Hey, I am getting a new custom pc and was wondering if this is a good rig for development and gaming in general. Do I have everything I need to plug it up and start using Unity, maya, photoshop, and play games like Far Cry 3, Crysis, and Skyrim? I’m still learning about hardware in college. I already have Window 7’s pro install disc and on usb flash drive to boot it to. I also have a Windforce Radeon HD 7870 3GB DRR5 Video Gard . Thanks
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1 x Case ( AZZA Armour Gaming Case - Red )
1 x Case Lighting ( Meteor Light w/ 8 Speed settings - Blue )
1 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion ( iBUYPOWER Internal USB Expansion System )
1 x Processor ( Intel® Core™ i7-3770K Processor (4x 3.50GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core i7-3770K )
1 x Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )
1 x Memory ( 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - G.Skill Ripjaws X )
1 x Video Card ( AMD Radeon HD 6450 - 1GB )
1 x Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA )
1 x Free Stuff ( [FREE] - Gigabyte GC-WB300D Bluetooth 4.0 / Dual Band WiFi Expansion Card - Free with purchase of Intel i5 / i7 Desktop )
1 x Free Stuff ( [FREE Game Download] - DiRT Showdown - Free with purchase of AMD Processor / Radeon video card )
1 x Motherboard ( ASUS P8Z77-V LK – 2x PCI-E 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0 )
1 x Intel Smart Response Technology ( SSD Cache - 60 GB Corsair Force Series GT )
1 x Power Supply ( 850 Watt - AZZA Dynamo 850W )
1 x Primary Hard Drive ( 256 GB ADATA SP900 SSD - Single Drive )
1 x Data Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE – 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
1 x Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
1 x Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
1 x Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
1 x Operating System ( None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only )
1 x Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Keyboard )
1 x Mouse ( iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Mouse - Blood Red )
1 x Wireless Network Adapter ( ASUS USB-N13 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter )
Try to find some online forums in your country that specialising in building your own computer - they should be able to help out.
From the looks of it this is one of those store-specced ‘custom’ computers [did you pick the parts, or they give 'em to you?] which tend to be poorly spec’ed [wrong combination of parts, high pricing, unnecessary glitter etc]. Not to say that this is that, just to be alert and check out alternatives.
That said, it doesn’t seem to be too badly spec’ed. Little concerned over the two graphic cards, and the iBUYPOWER stuff. Biggest question I have is price.
Might want to look into getting an SSD as your primary drive, and putting your OS/Programs and current projects on it (256GB or more - either the Samsung 840pro or the OCZ Vector). Doesn’t make much sense to buy a 1TB hard disk either, when a 2 TB drive is only a few dollars more. Recommend to get the 2TB drive as your archive drive. Wouldn’t waste my money on lights/fancy case, but that’s up to you. No real gain for it.
So he shouldn’t waste money with aesthetics but he should waste money on an SSD that will burn out and really only saves a few seconds/minutes at a time?
SSD’s don’t ‘burn out’ in anything remotely like normal use - and can be one of the most important improvements in a machines general responsiveness and performance.
Yes, exactly. I’ve had an SSD in my macbook pro for 2 years, and it hasn’t burned out. I did just replace it with the OCZ vector though, that I mentioned (but just because I wanted more space). I have six hard disks in various computers at my house, and 2 SSD’s. 2 Hard Drives have failed, and 0 SSD’s have failed. Now, I probably wouldn’t run heavily used database servers on them.
But the advantage is speed - I have a large project that I run off the SSD, and compiling scripts, loading, etc is hardly noticeable. However, when I moved it to my archive drive, it was a very different story. Changing a script led to a 1-2 minute wait every time I saved something. Changing model import parameters would pause for 10 seconds. Loading up the project and reimporting everything when I converted to Unity 4 took over an hour.
So, I guess it’s a question of what your time is worth. How much of your time is worth $500? I’d spend that to save hours of annoying waiting. And I did, and indeed I am extremely happy with that purchase.
Oh god please wait before buying, how much is this? is this one you are building yourself or a pre built, I highly recommend building one yourself nowadays its just like putting Legos together almost impossible to put a plug in a wrong hole.
Don’t go for dual graphics cards of that stature quite a few games won’t even support them.
Go on newegg and get parts, I’d recommend.
Intel i5
8 gig ram
460w power supply is plenty.
Gtx 480 (faster then 570 and is only $200 now).
And a 80g ssd just to store os and perhaps unity on.
Id say dont do it yourself, I mean, get something out the box and then its going to be much more reliable and have a secure warranty on it. Why fuck around with hours of pain and no re-assurance of how compatible it will all be?
First question, what are your target platforms with unity? if it contains iOS you are going to want a Mac, simple as. If it doesnt contain iOS then you are going to just want a power heavy machine…
32gb ram
i7 quad core
large as you can SSD
2GB Gcard
^thats what you will want.
If its a mac, again, aim for the top end.
32gb ram
large ssd
i7
top gcard option.
with a mac you can buy your ram cheaper from somewhere else, only in the new 27" tho, the 21.5 doesn’t allow ram swapping.
Its all about money tho isnt it.
note: ill cut to the chase of people saying ‘cant play games or run certain software on mac’. There is such a thing as BOOTCAMP. run OSx and Windows side by side.e
I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen somebody recommend people not to build their own PC on a software developers forum. (or really any technology enthusiast forum)
Overall it doesn’t look like a bad system, good processor, SSD, reasonable amount of ram. I’m not super familiar with AMD graphics cards so I can’t comment on that. Depends on how much you’re paying for all this stuff too.
Thought id chime in and give my vote to building your own. Built mine two years ago, don’t think ive ever seen a blue screen of death :P. Cost stuff aside, you just get a much better quality machine.
But then again its not for everyone, i understand why people would just wanna buy something of a shelf and not worry about it.
I also vote for the SSD, its easily the biggest performance increase for your general computing needs!