Good Workstation?

#61 
What the hell man, the computer you already have is absolutely fine for 3D work. From how you described it earlier, I assumed you had some sort of 8 year old 32 bit XP machine  with maybe a couple gigs of ram. You should at least try downloading some trial versions of software on your machine and see how it goes.

Don't change or upgrade anything. If you gotta have a cintiq, then whatever - get it I guess if you know you're going to be doing a lot of painting/drawing.

Overclock it only if you have a nice CPU cooler and fans. It’s already a snappy CPU at stock speed though.

Really though, stop worrying so much about the hardware and get busy learning CG already. Even if you only had an 8 year old XP machine with 2 gigs ram, that would have been a top of the line system 12 years ago and you’d still be able to learn a LOT of CG stuff with it until you started getting more advanced and into files that would be too large for an old machine to handle.

#62

Some of the suggestions in this thread are sound advice, do what you need to do now, even if you get on-top of technology something in life will bite you in the arse and you’ll fall behind, that’s life as sung by Frank Sinatra ! :slight_smile:

Edit: Release date info has changed in 24 hours !

#63

So decided i will stay only with the gaming pc for now.
Now i’m looking at some monitors.
I was thinking about 2 monitors but maybe a third one would be good, i’m looking for only 27" monitors is a good size :smiley:

here are some monitors that i’ve been looking:

2x for gaming : http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-27-3d-ready-lcd-monitor-black/1304487931.p?id=mp1304487931&skuId=1304487931&st=Asus%20VG278HE&cp=1&lp=1#tab=buyingOptions
or
1x of the top one and one of those:
http://www.asus.com/us/Monitors_Projectors/PA279Q/overview/

I mean a gaming monitor can’t be that bad for CG work right?

#64

I’ve used a couple different 120 and 144hz gaming monitors for stereo 3D playback.

The gaming monitors have terrible, I mean terrible color reproduction. You will not be able to make good decisions for your lighting, textures, gamma, or colors with these monitors. Viewing angles are also quite poor. They offer no advantage for CG work other than if you are creating stereo 3D work or maybe (and this is stretching it) if you animate lots of fast movements at higher than normal frame-rates and and want to ensure the monitor isn’t displaying any ghosting frames that might impact your subconscious.

Get a good IPS monitor as your primary CG monitor. The asus PA279Q is a good choice.

#65

I have been using a pair of HP ZR30w 30" monitors for the last two years and I thoroughly enjoy the color consistency. They are 10 bpc and have performed fantastic.

As for the two vs three monitor issue I’ve never felt at a loss with just two, I have a close friend who does programming who used 3 for a while but found that he didn’t benefit from it much and went back to two. You might try two and if you feel cramped then throw in another.

#66

Many give that Asus a bad review. I should consider a high end monitor considering I’m starting at it more then the times I’m not. I recently went to the Optometrist and he told me, something I already knew but none the less, most people bad eyes come from starting a a computer screen for hours. When the person was away from a computer for a weeks time, there eyes were better, why the increase in glasses and smart phones have enhanced bad eye sight by twenty times. I still have a few years before I’ll supposedly need bifocals, but I’ll fall into the “common age” unlike many who are way younger then I, half blind as I like to joke :slight_smile: