Building A Computer

[Hawkflight]

So, later this year (around the holiday season) I'm going to be building a new computer for myself, and I'm wanting to install Windows 7. Problem is, if it's released by then it'll be expensive. and if it's not I'll have to use Vista and upgrade from Vista, which will still cost a chunk of change. So here's what I want to know: Is it worth spending the money on Windows, or should I just get a Linux CD for cheap and use that. It will be a 3-monitor system, and used primarily for gaming and Photoshop/Premier (digital art and movie making, like compiling AMVs and such).

[fdispose]

Just in general, if you're going to be using it for gaming you'll probably want to shell out for a copy of Windows anyways. It sucks that it's so expensive, but sometimes you can get OEM copies for less than the retail ones :)

[Hollud]

Well, since you need Photoshop and Premier, you need Windows.

Windows 7 does have significant improvements over Vista, which seemed like a rush job to replace the aging (but reliable) XP. While it's not as fast as XP, it is the next major release of Windows to look forward (and upgrade) to.

If you want to tinker around with Linux, you could have a dual boot machine. But since you need to run Windows, just stick with Windows. You could always have one of those Linux-on-a-CD or Linux-on-a-thumbdrive solutions if you want to try it out.

I would recommend a computer with at least a fast modern dual-core or a quad-core system (to do the crunching for all your Adobe needs). At least 4GB of RAM is recommended, but with cheap RAM prices, feel free to up it to 8GB. To handle that much memory, a 64-bit version of Windows is required, although I am uncertain whether Windows 7 will come in x86 and x64 flavours like Vista.

For your multi-monitor set-up, multiple graphics cards are a must. One option is to cheap a pair of mid-range graphics cards and put them in a dual configuration (SLI for nVidia, CrossFire for ATI). That way, you can have multiple monitors and still enjoy sufficient horsepower for your gaming needs.

Another option (although this will require an AMD-ATI component rig) is to purchase a motherboard with integrated graphics and a suitable ATI graphics card. You can have your multiple monitors connected to the outputs on the integrated graphics (on the motherboard) and the dedicated graphics (on the graphics card) and still have sufficient horsepower for your gaming needs. This technology is called Hybrid CrossFire.

[blackbeardlion]

you can get linux for FREE! but the downside is it's not %100 reliable. it also takes allot of getting used to and the help people give you on the internet is absolutely useless most of the time. when it comes to downloading things for instance most poeple will give you a dozen lines you need to input in terminal (the linux cmd) when in fact all you need to do is go on synaptic and it will auto install pretty much anything you need. on the good side there are TONS of free stuff that you can get on linux and you will probably never need to buy another program again. it's also a ton safer then any windows including windows 7 (when i compared it to the beta). you should also consider what distro you want since all of them have there ups and downs. as for it being more expensive then later i doubt it. windows rarely goes down in price and i still see windows xp oem disks for over $100. what i would do is make a linux partition of maybe 20-40 gb and either save the rest for windows or cut another big partition in ntfs leaving some extra space for the windows partition so that you can still use most of your drive untill you get windows. linux can read any format that windows uses (such as ntfs) and you can use such a partition by both OS.

edit: as for photoshop and the like there are freeware programs that do much of what photoshop does and are even compatible with plugins. gimp is a good photo editing software for linux and blender is a powerful 3d editor similar to 3ds max. it's a good way to get you started and should be able to tide you over till you get windows

[fdispose]

It's true that there are linux alternatives for the tools you're looking for, and I don't claim that the Windows versions are better, but I will say that your games requirement will be better suited to Windows in general. You can run Windows applications from Linux using Wine or another emulator, but sometimes they suffer performance hits.

I'll agree that more RAM is better, so when you're shopping for your OS, make sure you get a 64bit version, otherwise you'll only be able to use 3GB of your RAM.

As mentioned, if you want to tinker with Linux, feel free to set up a dual boot situation. This means that you'll be able to select which OS you use, but you'll still have to install Windows if you want to go this route.

[fdispose]

Also (and sorry for the double post, I'm still a newbie so I can't edit), but do you have any of your AMVs online anywhere? It's a pretty cool hobby and I'd like to check 'em out :)

[Hawkflight]

Eh, I can't actually make the AMVs, my laptop can't really handle it. ^_^;;

Thanks for the advice, everyone. :-)

[Joppy]

you can get linux for FREE! but the downside is it's not %100 reliable. it also takes allot of getting used to and the help people give you on the internet is absolutely useless most of the time. when it comes to downloading things for instance most poeple will give you a dozen lines you need to input in terminal (the linux cmd) when in fact all you need to do is go on synaptic and it will auto install pretty much anything you need. on the good side there are TONS of free stuff that you can get on linux and you will probably never need to buy another program again. it's also a ton safer then any windows including windows 7 (when i compared it to the beta). you should also consider what distro you want since all of them have there ups and downs. as for it being more expensive then later i doubt it. windows rarely goes down in price and i still see windows xp oem disks for over $100. what i would do is make a linux partition of maybe 20-40 gb and either save the rest for windows or cut another big partition in ntfs leaving some extra space for the windows partition so that you can still use most of your drive untill you get windows. linux can read any format that windows uses (such as ntfs) and you can use such a partition by both OS.

Just a note with Linux - There is a reason that people give commands instead of telling you to use Synaptic. It's a lot easier to tell someone to type "sudo apt-get install <insert program name here>" then to tell them step-by-step with Synaptic. And there is also the case that not all Linux users have Synaptic, then commands for a source install can apply to anyone, not just Ubuntu / Debian users.