Game and Studio production Hardware - Please help in selecting the best buying option

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I have been working on a platformer game in flash and I will be shifting it to unity later, maybe make it even multiplayer.

But currently I am stuck with an outdated laptop (check the lag in the video) and I am really thinking of buying a workstation for studio work.

I will be doing 3d animations, video editing, music composing, using unity, making 3d sfx videos etc and of course rendering 3d games.

My budget is about $1700 that is about 85,000 INR.

I did some research and came out with 3 probable configs -

  1. Either a buy a highend desktop with quad cores, 4 GB ram and high end graphics card like Nvidia quadro fx - above 5000 version.

  2. Buy a HP workstation with quads or 6 core, 16 GB ram with 64 bit but a Nvidia Quadro 2000 Fx CARD. Going for high budget cards will surely push my budget limit.

  3. If I have to cross my budget limit then maybe go for the next best thing- a mini super computer, if it is a viable option and someone can share experience regarding it. I never like using branded computers, assembled are always better.

Keeping this in mind please help me select the right options and give your own configs.

I would also like to know will unity work for 64 bit processor?

I will be rendering the 3d videos in the same machine, till I can afford another.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

Hope someone can help me out, I wish to buy within a week.

Wicked Sunny

www.wickedsunny.com
www.publishinggurus.com

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I would say go with the hp workstation if you want it all there for you. And you don’t really need to go with a quadro video card you can get a high end gaming card and it will be just as good. I’ve had and used most of the nvidia quadro cards and getting a high gaming card work just as good and its half the price. Just make sure you get a workstation with at least a quad core cpu or higher and a minimum of 4g of ram and higher.
I know a lot of people that have high pc’s with over 8g of ram and they never take full advantage of their hardware but I have a quad core cpu with 8g of ram and I do a lot of game development/testing as well and a bunch of rendering/compositing and my computer works just fine for me.
I can tell you this you can build a high end duel quad core computer with a nvidia gtx/gt/gts and my machine would cost less than 1700 probably in the range of 1000 more or less. Use sites like pricewatch.com or newegg and build a machine but you will have to get your hands a little dirty because if you have never built a computer before you may feel a little overwhelm.

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For me i would take the 3rd option, branded computer is over rated, if you afraid about stability easy way is to pick good brand and do many research(review, video review, forum) on your choosen specs, afaik most good brand like asus, evga, gigabyte, corsair, patriot has some good burn out test before they shipped the product, most known problem would be bad bios for new line of motherboard, you can update it along the company developed good stable bios, incompatible but runnable at lower speed ram clock.

If you wanted to test your new machine for stability and reliability just run memtest for 1-2 days straight, memtest is for testing your ram either it’s defected, having unstable power source, for testing overall you can run for example 3DMark same as memtest for 1-2 days straight, if there is no problem after running these test then hopefully your system is good and reliable enough, imho branded computer use these same burn out test before they shipped+ logo on your case and included software :).

If somehow some or one of the component is incompatible you could always resell it at ebay with small price reduction, and you can get new component afterward, i think this is what you call open box.

Good psu will be good your pc, i have experience testing my pc with memtest, i’ve got no error for the half day, but in the morning there goes red line saying that my ram busted, found out that my psu has a bad component and cann’t handle unstable electricity on my house, fetch in new better psu 2 straight days no error.

Windows pretty much REALLY tolerable about bad ram but not with *nix family like linux,*bsd, they will ‘scream’ even if there is slight error of ram operation.

Laptop is good with it’s portability but always been less powerfull than desktop at the same price unless you buy those custom beast from alienware.

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Thanks Andre

Will the nvidia geforce family support double monitor display? I was looking for a card which would help me use two monitors together, so that I can render files in one and work on the other.That is why I was going for quadro gfx.

Please suggest the graphic cards for the geforce family. I would prefer 1 gb gfx minimum.

The problem is I will be buying locally in India, where I might not even find the high end geforce or quadro cards. I cannot buy online, as the maintenance/repair cost will increase a lot internationally.

You use 8gb with a 64 bit or 32 bit Windows? I thought we cannot use more than 4gb with windows unless overclocked?.

edited " just realized all quad core processors are already 64 bit" So can I install both 32 bit and 64 bit windows in different partitions, so that I can run all my softwares on one machine?

I love building computers, been helping everyone around me with config suggestions, but none of them go for these high- end machines.

Thanks a lot, checking price watch right now, the geforce cards are not really expensive but quadro are.

Does both quadro and geforce sits on a PCI Express? Then maybe in future I can upgrade to Quadro if required.

Sunny

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Thanks Stellar, i will check out memtest right now on my other desktop. It is giving me a lot of trouble recently.

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Will the nvidia geforce family support double monitor display?
Yep

Please suggest the graphic cards for the geforce family. I would prefer 1 gb gfx minimum.

GTX460 will be fine. Though if you want to be a bit more futureproof, get a GTX470 or GTX480.

You use 8gb with a 64 bit or 32 bit Windows? I thought we cannot use more than 4gb with windows unless overclocked?.
Overclocking does nothing to the amount of RAM you can use. 32bit Windows will only use up to 3.5-4GB of RAM.

just realized all quad core processors are already 64 bit" So can I install both 32 bit and 64 bit windows in different partitions, so that I can run all my softwares on one machine?
All modern processors are 64bit. You only need to install Windows 7 64bit. It will run all your 32bit applications.

Does both quadro and geforce sits on a PCI Express? Then maybe in future I can upgrade to Quadro if required.
Yes they do. You won’t need to upgrade to a Quadro.

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Thanks Michael

That really helps.

I am waiting for the HP people to call me back, they all on vacation :).

Sunny

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Well the Hp guys didn’t call me back, once I told them no quadro but ge force gtx 480. lol :slight_smile:

Will catch them again today.

Can anyone suggest how much Ram will be good - 8 gb or 12?

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make your own PC its the option much cheaper it can powerful as alienware:smile:

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I can make my own PC but first I need to know whats the difference between a normal pc and workstation by HP?

I can get two quad core processors, put 12 GB Ram, get geforce gtx card, but will it work like a workstation from Hp? or do they add something else to perform better?

This is my confusion.