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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
Ok, so I won this used computer at work in a raffle and decided to give it to my dad who recently got into graphics design (solidworks, etc). But the specs on it are quite horrid (3.2Ghz single core, 1 GB of RAM, Windows XP 32 bit, likely an integrated graphics card) so I wanted to upgrade it a bit before giving it to him. I will receive the computer at the end of this week so I'm hoping to have something ready for my dad by early next week.
Question: What are the important hardware components for graphics design? I'd imagine your GPU has a lot to do with it. Does the GPU need to be fast or have a lot of memory? Do you need a lot of RAM? How about your CPU?
What would you recommend upgrading in the base computer? I'm not looking to go all out or anything. Just get my dad a decent computer to use without having to wait 5 minutes for the damn software to load (which is the case for the laptop he uses now). I'm not sure if I need to upgrade the power supply.. there are some things I'm not 100% clear on but everything I mentioned at the beginning are true. My budget is around $500. I don't want to spend any more than that.. might as well as get a new computer lol
Thanks for your help 
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A real graphics (decent) card would be useful for sure lol, and upgrade the RAM into 2 GB atleast.
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graphics card isnt rly important, unless its like 3d work. ram and cpu is Da Key
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram. Go get a 64 bit OS and load 12 gigs on that baby.
You can get 8 gigs for like 100$ these days. Someone with more hardware knowledge would know if your mobo/cpu likes that much. The biggest bottleneck i find with pshop and zbrush is ram though.
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United States12240 Posts
On April 21 2009 09:09 Kennigit wrote:
Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram. Go get a 64 bit OS and load 12 gigs on that baby.
You can get 8 gigs for like 100$ these days. Someone with more hardware knowledge would know if your mobo/cpu likes that much. The biggest bottleneck i find with pshop and zbrush is ram though.
You're not going to be able to use more than ~3 of that, however, as long as you're using a 32-bit OS, so that's the reason why you would want a 64-bit OS. Having multiple cores helps too, especially because apps like Photoshop are really smart about utilizing and assigning tasks to multiple cores.
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
I think he does 3-d modelling. I called it graphics design cause I know nothing about this kind of stuff >_<;;
Taken from wiki: "SolidWorks is a 3D mechanical CAD (computer-aided design) program". So it's 3d modelling I suppose.
Would running stuff from 3 GB of ram + 1 GB of graphics memory be sufficient to achieve a "decent" performance? I'd like to avoid upgrading to a 64-bit OS because, well, I don't have one lol
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ya that would be enough....although the ram for some things is tricksy.
For After effects, it only uses 2gb of my ram when I have 4 and idk how to boost it up
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For 3D Modeling you're going to probably want the whole package sadly, a good processor (Quad Core is probably the best bet at this point in time), a nice video card, and at least 4 gigs of ram. And to answer your question, 32-Bit OS's can only really take advantage of 3.4gb or so of system memory and the rest of graphics, so 3+1 of video probably wouldn't work out as well.
To actually give him something respectable by today's standards you would have to buy an entirely new computer, but seeing as you just want to upgrade I would go 4GB of Ram, Processor, then Video Card in order of importance. The whole upgrade package you could get down to less than $250 I'm sure, though the motherboard sounds old so you should check to make sure the stuff you're buying can socket in correctly.
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Sydney2287 Posts
Processor is much more important than Graphics Card for 3D modelling.
EDIT: If I had to pick 1 thing to upgrade from that list, I'd go RAM, CPU close second, Graphics card last.
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
Hmm didn't know processor was so important for this stuff. I'll look into that. Thanks guys
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
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get a GPU optimized for CAD imo
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Or just find some nice teamliquidian to have the stuff shipped to. I'd say me but I'm in Cali and get charged tax. And what bockit said. I'm not even sure he has the budget or real need for a discrete gpu
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You are going to need new motherboard too.
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I ran Solidworks fluiently on a < 1 GB ram & < 2 GHZ system. It depends on how big his assemblys are. Graphics is not really important I think.
Really, if he is not designing a new aircraft or smt, but simple less then 20 parts assemblys, you don't need any fancy state of the art stuff.
At school we are running solidworks 2k9 (or 2k8? the newest anyway, with the new "office" look) on i think about your sys specs. Fluently.
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
Interesting.. I think I'll just try to run Solidworks and Autocad on the computer first and decide which stuff I need to upgrade (the ram is a given).
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imo evrything matters. duno why u guys refere to solidworks, but at my uni graphic design students mainly work with illustrator/photoshop, and since photoshop cs4 supports hardware acceleration and multithreading, i would recommend a quad core and a good gpu. i am pretty happy with my 9800 gtx .D and then again, not so happy with my e8400 :/
btw, photoshop is a hardwarewhore. everything above 72 dpi gonna spank your single core/1gig ram setup.
3d isnt that importatnt for graphics design afaik. progs like after effects are way more important.
you dont need a highend gpu for 3d...
the new seagate server series comes with a data restore guarantee, very suitable for backup.
at least buy fast hd for win and cache.
u gotta build from scratch .D
edit: just realised that u ment 3d...
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I'm not sure a regular GPU is going to help you much because those GPUs use DirectX or OpenGL, usually in exclusive mode to boost performance. You might want to look into a FireGL or Quadro for AutoCAD/3D modeling. They're going to be more expensive for the same raw computing power simply because it's industrial and not consumer, but if this is what you're going to be doing most of the time on this machine, I'd consider it.
(cheapest ATI FireGL on newegg)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195057
(cheapest!~ nVidia Quadro on newegg)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133191
Essentially these are specifically made for drafting/3D modeling applications with features like anti-aliasing applications. On the other hand, whenever you do your final render, it'll be almost 100% CPU power. Most renderers use raycasting which is pretty much all CPU math calculations, not the same stuff gaming cards optimize for (polygon based graphics).
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3D Graphics cards are generally designed for things like games. Large numbers of low poly count models with textures. When you're doing 3d-modeling, you're working comparatively few, high-polygon models. Hence the bit about the graphics card not helping very much. CPU/Ram is what you're going to want the most of. It's funny that you describe those specs as horrid, because when I was getting into 3d stuff, that was absolute top of the line. I remember my college roommate getting a computer about like that and we were all so jealous of him.
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EPT
