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Tigerlea |
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Tigerlea Nitrous Nuisance
Joined: 07 Jul 2016 Karma :
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Posted: 18:04 - 13 Sep 2017 Post subject: Building a computer – not my strong suit. Advice sought! |
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Right. So I'm on my way back to University.. er.. next week.
I have a laptop which I purchased as my last graduation gift – a 17" Macbook Pro which has served me well for the last 11 years, but it's time for an upgrade. I've wanted a desktop for ages but don't know much about building computers. I've only ever been good at coding on them.
I'm debating whether to spend money on an upgraded laptop as well as a desktop. I'm planning to get a PS4 soon, so I'm not sure I need the gaming monster I was originally planning on.
Apparently the minimum/recommended specs from the Uni are:
Dedicated graphics card
• 8gb, 12gb or 16gb memory
• SSD hard-drive
• i5 / i7 processor
Programs I know it'll need to run:
Dedicated graphics card
• Adobe Creative Suite
• 3DS Max
• Maya
• other digital creative software that I have yet to learn the name of
I also want to be able to play games on it.. Damn, I miss games. One of those is Overwatch.. but I found out I can play that on PS4, so again, with the debating.
Uhm... I had a rough budget in mind, but to be honest, I'm not sure if that has to be thrown out the window.
Help? Please?
I'm only a girl and I don't know what I'm doing
PS ~ I do not need the computer for next week. I don't actually get my flat until November, and the room I'll be renting in the meantime is too small to fit a tower. |
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CaNsA |
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CaNsA Super Spammer
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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Karma :
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Posted: 19:39 - 13 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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To be honest, probably hardly worth it these days, you'll do just as well going onto pc specialist and specing your own.
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ ____________________ Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them |
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M.C |
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M.C Super Spammer
Joined: 29 Sep 2015 Karma :
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Posted: 20:07 - 13 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Not an expert but I've done a bit of 3ds Max. TBH you need to decide if you want it for gaming or not, cos you'll be after a different spec' system. If not you'll probably be fine with a Ryzen system, an average GPU and as much memory as you can realistically afford
If it's for gaming you'll want a £3-400 GPU and better CPU to run anything decent. I'd only get a laptop if you need the portability, I used Max on my laptop at first and it was spectacularly shit. |
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Sapolsky |
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Sapolsky Borekit Bruiser
Joined: 05 Aug 2017 Karma :
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Posted: 20:08 - 13 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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You want another laptop? I'm confused as Uni generally = laptop, but you are asking about building your own?
I've been looking into laptops recently. As far as gaming goes the one with the best cost:performance appears to be Gigabyte Aero 15.
Absolute best for gaming appears to be Razer but paying a premium for "Razer".
I'm having a bit of a crisis as I have always been a mac person, since power pc days. My current laptop is a 2008 Macbook Pro that I've upgraded as much as I can. The new Macbooks (air/pro/standard) have ZERO upgradability, not even the bloody hard drive, and because of that I am no longer willing to hand over cash to Apple, no matter how great their build quality is
My shortlist atm is:
Lenovo Yoga 920 - intel graphics, blegh
Gigabyte Aero 15 - has a 6GB Geforce GTX 1060
Dell XPS 15 - has a 4GB GeForce GTX 1050
Each have pros and cons, leaning towards the gigabyte though.
What I have learned in my laptop searching:
- Wait for Kaby Lake processors (probably October), they run cooler and have lower power requirements so are good for laptops.
- Look for upgradability if you are happy to do such things, At the very least you want an upgradable Hard Drive. Yeah, yeah... SSD are more reliable, but if the shit hits the fan I want to be able to pop out a HD and replace it without having to send it back to the manufacturer or end up having to bin the entire bloody computer.
- Ports. I want ports, I want lots of ports. I don't want 2.
- 4K displays look fancy, but the scaling can make it difficult to read webpages and such, if you are going to be doing a lot of *work* on the computer, really not worth the extra cost as you'll spend more time faffing with setting to make stuff easier to read.
- I'm going to miss Mac OS
- I hate Tim Cook
As for desktops...
1) go to a site that builds them
2) add in all of the cool things
3) weep as you stare at the price
4) start compromising
5) keep compromising
6) admit defeat and buy what you can afford safe in the knowledge that you can upgrade it bit by bit in the future
One last thing - you mention overwatch, don't forget that a pc account and a console account are completely separate. If you are playing on console atm and buy the PC version, you will NOT get all of the stuff you have on console, you will be starting from scratch. (and vice versa ofc) |
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Howling Terror |
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Howling Terror Super Spammer
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CaNsA |
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CaNsA Super Spammer
Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Karma :
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Posted: 23:12 - 13 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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If i was gonna spunk a grand on a pc again, i would probs build something like this
https://i.imgur.com/0qNeOrc.png |
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RhynoCZ |
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RhynoCZ Super Spammer
Joined: 09 Mar 2012 Karma :
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Posted: 09:03 - 14 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Fun fact, the rx580 is just a overcloked rx480, you may flash the bios of the card to get there. I would get a GTX1060 instead. It's got better eficiency (less heat), slightely better gaming performance, pretty much the same price. GTX1070 would be the best choice here.
750W PSU is a bit excessive, for a single GPU set up.
Other than that, go ahead. I'd be more inclined to get a intel CPU or wait for the second rev. of the Ryzen chip. The optimalisation of the AMD platform is still a on going process and the games and software developers still prefer their rival from the blue team.
Also, don't forget you're going to have to buy Windows, or go with Linux on which the Ryzen chips don't work, as far as I know.
OR even, buy a used copy of W10, there are companies that sell used W10 licences, pretty much 50% off. These licences are mostly from failed businesses. It's a EU thing only though, so do it before the UK leaves it. ____________________ '87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor |
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CaNsA |
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CaNsA Super Spammer
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RhynoCZ |
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RhynoCZ Super Spammer
Joined: 09 Mar 2012 Karma :
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Posted: 12:48 - 14 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Not quite there, but on the interwebz, also the difference between the 480 and 580 is about 10% performance boost, not worth the extra money, if you asked me.
But, I'm going to ask you about the PSU. What expansion do you mean, CaNsA? ____________________ '87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor |
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owl |
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owl World Chat Champion
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CaNsA |
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CaNsA Super Spammer
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M.C |
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M.C Super Spammer
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Posted: 15:34 - 14 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Just a personal opinion, not wanting to join the nerd fight , I wouldn't spend that much on a Ryzen system. I'd go Intel/Nvidia if I was spending a grand, Ryzen for a budget build. |
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RhynoCZ |
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RhynoCZ Super Spammer
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CaNsA |
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CaNsA Super Spammer
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andym |
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andym World Chat Champion
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CaNsA |
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CaNsA Super Spammer
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RhynoCZ |
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RhynoCZ Super Spammer
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Posted: 20:29 - 14 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Andy, read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_cycle
The clock speed of a CPU is not the only performance figure anymore.
PSU wise, every PSU has it's given efficiency (the desing, componets...). Higher the wattage, more electricity gets turned into heat (side product, that you do not need). Lower wattage PSUs also have this issue but it's not as significant.
That's what the ''80 plus'' stuff is about. If you have a 80plus PSU, it means it converts 80% of the electrcity to what the PC needs and the rest of it, 20%, is heat. Higher the grade Bronze+, Gold+... better the eficiency. So, all this means, if you have a 1000W PSU with 80plus certification, you'll get 800W of DC for your PC and 200W in heat loss.
Early ATX PSUs had efficiency about 60 to 70%, That means from a 1000W PSU, 300-400W turned into heat and you only got effectively 600-700W for your PC.
I would say OP would be just fine with a 80plus 550W PSU. Some are even made so well, that the fan doesn't spin, unless you really push it.
EDIT: When talking about numbers, it's the maximum power output of such PSUs. ____________________ '87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor |
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Tigerlea |
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Tigerlea Nitrous Nuisance
Joined: 07 Jul 2016 Karma :
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Posted: 12:22 - 22 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Thanks for the advice so far guys. I was following the IT chatter pretty well until about the last 3 posts.
So.. I don't remember... Is ram and memory the same thing?
PS ~ I have gotten a PS4 - yay! |
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RhynoCZ |
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RhynoCZ Super Spammer
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pudder |
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pudder Scooby Slapper
Joined: 04 Nov 2016 Karma :
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Posted: 13:50 - 22 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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Tigerlea wrote: | Thanks for the advice so far guys. I was following the IT chatter pretty well until about the last 3 posts.
So.. I don't remember... Is ram and memory the same thing?
PS ~ I have gotten a PS4 - yay! |
RAM = Random access memory
Short term memory that can be accessed very quickly. It temporarily holds what you are working on. Without any context, in most cases I would guess 'memory' would refer to RAM.
There is also storage memory, in the form of a hard drive. This is where all your files are stored.
Analogy I used to use when I worked in Comet:
Imagine you are sitting at a desk in a library.
You have shelves and shelves of books sitting there, which are equivalent to your files stored on your hard drive. If you want to open a file/book, you have to look up where it is on the shelf, then go trudging off to retrieve it, which takes quite a while.
At any one time, you probably only want to have a small number of those files/books open, so you might as well keep them on your desk while you are using them. This is the equivalent of your RAM, its very quick to pick up a book from your desk.
If you only have a small desk (not much RAM), then it can't hold many books, and the librarian will come along and put some of them back on the shelves. The bigger your desk (the more RAM you have), then more you can have open at one time.
Overnight (when you turn the computer off), the librarian will come along and put all the books from your desk back on the shelf.
If you find that you are running out of space for your books/files, then you either need to get rid of some, or get more storage shelves. This would be a larger hard drive, or an additional hard drive. ____________________ 1993 Kawasaki AR50 (In bits) - 1984 Suzuki GP125 (Sold, but still ridden) - 1954 Matchless G3L (Being restored) - 2007 Suzuki Bandit 650 |
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owl World Chat Champion
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pudder Scooby Slapper
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Im-a-Ridah |
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Im-a-Ridah World Chat Champion
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Posted: 19:11 - 22 Sep 2017 Post subject: |
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I'm at uni. I use a 13" laptop. Desktops and 15"+ laptops are fine unless you want to take them to uni, which means carrying the huge lump around all day. Also remember that most of that software will be on computers in labs at uni. Maybe it's just me but I try to keep what I carry around as light as possible e.g tablet, usb charger and a pad for lecture notes.
Edit: I study engineering.
RhynoCZ wrote: |
Fun fact, the rx580 is just a overcloked rx480, you may flash the bios of the card to get there. I would get a GTX1060 instead. It's got better eficiency (less heat), slightely better gaming performance, pretty much the same price. GTX1070 would be the best choice here.
750W PSU is a bit excessive, for a single GPU set up.
Other than that, go ahead. I'd be more inclined to get a intel CPU or wait for the second rev. of the Ryzen chip. The optimalisation of the AMD platform is still a on going process and the games and software developers still prefer their rival from the blue team.
Also, don't forget you're going to have to buy Windows, or go with Linux on which the Ryzen chips don't work, as far as I know.
OR even, buy a used copy of W10, there are companies that sell used W10 licences, pretty much 50% off. These licences are mostly from failed businesses. It's a EU thing only though, so do it before the UK leaves it. |
Should be able to get a free copy of windows through uni. MSDNAA. |
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 6 years, 218 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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