Who has upgraded his pc or has bought a new one recently?

veerlexyz

How to choose the right components for building or upgrading a computer?

In my practice as an architect I have replaced AutoCad completely with Sketchup Pro and Layout years ago. I am not using rendering software yet, but I intend to do so shortly, although it stays secondary to Sketchup.

Now my pc is getting an upgrade.

This is what I will keep:

Storage: Samsung HD 1035SJ ATA Device 1TB (+ external storage)
SSD-storage: Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256 GB ATA Device
Windows 7 Professional

This is what a friend of mine suggested:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K Boxed
Motherboard: Asus Republic Of Gamers Z97 MAXIMUS VII GENE
Video Card: GeForce GTX 980 4GB
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical BLT2C8G3D1608ET3LX0CEU (2* 8gb = 16gb)
Estimated price: 1230€ (include VAT)

The budget must stay realistic.
Thanks a lot for any thoughts or recomendations.

juju

I bought a Lenovo Y5070 recently, with the updated nVidia GTX 860 (4GB) GFX, i7 4510 CPU. It works well for me at the moment.

some of the items in the specs above are overkill in my opinion:

CPU: this one should never compromise on
Mobo: the ROG motherboards are nice, but a more mainstream Asus mobo should do just fine
GFX: the GTX 980 will be idling along most of the time unless you're driving 4K monitors and playing games with demand for huge processing power on the GFX end. Something like a 960 or similar should have more than enough punch for sketchup, some average setting games, and (depending on the software) enough punch for GPU based rendering.
RAM: you can never have too much, but you do not need the gaming cred stuff here either, any 1600 MHz memory will serve you just as well.

This comes from someone who's spent way too much money on hardware in the past, all because of "fear of missing out", most of the time the difference cannot be experienced and is only noticeable in benchmarks.

veerlexyz

Thanks for your reply.

Are you doing alle your work on this laptop? Probably with an external keyboard, mouse and monitor. Do you use it for Sketchup Pro, rendering, Layout and Cad?

After my pc has been upgraded, I'll buy a second monitor(1920*1080) to use as a dual 24" setup. I really do not like little screens, not even on my laptop.

juju

I'm using an external monitor and mouse, using the built-in keyboard though. I have not had an opportunity to use for SketchUp/rendering as the office I'm at uses (a rather old) traditional CAD, SU is used mainly for conceptualizing / communicating ideas to the clients. The specifications would allow it to function well enough for small to medium sized projects using SketchUp and rendering, although I have 2 desktop node machines I use when rendering.

watkins

Look here for advice

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Regards,
Bob

roland joseph

@unknownuser said:

GTX 980

Be aware that if you are going to assemble images for a video or animation that even a 980 will feel a little hobbled under the strain of an application like Lumion, Twin Motion, of other real time (like) rendering applications. A bargain at the moment is the geforce780 and 780ti both more robust and faster than the Titan family and cooler than the 980s. Yet you can buy a 780 for as little as 200 bucks.

hellnbak

@roland joseph said:

you can buy a 780 for as little as 200 bucks.

where?

roland joseph

@unknownuser said:

where?

I'm talking about a used card at that price obviously
I watched kijiji for about 3 weeks and was able to get one for 185.00
You will not find a 780ti for that price though. As it turns out the ti is kicking everybody's ass and so it is hard to find gently used ones. No one wants to trade them in.

hellnbak

@roland joseph said:

@unknownuser said:

where?

I'm talking about a used card at that price obviously
I watched kijiji for about 3 weeks and was able to get one for 185.00
You will not find a 780ti for that price though. As it turns out the ti is kicking everybody's ass and so it is hard to find gently used ones. No one wants to trade them in.

Ah. Don't know that I would ever buy a used graphics card. Just how would you determine that it has been "gently used", vs one that they are trying to unload because it is starting to give them trouble? Too many hardcore gamers and overclockers out there that like to claim bragging rights about how they've pushed everything to their limits (and beyond).

roland joseph

Well that's a choice we make. I have never bought a new computer (or car) in my life. The last box I retired was 9 years old it had a Gforce-260..lol...never so much as burped in 9 years. I guess we shall see and in the mean time I am using a 780 and for GPU rendering it is mind-boggling fast.

You can save up and buy yourself a titan black for $2700.00 USD...lol...or you can buy a used 780 for 200 bucks. For a days pay you get to have a card with the performance of a titan black (PASSMARK). I do real time rendering. The 780 has quadrupled my speed. For me time is money. The card paid for itself in the first week.

halroach

@roland joseph said:

@unknownuser said:

GTX 980

Be aware that if you are going to assemble images for a video or animation that even a 980 will feel a little hobbled under the strain of an application like Lumion, Twin Motion, of other real time (like) rendering applications. A bargain at the moment is the geforce780 and 780ti both more robust and faster than the Titan family and cooler than the 980s. Yet you can buy a 780 for as little as 200 bucks.

Hi,
I'm about to purchase a new machine too, and I was thinking of getting the GTX 980 for Sketchup, Lumion and Max... And I just saw this post. Is it really slower than the 780 using Lumion?
On the passmark website the GTX 980 is rated at 4th place... And the lumion website recommends any card above 6000 points.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

I know that benchmarks aren't true to reality... So I'd like to know from your experience... Is it really slower with Lumion?

CalypsoArt

I'm not a gamer, but when I was building my work machine a couple years ago, I had settled on mid-high level gamers Video Card as it was highly recommended. Just before purchasing, I asked a similar question to yours on a hardware forum. Someone responded that I should look into workstation graphics as "the performance was similar, but they were substantially cheaper" at the performance level and capabilities I wanted. He then posted a comparison of an inexpensive AMD FirePro, and the card I was set to buy. The performance of both were almost the same, but the Gamer card was $300 more! (He actually used a similar FirePro for his gaming.) At any rate, I Bought the AMD FirePro from Newegg (Open box) for $117. I run 2 30" monitors on my system and the old FirePro was fine. It might be worth a look. I've since upgrade to a newer FirePro.

juju

@calypsoart said:

I'm not a gamer, but when I was building my work machine a couple years ago, I had settled on mid-high level gamers Video Card as it was highly recommended. Just before purchasing, I asked a similar question to yours on a hardware forum. Someone responded that I should look into workstation graphics as "the performance was similar, but they were substantially cheaper" at the performance level and capabilities I wanted. He then posted a comparison of an inexpensive AMD FirePro, and the card I was set to buy. The performance of both were almost the same, but the Gamer card was $300 more! (He actually used a similar FirePro for his gaming.) At any rate, I Bought the AMD FirePro from Newegg (Open box) for $117. I run 2 30" monitors on my system and the old FirePro was fine. It might be worth a look. I've since upgrade to a newer FirePro.

This doesn't sound right, any links to substantiate?

roland joseph

@unknownuser said:

So I'd like to know from your experience... Is it really slower with Lumion?

The 980ti is the best of the best...the 980 is second best, then the 780ti then the 780.
Once you get to Lumion with these cards the performance is very close and the difference not really discernable. I still say the straight 780 is the best overall since it can be purchased for a reasonable price. The 980s, ti and titanx are still priced too high.

It should also be noted that on Windows10 Lumion can only use a maximum of 4 gig of video memory so more than 4 is redundant. I don't see a fix for this in the near future.

Krisidious

I made the most significant and noticeable change in the last 6 months or so... I bought a quality SSD. My computer is like another machine. I kid you not... I hit restart and my computer is back to the main screen and ready in 30 seconds. Photoshop opens in a snap instead of loading. SSD Baby... SSD.

sketch3d.de

@juju said:

This doesn't sound right, any links to substantiate?

This isn't right, actually it's completely the contrary.

The CAD series nVidia Quadro FX and AMD FirePro (formerly FireGL) are much more expensive than the comparable consumer card (GPU) simply because driver development (OpenGL) and certification with CAx systems needs to be charged.

If new, a GF GTX 960 delivers the best bang for the buck, the Asus and MSI models with twin fans are recommendable.

roland joseph

@unknownuser said:

If new, a GF GTX 960 delivers the best bang for the buck

Don't you mean 980?
The 960 is not recommended by Lumion. It falls short of the 6000 point threshold.

...and yes calypso seems to have things backwards altogether, and what FP model is he using anyway, he didn't say.

...in the mean time my used and battered old 180 dollar 780 is getting 20880 points on the Lumion native benchmark test.

sketch3d.de

@roland joseph said:

Don't you mean 980?

I'm talking of SU only, dunno Lumion.

@roland joseph said:

...in the mean time my used and battered old 180 dollar 780 is getting 20880 points on the Lumion native benchmark test.

and ~8,000 Passmark points, which is great... but not everybody (especially companies) wanna buy used hardware from unknown sources as e.g. gamers overclocking to the max (and beyond)... and fans may get worn out after years of egoshooting too