Advise new - rendering - computer
 

A new computer needs to be configured. It should be used for video editing and / or rendering, but on a budget.

Currect computer they have is a Sempron 1800+ with 512 shared memory. The laptop is a Dell core duo 1.8 with 2 gb. But both are rather slow.

Budget would be 350 - 400 euro without OS, but a tad higher could be possible.

I was thinking of the following:

As I have no experience with video editing software, is the VGA card needed, or can we go for a slower / onbiard solution ?

WDC 500 Gb harde schijf 35,99 Western Digital*Caviar SE16
LG DVD schrijver 18,49 LG*GH-22NS30
4 Gb DDR3 44,99 Kingston ValueRAM*DIMM 4 GB DDR3-1066 Kit
Moederbord 64,9 MSI*880GM-E41
Behuizing 89,9 Antec*NSK-4482 EC*
Processor 94,9 AMD*Athlon II X4 640*
Beeldkaart 114 XFX*HD5750 XXX (HD-575X-ZMD3

463,17

Wait untill January 3rd

if you're going to use 3D rendering software you'll need a good OpenGL card
if you're looking to render movies / edit images with adobe software, look into CUDA support (or the open source equivalent that AMD supports)
most important is the amount of physical cores, the more the better, and the faster the better too

like MM said, wait for january and hope that prices will drop of the older quad cores, get one of those and you're set :)

Actually, I was talking about the new Sandy Bridge :)

yes I know that, hence why I say "let's hope the prices drop of the older quad cores" ;p

Nothing spectacular happened prisewise. :)

Cheapest quad core is still +/- 180 euro.

I'd pick up mobo/ram/HDD/etc new, CPU second hand from a geek who upgrades from his current quad ;)

Invoice is needed ... :)

WDC 500 Gb harde schijf 35,99 Western Digital*Caviar SE16
LG DVD schrijver 18,49 LG*GH-22NS30
Behuizing 89,9 Antec*NSK-4482 EC*
Intel BOXDH67BL Bearup Lake µATX Socket 1155 Intel® H67 €94,90
Corsair TW3X4G1333C9A 4GB KIT (2X2GB) 1333MHZ DDR3 9-9-9-24 1.5V €59,99
Intel Core I5 2400 32NM 3.1GHZ 6MB LGA 1155 Boxed €184,90

€484,17

€20 more expensive than your AMD setup but a lot faster!

Western Digital Caviar Black (640 gb, sata/300, 7200 rpm, 64 mb, 3.5") 59,06
Nec DVD ReWriter AD-7260S (24x, sata, black) 19,50
ASRock H67M (Retail, RAID, Gb-LAN, VGA, Sound, ATX) 89,90
Intel Core i5 2400 (3.1 ghz, 6 mb, s1155, 95 watt, boxed) 175,51
G.Skill 4GBNQ (4096 mb, 1333 mhz, CL9, 1.6 v, non-ecc, unbuffered, kit of 2) 43,44
Antec NSK4482B (black/silver, 380 watt, atx) 89,43

€476,84

Slightly cheaper as jmke, but with bit bigger HD and a different mainboard ;)

IN the end I bought this:

WDC 500 Gb harde schijf 35,99 Western Digital*Caviar SE16
LG DVD schrijver 18,49 LG*GH-22NS30
4 Gb DDR3 44,99 Kingston ValueRAM*DIMM 4 GB DDR3-1066 Kit
Moederbord 64,9 MSI*880GM-E41
Behuizing 89,9 Antec*NSK-4482 EC*
Processor 94,9 AMD*Athlon II X4 640*

Total price was about 350. Using the cheap *** on board graphics so far.

I've got two ATI Sapphire 5770 VaporX cards which I'm selling...



Bought in March and June 2010 (Power4Pc), so still over a year of warranty on them.

Asking price is €95 a piece, or €160 for both of them...

did not want to experience Sandy Bridge? ;)