Salka Posted November 17, 2011 But I'm poor and I haven't bought a new PC in about 6 years, so I have no idea what to look for, or where. I basically want to use it for Photoshop and Painter, music editing, and maybe secretly playing some video games also, although I guess sadly that has to come secondary to the other two because of: poverty. How much of my student loan must I squander? Has anyone any advice? PS I don't want a mac. Plus I already have a sweet monitor so package deals will only make me sad. And if anyone has any advice on good, cheap mics for home recording of music, that would be epic sweet and I'd repay you with my gratitude, which will be immense. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted November 17, 2011 Oh shit! Hi Yufster! Long time no see! I just got a new laptop, so all my speaking comes from that. I haven't looked at desktop stuff in about 5 years, except to upgrade my video card one time over the past summer. Desktop stuff is not something I know any more. As always, all my dollars are Canadian as well, so take that into account. I recently upgraded from a "3 year old breaking-all-the-time" laptop to a new, "stable, fast, and plays a lot of things" laptop. It ran me roughly $1200, which was quite the bite to take out of a student loan. Fortunately, I have a mother who lives in a different province and was feeling guilty that she hadn't helped me pay for school this year so she paid for a part of that instead. All things considered, for what it does, $1200 is pretty reasonable. If you downgraded the graphics chip in the thing and made the monitor a bit smaller but kept the processor speed high, you could probably get a decent one under $1000. Honestly, the only problem I have with my machine is that it is designed to look like a stealth bomber, which I think is stupid and they think is a selling point. I took it out in class and a friend said to me "Dude, your laptop looks like Batman's laptop." I could not argue with her on that point, and felt stupid for it. I immediately put Hello Kitty stickers on it to counteract this effect. The name of it is ASUS G53SW-A1. If you are ok making a laptop your primary computer, I would recommend one or a similar variant. For everyday things, it is very important to me that the keyboard is awesome, much better than any other laptop keyboard I've ever used. To contract this into point form: - A laptop is a nice option. A very good one now will probably run you less than $1500, and one that can do what you want plus play some cool games would be about $1000. - If you go for a laptop, most of their keyboards are shit so make sure you find one that is good for that. If at all possible, try typing something on it before you buy it. - I know nothing about desktops - Hello Kitty stickers are rad. In closing, welcome back! Post more things! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted November 17, 2011 But I'm poor and I haven't bought a new PC in about 6 years, so I have no idea what to look for, or where.I basically want to use it for Photoshop and Painter, music editing, and maybe secretly playing some video games also, although I guess sadly that has to come secondary to the other two because of: poverty. How much of my student loan must I squander? Has anyone any advice? PS I don't want a mac. Plus I already have a sweet monitor so package deals will only make me sad. And if anyone has any advice on good, cheap mics for home recording of music, that would be epic sweet and I'd repay you with my gratitude, which will be immense. Budget being a factor I still think that AMD is the best choice. I'm running a 955 and have been for 2 years and it still will play anything I throw at it. Graphics on the low to mid end are also probably better value with AMD. Downside: at the moment hard drives are really fucking expensive (roughly 3x their cost earlier this year) due to flooding in Thailand. If you have any old hard drives you will want to be using them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subbes Posted November 18, 2011 have you, like, really considered a Mac like, in depth, man Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted November 19, 2011 Ok further research has lead me to look at a 5770 as a GPU (you can get them for £50 ish, either a Phenom II or Llano processor along with an AM3 board is you best choice. Minus a hard drive I think this would suit you: Which is from Aria PC. You could downgrade to 8GB of ram and a cheaper case, but at that price it's worth it, and I recently built in that case and liked it a lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted November 19, 2011 You forgot a disk. So you can add an extra 100ish for that, disks are expensive these days due to the Thailand floods. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted November 19, 2011 You forgot a disk. So you can add an extra 100ish for that, disks are expensive these days due to the Thailand floods. Read the fucking post. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted November 19, 2011 d'oh... I completely missed that line. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
toblix Posted November 19, 2011 Read the fucking post. Take it the fuck easy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Posted November 20, 2011 Swear it the fuck up! I was surprised to see 16 GB in that spec. To me 8 GB is still a big deal. I felt like I was quite the fancy-pants splashing out on that much a little over a year ago. I've sort of been thinking of upgrading recently, but I think I'll see how well Skyrim runs on my PC first. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted November 20, 2011 Swear it the fuck up!I was surprised to see 16 GB in that spec. To me 8 GB is still a big deal. I felt like I was quite the fancy-pants splashing out on that much a little over a year ago. I've sort of been thinking of upgrading recently, but I think I'll see how well Skyrim runs on my PC first. Photoshop, recording and editing will take advantage of it, besides the difference is ~£15. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Posted November 20, 2011 Oh of course. I guess with that stuff it's the more you can feed it, the better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted November 20, 2011 Skyrim is a 32bit application. 4GB is pretty much enough to run it. 8GB is more than enough right now, but considering 16GB isn't much more expensive you might as well future proof your machine a bit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subbes Posted November 20, 2011 My computer at work has 2GB, and it's better than 65% of the machines we have. (I guess they don't want me playing Skyrim at work.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted November 20, 2011 It seems nowadays difference in memory size can vary much more than it used to. 4GB is usually recommended now for software development, but you could still be fine with 2GB most of the time (and for games too), probably, if it isn't anything special that would require much more. In spring I built a machine with 8GB, probably never used more than half of it so far. Then, I know some devs who need 64GB. Just recently heard a funny thing about Java : below 32GB you can use "compressed pointers" to use less memory, but then if you go over that, you should really go over 46GB, because "uncompressing" the pointers will likely take up the difference. And of course the processor-memory speed gap is still widening, I think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subbes Posted November 20, 2011 I think since Skyrim is a 32-bit app, you should get 32G of RAM so you have one G for every bit. that's how it works, right Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted November 20, 2011 I think since Skyrim is a 32-bit app, you should get 32G of RAM so you have one G for every bit.that's how it works, right Yep. And make sure you get a 32GB harddrive, too. That's 32x32x32 which means you then have 32K system, which is twice as good as a Spectrum 16K... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subbes Posted November 20, 2011 Screw it, just get a speccy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted November 20, 2011 Yep. And make sure you get a 32GB harddrive, too. That's 32x32x32 which means you then have 32K system, which is twice as good as a Spectrum 16K... But you have to make sure the processor is not 3.2GHz, or it will cause a resonance cascade which might either blow up your monitor or open up a protal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Posted November 20, 2011 They're hard to measure because they jiggle so much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted November 21, 2011 But you have to make sure the processor is not 3.2GHz, or it will cause a resonance cascade which might either blow up your monitor or open up a protal. That happened to a friend of mine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baconian Posted November 21, 2011 And if anyone has any advice on good, cheap mics for home recording of music, that would be epic sweet and I'd repay you with my gratitude, which will be immense. You can get a sm58 + stand + mic lead bundle on thomann which is basically the best all round recording mic ever made (ask anyone). It's £109 inc vat http://www.thomann.de/gb/prod_cbundle_23.html?gk=migedy&cbcid=117&art=5720 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
syntheticgerbil Posted November 22, 2011 I love where this thread went. Keep it going. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thompson Posted November 22, 2011 sm58... which is basically the best all round recording mic ever made (ask anyone). I'll back that up, bought one a few years ago and have been extremely pleased with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
