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Help on Computers needed!

Free Mind

Free Mind

I'm a Dragon! Rawr!
Nov 16, 2010
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I am thinking of buying a Desktop PC or whatever you call it, the big thing that looks like a block that goes under your desk...And my stepdad said that he can build computers so I was thinking of getting parts for a computer and erm...Putting it all together I guess.

I use Sony Vegas, Adobe After Effects, and probably Photoshop amongst other software along these lines a lot so I would need something that makes these programs work pretty damn fast. I'd probably use some music composer program in the future also.

Any suggestions for some decent stuff that would help me with speeding up these particular programs? I was told about graphics cards and processors, but I don't even know where to start with that...


Please Help? :m169:
 
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It's a case or tower and it really depends on how much money you are willing to spend.

You will need:

Motherboard
CPU/fan
Memory
Hard drive
Network/modem card
Graphics card

Also perhaps
CD/DVD drive
 
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Wyote said:
It's a case or tower and it really depends on how much money you are willing to spend.

You will need:

Motherboard
CPU/fan
Memory
Hard drive
Network/modem card
Graphics card

Also perhaps
CD/DVD drive
Click to expand...


I don't really have a budget as of yet, but I'd like to see the top whack 1's on each of these on the list. Thanks for the help Wyote. :)
 
If you are going to go with a PC running Windows, you should be able to build an absolute monster for $1500, not counting any monitor, or specific spendy items like SSDs. $1000 would still allow you to build something quite speedy.

Consider looking at some builders’ spec lists to get an idea of the kind of configs you might want.

Given the apps you listed, a healthy amount of RAM and a multi-core processor sound like a good idea. I don’t know about Vegas as it concerns processor use, but Adobe After Effects eats cores for breakfast. :wink:

With other input, this should be a good thread. :thumb:

I like newegg.com


cheers,
Ian
 
RAM:

I would recommend 4 GB of RAM (2 sticks of 2 GB each). You may not need that much, but RAM is pretty cheap so it's probably good to be safe. I forget what the pins do (looking some up, they're listed as "240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 4 GB" and things like that), but I do know you have to make sure that whatever motherboard you get supports that type. Any more than 4 GB is completely useless unless you know you're going to use 64-bit Windows... and tbh even if you are using a 64-bit operating system having any more than 4 GB won't help that much.

Processors:

I'm kind of out of touch with the newest lines of processors... but I've heard that Intel's i5 and i7 ones are extremely nice. Probably pretty much anything being sold right now will work fine... but I don't know the specifics anymore.

I do know that Intel chips tend to be more expensive than AMD ones, because AMD has a company policy that they don't advertise at all. The main downside to AMDs are that they run hot. Since you're using a desktop, you might not care... but on laptops the heat can be kind of uncomfortable. I've also heard that since they run hot, the processor wears out faster than Intel's do... but I'm not sure how true that is. My family's had the same AMD PC for about 6 years now, and it's still working fine. Well... the software is all out of date and it's slow because it's old, but nothing on it is broken yet.

Graphics cards:

I don't know too much about the specifics of these either, but I do agree you're going to want a pretty good one, if you're using photoshop and Vegas and stuff like that. The two brands you probably want to look into are NVIDIA and ATI. It doesn't sound like you're planning on doing anything with linux, judging by the software you mnetioned... but if you are, you should know that ATI has pretty shitty linux support. It works alright... but the 3D support is pretty bad. The other thing to note is that each brand of graphics card is works better with one brand of processor. If you're using an Intel processor, NVIDIA graphics cards tend to work better with it. If you're using an AMD processor, ATI cards work better.

Motherboards:

I left this 'til the end because you pretty much just want a motherboard that supports the other components you want. If you plan on upgrading your machine piece-by-piece (rather than just getting a whole new computer all at once), you might want one that supports a bit more than what you want, so there's room to upgrade... but it just depends on what you want. Each Motherboard will list how much RAM and what type of processor it's compatible with. You'll see something like "4
 
You NEED one of these! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=AMD_12_core_processor-_-19-105-267-_-Product

Just kidding.

http://www.newegg.com is one of my favorite places for browsing computer equipment. Just looking through some of the stuff on there will help you get acquainted.

The motherboard mandates what kind of processor and RAM you can get, those have specific speeds/sockets.

Case, Power supply (in most cases), Hard drive (in most cases), are universal.

Video card isn't a big concern if you aren't planning on doing gaming or movie editing. Although watching blu-ray movies benefits from having a GPU to decode the vid. If you aren't sure if you are going to do gaming, but might, then go with a $100-150 card.

HardOCP forums always has a lot of discussion about comp tech but it might be a little too in depth for your tastes.
 
frozen_water said:
RAM:

I would recommend 4 GB of RAM (2 sticks of 2 GB each). You may not need that much, but RAM is pretty cheap so it's probably good to be safe. I forget what the pins do (looking some up, they're listed as "240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 4 GB" and things like that), but I do know you have to make sure that whatever motherboard you get supports that type. Any more than 4 GB is completely useless unless you know you're going to use 64-bit Windows... and tbh even if you are using a 64-bit operating system having any more than 4 GB won't help that much.
Click to expand...

True, if you are using a 32-bit OS and apps, there is no point in having more than 4GB of RAM. That said, I would recommend running a 64-bit OS and apps, and getting at least 8GB RAM, especially when running media apps like Vegas and After Effects.

I don
 
If its a windows pc your building, then its best to get windows7, unless you buy win7 oem, retail versions come with both x86 and x64, all new hardware will be x64 ready, and unlike xp x64(ohgod the horror) there are hardly any downsides to using a 64bit os* and most programs now are made with 64bit in mind, i know photoshop has a 64bit version.

With that in mind and with the programs you said(photoshop, etc) i'd say a minimum of 4gb is recommended.

As for cpu/mobo/gfx i haven't being keeping up with the latest stuff so i can't help you there.

toms hardware charts are usually a good start point when looking for components

here's one for current cpu's benchmarking time for image processing in photoshop

However one piece of advice i will give is don't try save money by buying a cheap power supply, the amount of times i've seen high end gaming builds with a cheap
 
The most important things you should keep in mind:

RAM: You will want at least 4GB.
Processor: Most quad-core processors will work good for your tasks.
Hard Drive: Get a large capacity one. They tend to be faster than low capacity ones because data is packed more densely on the platter. 2TB drives are cheap these days.
Power Supply: Don't skimp on this. You don't need anything too high end, but you might regret buying the cheapest one since bottom-end ones will feed inadequate power to your components which may lead to a higher risk of component failure somewhere down the line.
Video Card: This is typically not important unless you are doing 3D editing. If you buy a decent motherboard, the onboard video will be sufficient for most tasks. You can always purchase a video card later if you want to use the PC for gaming or need fast graphics hardware.
Sound Card: This will be important if you do audio production. Onboard sound tends to be insufficient for production-quality work due to circuitry which is poorly insulated from the ambient electronic signals from the motherboard itself. Discrete soundcards also provide higher quality audio output if you are an audiophile.

What kind of creative production will you be doing? The programs you listed seem to cover a wide range of things, so what are the primary things you plan to do?
 
Making your own computer is definitely rewarding and worth the time/money. That way you can upgrade as time goes on (in the long run, it's much less expensive when you just upgrade individual parts rather than buying a new computer entirely). Like others have stated, RAM is a big factor in keeping things running smoothly. I'd also recommend a decent hard drive. I bought a 1TB for ~$90 and that's plenty of space for my music, art, and photo manipulating needs.

I'd recommend buying inexpensive parts through newegg.com and also looking up/googling some simple "Build your own computer" how-tos. I knew nothing about building my own computer, but did this and made a pretty kickass computer from scratch a couple of years ago.
 
Zero Angel said:
What kind of creative production will you be doing? The programs you listed seem to cover a wide range of things, so what are the primary things you plan to do?
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the input, it is greatly appreciated. :)


I will mainly be rendering videos on sony vegas and using a program for the graphics tablet I have. On a later date I may get a program for music composing. And I would do a little bit of gaming I guess, maybe some Minecraft or something. xD


Again, thanks for all the info and help!!! :m107:
 
Free Mind said:
I will mainly be rendering videos on sony vegas and using a program for the graphics tablet I have. On a later date I may get a program for music composing. And I would do a little bit of gaming I guess, maybe some Minecraft or something. xD
Click to expand...

A video card that hits a sweet-spot of price vs. performance should work well for you - the benefit being that it won
 
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