Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Btcc22]

I'd recommended not to bother waiting but it's difficult to predict the future.

[Dwood]

If I were going to build a computer within the next 12 months (it could be next month, next December, or somewhere in between ), and it was going to last me at least 5 years after it was built (with various upgrades on the side of course), should I wait until DDR4 memory and the motherboards to support it are manufactured or just go ahead and build with the hardware that's available now?

how desperate are you for a new computer? If you want a top tier computer, wait. Ddr4 comes out this month apparently. If a midrange computer, no biggie. ddr3 8gb single stick isn't a bad option tbh.

[Tnnaas]

how desperate are you for a new computer? If you want a top tier computer, wait. Ddr4 comes out this month apparently. If a midrange computer, no biggie. ddr3 8gb single stick isn't a bad option tbh.

I was thinking about midrange. Something that will give me good fps on decent settings for most yet-to-be-released games. I'm certainly not going to dump ten grand on it, lol. Certainly something under $1000 with some room to add on in the near future.

I suppose DDR4 memory would be a better buy five years down the line after it has had time to improve. The only reason I wonder is because I'm gearing back towards 2D and 3D digital art (maybe some video editing too, but I'm not sure), so I would like some of the best memory in terms of price/performance available. There are more than plenty of options DDR3 wise that will fit the bill, but curiosity was just catching my attention.

And for the first question: I'm not terribly desperate for a new system, but if you had the box sitting next to me, you would want to replace it too.

[Patrickssj6]

RAM Clock speed barely affects performance. It will take some time until price / performance for DDR4 will be right. Right now you are just better off spending your money on DDR3.

Just get yourself a good GFX Card with CUDA cores and you can enjoy hardware acceleration in Adobe products.

[Dwood]

I was thinking about midrange. Something that will give me good fps on decent settings for most yet-to-be-released games. I'm certainly not going to dump ten grand on it, lol. Certainly something under $1000 with some room to add on in the near future.

I suppose DDR4 memory would be a better buy five years down the line after it has had time to improve. The only reason I wonder is because I'm gearing back towards 2D and 3D digital art (maybe some video editing too, but I'm not sure), so I would like some of the best memory in terms of price/performance available. There are more than plenty of options DDR3 wise that will fit the bill, but curiosity was just catching my attention.

And for the first question: I'm not terribly desperate for a new system, but if you had the box sitting next to me, you would want to replace it too.

Okay, then. I upgraded from a laptop with dual-core processor and integrated graphics, that could only play halo pc on low settings. It's not that desperate, i hope?

The motherboard is really the key for any computer's upgradeability. If you don't mind waiting, what you CAN do in the meantime, is purchase a nice gfx card and a super-nice psu, then save up some more, buy a nice new case, wait/save up a bit more, etc. There are no motherboard announcements that I have seen for DDR4, so your computer had ought to be fine with DDR3 for the next year at least. Make sure, for upgradeability, you buy the NICEST mobo you can, as well as the NICEST PSU you can, and go from there. You can port old hdd's, cd drives, even the case, until you're ready for a new one.

If you were buying a new computer, and there were at least announcements for high-end motherboards in DDR4, i would say wait, but Crucial's the only producer that's announced rolling out any DDR4 chips. No point

[Amit]

If I were going to build a computer within the next 12 months (it could be next month, next December, or somewhere in between ), and it was going to last me at least 5 years after it was built (with various upgrades on the side of course), should I wait until DDR4 memory and the motherboards to support it are manufactured or just go ahead and build with the hardware that's available now?

If you're going to be building a new PC within a year, then you'll definitely want to wait and see what DDR4 pricing is like half a year from now. If this is any indication, you definitely want DDR4. It's just too much of a step up from DDR3 if it is affordable.

Just get yourself a good GFX Card with CUDA cores and you can enjoy hardware acceleration in Adobe products.

OpenCL on AMD will do well, too: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...o,3208-13.html

[Patrickssj6]

CUDA != OpenCL. Both ATI and Nvidia use OpenCL but some things are CUDA accelerated. Not that it makes a huge difference because only some 3rd party plugins use it but if you don't care and the price is right you might as well go with CUDA.

Some native plugins in Premiere use CUDA which are marked.

[Warsaw]

On the flip side, if you plan to mine any cryptocurrencies stay far away from Nvidia.

[ThePlague]

On the flip side, if you plan to mine any cryptocurrencies stay far away from Nvidia.

Not worth mining though, because cost outweighs income, especially with bitcoins.

[Warsaw]

Depends on the currency. LTC is doable. BTC? Ha, no.