Noobie Here

[darb215]

Need some opinions:

I'm not much of a gamer
I'm a crazy mulitasker:
I'm a web developer, photoshop, flash, maya, max etc.

What would be the best system to build for this

a dual AMD MP say 2600 or so or a P4 2.6 w/Hyper Threading or should I wait for something bigger and better if so what should i wait for.

I'm torn and I cant find any anwers I'm looking for. Gamers no matter what tell me AMD, and others say the P4 ostly I just want something that will last me a few years.

[Uranium-235]

for the web development work I would get a good CD-burner, to backup your work (unless you dont' want to).

I would think about using raid, for backup reasons. And Windows 2000/XP professional for security reasons.

here's the kicker. Get 1gig of ram (preferrably Registered/ECC - which would means the motherboard would have to be capable of supporting ram with those features). I would get a good ram manufacturer too (Crucial / Mushkin). And make sure you get ONE STICK. There has been reported sometimes using two sticks can cause stability problems (they certainly did for me). This would be expensive, but this is needed if you're such a 'crazy multitasker' like you say.

I don't know what kind of work you do in 3dsmax. But there is a video card out there specifically built for it and other professional 3d applictions. It's called the wildcat II by 3dlabs and it's pretty expensive.

A high level NVidia or ATI card would also work just fine.

I dont know if Intel or AMD would win the the cpu category for this kind of thing, so let the other board members answer you

[james]

since it appears you are REALLY doing multitasking (not just using word and ie), two processors will be much less likely to allow your system to get laggy. I'd agree with Uranium that ECC memory would be better for your situation (note that means a slight performance hit), but most dualy mobos should use ECC memory anyway. There are many types or RAID. DO NOT DO RAID0. It sounds like this is a production environment, meaning a little something goes wrong and your life is over (otherwise known as losing all your data). RAID 1 is a waste of a harddrive imo. If you're looking at RAID1, i'd suggest getting a good backup system instead (NOTE: RAID is NOT A BACKUP SOLUTION!!!!). I would say hardware RAID5 is your best bet. Since you're using MAYA you probably have massive files that have to get dumped off of harddrives, so SCSI may be the best way to go. Though of course we're building you a multi-thousand dollar system. We can keep notching the price up for as long as you want. Some more specs and $ range would be helpful.

[darb215]

im more interested in the multitasking aspect, i want something that will last thats and keep chuging along, I have had a dual p3 550 for the past 5 years with scsi and 512 k pc133. It starting to get slower and slower but I've definalty enjoyed it, but I want the new setup that would match what i had 5 years ago with that, if that makes sence. Money aint a thing but not 2 grand you know, id say max 1500 or so for the box.

[darb215]

bump