So i’m looking into a computer, and i want it to run unity other game dev things fast. Would a gaming computer be fine for this? This is what i’m talking about http://cgi.ebay.com/BLACKSTORM-QUAD-CORE-620-4GB-1T-XP-GAMING-COMPUTER-/260709112692?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item3cb3795b74#ht_4664wt_1139
Imho it’s overpriced built-up computer, he use good looking casing to attract you :), my suggestion based on your budget?
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T : Not Found: 404 Error = 179$
ASUS M4A89GTD : Not Found: 404 Error = 150$
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB : Not Found: 404 Error = 50$
Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W : Not Found: 404 Error = 80$
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB : Not Found: 404 Error = 65$
Total = 524$
The motherboard already built-in onboard graphic card HD4290 should be enough for developing simple games, but for optional more power graphic card you could add
XFX HD-557X-ZHF2 Radeon HD 5570 : Not Found: 404 Error = 65$
Total + GFX = 589$
Casing? just use your old casing, what’s the use good casing but your computer slow?, there you have it hexacore/sixcore machine! with sata 3 support + good enough graphic card(if you add HD 5570) to develop and play latest games at moderate quality level and also bronze certified active FPC!, PSU is really mean something for a pc, good stable electricity is making your pc component last longer,
A tips from me, when buying desktop based on my experience 3 main important thing, PSU/Power Supply Unit, Motherboard, Processor, monster beast ram clock or hardisk or awesome casing can be add later, i was making a cpu for friend which cost thousand dollar but his casing only cost 30$ :)).
Edit :
If your casing doesn’t have good airflow, you could make casing mod, few nut and bolt here and there, study the heat flow when your pc under heavy use, and patch in some 12 cm fan for exhaust and intake, for long term you could then upgrade more for good casing with good airflow.
No, i acutally don’t have a desktop. I have a laptop, so i’m buying the whole system, so i can’t change my casings and stuff 0.o
EDIT: And i also don’t know ANYTHING about prosessors and stuff, so all that stuff looked impressive for specs, but yes, the casing does look sexy… >:)
I assume you are in the US?, i am really sure that you can get cheap new chinese casing for temporary if you goes my way hehehe, that guy sell the first option with Geforce 9500GT and second options as Geforce 6100, that’s 3-2 times lower graphic performance than i was posted above, not to mention the built-in sound chip that the mobo used which is via o_0;.
I cann’t recognize the casing that he use, but you can ask around at anandtech forum, and ask the same question like this heheh, to built a pc is not really that hard, only need screw driver and read the manual book, i am sure in your living hood there must be some tech junkie around you, you might be able ask them for the favor if you cann’t built it yourself :).
Forgot about the OS, as windows 7 if you are a student you could get the license at really cheap price, if i not mistaken around 30-50$!, the choice is yours dude just think it :).
Imho the posted specs is good for another 3-5 years, ddr3, gigabit ethernet, good sound chip(realtek), the next usb 3.0 standard support.
build one, youll save hundreds.
Is there a point in having a system beyond a single core processor? I’ve been reading that Unity can only utilize one core, and in addition isn’t it a x86 program and so can’t use more than 4 gigs of ram?
As of right now when running Unity even when the fps drops down to 10-15 per second it will only be using 4 percent of my total processing power and about 40% of ram.
Same with most games. I feel conned for having decent hardware. Nobody supports x64 except for the windows OS itself.
I just want to add, don’t be daunted by the “building” it’s about as hard as a 5 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Unity is multithreaded, although only light mapping distributes well across multiple cores. The Unity runtime does the lion’s share of its work in the main thread, but will benefit from a second core.
Those numbers don’t mean much on their own, except that you probably aren’t processor or memory-bound. What are you doing when you get this frame rate? How is your hard drive doing, and your graphics card?
Well, i’m considering going with a laptop, preferrably not mac. So what would you guys suggest laptop-wise?
Buy one with the best shader version supported, try to avoid Intel GPUs, preferably a decent multicore CPU, and a free/no OS installed, as it’s cheaper/more flexible to install your own. In general, you can get an ok laptop for game development for ~1000$, or even cheaper.
Mac OSX
Its good cuz incase you wannna swithc to iphone/ipod dev you can, with windows you cant. but you can do both mac and iphone dev with a mac.
Can you do windows dev with mac OS also? Because my other computer has a virus and i don’t want to clean it, atm.
mac can develop for any platform but windows can’t develop for iphone