl core quad Q6600 2.4

2 GB ram

320 GB

256MB Radeon 3470

thats 9993.60

im thinking the top one is the one to go for?

More RAM is always nice to have but do keep in mind that unless you're using Vista 64bit you won't actually be able to use more then 3GB.

If your concern is about rendering then the better the video card the better and quicker the results.

If you could tell us what it is the system should be able to do then it would be easier to advise you.

You can use up to 4GB with WinXP.

More RAM is always nice to have but do keep in mind that unless you're using Vista 64bit you won't actually be able to use more then 3GB.

 

If your concern is about rendering then the better the video card the better and quicker the results.

 

If you could tell us what it is the system should be able to do then it would be easier to advise you.

what do you mean? if i could tell you what the system should be able to do?

You can use up to 4GB with WinXP.

we already have vista 64 bit in the office so ill just install that

I think Peter K. is asking what the computer will be used for. Will you be doing a lot of graphics intensive work? Maybe AutoCAD 3D? Maybe rendering?

oh i see

well id be using all 3 really at the moment i use autocad 3dmax and coral

oh i see

 

well id be using all 3 really at the moment i use autocad 3dmax and coral

sorry id be doing 2d and 3d work high and low renders and graphic work

More RAM is always nice to have but do keep in mind that unless you're using Vista 64bit you won't actually be able to use more then 3GB.

 

If your concern is about rendering then the better the video card the better and quicker the results.

 

If you could tell us what it is the system should be able to do then it would be easier to advise you.

I would be mainley 3 programs autocad 09 3d max 9 and coral paint shop pro

In other words high end graphics which means that the better the videocard and the more ram in has on board the better, as in faster, you'll be working especially because of the rendering you will be wanting to do.

If you are on a network and can store your work on a server then the actual Harddrive of the PC is less of an issue because then it will only be used to store the programs, it's data and be used as a temporary scratch disk for your graphics.

If you aren't on a network then a bigger harddrive is always better but then again... it's always possible to add more harddrives, internally or externally if you should run out of space so as long as you start with 120 GB, or bigger, you should be more then fine for a while.

I would make my choice based on :

- how much money is available for it

- which is the system with a reasonable sized HD, a recent generation of processor/motherboard and has a top of the line graphics card with lots of on board memory that is available in that price range keeping in mind that you want to max out the PC's own RAM.

In other words high end graphics which means that the better the videocard and the more ram in has on board the better, as in faster, you'll be working especially because of the rendering you will be wanting to do.

 

If you are on a network and can store your work on a server then the actual Harddrive of the PC is less of an issue because then it will only be used to store the programs, it's data and be used as a temporary scratch disk for your graphics.

If you aren't on a network then a bigger harddrive is always better but then again... it's always possible to add more harddrives, internally or externally if you should run out of space so as long as you start with 120 GB, or bigger, you should be more then fine for a while.

 

I would make my choice based on :

- how much money is available for it

- which is the system with a reasonable sized HD, a recent generation of processor/motherboard and has a top of the line graphics card with lots of on board memory that is available in that price range keeping in mind that you want to max out the PC's own RAM.

The computer will be on a network, im looking at a budget £950 or Less Pretty much due to the current climate. my bosses main concern is the performance he is not willing to pay unless the new computer's perfromance is 100% better than my computer now or at least 70%

The one way I know of to dramatically enhance efficiency is by going from a single screen to a dual screen set-up.

Michael,

you might want to read :

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/115846

Michael,

 

you might want to read :

 

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/115846

i like the idea of that but how do you switch from one screen to another?

Some more reading for you

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dual-monitor-setup.htm

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/dual-monitors.html

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/twomonitors.mspx

The main thing to remember is that you either need a good graphics card with 2 outputs or 2 graphics cards.

----

And if you still need to enhance it further you can use

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

or

http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

----

The point being that even with keeping the same system but adding a graphics card (if your current system permits it) and a second screen you could enhance functionality, performance and efficiency. E.g. using your current screen and card for the mundane things and using a really good card with a second screen.

I've been using a workstation with dual screen now for almost a year and I must admit that for small tasks it's neat but not necessary but when dealing with a heavy assignment I can't understand how I was able to do it in the past without it. Even just the ability to have a document open with data that you need while working on a drawing is very helpful.

The sweet thing is that a decent card and a decent TFT screen is certainly within that 950 margin. For that kind of money you probably could get a sweat 24" TFT wide + a top of the line card.

Eg.: I could buy a "ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2" for 425 Euro and a "'Iiyama E2607WS-B1 - 26" TFT Wide 2ms" for 330 Euro (VAT not incl) and I bet you will easily find better prices then that in the UK.

In the end, no one can say what you should get or what will be the best thing to do. The only thing anyone can do is give their opinion, possibilities and help you understand what to look out for or avoid.

Some more reading for you

 

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dual-monitor-setup.htm

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/dual-monitors.html

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/twomonitors.mspx

 

The main thing to remember is that you either need a good graphics card with 2 outputs or 2 graphics cards.

 

----

And if you still need to enhance it further you can use

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

or

http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

 

----

 

The point being that even with keeping the same system but adding a graphics card (if your current system permits it) and a second screen you could enhance functionality, performance and efficiency. E.g. using your current screen and card for the mundane things and using a really good card with a second screen.

 

I've been using a workstation with dual screen now for almost a year and I must admit that for small tasks it's neat but not necessary but when dealing with a heavy assignment I can't understand how I was able to do it in the past without it. Even just the ability to have a document open with data that you need while working on a drawing is very helpful.

 

The sweet thing is that a decent card and a decent TFT screen is certainly within that 950 margin. For that kind of money you probably could get a sweat 24" TFT wide + a top of the line card.

 

Eg.: I could buy a "ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2" for 425 Euro and a "'Iiyama E2607WS-B1 - 26" TFT Wide 2ms" for 330 Euro (VAT not incl) and I bet you will easily find better prices then that in the UK.

 

In the end, no one can say what you should get or what will be the best thing to do. The only thing anyone can do is give their opinion, possibilities and help you understand what to look out for or avoid.

Thanks for the help i have a good idea of what to get now i am just stuck on a processor to get i do like the look of a intel core quad Q9550 but i read somwhere that its not as important to have a really powerful processor?