Computer Question

[Ama]

<p>I think it's best to ask the guru's here about my new system before I push things forward.  I'm contemplating building me an "Uber Beast" computer since i'm going to be working with Maya, XSI, Hammer World Editor and such.  Here's the specs i'm looking at so far:</p><p>Intel Quad Core 2.4-2.6gig processor FSB 1300+</p><p>Ram: 8 gigs either Kingston or Crucial</p><p>Video Card: Either 2-3 512mb SLI Nvidia cards or 2-3 ATI Crossfire linked cards</p><p>Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Audigy Card</p><p>HD: Western Digital Velociraptor 150gb 10k RPM drive or if I can even find it a Solid State Drive</p><p>Backup HD: Western Digital Caviar 1TB 10kRPM HD.</p><p>Would EQ2 even function on that system or would I have to tweak it? I plan on running Windows XP SP2 as an OS since I can't stand Vista. </p>

[TSR-TrevorG]

That does exceeded the recommended system specs, although I am not sure how you will get 8GBs of Ram to be recognized properly with Windows XP.

[Bloodfa]

XP-64 will do the trick.  Running 8 gigs myself.

[Jesdyr]

That's a beast .. Dont go SSD .. all the real world benchmarks I have see show them preforming worse than the Velociraptor and they cost a lot more.  Maybe in a few years SSD will be worthwhile, but rightnow it isnt there.

[TSR-DanielH]

That computer should work just fine.  As others have said, though, you'll want to use 64-bit if you plan to have that much RAM.<=== Is jealous

[Cassea]

<cite>Amana wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I think it's best to ask the guru's here about my new system before I push things forward.  I'm contemplating building me an "Uber Beast" computer since i'm going to be working with Maya, XSI, Hammer World Editor and such.  Here's the specs i'm looking at so far:</p><p>Intel Quad Core 2.4-2.6gig processor FSB 1300+</p><p>Ram: 8 gigs either Kingston or Crucial</p><p>Video Card: Either 2-3 512mb SLI Nvidia cards or 2-3 ATI Crossfire linked cards</p><p>Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Audigy Card</p><p>HD: Western Digital Velociraptor 150gb 10k RPM drive or if I can even find it a Solid State Drive</p><p>Backup HD: Western Digital Caviar 1TB 10kRPM HD.</p><p>Would EQ2 even function on that system or would I have to tweak it? I plan on running Windows XP SP2 as an OS since I can't stand Vista. </p></blockquote>Hate Vista all you want but if you stay with XP do not put more than 3gig in that machine. While you can go XP 64 in order to support more memory that seems rather silly when everyone is moving toward developing Vista 64 support.Exactly what about Vista do you "hate" aside from the endless propaganda? I'll never forget a few years ago these very same arguments about how XP sucks and all you ever need for games is Win98 ROTFL!Look at this statement....2008Vista sucks. It costs too much. Runs slower than XP. Is full of bloat that we do not need. Uses too much memory. Uses too much CPU time. I hate Microsoft! XP rules and is the best OS Microsoft ever produced!Now lets go back a few years and change two words from the above...2002XP sucks. It costs too much. Runs slower than Win98. Is full of bloat that we do not need. Uses too much memory. Uses too much CPU time. I hate Microsoft! Win98 rules and is the best OS Microsoft ever produced!In a few years when Windows 7 comes out it will need more memory, more CPU time, have some issues running some Vista programs and I predict...2011Windows 7 sucks. It costs too much. Runs slower than Vista. Is full of bloat that we do not need. Uses too much memory. Uses too much CPU time. I hate Microsoft! Vista rules and is the best OS Microsoft ever produced!Conclusion...People hate change <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />-JB

[Cassea]

For anyone that cares here are the recent XP vs Vista "gaming" benchmarks.They show that some games are actually faster in Vista while some slower... net result... it's a wash.<a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1390&page=2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1390&page=2</a>-JB

[Ama]

<cite>Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>That's a beast .. Dont go SSD .. all the real world benchmarks I have see show them preforming worse than the Velociraptor and they cost a lot more.  Maybe in a few years SSD will be worthwhile, but rightnow it isnt there. </blockquote><p>Ya unfortunately I did some more research into the Solid State Drives and right now from what I looked at it costs about $10-$15 per GB which is a bit extreme for me.  I'll probably get the Veloci-Raptor HD instead then put in that Terabyte drive and maybe 1 more drive if I need it.  The main reason for so much space is i'm finding quite quickly that these pictures/images I have can take up 10-30mb.  Doesn't seem like a lot, but when you have a couple thousand images that's a bit big.  </p><p>Looks like I will have to go XP Professional 64bit to run the 8 gigs I want to get.  If by the time I order the parts Vista is more manageable i'll consider buying that.  A friend of mine put vista on his machine and has problems here and there with it, but not as major as everyone is saying they are.  However that said I hate dealing with drivers, hax, fixes and such, but if that makes the 8 gigs work better than XP Professional 64bit then i'll go Vista.  </p><p>Here's the three cases I have picked out just need to pick which 1 is best. <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133021" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Case 1</a> <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144089" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Case 2</a> <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119138" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Case 3</a></p>