Looking to update 3 design computers

[WildWestDesigns]

The thing about computers is they all use the same internal chinese parts in them. these parts are no different in one machine than the other. You might be paying for an updated case loaded with pretty lights and posts and thats it.

Dont fall for the pretty stuff it aint worth it

Not all of the parts are made in China (although, more then likely still in an Asian country). You also have differences in quality of the parts even if they are made in China. No matter where things are made, you are going to have your bad quality and your better quality. I can promise you my Cintiq tablet is better built then my old Samsung tablet. Just on the shell itself I can one is of better quality then the other.

Also, if they are all the same quality, why do you have some with better warranties then then others? Why would they add those extra years and take the chance of having to do more warranty work if the parts themselves are not going to last any longer then the cheaper ones?

 

[visual800]

Not all of the parts are made in China (although, more then likely still in an Asian country)

Wild, for the record and for the future lets assume "china" means imported. I dont care if it china, japan, zimbabwe or india its basically the same cheap imports. Yes warranty does range on certain items or products but lets be resonable warranties are not all what they appear to be when the time comes to replace defective item. Dealing with the manufacturer is a PITA and not worth it in most cases where elctronics are concerned

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Wild, for the record and for the future lets assume "china" means imported. I dont care if it china, japan, zimbabwe or india its basically the same cheap imports. Yes warranty does range on certain items or products but lets be resonable warranties are not all what they appear to be when the time comes to replace defective item. Dealing with the manufacturer is a PITA and not worth it in most cases where elctronics are concerned

I have never had a problem getting something honored under warranty from SSDs to video cards. But I also don't buy cheap. If you do go so cheap, it's not worth the hassle. There very much is a difference in quality among parts though, even from the same manufactor rather it's import or domestically produced. That's really the key point I was trying to point out. The mere fact that it is an import doesn't mean in of itself it's cheap and/or inferior quality.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

Just remember software compatibility. ... If you're running older software and it didn't pass the xp to vista compatibility issues ... you'll have to buy new software. I think for adobe that was cs2? and older if i'm not mistaken. Otherwise, the 4 things that make a halfway decent design computer on a budget is 1. the ram ... you have to be able to buffer all that data so it doesn't gum up trying to open or use files. 2. the video card ... same as ram ... it has to be able to show you what you are doing so you don't get phantom movements. 3. the storage ... nothing says fubar like filling up a HD with revisions, proofs, exports and other b.s. when you need to save a large digitally painted illustration. and lastly ... 4. the monitor ... I can't describe how important it is to have a decent monitor. I've seen shops running demon machines that can slap your mother and make you a sammich at the same time .. but they are running 15" crts still. make sure 25-40% of your budget goes into dual monitors with a decent size and aspect ratio.

Lastly, if you have $3k for 3 systems, that is easy to get awesome machines that have what you want.

Make sure your computers you are getting have 4 ram slots makes it way easier to upgrade ... office depot will open them up just to make sure and are about 25% cheaper than alot of other places. you can get a decent machine for about $300-500, throw about $150 worth of ram into it, and get a couple decent monitors for about $300-400 ... done. I did this and now I'm running a quad core machine with 16 gigs of ram, a 4 tb hd with a most excellent video card (some other frivolous b.s. like a blue ray drive) and two 22" monitors. I've also since upgraded my main design computer to have 2 additional 2 tb firewire hard drives (one backup another for general storage) upgraded the video card to a radeon with 2gb of memory and installed 2 spare cards worth of usb ports. (total of $300 upgrade and 2 hours of my life to clean the case, install the cards and set up the new drivers

Unless you are doing some serious compiling and rendering for 3d design, that machine will whip your designers asses in reliability and longevity. And I almost assure you your designers won't use nearly half the system they think they need. Especially if they do just vector graphics. I have a few friends who have top of the line machines, but they also do a ton of 3d modelling so it pays to have the best.

plus, you get too good of a machine you spoil your employees. Either that or they secretly install black ops on them networked together because they are kick *** machines ... can't have that.

 

[S11930]

can you add more ram on any of the machines

how many hard disks do you have in ea one. Do you have programs on one hard disk and data on another. Maybe your c drive that is full. Before buying 3 new computers trying upping the ram, install windows 7 and programs on the new c drive 1 terrabyte. Take the old c drive put in a temporary hard case and use it as a portable drive or make it your d drive. Put your programs on one hard disk your data on another.