Hardware What computer is right for me?

[ToonGoomba]

I am a young programmer/developer, and I never actually released any of my games because they felt highly unfinished. I would love to finish them and get them released, but my computer recently got infected with a virus, and its unable to boot anymore. I tried every method trying to fix it, but no luck. Over 2 months of hard work, gone. Its a pretty old Dell computer, so I was thinking about buying a modern new one. I need a computer that is great for programming, emulators and lots of storage. Any suggestions?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Do you want an OEM prebuilt (Dell, Acer, ASUS, etc), or do you want to assemble it yourself? Also, what's your max AND preferred budget?

 

[Small Kat]

Do you want an OEM prebuilt (Dell, Acer, ASUS, etc), or do you want to assemble it yourself? Also, what's your max AND preferred budget?

^
(I can make some builds for your needs, but i need to know if its 2d games or 3d.)

 

[ThoD]

Unless you want something that is considerably high-end and powerful, even a Ryzen 3 line CPU will do. As for GPU go with NVidia 1050Ti. You shouldn't need more than 8GBs of RAM, but a big and fast HDD will get you a long way. I suggest getting a MIDI case and gold+ PSU (saves money since you will be using it a lot I assume). Unless you plan to run Cryengine 4 games or above, you won't need any more than those specs and they will even allow you to play a lot of the new games at medium settings just fine, while also being able to render considerably fast for texture editing/creating.

 

[FAST6191]

"got infected with a virus"

Unless it was one of those ransomware things you should have been able to boot the drive off another machine, or maybe use a livecd and fish the relevant data from your hard drive. Depending upon what you have done since you might have sent it further away but hey.

As for the matter at hand computers have kind of stalled in recent times. Though if you are programming a like screens with a decent resolution (to get the program you made, a debug window and some code all on the same screen), a keyboard you can type at for long periods and

Storage you can sort at any point you like.

 

[ToonGoomba]

Do you want an OEM prebuilt (Dell, Acer, ASUS, etc), or do you want to assemble it yourself? Also, what's your max AND preferred budget?

My max budget and preferred budget is around $500-$600, and I would like a prebuilt one.

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Unless you want something that is considerably high-end and powerful, even a Ryzen 3 line CPU will do. As for GPU go with NVidia 1050Ti. You shouldn't need more than 8GBs of RAM, but a big and fast HDD will get you a long way. I suggest getting a MIDI case and gold+ PSU (saves money since you will be using it a lot I assume). Unless you plan to run Cryengine 4 games or above, you won't need any more than those specs and they will even allow you to play a lot of the new games at medium settings just fine, while also being able to render considerably fast for texture editing/creating.

I mainly develop games using Unity, and they tend to be around 800MB to 2GB. Shigeru Miyamoto is my #1 inspiration, so I put a lot of time and thought into each game.

 

[SecureBoot]

My mom has the same problem and I'm her computer guy. She has a $500 max, is obsessed with quad core processing, and really only needs basic functions like Microsoft office. If we're buying a new computer, I want one that can run Unity quickly and smoothly as well as mid-almost high tier games.
EDIT: She also wants an all-in-one

 

[TotalInsanity4]

My max budget and preferred budget is around $500-$600, and I would like a prebuilt one.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


I mainly develop games using Unity, and they tend to be around 800MB to 2GB. Shigeru Miyamoto is my #1 inspiration, so I put a lot of time and thought into each game.

K. Are we to assume you have a decent monitor/keyboard already?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Unless you want something that is considerably high-end and powerful, even a Ryzen 3 line CPU will do. As for GPU go with NVidia 1050Ti. You shouldn't need more than 8GBs of RAM, but a big and fast HDD will get you a long way. I suggest getting a MIDI case and gold+ PSU (saves money since you will be using it a lot I assume). Unless you plan to run Cryengine 4 games or above, you won't need any more than those specs and they will even allow you to play a lot of the new games at medium settings just fine, while also being able to render considerably fast for texture editing/creating.

A GTX 1060 is a better value, it should be plenty for 1080p gaming at high settings, and the price difference is not that big.

My max budget and preferred budget is around $500-$600, and I would like a prebuilt one.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


I mainly develop games using Unity, and they tend to be around 800MB to 2GB. Shigeru Miyamoto is my #1 inspiration, so I put a lot of time and thought into each game.

Too bad Black Friday/Cyber Monday is over. They had some pretty decent deals on cheap computers/parts.
You get more for your money if you build it yourself. It's really not hard, it's mostly just a matter of putting together pieces where they fit. And it's a lot of fun too. And you could get help here with putting together the parts list.
As a starting point, there's this generator that puts together a parts list based on a budget that's supposed to pick parts that give the best value for money within your budget: https://choosemypc.net/build/?budget=600&oc=false&options=
At $600 it suggests an i3 with a RX 480 (and SSD+HDD). At that price, that's probably about the best you're going to get, though it might be worth it going with Ryzen instead. And if you already have a HDD you can reuse, you can get a bigger SSD instead.

My mom has the same problem and I'm her computer guy. She has a $500 max, is obsessed with quad core processing, and really only needs basic functions like Microsoft office. If we're buying a new computer, I want one that can run Unity quickly and smoothly as well as mid-almost high tier games.
EDIT: She also wants an all-in-one

Don't get an all-in-one. You get less for your money and upgradability is poor. It has the same drawbacks as a laptop but without the portability. At that point you might as well get a laptop.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

If I were you and absolutely wouldn't budge on getting a prebuilt, I'd get this and add a 1050ti and 1tb hard drive later down the line

 

[SecureBoot]

Don't get an all-in-one. You get less for your money and upgradability is poor. It has the same drawbacks as a laptop but without the portability. At that point you might as well get a laptop.

Brought that up with my mom. She said she has her eye on a laptop. All I know about it is that it was about $375 and it had a quad core amd processor. Will that run Unity alright?

 

[nero99]

Brought that up with my mom. She said she has her eye on a laptop. All I know about it is that it was about $375 and it had a quad core amd processor. Will that run Unity alright?

Tell her to avoid all amd laptops. They use some slow last gen apu chips that are just awful. Have her spend a little more on a i5 or i7 laptop, that will be a much better option.

 

[Fishaman P]

Brought that up with my mom. She said she has her eye on a laptop. All I know about it is that it was about $375 and it had a quad core amd processor. Will that run Unity alright?

I can almost guarantee any sub-$500 laptop will struggle endlessly with Unity. Especially if it's the weak old AMD APU I imagine it is.
At the very least you'll want an i5 plus discrete Nvidia GPU, or Ryzen 3 with a decent integrated GPU.

 

[migles]

My mom has the same problem and I'm her computer guy. She has a $500 max, is obsessed with quad core processing, and really only needs basic functions like Microsoft office. If we're buying a new computer, I want one that can run Unity quickly and smoothly as well as mid-almost high tier games.
EDIT: She also wants an all-in-one

tell her about threadripper and it's 16 cores

 

[ThoD]

My max budget and preferred budget is around $500-$600, and I would like a prebuilt one.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


I mainly develop games using Unity, and they tend to be around 800MB to 2GB. Shigeru Miyamoto is my #1 inspiration, so I put a lot of time and thought into each game.

Unity games run on even my ancient Pentium D PC I got back home, not need to go with high specs. What I suggested will be more than enough to make stuff on and test them out too! Also, if you build it yourself, it can go at considerably lower price AND offer upgradeability.

A GTX 1060 is a better value, it should be plenty for 1080p gaming at high settings, and the price difference is not that big.

Too bad Black Friday/Cyber Monday is over. They had some pretty decent deals on cheap computers/parts.
You get more for your money if you build it yourself. It's really not hard, it's mostly just a matter of putting together pieces where they fit. And it's a lot of fun too. And you could get help here with putting together the parts list.
As a starting point, there's this generator that puts together a parts list based on a budget that's supposed to pick parts that give the best value for money within your budget: https://choosemypc.net/build/?budget=600&oc=false&options=
At $600 it suggests an i3 with a RX 480 (and SSD+HDD). At that price, that's probably about the best you're going to get, though it might be worth it going with Ryzen instead. And if you already have a HDD you can reuse, you can get a bigger SSD instead.

Don't get an all-in-one. You get less for your money and upgradability is poor. It has the same drawbacks as a laptop but without the portability. At that point you might as well get a laptop.

I simply suggested 1050Ti because it's a good value-for-money card and will do everything fine, but anything above it is obviously even better, but might cost more. Getting an SSD won't do much, just a small one for the OS and system page files is all SSDs are really good for, so even one at 64GBs is gonna be enough if an SSD is even put in. You can get a lot more out of a high RPM HDD to be honest. But yeah, all in ones are terrible and prebuilts in general, so going custom is the best choice!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

My mom has the same problem and I'm her computer guy. She has a $500 max, is obsessed with quad core processing, and really only needs basic functions like Microsoft office. If we're buying a new computer, I want one that can run Unity quickly and smoothly as well as mid-almost high tier games.
EDIT: She also wants an all-in-one

Don't get an all-in-one. You get less for your money and upgradability is poor.

Unity games run on even my ancient Pentium D PC I got back home, not need to go with high specs. What I suggested will be more than enough to make stuff on and test them out too! Also, if you build it yourself, it can go at considerably lower price AND offer upgradeability.


I simply suggested 1050Ti because it's a good value-for-money card and will do everything fine, but anything above it is obviously even better, but might cost more. Getting an SSD won't do much, just a small one for the OS and system page files is all SSDs are really good for, so even one at 64GBs is gonna be enough if an SSD is even put in. You can get a lot more out of a high RPM HDD to be honest. But yeah, all in ones are terrible and prebuilts in general, so going custom is the best choice!

64 GB is a bit low, not enough to comfortably fit Windows along with the most used programs. 120 GB SSDs are pretty cheap though so not much point in going with a 64 GB.

 

[ThoD]

64 GB is a bit low, not enough to comfortably fit Windows along with the most used programs. 120 GB SSDs are pretty cheap though so not much point in going with a 64 GB.

Low how? Windows with everything that comes along with it doesn't go beyond 15GBs, add 16GBs for page files and you got 33GBs or so left to install the IMPORTANT programs. Running something like Unity from an SSD but saving and making the game on the HDD, having the install of video converters on the SSD and the video files on the HDD or any things like that is actually SLOWER than having everything on the HDD, so again, an SSD should be only for the OS, page files and VERY important apps (mostly those that run at startup so the computer boots faster). Everything else can just go on the HDD and you won't even notice the difference in load times unless you get some 5600 or lower RPM HDD... A 7200 RPM SATA 6GB is already fast enough to not have any issues with loading times, so why waste money one something that will slow you down if you go overboard with it's usage?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Low how? Windows with everything that comes along with it doesn't go beyond 15GBs, add 16GBs for page files and you got 33GBs or so left to install the IMPORTANT programs. Running something like Unity from an SSD but saving and making the game on the HDD, having the install of video converters on the SSD and the video files on the HDD or any things like that is actually SLOWER than having everything on the HDD, so again, an SSD should be only for the OS, page files and VERY important apps (mostly those that run at startup so the computer boots faster). Everything else can just go on the HDD and you won't even notice the difference in load times unless you get some 5600 or lower RPM HDD... A 7200 RPM SATA 6GB is already fast enough to not have any issues with loading times, so why waste money one something that will slow you down if you go overboard with it's usage?

I have 120 GB on my laptop and it's just enough combined with a HDD. I don't think I could deal with having less, but maybe that's just me. Windows, programs, app data and temp files add up to a lot, and I don't even use a page file. I've deleted everything that can be deleted and still only have a few gigs free.

 

[ThoD]

I have 120 GB on my laptop and it's just enough combined with a HDD. I don't think I could deal with having less, but maybe that's just me. Windows, programs, app data and temp files add up to a lot, and I don't even use a page file. I've deleted everything that can be deleted and still only have a few gigs free.

That's because you've just gone and installed everything on the SSD. There is literally no point to do that, you only get a couple milliseconds less loading times, which is trivial. Also, with a page file, you would save a LOT more time compared to having everything on the SSD.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that as this is derailing the thread. What I recommended in my first post is more than good enough to do all the things OP plans to use it for, but if he can find anything better for around the same price, then it would end up that much better.

 

[SecureBoot]

I can almost guarantee any sub-$500 laptop will struggle endlessly with Unity. Especially if it's the weak old AMD APU I imagine it is.
At the very least you'll want an i5 plus discrete Nvidia GPU, or Ryzen 3 with a decent integrated GPU.

I'll have a hard time convincing her of that. This sucks