Desktop Recommendations

[Brendan Coots]

OS – Personally, my studio has moved away from PCs altogether because Macs perform better for content creation and MS Vista is a move in the absolute wrong direction, with no signs of MS changing course in the near future. It consumes a massive amount of RAM, has ridiculous security measures/bandaids, and offers nothing new to the content creation professional. If you must use a PC, stick to Windows XP.

Processors – I was always a fan of AMD processors, but recently have come to accept that Intel chips are just better for this line of work. I would accept nothing less than a dual core processor (perhaps a Core2 Duo 2Ghz or better), but ideally get a quad-core system.

Memory – On Windows (32-bit versions) 4GB is the most you can really make use of, and even then only when applying the 3GB switch in your boot.ini file (Google this if you don’t know what I mean). Get as much RAM as you can afford, it really makes a difference that you can feel. Vista consumes nearly 1GB RAM just to run (see my point above about Vista), so don’t even think about doing 3D or After Effects with any less than 2GB if you run Vista.

Video Cards – If you do a lot of 3D design, the consumer-focused Nvidia Geforce cards are not so hot. They can hold their own to a degree, but have issues with most modern 3d apps. You should seriously consider the Nvidia Quadro line of graphics cards, they are specifically designed for content creation and 3d. Starting price is several hundred dollars. Also, don’t be fooled by the seemingly low-end specs of the Quadro cards compared to consumer cards. There is no comparison, as content creation relies on different features than video games.

Computer Brands – Dells are somewhat okay but they are a horrible company, both politically and in terms of product quality. They use the cheapest parts they can find, which doesn’t exactly make for a solid, reliable 3d box to say the least. Their monitors are fantastic, but I’ll never buy another Dell computer. Boxx makes great machines but they are overpriced. HP is a good compromise between the two. Ultimately, I just got in the habit of building my own boxes from scratch, using parts from reputable vendors like newegg.com. For the price of a mid-line Dell, you can build a machine that is 2-3 times more powerful and use much higher quality components. This method relies on you understanding how computers go together, needless to say, but some diligent research online will give you all the info you need to build a great machine.