mathman opened this issue on Feb 05, 2009 ยท 12 posts
svdl posted Fri, 06 February 2009 at 12:55 PM
Tips:
Go Intel for the CPU. The Q series quad core deliver more bang for the buck than AMD, the i series is even faster, but also more expensive.
Go Gigabyte for the mainboard instead of Asus. Six years back Asus was top, three years back Asus was disastrous, right now it's in the middle group when it comes to quality. Gigabyte mainboards tend to be more stable than the competition (at least, this year that's the case. Who knows how things look next year). The high end Asus mainboards are loaded with goodies, and they look nice with all those copper heatsinks, but you don't want a lot of goodies - you want a mainboard that just WORKS and keeps working.
Avoid nVidia chipsets on the mainboard. The southbridge runs too hot - I burned 3 of them within 2 weeks, just by pumping several gigabytes of data through the network. Use a board with an Intel chipset (the southbridge only got lukewarm under a heavier load than what fried the nVidias).
nVidia chipsets are ONLY interesting if you're a heavy gamer and want 3-way SLI.
Don't buy an SLI, Crossfire or CrossfireX board. They're more expensive than their single graphics card counterparts, and for Poser you definitely DON"T want SLI or Crossfire - it limits you to a single monitor. You're better off with a single graphics card and a second monitor than the other way around.
Go 4 GB of DDR2-800 as 2x2 GB modules, that way you can upgrade to 8 GB later on. You want this machine to last for a couple of years, so make sure it's ready to run Windows 7 64 bit.
Ditch the ATI 3450. Too low powered for decent Poser preview work. Go for nVidia 8600 GT as a minimum performer - an 8800GT has great performance at a great price.
ATI also has graphics cards that perform as well as a 8600GT or better, at reasonable prices.
The high end (nVidia GX260 or higher, ATI 4850/4870) is overkill; expensive graphics cards that produce a lot of heat.
Cooler: Go for an Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro. Cools better than a Zalman, is less noisy than a Zalman, and costs less than half.
Hard disk: Samsung Spinpoint 1 TB. Fast, silent, reliable, and LOTS of storage space. And affordable.
PSU: 550 watt is enough to run a quad core system with a fast graphics card and multiple hard disks. Raw power isn't the point, you should look at the stability of the output (check Anandtech or Tom's Hardware Guide for reports on PSUs) and the noise it produces. Cable management is a big plus.
I've got a couple of Zalman HP600 PSUs and they work very well. The CoolerMaster M520 (520 watt, cable management, 80%+ efficiency) is affordable and very good as well.
System case. More important than one might think. You want a system case that has enough room for expansion, that has a good airflow to keep things cool, one that is silent, and one that is solidy built and doesn't deform.
I haven't found a brand/model of system case yet that is great in ALL those things. I've got two Chieftec cases - rock solid, roomy, and decent airflow, but not silent. I've got an Antec P182B: silent, good airflow, but not as solid or roomy as a Chieftec - and quite expensive to boot. I've got a Sharkoon Rebel9: cheap, fantastic airflow, roomy, reasonably silent, but it's not solidly made.
The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter