Spec for someone going to Uni

TrojanWhore said:
when I was at uni a few years ago, departments teaching technical subjects had completely free access to windows and other microsoft products (well, not free, but the uni stumped up a one off cost for the dept.), under the MSDNAA scheme. Worth checking with the uni IT team if they have this set up.
you can even continue to use the keys issued after leaving uni, just can't get new keys!
Click to expand...

He checked and they don't: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=22714601&postcount=13

They also renamed the scheme Dreamspark now.
 
Not going to link here but google 'software for students' as others have said above. W7 Pro is £40 with the student discount - it's upgrade but google around, that is not a problem.

That leaves £460 for parts:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7770 GHz Vapor-X OC Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £107.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £21.98
1 x OcUK Compact Wireless Desktop Set (6309ARF) £17.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £446.33 (includes shipping : £17.85).



Edit: changed the hard drive to a cheaper one.

Bacon, mine was been pretty similar to the other builds that are actually within budget... The video card could be swapped for a B-grade 560Ti perhaps, bu the warranty is a year shorter. Or up to a 7850, taking it a few quid over budget. What would you change?
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £161.99
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £107.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £48.98
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x Logitech G300 Gaming Mouse (910-002489) £26.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £21.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x Logitech K120 Keyboard (920-002524) £9.98
Total : £484.88 (includes shipping : FREE).




The CPU and Ram will bottleneck the GPU I have chosen, so If you are not planning to upgrade your system in future you can pick cheaper gpu so like this (560ti is still much for Q6600 but great value though) or if you dont want B grade, get something like 6850 or 6870 :


YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £107.99
1 x **B Grade** OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £99.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £48.98
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply £32.99
1 x Logitech G300 Gaming Mouse (910-002489) £26.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £21.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x Logitech K120 Keyboard (920-002524) £9.98
Total : £422.88 (includes shipping : FREE).



This would be a good upgrade:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2133HC11DC01) £35.99
Total : £294.97 (includes shipping : FREE).



Might add a SSD if you wish to do so.
 
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Is it not better to use an Nvidia card considering 3ds Max supports CUDA? Hence why I picked the 560 Ti in my spec in post #15.
 
Get an NV card if he's using 3DS. It doesn't need to be anything extreme. A 550 or so is more than enough. If he wants a high end gaming card then tell him to do a paper round.
 
Hello evenryone,

I gave them this thread and after looking at various options they went with the Samsung screen suggested here, a decent case/PSU combo deal from another site (it was a decent name brand PSU), plus an Nvidia 550Ti in the end - I'll report back on the build once I hear how it went.

thanks again for all the suggestions and expertise.
 
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