How to buy a COMPUTER FOR ARCHITECTURE....

Okay everyone has this miss conception that when you buy a computer for Architecture School you need POWERFUL GRAPHICS..
This blog is brought upon by a customer that came into the store the other day preparing for architecture school.
So onto the point.... PICKING A COMPUTER FOR ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL

Part One...
Custom Computer or Store bought computer (Bestbuy/Futureshop/Random Local Computer Store)
Well custom computers are always great if you can find the right person to build them, if you have the wrong person building your computer it can be a disaster in the long run. Now don't panic CUSTOM COMPUTERS are better then store bought if you get the right parts.

Store Bought computers are okay if you don't know anyone that can build a computer or in a rush to get to work right away. I usually don't suggest buying a pre-built system because usually the components are standard and you can't really modify or upgrade too much.

THE GREY AREA...
Dell and other custom build companies.
These are great for the mass market that don't know computers, but for those of us that have to spend countless hours working on a computer we want them to be dependable. These computers from dell are hard to upgrade and when they die they are a pain for anyone to fix.

PART 2....
COMPONENTS
1) CPU...
Your CPU needs to be a multi-core processor whether it be intel or amd...
Preferably intel with there turbo boost tech and all the bells and whistles do help when rendering and multi-tasking

2) RAM ...
Well for most common customers I usually say 4Gb is enough for anyone... BUT!!! when your in Design/Engineering you prob. need more RAM especially for us arch students we need to work on so many different platforms. MORE RAM THE BETTER...

3) MOTHERBOARD...
If you don't know computers ask a friend, everyone has a friend that knows computers. ON the chance you don't know what to get ask the sales person at the store typically these days a good motherboard will cost you about $119 or more. What you need on the board is PCI-Express/USB 3.0/SATA 3.0(6 GBs) these are just basic other fancy features like RAID/Duel LAN/etc.

4) HARD DRIVE...
You need a hard drive that need fast access times and dependable. This can be a tough decision Solid State Drives are expensive and Reduce access time which are good for pulling up information and using software but require additional drives to store files.
Typical Hard Drives are still probably the best choice as of now purchasing a high speed SATA 3.0 drive allows for high capacity and speed while still more dependable then SSD's
Capacity is always up to the users

5) Graphics Card.....
Well this isn't extremely important but still required most of us have to invest into a good graphics card. If you plan on doing 3D rendering with walk through's this is fairly important that you get a good graphics card to help with the rendering load.
Quadro and Fire GL Cards are not necessary for student and single users these are more geared for people working in offices with a heavy rendering load.

6) Case and Power supply
Well this is just anything that you'd like really in terms of a case just make sure everything can fit into it and there is enough ventilation for the parts to circulate air
In terms of a power supply make sure there is enough power for the graphics and potential to add more into your system. I typically suggest 750-850watts or more just in case people add another graphics card and hard drives.

7) WINDOWS
What really needs to be said about this.. you need this to use your computer in order to install all the necessary software to be used.

These are just my suggestions when buying a computer its just over the years people come to me with they're problems that i have to fix because they made the wrong decisions.. I understand that I may not know everything but there's a fair bit of thought and understand that has been put into this. I've built more computers then I can remember and for the most part if I wasn't holding back on the cost they've all been pretty good... If you need a system and live in the Toronto Area Please Contact me via this blog  : P