OT I need help picking a new computer ::solved
carrie58
Posts: 4,085
Okay so my computer is dying the death and needs to be replaced its an HP Pavillion ,and my budget gives me 2 options, This one http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-pavilion-desktop---510-p020 or
So the question is which would be the best choice for using with DAZ ,paint programs etc ,and since I know little to nothing about computers is it better to upgrade the video card ??
Thanks for any input you can give
Post edited by carrie58 on
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
If you intend to render using Iray the Dell would be your best choice as it has a Nvidia card. The HP just has an intergrated card. But ... the Nvidia card is only a 730 with 2GB. I would think anything new would be running at least a 9 series. And you probably want a minimum of 4GB. Will they let you upgrade? Memory is only 8GB and in 3D rendering you can never have enough. I can understand the budget situation but you may find you are quickly outgrowing the new computer and then have to start adding on parts if you even can. I use a Dell myself and they can be a bit limited when you want to install new parts. Good luck.
What is your current rig's setup? KNowing that, someone might be able to give you a better analysis of whether the graphics card upgrade alone would be worth it.
Bob
PS: If you do go the new system route, if you can go just a little bit higher in price this fella is also on clearance at HP- http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-envy-desktop---750-425qe-cto ; You'd get a faster I7, more RAM, and an Nvidia card for just a few hundred more. That GTX isn't the fastest, most powerful card out there, but the other systems you mentioned above appear to only have onboard graphics. And, if more money came available you could then upgrade the card later on. Just an idea.
This is what I've got right now and it's pull tricks like shutting down the monitor or freezeing up the keyboard and mouse for no reason I can figure out and I've learned to have a lot of patience when using DAZ cause it's sssslloowww .or it freezes and crashes .......
None of these. Your budget seems too low
You need a good enough Quadcore and a good enough Nvidia Gfx card with 4GB VRam (GTX 1050 Ti is the best bet ). 16 GB Ram would be optimal
For around 600$ that is very difficult
Only found one new winthout OS https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3204520
I'd personaly go with a used Workstation and add a Gfx card http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Workstation-Xeon-Quad-Core-3-6GHz-16GB-RAM-1TB-HD-NVIDIA-GTX-1050-Ti-4GB-/361938011146?hash=item54452fc40a:g:AYMAAOSw~OVW1eEh. Used workstation may have a better value as a new computer if it's in a good shape
...I have to concur the workstation on ebay sounds like a better deal even though it is refurbished. The E5-1620 supports quad channel memory which is more efficient than dual channel. I would never build a graphics production system with anything less than an i7 or Xeon. The 1050 Ti is adequate or small scenes and you can always upgrade later to say a 1060 (6 GB) or 1070 (8 GB) and use the 1050 to drive your displays. With 16 GB of memory it offers enough overhead should rendering dump to the CPU. Looking at th actual specs for the Z420 on teh HP support site, it mentions the board has 8 DIMM slots and can support up to a total of 64 GB (8 x 8 GB) of system memory. I would of course confirm this with the seller.
If you can find a refurbished workstation with more memory (like say 32 GB) it would be a good investment as DDR3 SDRAM is being phased out and becoming more difficult to find as well as more expensive. Last year I placed a 24 GB DDR3 1333 kit on my Newegg wishlist for upgrading my current system. In December the price hit a low of 125$. Now that I have come into come extra financial resources (which I didn't have back then) I went back to my wishlist only to find that teh price increased to 186$. Most DDR3 memory I have been finding is ECC Registered server memory which will not work in a standard PC.
Here is one that I found at Newegg for 522$. It doesn't have a GPU card but it does have 32 GB of memory a 2 TB HDD, and the 3.66 GHz E5-1620, and W10 Pro
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883285272&cm_re=hp_z420-_-83-285-272-_-Product
The problem might not be hardware related. If you have your install disks it's worth reinstalling Windows and programs, etc, to a new state. Can sort out all sorts of conflicts. Just be sure back up all your data and contacts first.
Concur on reinstalling your system. Backup, reinstall, and see if things get better. Congrats on getting that much life and use out of 9 year old CPU, not to mention Windows Vista!
Another potential, though not ideal, option... I believe your Phenom CPU uses an AM2+ socket. You could check with a PC repair place to see how far they could upgrade it. If funds really are a serious issue, then that may be something to look at. It can probably take a later Phenom, an Athlon X2, and possibly an Athlon X4. Again, not as ideal as a new PC, but pair that with a decent graphics card, more RAM, and a new OS and you're perhaps around your $600 target. The system would still be underpowered for serious rendering work, but it would be an upgrade.
I'm using a two year old I7-5500 laptop for DAZ with a GTX 850M card, so while hardly weak, it's also hardly as powerful as I'd like. You can get by with a lesser powered system if you're willing to compromise a little bit.
Bob
I have say thank you very much toeveryone for your input ........even the ones that went over my head
@ Peter Fulford yeah I moved a year ago and still can't find alot of stuff inclulding the box with the instal dics and paperwork for the computer, I do a backup on a regular basis to an exturnal hard drive is that good enough?
@ retiretomaui I'm kinda drooling over that Envy ....digging through the coin jar ,sofa and car seats .....so thank you very much
It's probably worth trying out the troubleshooting tips for your PC:
http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-Elite-e9000-Desktop-PC-series/3942792/model/4003064/product-info/
since they relate to display, keyboard and mouse issues.
Thanks Peter Fulford I did try that and I can't get the Hardware DiagnosticTool window to even open .....can't make up my mind if I'm the dumb one or it is...... yes I talk to my computer sometimes it listens other times I think it just rolls it's optics and smirks ...
You're about to spend over $600 on HW that's already EOLed. I think you should reconsider.
This product is the latest commercially released Intel customer technology, has 8GB RAM and is upgradable to 32GB for $200 when you can afford it or 24 GB for $100 when you can afford it, has 2TB instead of 1TB HDD with two M.3 slots for SSD available, one PCI Expressx1, and one PCI Express x 16 resolved for add-on video when you can afford it.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5SXZY8/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_38?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
This PC costs $429 and free shipping and with a bit more money then that $200 you just saved you can buy the latest entry level nVidia video card technology which is better than the antiquated video cards that those older machines you are consider has on offer.
You should call Asus customer support with questions about this PC like which nVidia card do you want to buy (personally I'd wait, save and buy the best available that cost less than $500 and had at least 8GB video card RAM).
As far as Xeons go, well 4 cores is 4 cores and this non-Xeon PC has 4 cores, 8 threads, is cheaper and uses less energy and is faster too.
Where are you going to find a used PC that has 2 M.3 SSD add-on slots and 7 USB ports, plus the combo MMC and DVD drives (although the last two are a bit antiquated too). You won't and you'll wind up paying more too for less with those old PCs.
Read the reviews of the ASUS PC yourself and feel free to ask read & questions on Amazon Q&A for that product; that's what it is there for.
I would say build your own. Thos prebuilt systems usually have crappy power supplies, and some even use proprietary power supply connectors on their motherboards, to force you to buy their overpriced PSU units. I made the mistake of buying a prebuilt, regretted it. Wanted to just add a nice graphics card, ended up having to build a whole new system, only thing I could keep from the prebuilt was the PCU and RAM. I just recently bought a new kabylake i7 PCU, mobo and DDR4 RAM for 700 CAD. It will be a lot cheaper if you live in the US, canada prices are like double for everything but out paychecks :P
As for windows, I have to reinstall it like once or more a year, I would have moved on to linux if it had all the software I use, long ago.
I've already looked at building my own and unless you have recently tried to built one yourself I doubt that you know that you can't come close to matching the price of the Acer I liked too. The power supply in that Acer is 300W which should be sufficient. If not add another $50 to buy a new higher wattage PS to that Acer but certainly don't go spent double the money to built a PC and then still not even have a PC as good as the one you could of bought for $430.
I don't think the OP is currently capable of a self-build. These are rarely cheaper than off-the-shelf; the real advantage is full control of configuration, and an understanding of how it all works together.
uuummm I totally have to agree with Peter Fulford that the OP is NOT capable of a self build .........but I can sculpt in clay or needle felt animals so it's all good!!!
So the OP can't open a computer to add a graphic card or add a NVMe Disk or replace RAM Sticks ?
Nope it could be very dangerous both to the OP and the computer ....
Did the OP chose to buy the Envy ?
Pretty much still looking for extra change
OK last find and ready to use https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883230091R&cm_re=amd_gtx_1050_TI-_-83-230-091R-_-Product
You won't have to open it and has all you need.
I personnaly don't like these cheap PCs as they usually have lower quality components (acer included) but that's all you can get for under 600$ that can run DS with Iray well enough
If you have a higher budget I can look for something better
Thank you Takeo but I have decided to go with the Envy ......found out my daughter can get a discount on the purchase for me . Honestly I worry about the cheaper ones too and I don't care for refurbish units you don't know what you are getting .....I only do that when I get a car .....
You know there is a good chance that your computer can support twice the amount of RAM it was specced by the constructor ?
The specs were made with the max RAM stick available (4GB) at that time. The 8GB sticks came out later and may be compatible depending on your motherboard.
Buying 8GB sticks seems to be cheaper in $ per GB than buying 4GB Sticks
...several downsides.
First, the i5 7400 does not have hyperhtreading (as per Intel's ARK site) so you have only 4 instead of 8 processor threads. All Xeons from Nehalem (Lynfield) on have hyperthreading..
Second, it only supports dual rather than tri or quad channel memory (the latter two which are moire efficient),
Third, It also does not include a GPU card and only has 1 PCIe 3.0 x 16 slot as well as only a 300W PSU so that would most likely need to be upgraded if you wish to later install say a 6 GB 1060 or 8 GB 1070. (According to the review I read, the best card the system can handle out of the box is a 4 GB 1050 Ti).
Desktop Computer Reviews pretty much puts in more in the category of a general everyday home use system (eg social media, viewing films, email, etc.) online rather than 3D CG rendering and/or gaming.
Evaluation, not a good buy for 3D work or future expandability. The Refurbished HP workstations we mentioned above would give you a lot more "bang for the" buck so to say, even though they are older hardware.
...
...when it came to really getting what I wanted, that was the best route as most of the shelf systems were inadequate for rendering while gaming systems that included a GPU card were fairly expensive and getting one custom built cost even more.
I know it sounds daunting but I taught myself in my spare time how to configure and build my own system...in my late 50s. .
...pretty good system almost sounds like what the OP wants (though I have some reservations about the CPU and MB).
However two caveats,
First, it comes with W10 Home Edition, which gives Microsoft pretty much full control of your system as to updating (which is one of the reasons I never cashed in on the "free" W10 upgrade offer last year as I have W7 Home Premium). The Pro edition at least gives you some extra latitude and options. For example, with W10 Home, you may be rendering or working on a project and suddenly the system could reboot without warning because MS decided to send a new update package. With Pro Edition, you can at least defer updating for a couple months and schedule it to occur when you aren't using the system.
Second the MB only has 2 DIMM slots so you will never be able to expand the memory capacity beyond 16 GB as most PC boards of that generation don't accept anything higher than 8 GB sticks. I've been running 12 GB and frequently my render jobs go into Swap mode (Virtual memory partition on the HDD) which is even slower than CPU rendering. Again I would more recommend one of the refurbished HP workstations. and when you come into some extra finances then add the GPU card (I would recommend at least a 6 GB GTX 1060, or better, an 8 GB 1070). In the long tu run I believe you would be more pleased with the performance as the software and content becomes more robust.
...being that the MB is 4 years old, not sure I want to take the risk of blowing it out. I'll have to field that question to the tech boards.
...tried to use the link in retiretomaui's post to view the specs but I keep getting a 404 error.
Try this link KK http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-envy-desktop---750-425qe-cto
cause I am interested in your opinion
At worst you won't pass the POST. You can't blow up your Motherboard by installing RAM Stick unless you're being a bit violent. You can try some stick and return them if they don't work
If you google a bit you can find some people's testimony of that working http://wp.xin.at/archives/880/comment-page-1
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/48gb-ram-on-gigabyte-ex58-ud5-i7-920-working.18447737/
My former motherboard officially supported 16 GB but in fact could go up 32 GB with 8GB Sticks
Buying prebuilt is no problem if you know what is inside and that it satisfies your needs
You're welcome. I have a permanent 15% discount on HP consumer hardware but never found anything of my taste. HP used to make bad PC builds a long time ago but now I find them rather good with consumer builds. They even were once innovative http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/sprout-pro/overview.html
In the Professionnal field, I find HP excellent
..expensive for what you are getting. Like I mentioned I have 12 GB along with a 1 GB GPU card (GTX 460) and I pretty much end up rendering on the CPU, if not am shunted to Virtual RAM on the Hard Drive (particularly with Iray) which like I mentioned earlier is even slower. Also the mixed memory stick sizes 4GN + 8 GB doesn't sit well with me. It works, yes but not sure that may mean it will only be single channel memory (like in the old DDR days) as the sticks are not matched in memory size and teh sticks are probably not made from the same silicon batch which can affect reliability. Also as it only has 2 DIMM slots you are really capped in memory expansion. I would go with no less than 4 DIMM slots as with 8 GB, sticks that would allow for expansion to 32 GB. Believe me, you will eventually want it (I'm currently looking to upgrade from 12 GB - 24 GB myself).
About the best that GTX 750 will be for is running your displays and little else.and the recommended system minimum power requirement is 300W (that includes GPU, CPU, memory, fans, drives, CPU cooler, etc) which means the PSU it has will be running close to peak output when rendering. In comparison my system has a 750W PSU and the minimum system power requirement for the GTX 460 is 450W levaing me with 300W of overhead. If your PSU, dies it can take the entire system with it.
I would advise also against any system with W10 Home because of what I mentioned above.
----------
Here are the specs for the system I built and am currently using for comparison:
CPU: Intel i7 930 ("Bloomfield") 4 cores/8 threads 2.8 GHz with Turbo boost
Motherboard: ASUS P6T X 58 intel chipset. X 6 DIMMs x 3 PCIe 2.0 x 16 slots maximum 24 GB memory in Tri Channel mode (1066MHz/1333MHz).
Memory: 12 GB Corsair DDR3 1333 in tri channel configuration
GPU: Nvidia GTX 460 1 GB VRAM 384 CUDA cores with PhysX
Drives: 1 x 250 GB 7200 RPM Boot and Application Drive. 1 x 1 TB 7200 RPM Library/Runtime Drive (I have barely filled half that drive and have been at this for over 8 years. 1 . 1 DVD R/W (no blue ray)
Cooler Master after market CPU cooler (looks almost like a V-8 engine manifold) with al the heat pipes).
Power Supply: Corsair 750w Gold PSU
OS: W7 Home Premium
Case: Antec P-183 mid tower case (almost as big as a full tower) with 6 fans 2 120mm on top, two 120mm in front, one 120mm rear, and one 200 mm fan on the left side panel by the GPU. 11 drive quick mount drive bays and separate PSU bay, all steel construction (case is no longer available)
Sans displays (which I already had) it cost me about 1,400$ to build over 4 years ago (back then the 12 GB memory kit I bought was 380$ and the GPU Card 299$ for that whopping 1 GB of memory). Yes it has been left in the digital dust so to say, but it still dow the job I need and with double the memory I most likely will not have to worry about the process going into swap mode.
If I had the same resources today as I had back then (sadly I don't as I am retired on Social Security) I could refit my system with a 3.3 GHz 6 core i7 (Haswell), X99 MB with LGA 2011-V3 socket (for quad channel support), 8 DIMM slots that could support up to 128 GB memory, 32 GB DDR4 2400 memory an 850W PSU, 6 GB GTX 1060 and replace the 250 GB HDD with a 256 GB SSD.
My current system was a a beast when I built it today more of a kitten (particularly where Iray is concerned). If you are looking to do most of you work in Iray you either need a somewhat decent GPU card (again at least 6 GB) and/or a lot of memory - at least 16 GB, preferably 32.