I may be getting a new PC for DAZ Studio
Ron Knights
Posts: 2,120
I might be able to gather up around $1,000 within 6 months to a year. My Dad & I are looking at a "matching funds" deal. I prefer to buy a ready-made PC. I don't want to build one myself. I want the best combination of power and price that I can get. That's why this particular computer looks good to me. Highlights are the i5 CPU. 16GB memory, and an 8GB nVidia GeForce GTX 1070 video card. What are your opinions and suggestions relating to this type of build? What company do you prefer, etc?
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Then buiild your own. :)
And if you're planning for 6 months; what you're considering now will be on the road to obsolete. :)
At the very least Nvidia should have their new whiz-bang pixel pusher this month. Personally, I'm fed up with all the hype and rumors and I won't believe it till I see their new card on store shelves. As far as the PC, it seems like a decent deal for the price. I've had mixed results from HP. One laptop I loved and would carry to the grave if it hadn't died of old age first. The current HP laptop I have isn't even good enough to use as a boat anchor - it's not heavy enough. You could build your own, but that depends on you more than anything else. Are you good with that kind of stuff? Are you ok with sitting in front of a monitor while you reboot over and over for 20 minutes trying to troubleshoot an issue? Anyway, if Nvidia releases their new cards this month, the xx70 model will probably be worth looking at, or at least it will lower the price of the current 1070.
On an off topic note, I never told you how cool it is that your Dad is still around and doing stuff with you. My folks just turned 80 and 82 and both have advanced dementia. I've been taking care of them pretty much every day for the past 2 years. Just be glad you've still got someone you can talk to and ask questions and get advice from. Value this time, friend. Sorry to get all sappy here.
I'm gonna echo Kitsumo's opinion on HP's. I had a refurbed HP Elite Book that just ran like a champ (gave it to my oldest son whose computer died). I also currently have an HP 8 gig 17" laptop that won't even really run Windows 8. It's a total POS. It's only saving grace is that it runs Linux with the KDE Plasma interface very well (only reason I never threw it thru the window...lol) ;). For that reason I tend to stay away from newer HP products as I feel the quality isn't there like maybe it used to be. YMMV.
I also agree with building one. If you know how to put all the parts together, it's always cheaper than buying one already made (and much easier to upgrade).
Kitsumo, my Dad is 90 years old. He's had to cut back his visits drastically due to health concerns. And he's easily overwhelmed by tech. I've built my own computers in the past. But there was a stretch around 2008 where I just couldn't do anything right. That's when I dumped my PCs and kept my Macintosh computers.
Unfortunately, Apple just won't allow me to have the type of computer I need for DAZ Studio. So that means I'll let a PC in, but still have fun with my Macs. I'm concerned about some PC builders. Some apparently only let you have Windows 10 Home Edition. At least one makes it appear that you only get a trial version of Windows 10. I don't need any confusion or surprises.
One trouble I have now is judging the correct combination of parts. Obviously I need a CPU, memory and motherboard that match. I want a powerful enough power supply. I want to start at a good level. That's why I'd like at least an nVidia card with 8GB of RAM. I can't justify any more, or any less. I'd also want one hard drive for Windows and software. But I want a second data drive for DAZ Studio.
If you plan on upgrading to a card with more than 8GB of RAM in the future, you'll want to get more than 16GB of system RAM. Right now, with my configuration, I can only use about 8GB of my card's VRAM, by that time, my system RAM usage is maxed out. Apparently, for a 1080ti, I need 32GB of system RAM. I know it's a bad time because memory prices are sky high right now.
The only other thing I could recommend is getting a -K processor so you'll have on board graphics. You probably won't use it most of the time, but when things do go wrong and you have to troubleshoot, being able to boot up with onboard video makes things a lot easier. I'm kicking myself for not spending the extra $30 or so and getting a i5 6600K. I'm having an issue with my PC now. It could be the motherboard, the power supply, or maybe the video card cable. I can't really track it down yet.
I don't know why Apple isn't giving users the upgrade options they want. I'm not an Apple user, but from where I sit, it looks like they're mostly focused on phones, since that's their main bread and butter. I know Apple has talked about dropping Intel and making its own chips by 2020, so maybe they have something up their sleeve for 3d hobbyists too.
Kitsumo, thanks for the info. I've decided to gather the info, and wait till I have the money before I make a final decision. I think I'll stick with a system featuring 16GB of RAM. It appears to be a more realistic goal for me.
Whats the minimum CPU you need for DAZ, can you run on it on I3 , or is that pushing it? If only used it on I7 computers so I have no comparison.
Paintbox, some of my friends say that an i5 would be just fine. I wouldn't get less than that.
If you decide to stick to 16GB of RAM then it might make sense to get just a 4GB VRAM card. As others have said above, rendering a scene that would use all of the 8 GB of VRAM may bring a 16GB system to its knees.
I have a 16gig ram laptop with a 6gb 970m that does fine.
Laurie
I have a feeling that issues folks have are Swap RAM related; it used to be said that turning off Swap when one had an SSD was the way to go; Swap should never be turned off.
I have one 1070 as the only graphics card (no onboard graphics), I can easily render scenes that uses over 4 GB VRAM with only 8 GB RAM, of which the system and other stuff running alone uses about 1.7 GB. Which means a little over 6 GB left for rendering. It will usually start swapping for a while in the beginning when the scene hits a certain size, but it renders fine anyway.
The build you suggest sounds about average for the parts / costs. But since you are thinking long term, pay attention to the great sales near black friday and christmas ... you may be able to get something similar greatly discounted.
As for brands, I have also had trouble with HP. Lenovo was okay. The best one I have had is made by Dell. It is a low end gaming laptop and has held up quite nicely (including a big impact from a nephew only a few years old).
I've got 16GB of RAM and when my system is maxed out (14.9GB used), my GPU is right around 7.5GB of VRAM. So I think 8GB VRAM is a good match for 16GB system RAM.
I didn't want to come out and throw HP under the bus, but I have heard their quality has gone down over the past decade. My experience supports that: I bought my 'good' HP laptop in 2008 and my 'bad' HP laptop around 2012. But I can't really say anything about their desktops.
One great thing, though, is that RAM is SUPER easy to upgrade. Pop the old chips out, pop the new chips in, and you're done. And that assumes you only have two slots for that. If you have four, you can pick up another 16 gb pretty cheap and have 32 gb total.
I stopped buying pre-built computers and recommend building your own, you get more bang for your buck and gives you the ability to upgrade. I did buy a Dell Alienware laptop that is decent and as others have mentioned will never go back to HP.
For slightly more than $1k you can build your own with more power than the one you are linking to. Here are the specks of my build (I hope this helps) Purchased all in 2016 from Newegg:
Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 2011-v3
ASUS ROG RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1 LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000
CORSAIR RMi Series RM1000i 1000W 80 PLUS GOLD
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler
Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Airflow
EVGA GeForce GTX 960 02G-P4-2963-KR 2GB
Samsung EVO SSD 500 GB (extra $150 -at the time-not sure what they run now) + 2 1 TB back up hard drives (from previous build)
Total was $1,538 at the time (early 2016).
This board is upgradeable to an 8 core processor with lots of RAM so there is room to grow. You might look at different boards, If I had it to do over I may have went with MSI rather than ASUS. Although this board allowed me to set up a front panel temperature control. I want to upgrade my graphics card but just havent gotten around to it-(last year the price skyrocketed for some reason and prices are just now coming back down so am waiting). The board is also capable of dual video cards.
I used this site for part compatibility and configurations and many a you tube video for whenever I got stuck (how much paste to put on the CPU-went with the pea size)
https://pcpartpicker.com/
I hope this helps!!
I have and had HP desktops over the last 7 years and have really good things to say. Low to medium end gaming systems are the place to start and as some have said make sure you take advantage of seasonal sales like the back to school they just had and get decent mid-level components for lower-end prices.
Also if you call HP they will help you build custom and often give you a couple of smaller upgrades for free. I usually save about $200 extra. By the time you buy Any intel i7, 1G RAM prolly 1070 nvidia card will be available.
Many of my friends and I like ASUS motherboard no matter what system they are in for relaibility and Western Digital 3-10Terabyte drives hold up to the use. You can forego DVD drives and such and jsut make sure you have a good WD MyBook or similar AUTOBackup system. You will not be needing anything for 4K monitors or performance so you should be able to get something really nice. Cyber MOnday is the Monday after Black Friday and the best deals are then if you are ready for them.
HP has a 3 year add-on in home repair and 24/7 voice support. It runs about $180-$250 for the 3 years BUT they REBATE the money if you do not use it! So this time I get to buy the protection again for free! (or you can apply it to a system, but I need the uptime.
Thanks everyone for your comments and insights. I have enough info to put together a general list of what I'd like. I'll buy the computer from a company that will allow me to pick the parts. I'm just too old and too tired to try assembling a computer myself. It's best to wait till I have saved around $1,000 and then go from there. As others said, there might be a sale at just the right time, etc. We might be looking at 6-12 months in the future.
I totally understand. I'm the same. I really want to build my own, but money and time are augering against that. I like the HP Omen series. You can spec it our pretty well for the price. With Ryzen 2 (or, 1.5 if you like) out and the newer Nvidia cards on the near horizon, it might be wise to wait a few months to see of prices on existing machines fall; they're perfectly serviceable and will get the job done. If you go HP, I would recommend checking with them personally to see if/when BIOS updates will be out. Some folks already want to upgrade their Ryzen 1700 and Core I7 machines with new CPUs but the BIOs updates are slow in emerging.