Evening everyone! As my quarter finals are upon me next week, that can only mean one things...Spring Break! Now, instead of heading off to SoCal or Cabo, I'll be at home doing something I think will be much more benificial, building my own PC! Right now I'm in the process of deciding which parts to get. I already know the case will be Cooler Master ATC-110-SX1, but other than that, I really have no clue! *laughs* What I'd like to know is, since I'm going into the design sub-field of game development, what types of computers do all you use? I'd be interested in finding out what us 'creative directors' are typing our responses on! Tyler 'Calaf' Roehmholdt The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. - Karl Marx [edited by - Calaf on March 13, 2003 3:48:25 AM] [edited by - Calaf on March 13, 2003 3:49:26 AM]

quote: Original post by Calaf
I''d be interested in finding out what us ''creative directors'' are typing our responses on!

Tyler ''Calaf'' Roehmholdt

why?

Well I''m hoping to get a general idea of what everyone uses so as to judge if I need to go all out, midrange or 386 I''m on an Apple iBook right now and I''m not quite up to snuff on PC''s. Like one of my bigger questions is, "Should I go with a professional graphics card like the ATI FireGL 8800 or just a high-end consumer like the soon to be released ATI 9800 Pro?", also I''ve been hearing reports on Serial ATA and such and personally I''m quite curious to all these new things coming out! So I suppose by seeing what others are currently using, it would help me to see what I should look into getting. Hope that answers your question!

Tyler ''Calaf'' Roehmholdt

The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. - Karl Marx

It shouldn''t really be that difficult to decide what parts to use.

1. Decide what you''ll be using it for, and set your priorities accordingly.
2. Figure out which parts give you the best value for money.

If you are just writing up design documents, you need something that will run notepad, or whatever package you prefer to write with. If you are doing some artwork, your needs might be a little more demanding - 2d art benefits from a decent amount of memory, 3d modelling benefits from a half decent graphics card, etc.

What do I use? I use an Athlon 700 with 256MB RAM and a GeForce 256. It''s nearly three years old, but it runs Word, MSVC, Milkshape and Photoshop quite capably. It''s only really the latest games that it struggles with.

I like to view computers as appliances (complex appliances, but appliances nonetheless), which means that I''m not interested in assembling them anymore (I used to be into all that, plus case modding... I satisfy that urge by building quirky systems for unusual purposes, like the CarStation I''m planning now).

In other words, I look at preconfigured systems that meet my requirements, I buy them (with any manufacturer-specified options that suit my purposes and wallet) and I use them until it''s time to change. You may feel it''s cheaper to build, but I think that the testing and QA done by a systems integrator, and the hassle-free use, warranties and so on, are well worth the small premium. There are lots of vendors who will sell you a system without an OS, if the "Microsoft tax" is a concern to you.

Also, I''m tired of being constrained to one physical location, so I''m becoming more and more interested in using primarily mobile systems, with one central data server to tie them all together (I don''t believe in having a web server at home, preferring either CoLo or hosted service instead).

In short, don''t bother about all the technicalities. Find a good vendor (Dell is pretty much tops right now) or system integrator (haven''t bought a PC in 3 years, so can''t comment) and just buy whichever of their prepackaged offerings meets your needs.

I remember you saying that you did some 3d modeling, so if you''re into modeling or other 2d artwork it might not be a bad idea to get a professional level graphics card. If you do, I''ve heard good things about 3d labs Wildcat VP cards. They were really the first cards to come out with a "programmable" VPU....so if you ever get into programming, you can get into what some companies are calling "Technical artists". These are the guys that combine programming skills with art and can come up with shaders, scripts for certain types of automated rendering processing (like render farm work) and the like.

I thought about doing this myself, but realized that 3d programming is WAY to precise for me. All programming requires consistency and precision of course, but there''s just too much mental overload for me.

If you have money to burn (and I''m assuming you do since you mentioned the possibility of buying a professional graphics card) you might want to go for a SMP system. Right now, your best bet for your dollar is a AMD760MPX chipset motherboard and AthlonMP CPU''s. The gotcha here is that in about 6 months, we might be seeing consumer level SMP Opteron systems which should have a significant performance advantage over AthlonMP SMP workstations. Tim Sweeney made a good post on Slashdot awhile back stating that the next version of the Unreal engine will require a 64bit computing system. That speaks volume I think for the potential that 64bit systems will have despite what Intel is trying to preach. Valve''s recent announcement that the 64bit Linux server software for Counter-Strike has a 30% improvement also speaks volumes (I''m assuming they are comparing the score of the 32bit server software running on an Opteron vs. the 64bit software running on an Opteron) about the future of 64bit gaming.

So, if you can hold off on buying a system for about half a year, it might well be worth it, especially since you can save more money to buy more goodies. Other goodies I''d get? If money was no object: DVD-RW, Vapor Cooling Case system (check out the Prometia at www.chip-con.com), a Wildcat VP860 graphics card, and a dual SMP Opteron system with 8GB of DDR DRAM (yup, since dual SMP opteron boards have 16DIMM slots you can get 8GB of RAM!!). Cost? Ohhh, I''d say at least 4000$, but for a serious heavy duty workstation, it won''t be beat by anything less than an Itanium workstation (for significantly more money). Not even IBM Power4+, Alpha EV8, or any Sparc system should be able to beat that at the same price point. I''m also into music and would like a nice professional level sound card, but I have no idea who makes good professional level sound cards.

This is what I love about forums, so many different opinions! I''ll definitly be looking into a pre-built, but I''ll also configure a similar system piece-wise so as to compare. Dauntless, if you''d like to see a semi-dated (about a 1-1/2 old) "best-to-worse" sound card site, here is the URL:

http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/compare/index.htm

If its professional you''re looking for, then you won''t mind the fact that it doesn''t have the lastest Sound Blaster Audigy2 on the list. Enjoy!

Tyler ''Calaf'' Roehmholdt

The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. - Karl Marx

If you go into building your own... I recommend 2 places. Go to

www.fatwallet.com

and sign up for their daily newsletter... or just sift through the forums.

These poeple use to their advantage the pricematching that companies will do with each other to sometimes get greater rebates/ or prices.(Like how OfficeCrap will match Staples, and OM will also have a coupn of something)

I've got decent deals on harddrives that way, cd burners, disk, printers.

Otherwise... I head on over to

www.pricewatch.com

If you know what you want, thats where to go. I've always had good service and prices from everyone i've dealt with that advertises there.

Best of luck with your building. Also.. I've told myself that if i ever wanted to make a high-end system again. I'd head to alienware or some other sytem builder. Get a deal on a basic system and upgrade it myself from their.(Their custom prices arent' the best sometimes. LIke they charge 100 bucks for something you can buy for 50 or sometimes less)

-DD

[edited by - agentidd on March 13, 2003 2:14:17 PM]

Thanks for the advice Agentidd! A small question, are Dell's easy to upgrade? I'm looking at one of their Precision Workstations and they're really reasonably priced. So if I were to get say a basic one, could I just open it up and swap some parts around? Thanks again!

Tyler 'Calaf' Roehmholdt

The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. - Karl Marx

PS: Also, how about the HP workstations? Looking at them too! =-)

[edited by - Calaf on March 13, 2003 2:35:30 PM]

Although I''m not real sure what all this has to do with Game Design I''ll tell you about Dells. They are great to work on. I did Dell service calls from Jan 02 through last Aug and I love the way they were designed. Its all made to come apart and reassemble effortlessly sometimes something will stick but usually they''re a breeze.