SCI_Design Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Alienware has been great for me... going strong for almost three years now with no issues at all. Go with the biggest RAM and Video card you can afford. As others have said, a Solid State Drive (SSD) for operating system can speed you up as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbuttery Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I've been using Norton 360 for years I has been consistently receiving the highest reviews in the PC magazines years ago it was totally re-written and no longer the resource hog that it used to be Lew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief16Designer Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodCole Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I have been looking into purchasing a new desktop lately myself. Decided to wait till intel gen 5 is out and new hardware is available. Sounds to good to be true, but will wait to check it out anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Rod, If you can wait a little longer, you might want to wait for Gen 6 (Skylake). http://www.pcworld.com/article/2683392/pc-confusion-to-linger-on-intels-quick-jump-to-skylake.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zowie123 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 If you go local, find someone with workstation experience. Gaming cards have a diminishing return for cad applications, super fast refresh rates are not going to help with Chief Raytracing. For Chief 3D you want as many cores as possible, fast ram and an SSD in conjunction with your HD. It does beg the question of whether Chief is programmed to take advantage of AMDs 8 core processors over Intel quads. Intel uses superior silicon, but it all depends on how chief is programmed to know which will run faster. If anyone has inside info on that, please pipe-up. I'm going to try an AMD 8 core chip for fun in a few weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 If you go local, find someone with workstation experience. Gaming cards have a diminishing return for cad applications, super fast refresh rates are not going to help with Chief Raytracing. Gaming cards aren't designed for cad work, they are for 3d, and fast refresh rates for camera views and make all the difference in the world for me. Raytracing is done with the "CPU", the more cores the better. Chief is a 3d program and has Cad on the side. They have always recommended gaming cards for the best performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zowie123 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Yes, had that backwards. 3D GPU Raytracing CPU. It would be nice to know where high end gaming cards fall off, I've read that people who've spent oodles for super fast gaming cards have not seen that much difference. I don't know, another one of life's mysteries. I'm still interested in knowing whether Chief is programmed to take advantage of more than 4 cores? They say as many cores as possible, so I'm assuming so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I have spent over $800 for a video card and it made all the difference for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barton_Brown Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I'm still interested in knowing whether Chief is programmed to take advantage of more than 4 cores? They say as many cores as possible, so I'm assuming so. Yes CA takes advantage of more than 4 cores. I have a 6 core Intel processor and utilize a Windows gadget that shows CPU usage. For ray tracing, all six cores get fully loaded (when the CA 'optimized for ray trace' option is set). When doing something within CA that loads the system all CPUs also become active. I don't have any direct experience with AMD processors but would expect all cores would also be utilized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zowie123 Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Thanks for that info Barton! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFogarty Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 I spoke to my son and he buys a lot of his components through newegg.com and some from Fry's electronics and even alienware. I think with all the information I have been given I think I will build a system myself using his help and the technical information that you have all shared with me. I have been using AVG as an antivirus and I also herd some good things about system mechanic. Any thoughts on that? Thank You If you're not intimidated by building a computer, you'll get the absoluted most bang for your buck by building one. I've built my last 3 desktops with top of the line components for around $1000 each. The people over at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ provide an amazing resource, tell them what your needs are and they'll search out the best parts for the best prices at the time. They'll give you a complete breakdown of what you need to buy (with links attached).......you just buy it and put it together.....piece of cake! Best part is, they charge you all of NOTHING for their services! Even if you are hesitant on building a computer, all the information you'd ever need is online, it really isn't that difficult. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
builtright3 Posted October 7, 2014 Author Share Posted October 7, 2014 If you're not intimidated by building a computer, you'll get the absoluted most bang for your buck by building one. I've built my last 3 desktops with top of the line components for around $1000 each. The people over at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ provide an amazing resource, tell them what your needs are and they'll search out the best parts for the best prices at the time. They'll give you a complete breakdown of what you need to buy (with links attached).......you just buy it and put it together.....piece of cake! Best part is, they charge you all of NOTHING for their services! Even if you are hesitant on building a computer, all the information you'd ever need is online, it really isn't that difficult. Good Luck! I will check that out. Thank You! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now