I’ve been thinking for sometime now to change my 4,5 years old computer,and since I 've been playing with blender for the last year I need your advice towards to what I should consider buying.
I 've watched and read Andrew Price’s videos and articles for hardware and depending in what I can afford also,I got the idea I need to focus in RAM,GPU,and CPU(?).
Some of my current pc stats are the following:
-Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33Ghz 2.34Ghz
-Installed memory (RAM): 4,00 GB
-GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9600GT
-Motherboard: manufacturer : ASUSTek Computer INC. model :P5Q SE
-Monitor: FLATRON W1934S
The problems I have met are the render times of images or animations(although I can leave my pc open if a lot of time is needed) for not so complex scenes.The rendered mode during 3d view is very slow.Sculpting after some time lags unbearably.And the most important problem is that when the more complex the scene gets when I try to move the scene in 3d view it lags like hell and it is impossible to actually target the scene from the angle I want or do any actions whatsoever.For example the introductions to cycles scene with the donuts from Andrew Price’s tutorial made blender so laggy I could not even rotate succesfully the 3d view.
So I need some suggestions for a new pc not including monitor,mouse,keyboard, just the box, and in the range of 1000-1500 euros max.
If you need me to give you more stats from my pc than I have written tell me which you want and I 'll try finding them.
Also although I think I am gonna use my current monitor with the pc also,I like the idea of having 2 monitors to use,so feel free to suggest one monitor inside or outside the price I mentioned above.
And at last if you think the money are not enough,make your suggestions and I 'll think it over.I just need to see full suggestion with everything a pc needs to work,taking into consideration blender efficiency.
Thanks in advance ,for all the suggestions and advices.
My thoughts about ram. I got mine when the price was good. It went from 26 US to 76 US$ for 2 x 4 x 2 ( I bought separate times). What I wish I had done was got 1 or 2 sticks of 8 gigs so I could add to not replace. If i get 8 gig sticks now I have ram sticks I do not need.
What I read is to start with the mother board and get the best you can afford. Then you can upgrade as you go.
Merry Christmas to you to.
Definitely motherboard. I am stuck that I can’t add more ram or another gpu because I didn’t quite spend enough. Things like psu, hdd / ssd, ram and peripherals (Inc monitor) are transférable which is good
Hi Lev, I always buy bundles with board, CPU and RAM.
For 600-700 € you get a i7 with 8-16 GB RAM.
Yo need a new supply for newer boards but you could use your old case, disk drive, maybe harddisk and so forth.
Spend rest in GPU and a SSH harddisk for your system drive.
Or buy something like:
Hi Lev, if it is in your budget go for a 4 GB GPU, you cant add VRAM later.
It also seams it is a overclocked GTX 770, I recommend against OC cards for GPU render engines.
If you render with Cycles it use 99% of the card resources for several minutes/hours and you get often heat problems.
They also more expensive, take a card with Nvidia reference design and 4 GB.
My EVGA GTX 760 4GB is very silent and cool too.
If you want to add a second GPU later the power supply is to small, add 100W and get a 800/850 Watt power supply.
The best hardware buy for me was a SSD hard disk for my system, I use my old hard disk for storage only.
Start OS, software, copy small or big files, expand and loading big files is about 6-10 times faster with a 500 MB/sec read/write SSD.
I spend a lot of money for to small or limited PC parts and exasperated later with “Why I don´t spend 50 bugs more first time”.
Only my experiences.
I 'll be using my old hard disk to stay a lower in the money I 'll spend but I 'll keep in mind the advantages you mentioned.Also I don’t think I 'll be using a 2nd gpu so fast so I 'll stick with that powersupply.But about the graphics card,can you give me couple suggestions?
Around 320-370 euros.I found this one : Gigabyte GeForce GTX770 4GB WindForce 3X OC (this one seems to be overclocked though too,since it says OC)
Yes it is OC : Nvidia reference 1046 MHz : Gigabyte 1137 MHz clock speed.
It is no problem if you are on Windows, you can down clock the card with several tools if you get temperature problems.
The WindForce 3X has a good cooling system so I don´t think you get problems (I read some tests).
The OC cards costs a few € more but are also a bit faster.
Seams to be a good card for Cycles.
