University rig - Now or wait?

alexdrans

alexdrans

alexdrans

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2 Dec 2010
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58
Hey guys,

I'll be starting university in October of this year, studying Computer Science (@Warwick). Obviously they have lab computers for anything that's hardware intensive, so my machine doesn't need to be a beast. It'll mainly be a medicore gaming rig, and I'll be using it for working with, and programming.

I was thinking of going with AMD due to their bang-for-buck pricing. Should I go ahead and purchase a 955 rig now, wait for Bulldozer, or wait for Bulldozer and purchase a 955 then? (lower prices).

I'll also be going NVidia (Linux), so is something like a 480/560 going to be good enough in 4 years time? My current setup has an E2180 with a ATi Radeon 2600 Pro GPU. It plays most games fine on low res, and I'm not too fussed if this is the case with my new rig in 4 years.
 
Computer Science afaik needs no fancy computer.

If you intend to keep it for several years, then buy a decent spec rig.
Buying yourself a mediocre rig will let it play games on high settings for only a short time.
 
mglover070588 said:
Computer Science afaik needs no fancy computer.

If you intend to keep it for several years, then buy a decent spec rig.
Buying yourself a mediocre rig will let it play games on high settings for only a short time.
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There are certain things that I will be doing that will require a lot of oomph, but as I said I will have the lab computers for that.

How do you define a "decent spec rig" - I'm looking at buying something now that will be at the same level as my current system in 4 years time. Would you say that the 955 will be at the same level relative the other components as the Intel E2180 is now?
 
You should get a laptop. Most decent laptops will play most games these days. It's portable so you can study / take it with you anywhere , takes up less space, cheaper to run. If you do have an older computer, repurpose it as a server machine for testing etc. If you get a decent enough laptop you can run VMs in them as well
 
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Well how much are you looking at spending? If you give us a bugdet, even a rough one it helps. Everyones idea of "decent" and "bang for buck" is different, and I am not saying that to be awkward.
 
smeaney said:
Well how much are you looking at spending? If you give us a bugdet, even a rough one it helps. Everyones idea of "decent" and "bang for buck" is different, and I am not saying that to be awkward.
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No more than £600 for the vitals, as I can reuse my old case, and my HDD for now.
 
smeaney said:
Well how much are you looking at spending? If you give us a bugdet, even a rough one it helps. Everyones idea of "decent" and "bang for buck" is different, and I am not saying that to be awkward.
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I was thinking of getting a Thinkpad W510 (Or whatever is out at the time of purchase). It's just a lot nicer to use a desktop computer, especially when programming.

P.S. I know that the Thinkpad is like 2.5x my desktop budget, but I would be more willing to fork out for a good laptop than a desktop.
 
Hey congrats on Warwick. I studied there a few years ago, awesome place.
If I were you, I would wait and see what is released nearer September. The hardware landscape changes rapidly and you could see that hardware bought now will be superseded by something much better/quicker/cheaper.

If you don't need a rig right now, then don't get one - wait and see what comes out later.
 
coldfused said:
Hey congrats on Warwick. I studied there a few years ago, awesome place.
If I were you, I would wait and see what is released nearer September. The hardware landscape changes rapidly and you could see that hardware bought now will be superseded by something much better/quicker/cheaper.

If you don't need a rig right now, then don't get one - wait and see what comes out later.
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I think I'll probably wait. I'll most likely go for a Bulldozer set-up if I do decide to go for a desktop as it'll be the latest AMD lineup, and Ivy Bridge will be out of my price range/performance need.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Personally I see the desk top route as the better route to go as there is the upgradability and options you just can't have with a laptop.

But waiting is definately a good idea.
 
email the uni and find out the specs of the rigs they use in the labs if you can?

i'm sure they'll be alright with sharing info on that as you're going there in a few months.

then look at what you need after that
 
im studying a similar course to the one your doing next year (artificial intelligence and cybernetics) at Reading University. im only in my first year, but i can tell you you wont need a good PC for the work, mostly because the programs you write will have to run on the university computers. so any extra performance will really be for gaming only

you will probably find a laptop very useful at uni because (at mine at least) they let you bring it in to lectures, most of which have a wifi/3G network available, with the lecture notes on the internet. also you could take notes on it while in the lecture.

personally im not going down that route for replacing my laptop because im looking to do some decent gaming, and i am very easily distracted in lectures. im going down the desktop AMD route now because it seems to be better for a £400 budget.

i wish i could help you more than that, but this will be the first computer i build myself, so im very much a noob when it comes to the technical stuff
 
Reaper 392 said:
im studying a similar course to the one your doing next year (artificial intelligence and cybernetics) at Reading University. im only in my first year, but i can tell you you wont need a good PC for the work, mostly because the programs you write will have to run on the university computers. so any extra performance will really be for gaming only

you will probably find a laptop very useful at uni because (at mine at least) they let you bring it in to lectures, most of which have a wifi/3G network available, with the lecture notes on the internet. also you could take notes on it while in the lecture.

personally im not going down that route for replacing my laptop because im looking to do some decent gaming, and i am very easily distracted in lectures. im going down the desktop AMD route now because it seems to be better for a £400 budget.

i wish i could help you more than that, but this will be the first computer i build myself, so im very much a noob when it comes to the technical stuff
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Geeze, don't people read my post?

"I'll be starting university in October of this year, studying Computer Science (@Warwick). Obviously they have lab computers for anything that's hardware intensive, so my machine doesn't need to be a beast. It'll mainly be a medicore gaming rig, and I'll be using it for working with, and programming. "
 
alexdrans said:
Geeze, don't people read my post?

"I'll be starting university in October of this year, studying Computer Science (@Warwick). Obviously they have lab computers for anything that's hardware intensive, so my machine doesn't need to be a beast. It'll mainly be a medicore gaming rig, and I'll be using it for working with, and programming. "
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I am currently in my second year of my Computing Science degree and absolutely nothing comes even close to being hardware intensive thus far.
 
alexdrans said:
Geeze, don't people read my post?

"I'll be starting university in October of this year, studying Computer Science (@Warwick). Obviously they have lab computers for anything that's hardware intensive, so my machine doesn't need to be a beast. It'll mainly be a medicore gaming rig, and I'll be using it for working with, and programming. "
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note to self, dont go on technical forum just before i go to bed :rolleyes:
 
I brought a laptop to uni, within a couple of months it was killing me being that limited and I brought my desktop up. The Laptop in question was a year old top spec Vaio......

I'm doing economics, xD

Needed the computer for gaming and sheer screen space!

kd
 
I started uni with a gaming laptop (Dell XPS) and as it dated got more and more keen on having a desktop for the gaming power and screen size. So sold the XPS, built and PC and bought a cheap laptop. Was the best way for me.
 
Probably the Uni systems have something like Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz, 3 GB RAM and integrated graphics. And they keep using these systems till you probably graduate.

Places of education never have powerful machines cos they don't need it.
So if you want to build a system similar in power to that of your uni it will be probably very cheap.

But wait till September and then build a rig far in excess of the power you need :p
 
6644kp said:
Probably the Uni systems have something like Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz, 3 GB RAM and integrated graphics. And they keep using these systems till you probably graduate.

Places of education never have powerful machines cos they don't need it.
So if you want to build a system similar in power to that of your uni it will be probably very cheap.

But wait till September and then build a rig far in excess of the power you need :p
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Try telling that to the CS department at Soton uni - Dual Xeons, 12 gigs of ram, GTX480s etc. :D

EDIT: Woah, totally forgot I was reading old threads - apologies for the bump
 
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