Buying a new PC

[Karl_b]

Dear loveable rogues of the TNF, I seek your help on matters of buying a new PC.

 

My current desktop is on its last legs and after I've finished uni in 7 weeks time I intend to save up some pennies and get myself something new. I'll need it for doing CAD work and Photoshop as well as some basic 3D modelling/rendering; I'd quite fancy being able to play a few games too. However, I'm not after something top end, the work I'll be doing would be pretty basic and I'm not a huge gamer but would possibly like to play GTA IV.

 

So, so I get a desktop or a laptop and how much should I be looking to spend? I've never bought one (the one I have was built for me a long time ago and I've added odd bits to it) and I'm not too sure which brands I should be looking at.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edit - I was thinking perhaps something like this:

 

Acer Aspire 6530G Laptop LX.AUS0X.142 - Acer Direct

 

But a decent desktop would cost a lot less to replace:

 

Acer Veriton X270 - Pentium Dual Core E2220 2.4 GHz PS.X27C1.U01 - Acer Direct

Edited April 13, 2009 by Karl

[neko]

karl.

 

you'll need to be more careful about RAM and the graphics card when running CAD applications.

 

if it is autocad you are using, go to autodesk and check the list of minumum requirements and approved graphics cards.

 

if the system is good enough for pumping CAD, all else will be fine.

 

i'm not much of a hardware geek anymore, so i can't get really specific (i have 4gb of ram though and a good/pricey nvidea graphics card).

[Karl_b]

I'm using Microstation at the moment Neko but expect to be shifting to AutoCAD soon. Both run fine on my current desktop which is pretty poor really so almost anything new would be better! The Acer 6530G above has 4gb of RAM with it so that's good.

 

Are Dell still pretty reasonable?

[Section_31]

Similar spec to your first choice Karl but with a 320 gig hard drive and 100 notes cheaper..

 

HP 6735s Laptop - Laptops at Ebuyer

[Karl_b]

Similar spec to your first choice Karl but with a 320 gig hard drive and 100 notes cheaper..

 

HP 6735s Laptop - Laptops at Ebuyer

 

Nice deal that and it actually works out about £150 cheaper as the first one has a delivery and inspection (eh?) charge added on.

 

Cheers, Section.

[neko]

you should actually neg S31 for his ignorance of graphic cards for pumping CAD - that one will be painfully inadequate.

 

a good CAD workstation / laptop is going to cost a bit more than normal because you need more processing power and graphics acceleration.

[Karl_b]

Do you have any recommendations Neko? Do you think the one in the first laptop I posted would be sufficient? I'm not intending to do hardcore rendering on it.

[neko]

Do you have any recommendations Neko? Do you think the one in the first laptop I posted would be sufficient? I'm not intending to do hardcore rendering on it.

 

as i said, i'm not really a hardware guy anymore. as you get older, you tend to just throw money at the problem, rather than do any difficult research.

 

i don't know AMD processors very well, but autodesk says this about them...

 

Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology

 

as for the graphics card, search this list when deciding...

 

Autodesk - AutoCAD Services & Support - Graphics Hardware List

 

hope that helps.