16 replies to this topic

[DCaban]

Hey everybody,

I'm planning on buying a new PC, cause the one I have now is ARCHAIC. And I don't know how it hasn't died on me yet. Please, be kind...do not laugh at my specs:

CPU: Intel® Celeron® CPU 2.60GHz
CPU Speed: 2.59 GHz
Video Card: DisplayLink 32.0 MB
Disk Space: 26.0 GB
RAM: 1GB

It's really difficult to do anything on this machine. Everything worked perfectly 10 years ago, but now it's like I can't do anything. The only way I can run photoshop is if I close everything running in the background.

What are your specs? And what would be ideal for running programs like visual studio and photoshop without any problems?

[Alexander]

I'd recommend anything with 3GBs of RAM (maximum sort of you'll be able to get in 32-bit Windows, and more than enough to run Photoshop fluidly), any dual core processor is fine but it seems the newer i5/i7 processors are getting cheaper and are more preferred. As a video card you're set with anything that isn't an integrated card (as long as it's an ATi/Nvidia brand) so you'll be more than happy to buy anything from $400-800, man PC's are getting cheap now.

My specs from a 2 yearold build:
Intel E8800 @ 3.8GHz (overclocked, $220?)
Nvidia 8800GTX Akimbo ($320)
some Patriotic DDR-1033 RAM, $78 for 4 gbs, even top parts are getting cheap now-a-days.

[DCaban]

Tell me about it....I'm in DIRE need of a new pc with a lot of ram.
I currently have a Mac book pro that works wonderfully and has a built in intel chip. But even my Mac only has about 1 gig of ram. It's so frustrating. I just want a monster of a pc that'll handle big games like starcraft and big programs from Microsoft and Adobe without it dying on me.

Anyone else with some awesome specs they care to brag about?

[PsychoCoder]

My current specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (3.4 Ghz)
MSI 790FX Motherboard
Dual MSI TwinFrozr II NVIDIA GeForce 465GTX video cards
6 GB OCZ DDR3
2 x 1TB Western Digital HDD (Internal)
2 x 320GB Western Digital HDD
1 x 1TB Western Digital HDD (External)
2 x 21" LCD Monitors

Edited by PsychoCoder, 18 August 2010 - 05:25 PM.

[jpconleyiv]

Macbook Pro
2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3
500 GB FUJITSU MJA2500BH FFS G1 Media
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
*Virtually running Windows 7, Ubuntu, Solaris, and Kubuntu

ASUS Eee PC
Intel Atom
2 GB memory
Windows XP Dual Booted with Ubuntu Linux

External
WD 2TB
WD 500 GB Passport

Vision
LG 23' Flatron * 2

[DCaban]

Psycho and JP, pretty impressive specs you guys got there. You guys are giving me a better understanding of what I should look for.

Another thing...with working with digital media, graphics, and programming...what else would I need besides a lot of ram that'll make all these things work smoothly?


Keep the specs coming!!

[jpconleyiv]

Well a lot of ram is not only wonderful and impressive but sometimes isn't always necessary. My main system (macbook pro) has 4GB and I do program on that, but I also need a Windows box for school (netbook) which has been getting me by. It runs NetBeans fine for the time being. I'm not telling you to go out and but a netbook for all of your computer needs but if you're just starting it is something that could work for you.

I will say that if you are in or plan on going into the desktop publishing/media/design field than I would go with a mac, they are industry standard for such applications and especially in most design houses. However your interests are more on the programming, networking development, .NET (which I know nothing about, talk to psycho) , and gaming than you should get a Windows PC.

I personally enjoy all applications and try to be well rounded, approaching the level of being well rounded but none the less. :)

I like my mac for most of what I do but I also like Windows and Linux for certain things. I would decide on what your looking to do then build from there.

Good Luck! Hope this has helped!!

[DCaban]

Thanks for the informative feedback I know a lot of developers who work from home and use PC's. And I'll be developing a lot of .NET apps, android and web apps. Will be using the android sdk, visual studio and adobe suites quite often. Plus, on my spare time if I'm not on my gaming console I'd like to be able to play on my PC.

I use my MacBook pro for video editing and rendering, and it works perfectly when I run programs like Final Cut Studio. But my Mac will not perform so well cause it only has 1gig of ram. It kinda frustrates me cause I bought it 2 years back for almost 2k.

I feel like a sucker. As if they saw me coming a mile away. The majority of Apple's consumers are really ignorant when it comes to these specs, and backwards compalibilty, and what they're really getting for their money. Although I have seen Mac comps improve greatly over time, they are just not customizable or affordable for that matter.

I guess when it comes to design Mac would be the way to go. As I've heard that they're good for graphics and animation.

[jpconleyiv]

DCaban said:

Thanks for the informative feedback I know a lot of developers who work from home and use PC's. And I'll be developing a lot of .NET apps, android and web apps. Will be using the android sdk, visual studio and adobe suites quite often. Plus, on my spare time if I'm not on my gaming console I'd like to be able to play on my PC.

I would most certainly use a Windows machine. As for the memory in your MB I would just upgrade it, if its an older model those are not difficult to upgrade. Also if its not DDR3 than it shouldn't be that expensive either.

*Macs generally don't require much ram to run unless your dealing with editing, graphics, etc.. Thats why some of them don't come with very much. I will say though in your case thats rough because I paid about what you did and have 4GB +Xtra's.

[PsychoCoder]

Go with a PC Mac's are overrated (:P to all the Mac users). Get at least 4GB RAM (today's applications are pretty memory intensive and if you're going to be using Visual Studio 2010 you're going to want a little extra, thus the 4GB) and a nice quad-core processor (You'll pay less for AMD than Intel, I'm an Intel convert and use nothing but AMD now as I got tired of the heat from the Intel chips).

5+ years ago I would have said go for a Mac for graphics but even now a lot of those I know who use a Mac for that say that it's not much different than using a PC nowadays, just some food for thought there ;)

[WingedPanther]

2GB RAM
Intel Celeron @ 1.3 GHz
250 GB hard drive
13.1" monitor.

It's a laptop :) With Ubuntu.

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

The Mac:
Model: Macbook
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz
Memory: 2 GB DDR SDRAM
Hard drive: 168 GB
Operating system: Mac OS X Leopard

The PC:
Model: HP Pavillion
CPU: AMD Turion II Duel Core 2.3 GHz
Memory: 4 GB (type unknown)
Hard drive: 400 GB
Operating system: Windows 7, Knoppix

Hardware-wise, a Mac is probably not worth it. It has less RAM and a smaller hard drive than a typical PC at a higher price. The OS is really good though.