Anyone know anything about computers?

[Kpnuts]

Hi all, I'm about to buy a new computer and was looking for a bit of advice/help...

1. I'm getting two hard drives, and was considering getting a 500GB 7,200rpm one, and a 160GB 10,000rpm one to put all my applications + Windows (XP!). I'm curious though, what would the extra rpm offer me, is it worth it?

2. Is a Pentium Xeon 2.66GHZ, 1333Mhz, 2x6MB, Quad Core processor any good?

3. I'll probably get this graphics card. I don't do much gaming to be honest but do do some 3ds max stuff. I assume this is an ok card? "256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 570, Dual Monitor DVI or VGA Graphics Card"

Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

Cheers

 

[Ariadne]

Kpnuts said:
1. I'm getting two hard drives, and was considering getting a 500GB 7,200rpm one, and a 160GB 10,000rpm one to put all my applications + Windows (XP!). I'm curious though, what would the extra rpm offer me, is it worth it?

You'll be able to access data faster.

 

[spinnerlys]

1. For what will you need a 10.000 RPM drive? It costs much more than the 7.200 version. 7.200 is enough for most tasks, even intensive ones. But if you depend on the difference, than go for it. 7.200 drives are able to let you cut DV and HDV material (in my experience), even a 4.200 drive was able to handle at least DV (with Avid Xpress).

2. The processor is good, it will rock your world (even with Windows).

3. Quadro cards are more than okay. They are build to let you work with Digital Content Creation like 3D, video editing or compositing.
It's a shame that 3dlabs isn't anymore.

You can look for reviews on the components you wish to obtain.
That's how I found at least my graphics card ages ago (it was the 3dlabs VP 870).

 

[farmkid]

Kpnuts said:
Hi all, I'm about to buy a new computer and was looking for a bit of advice/help...

1. I'm getting two hard drives, and was considering getting a 500GB 7,200rpm one, and a 160GB 10,000rpm one to put all my applications + Windows (XP!). I'm curious though, what would the extra rpm offer me, is it worth it?

Windows will load a little faster and programs will start a little faster. Otherwise, not much difference. Other than seek time, the latest 7200 RPM drives almost equal the Raptors in performance. In my opinion, it's not worth the extra money.

 

[Alaedhros]

Kpnuts said:
1. I'm getting two hard drives, and was considering getting a 500GB 7,200rpm one, and a 160GB 10,000rpm one to put all my applications + Windows (XP!). I'm curious though, what would the extra rpm offer me, is it worth it?

I'll second farmkid's opinion--the slight increase in performance is not worth the substantial extra price.

Kpnuts said:
2. Is a Pentium Xeon 2.66GHZ, 1333Mhz, 2x6MB, Quad Core processor any good?

I could be completely off the mark here, but if you have to ask then it's probably more than you need. 1.) It's for servers and high-end workstations. 2.) Very few programs have been properly parallelized to take advantage of four cores; unless you're running multiple CPU-intensive tasks simultaneously (in which case your hard disk drive would probably be a serious bottleneck), you don't need a quad-core processor (and even dual-cores are somewhat dubious).

 

[Kpnuts]

I'd be running video editing and compositing programs, 3ds max, adobe software etc. Just thought I may as well take advantage of quad core seeing as its within my budget.

 

[JustAFriend]

You really don't need the extra speed for video editing; I'm using a 7200rpm Seagate Freeagent USB2 drive on my laptop and have no problems. Unless you want to do HDTV, then yes you need all the speed you can get.

Put the faster drive on as a secondary data drive (where you store all your video and projects.)

The OS/applications drive doesn't need all that much speed; even a 5400rpm drive works OK because once the programs are loaded there really isn't that much access beyond occasional OS housekeeping. As long as you have enough RAM to keep from using memory paging (anything over 1GB) it won't hit the drive that much.

 

[Deks]

I'd be running video editing and compositing programs, 3ds max, adobe software etc. Just thought I may as well take advantage of quad core seeing as its within my budget.

3d studio Max (which I personally use) itself is a good enough reason to get a cpu with 4 cores ... just make sure your RAM quantity is on par with the rest of the system as Max likes to have ample supply of RAM to begin with ... particularly if you will be using large resolution textures for your meshes.

Depending on which version of Windows you decide to use, 32 bit XP Pro (which seems to be the best choice for now) should be able to use 4 GB of Ram (since it was designed like that) but it will show only 3 GB.

In any case ... getting a quad core CPU is actually a really good investment.
You won't have to worry about upgrading the computer anytime soon (I hope) ... plus if it's within your budget, then why not ?

But I do have doubts about getting a 10.000 rpm hard drive you mentioned.
As it was pointed out earlier, a 7.200 rpm HD is good enough for numerous tasks and you save money on it instead of getting the 10.000 rpm version (which is pretty great in my personal opinion, but hardly necessary, and you can always buy it when the prices go down).

 

[bryce]

I don't believe I have even ever used a computer.

 

[BCI]

It's forbidden to talk about Bittorrent downloads on the BBS, and thus it also should be forbidden to talk about computers set up for pirated copies of 3D-Studio.

 

[TerriO]

It's forbidden to talk about Bittorrent downloads on the BBS, and thus it also should be forbidden to talk about computers set up for pirated copies of 3D-Studio.

Let's just leave discussions of pirated anything alone, please. It'll save everyone a whole lot of agita in the long run.

 

[Deks]

It's forbidden to talk about Bittorrent downloads on the BBS, and thus it also should be forbidden to talk about computers set up for pirated copies of 3D-Studio.

Let's just leave discussions of pirated anything alone, please. It'll save everyone a whole lot of agita in the long run.

I agree, but when exactly did anyone in this particular thread ever mention anything that might have indicated how terms such as 'pirated' and 'bittorrents' (apart from BCI) were used ?
Unless of course any piece of software that is considered 'high profile' and possibly in use by any of the BBS members is automatically assumed to be a pirated version or that someone might be suggesting where to download a said version of the program ?

 

[BCI]

The moderator asked me to shut up, yet you ask for more? Sigh. IMHO it's quite simple. Somebody using "high profile" stuff for paid work would never ever ask for advice on the TrekBBS. Did I mention my PC is equipped with a Celeron 2800? Even when I purchased it a year ago, it was the cheapest CPU on offer. And for 3D graphics, I use Truespace. Got a legal version for below $100, still it has more features than I could possible master.

 

[Deks]

The moderator asked me to shut up, yet you ask for more? Sigh. IMHO it's quite simple. Somebody using "high profile" stuff for paid work would never ever ask for advice on the TrekBBS. Did I mention my PC is equipped with a Celeron 2800? Even when I purchased it a year ago, it was the cheapest CPU on offer. And for 3D graphics, I use Truespace. Got a legal version for below $100, still it has more features than I could possible master.

Ok, but not everyone uses 'high profile' programs (legal ones of course) for paid work.
Making a blatant generalization/assumption that no one would ask for any advice on TrekBBS regarding such programs is quite frankly ... presumptuous.
We all get info on numerous stuff from different sources ... just because there are specialized sources, doesn't mean people will actually use them or if they will be of any help.

One other thing, I wasn't 'asking for more' as you kindly put it ... I merely asked when did any of the posters before you showed up in the thread said anything about using software that shouldn't be used ?
People of diverse computer knowledge can be found anywhere.
Some create more problems jumping to conclusions (and what you wrote in your first post really came out of the blue, so I was puzzled as to what exactly prompted you to post that when there was no reason to do so).

In any case I don't think further discussion on this particular subject is necessary.
Let's get back to the topic at hand.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I had a discussion on another board a couple months ago with a fellow who was retired, had a few extra dollars and some extra time, and bought some high end 3d modelling and video editing software just so he could have something to do with his retirement, learn something new, and right now all he is doing is making funky 3d videos for his Vista Dreamscene.

I would never assume anything about anybody, people in this country are free to buy software to use to create what they want.

 

[TerriO]

The moderator asked me to shut up, yet you ask for more? Sigh. IMHO it's quite simple. Somebody using "high profile" stuff for paid work would never ever ask for advice on the TrekBBS. Did I mention my PC is equipped with a Celeron 2800? Even when I purchased it a year ago, it was the cheapest CPU on offer. And for 3D graphics, I use Truespace. Got a legal version for below $100, still it has more features than I could possible master.

What makes you think they wouldn't ask here? We've got a wide variety of users with a wide variety of software experience. It's almost an informal tech support around here.

That said, let's please not accuse someone of something without some concrete proof, okay? You may be right, but you also may be wrong. Turn the tables for a second, how would you feel if you where the person asking the question, and met with such accusations?