New PC Config? What do I need and what Don't I need?

[InfernalDarkness]

It certainly will be "good enough". A single-core system would also be good enough, I suppose!

AMD's are great. As reliable as their Intel counterparts, for certain. Might not be quite as blazing-fast, but my Phenom's been running almost a year and it's very stable. Saved a good deal on the motherboard as well, and I can plop a new Phenom right in (AM3) anytime. Intel lately has been making many of their CPU's all with incompatible sockets, so your upgrade path becomes limited...

[olson]

The Phenom II processors offer good bang for the buck. Yes the Core i7 processors are faster but you also pay a premium for that (especially with the $300 motherboards for the 920 and up models). A Phenom II will certainly be capable of running Maya, Photoshop, and After Effects. Cheers!

[E17JO1]

Just wanted to share my update

To recap, my motherboard died several months ago and since it was a 939 board, it would have to be replaced along with the CPU and Ram. Seeing how I was strapped for cash and wanted to build the best possible system for 600$ or less, I knew it would be a challenge.

ONLY replacing the items that needed replacing and waiting very patiently for deals out there, I landed a system better than the AMD Phenom II X4 route I was thinking of doing.

I got an Intel i7 860 + Biostar T5XE-CFX-SLI Motherboard for $229 @ Fry's the day after Thanksgiving. I know that Biostar isn't the greatest board out there but I thought it was an excellent deal and I can always upgrade to a better motherboard later on. I upgraded the Ram to 4G (Seeing how I'm still running 32Bit Windows) DDR3 1600Mhz CL 9 Patriot Ram. I was really hoping to put in some Kingston Ram as I stand behind that brand 100% but it was a good deal for $80 and pretty much all Fry's had at the moment. So all in all I spent roughly a little over $300 for a decent setup and saved so much for future upgrades.

I'm running Illustrator, Photoshop CS4 and Maya 2010 at the same time and it's running like a dream compared to the AMD Athlon X2 4400+ that I was running before!

My specs as of right now!
Intel i7 860 Lynnfield
Biostar T5XE-CFX-SLI
4 Gigs DDR3 1600 Patriot Gaming
Nvidia GeForce 7900GT
Seagate 750G Sata & WD 74G Raptor
Thermaltake 550W Power Supply
LianLi V1200+ Case
Sony DVDRW W/ Lightscribe

[vlad]

The Phenom II processors offer good bang for the buck. Yes the Core i7 processors are faster but you also pay a premium for that (especially with the $300 motherboards for the 920 and up models)...

Newegg has 1366 socket mobos starting at 120$. ;)

[meleseDESIGN]

(especially with the $300 motherboards for the 920 and up models)

For 300$ you get allready dual socket boards like the Asus Z8NA-D6. :thumbsup:

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