build for undergraduate student of architecture

[dvr]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
PC will be used for architectural and office assignment (eg. 3dmax, sketchup, autocad, photoshop, word, powerpoint, etc) and low games (eg. warcraft-dotA, etc). p.s. i'm an undergraduate student.
hm, if the pc is ok for 3dmax, then it should be ok with games, even the higher ones, shouldn't it?


2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
less than $750 (balance between the performance and the price is hoped for)


3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Indonesia (www.bhinneka.com can be referred for the price)


4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
i think amd costs less price, yet it offer good performance.
no preference for harddisk.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
nope

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3528&p=4 >> "the System Buyers Guide: PCs under $800"


7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
no oc

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
a.s.a.p (this week if possible)


actually i've searched and the result confused me because i don't know how much quality of the processor, video card, and power supply that i need.... and the motherboard(there's a Biostar TForce TA790GX3 A2+, already has an add-on vga card, but i don't think the hd3300 is good enough, am i right? should i just use the MB that has no add-on vga?


need ur recommendation for all parts that i need, if possible. thanks!

 

[dvr]

oh, forget. i use 19" monitor resolution 1440x900, upgrade is considerable, what graphic card should be ok for my needs?

 

[AstroGuardian]

I just bought similar rig for a friend who is architect and it runs great for him.

VGA Card does not have to be so expensive. You can try Gigabyte 9800GTOC 1Gb for no more than 110$. You need more VRAM than GPU power. Dual core CPU would be fine. Make sure it's faster one (E8500) since you won't OC. Quad core is not necessary. Go for P45/P43 board. Any board should be fine but try to stick to GigaByte, Asus, MSI. Go for at least two disks in RAID Stripe which will help A LOT with your CAD, 3DS MAX, Photoshop apps. Do not forget third disk for storage and backup since RAID Stripe has no redundancy. Put at least 4GB of RAM CL5 at least.

This machine should suite you well for the next 3 years at least. It is upgradable so you can go for Quad or 8Gb of ram later. (3DS Max tends to love it)

 

[dvr]

thx for replying, this is my 1st time writing here

9800gtoc isn't sold here..huh.. wat are other choice?

oh yeah, i've searched for the spec u mention,
E8500 $203 / phenomII X3720BE $153
palit hd 4850 $172 / saphire hd 4830 $130 / or???


what is RAID stripe?

^^

 

[vshah]

Originally posted by: dvr
thx for replying, this is my 1st time writing here

9800gtoc isn't sold here..huh.. wat are other choice?

oh yeah, i've searched for the spec u mention,
E8500 $203 / phenomII X3720BE $153
palit hd 4850 $172 / saphire hd 4830 $130 / or???


what is RAID stripe?

^^

raid 0 (striping) is a method of using two hard drives to increase read/write speeds. the raid controller (built into most newer motherboards these days) alternates writing bits from one drive to the other. the advantage is that in some situations, it can be almost twice as fast. the disadvantage is that if one disk fails, you lose all your data. which is why astro recommended you have a third disk for backup/storage

 

[dvr]

sorry late reply..

umh, could u give recommendation on CPU and GPU that will be sufficient for 3dmax, autocad, sketchup?
i'm confused now.. people say i don't need a very good CPU and GPU.. but i need lot of RAM..

will HD 4850 do a better job than cheaper vga card for me?
should i chose intel or amd? (seems that amd costs less..)

thx

 

[AstroGuardian]

Closest GPU to 9800GTOC is any 9800GT chip and they are widely available. HD4850 will also be a very good choice. So both of them would be great.

AMD is cheaper but weaker. i Suggest you stick to Intel at this time.
Conclusion:
1. GPU: 9800GT / 9600GT or AMD HD 4850
2. CPU: E7300, E7400, E8400, E8500, any of them will do just fine.

The amount of RAM your applications will need depends on the complexity of the projects you will work on. But 4Gb should be just fine. If you purckase now 2 modules with 2Gb each, you can just add two more later and have 8Gb but personally i think you will need no more than 4.

Any more questions?

 

[dixon]

up the budget to 1000$ and get a quad core(q9400) and 4gb ram + 4870 1gb(get them fast because they are getting replaced by 4890)
ps: gw juga orang indo kmrn baru beli kompi di bhinneka spec i7 920, asus p6t, ocz 3x2gb, gtx 260-216, corsair 750watt total2=1500 ama casing antec 900 ama speaker logitech z2300
suruh orang sana aja yg bkin jadinya bagus kok rapi bgd cable managementnya.
ini gw bkin bwt solidworks matlab etc cuz gw bljr undergraduate mechanical engineering

 

[Buddyd]

Originally posted by: AstroGuardian
The amount of RAM your applications will need depends on the complexity of the projects you will work on. But 4Gb should be just fine. If you purckase now 2 modules with 2Gb each, you can just add two more later and have 8Gb but personally i think you will need no more than 4.
Any more questions?

Actually since he is going into architecture it is more than likely he will be working with ReVit which is a very memory intensive program. I would recommend a minimum of 8gb of ram and if possible up to 16gb.

I got my degree in Architectural Engineering so I had to deal with many of the prgrams he will and the architectural programs require a lot of ram when working on projects that are larger than a single family home.

As for the GPU you want to look at each software's tech support site and make sure the video card you are getting is supported. Autocad support can be pretty standoffish if your video card is not on there supported list.

 

[heyheybooboo]

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition: $153US
BIOSTAR TA790GX 128M: $105US

The Gigabyte 790X would be a good choice here but you want the -UD4P NOT the -DS4.


INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400: $173US
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3LR: $154US

You could go with the e7300/e7400 to bring the prices more in line but you start to lose out on performance. The Gigabyte P43 would save you $30US but you are losing out on the second PCIe x16 slot - which will become more important in the future as GPU processing advances.

 

[dvr]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition: $153US
BIOSTAR TA790GX 128M: $105US

The Gigabyte 790X would be a good choice here but you want the -UD4P NOT the -DS4.


INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400: $173US
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3LR: $154US

You could go with the e7300/e7400 to bring the prices more in line but you start to lose out on performance. The Gigabyte P43 would save you $30US but you are losing out on the second PCIe x16 slot - which will become more important in the future as GPU processing advances.

hm, so, is phenom 720 better than e8400?

what's is -UD4P and -DS4? sorry, lack of computer thing..

 

[dvr]

Originally posted by: Buddyd

Originally posted by: AstroGuardian
The amount of RAM your applications will need depends on the complexity of the projects you will work on. But 4Gb should be just fine. If you purckase now 2 modules with 2Gb each, you can just add two more later and have 8Gb but personally i think you will need no more than 4.
Any more questions?

Actually since he is going into architecture it is more than likely he will be working with ReVit which is a very memory intensive program. I would recommend a minimum of 8gb of ram and if possible up to 16gb.

I got my degree in Architectural Engineering so I had to deal with many of the prgrams he will and the architectural programs require a lot of ram when working on projects that are larger than a single family home.

As for the GPU you want to look at each software's tech support site and make sure the video card you are getting is supported. Autocad support can be pretty standoffish if your video card is not on there supported list.

where to find the list of vga supported by autocad?

 

[dvr]

btw, i forget to mention that i'm in 2nd year, and i think i don't need a very high spec yet for now..

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: dvr

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition: $153US
BIOSTAR TA790GX 128M: $105US

The Gigabyte 790X would be a good choice here but you want the -UD4P NOT the -DS4.


INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400: $173US
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3LR: $154US

You could go with the e7300/e7400 to bring the prices more in line but you start to lose out on performance. The Gigabyte P43 would save you $30US but you are losing out on the second PCIe x16 slot - which will become more important in the future as GPU processing advances.

hm, so, is phenom 720 better than e8400?

what's is -UD4P and -DS4? sorry, lack of computer thing..

The e8400 and Phenom 720BE compare quite well. Anand Benchies ---->>
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=3512&p=5

The -UD4P is a newer version of the Gigabyte AMD 790X chipset motherboard. Some of the older versions (the -DS4) worked quite well, some of the -DS4s not so well

 

[Buddyd]

Here is the link to Autodesk's supported video card page. It seems a little dated you may have better luck contacting them and asking about specific cards.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/s...6711853&linkID=9240618

Even though you are only a 2nd year I would still say to get 8gb of ram mainly because revit is becoming the standard and the level of detail in revit even on smaller projects can eat ram.

 

[dvr]

Originally posted by: Buddyd
Here is the link to Autodesk's supported video card page. It seems a little dated you may have better luck contacting them and asking about specific cards.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/s...6711853&linkID=9240618

Even though you are only a 2nd year I would still say to get 8gb of ram mainly because revit is becoming the standard and the level of detail in revit even on smaller projects can eat ram.

yup, ic..

hm, ati Radeon 48series is supported.
hm, better take the 4850 or 4830?(pros n cons?

 

[0roo0roo]

lol no, don't use such a tiny screen. if you are into graphic programs for your work then screen real estate + resolution matters. 19" widescreen resolution is a sad joke really, even 22" is a sad joke esp on the budget end, only 24" with atleast hd resolution gets you decent work space

sacrifice in other areas, but not the screen.

 

[dvr]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
lol no, don't use such a tiny screen. if you are into graphic programs for your work then screen real estate + resolution matters. 19" widescreen resolution is a sad joke really, even 22" is a sad joke esp on the budget end, only 24" with atleast hd resolution gets you decent work space

sacrifice in other areas, but not the screen.

22 and 24 is still expensive here for now, and i'm not really into project work that earns money, i'm in learning now.. maybe screen can be upgraded later..

 

[0roo0roo]

i guess its more expensive there?

its pretty darn cheap here!

 

[dvr]

hello, i've decided to go with:
-4gb RAM
-500GB Harddisk
-HIS HD 4670 ICEQ Turbo

the question is: whether X3 720BE or athlon64 X2 7750 BE is enough for 3d application? i've never OC but maybe wanna try.

thx in adv