If you had to buy ONE new piece of hardware, which would it be?

Ok, so here's the situation, I managed to do a wee sale of some of my equipment and I got myself some $350.

My current setup is a Pentium III 533mhz, 384 RAM, 50GB HD and an nVIDIA TNT 2 graphics card. So far, I get along quite well with my system. Heck, I've seen guys with worse setup work wonders in CG. I basically want to increase the overall performance of my system somewhat. My main preocupation is to work with CG, as the the other programs like PS and AE behave quite nicely already.

So I'm posting this to ask for your opinions, what piece or pieces or hardware could I buy with that amount of money that will help me improve my system.
There is, another option, which is I wait until I have enough money saved up to buy a new system. I wouldn't buy a workstation in Spain though because they end up costing $7500

Carl

 

Ram or if your m/b can take it, a faster chip, you can still get 933's atm. But if I had my choice of hw id buy a slab of beer and a sci/fi dvd . But for you id prob go ram and maybe a 64meg gf/card.

Course thatd mean less beer, but the wourlds not perfect.

Cheers

Toph

P.S for fans of jango fett get out a film called 'once were warriors' Note : This is not a kids film (not porn) just violent and adult themes. Then again most kids these days shoot each other at school

 

Hmm, I didnt find your reference to the "kids shooting each other in schools" at all amusing. Perhaps you find that sort of amusing? You started off OK but that last "humorous" statement made you lose all your credibility

Carl

 

Hmm, I didnt find your reference to the "kids shooting each other in schools" at all amusing. Perhaps you find that sort of amusing?


We really live in a sensitive world now, don't we?

Some people have a twisted and warped sense of humor. Deal with it.


Hell, I'm one of those people...

 

[image=http://www1.theforce.net/icons/publicicons/TFN%20-%20Drama.gif]

 

I can't believe I'm reading this...

Why would someone find that funny?
Being sensitive has nothing to do with it. Killing just doesn't sound funny to me, and if it does, theres something just NOT right.

Carl

 

if i were u i'd buy a new mobo processor and ram

all that can be had for about 345
example:

Athlon XP 1900+ $120
2 sticks of 256 ddr ram $134
KT333 mobo $86
heatsink/fan less than $20

ok so thats like $355

 

Relax Carl . . . I'm pretty sure he doesn't condone the violence depicted in some of our Country's schools.




But getting back to the point of this thread . . . .



I would definitely recommend getting as much RAM as your motherboard/system can handle. Nothing will allow your system to run more proficiently and smoothly than an abundance of available memory to pool from.

After this, if you have money left over, I think the recommendation to upgrade your motherboard to a faster processor is right on the money. The combination of a fast processor + lots of RAM is, in my opinion, the single most powerful combination for a quality 3D workstation.


Oh ... Windows2000 Pro OS wouldn't hurt either.

 

Mobo: Soyo Dragon Plus: $80-130
AMD 1600XP - 1900XP CPU:$60-110
2 256mb DDR Ram: $30-40 x2: $60-80
good cpu fan: 15-30
extra case fans: 10-20

 

ATI Radeon 9700... benchmarks place this cards performance at over 200% of the fastest GeForce 4

 

I just bought a GeForce 2, to see if it would make any difference. I can take it back if its not good enough.
Also available at the store is the ATI Radeon 7500, but not the 9700...

Computers are cheap in the states, hopefully I'll find a pretty affordable uber-computer once I've moved there. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. And how do I find how much RAM my MOBO can handle? Is it a matter of slots, or what?

Carl

 

Your motherboards manual will have the max ram listed, also it should be on the manufacturers website. you just need to know the make/model of the board.

on older boards it was usually 768mb, then most handled 1.5gb, now many can go up to 3gb

 

Its not sposed to be funny. Its sposed to point out that im old n out of date. When i was 12 i still played with logo, now kids are flaming ppl on the web and watching films that id never have watched.

Cheers

Toph

P.S sorry for any misunderstanding

 

What you should get is a big ,nice WATERCOOLER .

No overheat
No Sound
Faster energyflow

 

generally if u want to know the max ram ur mobo can take (AND how much each slot can take) u find the manual it will tell you the max ram u can have then u divide that by the number of ram slots you have and thats the biggest chip you can buy

 

You serious about that? No sound at all? The constant sound of a fun is pretty much inaudible to most of us now anyway as we have gotten so used to it. I tried out 3 graphics cards today and they all failed. I guess Im gonna put up with my nVIDIA TNT 2 M64 till I move to the US

Carl

 

I don't have a watercooler myselfe but everyone i know who has one says its no sound.

 

Carl: ever considered mailorder? get your Radeon 9700 direct from ATI.com

 

water cooling DOES make sound the radiator needs to dissapate the heat u know.. and what better way than with *DUN DUN DUN!* FANS

granted there aren't as many fans and its not AS loud but it does make sound

 

Start with Video card and system memory. With whatever you have left try to upgrade the cpu. You can also sell your existing parts on e-bay or something to give you a few extra dollars. Those parts you listed will be perfect for someones file server or just an extra computer.

So I'd go with a Radeon 8500 with 128MB's of RAM. Then get at LEAST 512MB's of Ram. And then with what you have left of your original budget plus whatever you get for your auctions, upgrade the CPU to as close to 1Ghz as you can.

http://www.pricewatch.com has good price lists.

 

I have 2 Pentium III's and my system is quieter than my old rig, which had a single AMD Thunderbird... I'm fond of Intels now, since 3D apps are Intel friendly and they run so much colder (and quieter).

 

I know the guy who owns the company who designs and upkeeps MSN.com... he works in chicago but has an office away from office across the hall from mine.

Anyways, he (JUST TODAY) hooked me up with THIS, for 360 dollars even:

A system with-
2 40 gig hard drives (80 gig total for those that can't count )
512 megs of DDR SDRAM
Pentium 4 1.6 gig
GeForce2MX400 w/64 megs RAM and S-Video and RCA Out
Windows XP PRO
CD Burner
16x DVD drive

Eat it raw

(not kidding though, one of the best buys in my life)

So, if you can find someone to hook you up like i have... you could just go for a new system,

Cya
Mike

 

PIXELITO - what benchmarks place the Radeon 400% in front of the Geforce 4? EVERY benchmark I have seen places it behind.

 

Well the new radeon isnt exactly 400%... its more like double the speed of a geforce4 ti4600

here's a link to a preview of the chip (the actual bench marks wont be out until the thing actually ships..) so no one knows EXACTLY how much faster but the demo's that ati has displayed to the press do indeed show that the new radeon is at least a little bit faster .. and on paper the speed is about doubled .. but thats paper not real world..