Kaebora's New CG Animation PC

[Kaebora]

This is the first online post ever made by this new computer. IT... IS... ALIVE!!!! There may be a problem with the memory sticks I bought, so i'm running some tests. If it's not the memory, it's the motherboard (which is always very unlikely since they are quite durable). By tomorrow I shall have some idea of what this monster is capable of once I replace the memory. Hopefully decent for gaming, and a shreadder of CG animation.

[Kaebora]

Ok, this computer is finished and works fine.

Hardware = $1,718.36
Other (services/ tools)= $63.54

In conclusion, using websites and discount parts stores, you can build a more than decent computer for $1,000. You can build a state-of-the-art rig for $2000 easy. All you have to do is research and price shop. This has been an exellent learning experiance for me, and I hope it has enlightened you all to the technical and financial possibilities in building a computer. More pics on the way, and definately more Kaebora brand animations.

[Shadow Wulf]

correction! You can easily build more than a decent computer for around $700, and thats enough to upgrades to let you play UT3 pretty damn good. For $1000 you can build yourself a great gaming PC that can run any game out there perfectly for the next couple of years thats almost equivalent to that of a $2000 alienware.

What Kaebora built is way beyond what you need unless your planning to do some serous CG designing and messing with Zbrush and so forth. No game requires such a monstrous spec and it will never need that much power for a atleast 3 years. Heck even 1 gig of ram is still holding up.

But regardless, what Kaebora built is kick a** and I wish I lived near him to steal it.

[MattSullivan]

Good lord Kae. And I thought i had a pretty fast computer.

[Kaebora]

You're quite right on some counts SW. There are some people who strive to build the best they can for as little cash as possible as a challenge. I've seen a VERY good gaming PC (F.E.A.R. at 300 Frames per second) for only $1,000. It all depends on what you're looking for in a computer. And, in light of your urge to steal, should I install an anti-theft GPS device? LOL

Good lord Kae. And I thought i had a pretty fast computer.

Well, you DO have a fast computer. I drooled over it once before. (Sorry for the mess. ) Yours will last for awhile to come.
:}

I just like the idea of being set in the speedy crowd for the next 5 years. I admit I can't use the video card's full potential yet, but I'll need it later on. Upgradeability is the purpose of these components. Remember kids, each PC is built with YOUR needs in mind. Companies like Dell and PC Club are great at building what you system needs to meet your expectations. Building it yourself just adds to the level of customization (with added risks of screwing up).

Well, from this point forward I'll cease and decist all gloating, boasting, and bragging. Or... are all three the same thing. Huh. Anyways, its for the sake of everyone's sanity. I remember getting annoyed as hell at one of my friends who did some work on his car, and never shut up about it.

I'll still post up some info on the pitfalls encountered, and some photos of some key steps I missed.

[Xiroteus]

That is a nice system.
I built my system a couple months ago, not close to what you bought, do to budget and having no need for such a powerful system, mine is for general internet use and games once in awhile, went together without a problem.

[Anubis]

As long as it runs my current CG software at full capacity, becoming obsolete wont be a problem for at least 4 years. I'm sure it will run Half-Life 2 and its mods at full settings just fine as well.


I've decided on buying two 160-300GB hard drives so I can configure them in a RAID-0 (striping) setup. That decreases read/write times by 30% and save me from spending more on WD Raptor drives.

*whistles*

DAMN! That is one uber powerful desktop you got there!

I'm surprised you aren't getting a terabyte hard drive. If you want bleeding edge high tech.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 552,00.asp

[Scott Gardener]

That's a pretty astonishing setup, especially since you did all that in under $2000. A four core system--I'm definitely jealous. If I were to build a new system, I'd certainly want at least four cores. And, you went with an ASUS motherboard. After dealing with a weird obscure company one that had all kinds of compatibility issues, I now have an MSI board. It's better, but I'd go with ASUS if I were to do it all over again. High end independent Falcon Northwest endorses them. The two gigs of Corsair and the GeForce 8800 series graphics card is certainly up to snuff and good to go for quite awhile; your one graphics card could probably eat for breakfast a lot of dual graphics SLi or Crossfire configurations from less than a year ago. I bet that took a noticable portion of your budget.

Though the computer I'm using to type this is one I built, it's nowhere near as impressive. (ATX motherboard by MSI, Athlon 64 3800+ (2.5 GHz, single core, but 64-bit enabled and used; I'm running Vista Ultimate, 64-bit version), 1.5 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 1650 AGP graphics card, and a Soundblaster Extigy external sound card using default Vista drivers.) It's been through several upgrades, and I figure in a year or so I'll be on something else. If I do build my own, I may consider the AMD Slot 1207 dual CPU setup, with a pair of dual or quad-core CPUs, and ideally at least four Gigs of RAM. (No, I don't hate Intel; it just seems this way with this particular setup. I'm actually a big fan of Blue Man Group.) I've also looked at Falcon Northwest and letting them build it for me. Yes, they're very expensive, but they'll do their own overclocking and they have a company policy against shipping anything less than bleeding edge. Systems I've built myself tend to have issues of stability and compatibility of parts, and I have NOT overclocked anything. I've even looked at Apple, now that Mac Pros can dual-boot Windows and Leopard came out yesterday, which looks really sharp, and their systems are a lot more ecologically friendly in terms of power consumption to performance as well as manufacturing of parts. I'm a big believer in green tech; I own a hybrid and I'm secretly replacing all the lightbulbs in our house with corkscrewy compact fluorescents.

I've noticed that you did two hard drives in RAID 0. Given that one five hundred gig hard drive would cost about the same, I do wonder why you subject yourself to the additional stability risks of RAID 0; it may be a little faster, but if either hard drive fails--and all hard drives fail eventually--the whole thing goes down. If you got two five hundreds, you could do a RAID 1 and actually have a more secure system with the same doubling of hard drive access speed. Or, you could sacrifice a little bit of performance and get twice capacity. My aging desktop recently got a 750 Gig second hard drive to sit next to its older 250. I actually had a second 250, but it died on me, or I could have had a 1.25 Terabyte system. Thankfully, I've never yet set up RAID. Heck, I'm still using IDE drives. (Except my laptop, which uses a 2.5" SATA; it came with a 100 Gig, which I just two or three weeks ago upgraded to 250 Gigs.)

In any event, rock on, and have at it. You've definitely got bragging rights.

[RedEye]

For all the talk, it won't be finished until there is at least ONE Master Chief sticker on it, or maybe something from Sin City...

New definition: Personal Computer = a hole in space that absorbs vast amounts of time, money, and effort; without having any perceptable effect on the space around it. Similar to a personal relationship, only without the benefits. See also: Boat; Car; Gun Collection; et al.

Have fun, Kaebora. Just remember- it's your property, not the other way around. People tend to forget that one... It's only a tool.

[Kaebora]

Indeed RedEye (although the sticker thing would taint the sleek look). I've gotten over the "stand and stare" phase with this PC. It's just my art tool now. And I did put some effort into the space around my PC for comfort. The desk and peripherals assist me gloriously. Another picture to be posted soon.

You are right on all counts there, Scott. My Quad has benchmarked at out-performing most other CPUs in 3D render tests at a fraction of the cost. I can see you decided to go 64-bit, but the cost of upgrading software to 64 is a bit much. I may make the switch in about a year, but most of my 32-bit software is reported as non-backwards compatible with Windows Vista 64. You are also right about RAID-0. It is a huge risk if one of the drives fail. This is why I have a 360GB external drive for backing up vital data. The internal drives contain only two things at any given time: the programs, and the works in progress. I even occationally will back up the in-progress files if it's taking longer than a couple of weeks to complete. Still, the added read/write speed and cost-efficiant capacity is better than the other options I was considering. WD Raptor drives are nice... but the cost isn't worth it. This more than doubles the space, and nearly matches the speed. Not to mention that the Raptor sounds like a digital tomcat on a vi*gra bender, they SCREAM (loud) all the time. Caviar drives are so quiet, I can barely hear them even with my ear against the case.