ATI or NVIDIA

[subaes]

Looking to buy either a DELL Studio XPS or an Alienware Aurora for video editing / encoding, photoshop and after effects mainly. I'm a totally non-tech guy who has read and searched and have concluded that I now have a headache. However it seems like I'm down to choosing between Single 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260 add $0.00 and Dual 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5670 CrossfireX™ Enabled which according to Dell are the same price. Which do you think I should get for my job? Going with 12gb ram and W7 64 bit by the way. Oh and tell me as well your choice between the Aurora and the Studio XPS.

Thanks a mil for all responses.

 

[saaiello]

I would go for the dual 5670 but IMO cut your ram down and use the extra money on a 5850 or higher 4 gigs is more then enough for gaming if your setup triple channel then 6 gigs is ideal. There are no performance benefits in gaming with more then 4 gigs of ram so spend the money you save on ram and get better graphics card, but definitely dont get the 260.

 

[enzo matrix]

I agree with SAIELLO except for the 5670s in crossfire. Yes they will perform about the same (better or worse I am unuse but in the same league) but I see no reason to not get a 260, especially considering that a single card would provide more consistent performance than dual cards.
SAAiello, what is your reason for "definitely" not getting the 260?

I completely agree about the memory. 4GB is still the sweet spot right now with 6-8GB providing gains under certain circumstances.

 

[saaiello]

I agree with SAIELLO except for the 5670s in crossfire. Yes they will perform about the same (better or worse I am unuse but in the same league) but I see no reason to not get a 260, especially considering that a single card would provide more consistent performance than dual cards.
SAAiello, what is your reason for "definitely" not getting the 260?

I completely agree about the memory. 4GB is still the sweet spot right now with 6-8GB providing gains under certain circumstances.

Don't get me wrong the GTX 260 is a great card I just see it as If you are looking to at a new system and paying a premium you might as well go for a DX 11 card.

 

[Raidur]

OP: Out of curiosity what are they charging for the whole machine w/ 12GB of ram?

 

[subaes]

Aaah, thanks everyone. I'm listening to al you're saying. Saiello, Enzon, keeping in mind that I'm really heading into video editing and not really gaming, you think I might gain from the 12gb RAM? I went to a forum where the video guys just kept screaming processor and ram and not video cards as while the video cards help with transcoding one format to another they don't really assist in aactually rendering a project done in After Effects and or Premiere. The question then there is, will I get benefit from the 12gb or still run for the 4-6gb?

I have no idea what the benefits of DX11 are. Will go read tomorrow as I'm pressing some deadly deadlines here.

CT, Enzo, I read about that stability issue as well. So unless the advantage of DX11 is so huge for my job, I'll be going for stability.

Thanks much! Anything else you wana offer, throw at me.

 

[subaes]

OP: Out of curiosity what are they charging for the whole machine w/ 12GB of ram?

Raidur, here are the specs and price of the Studio Xps and below is the Aurora (I hate when I can't go back on Dell's site and get the exact thing I configured first. Must be something I'm doing with my techilliterate self).


PROCESSORS Intel® Core™ i7-860 processor(8MB Cache, 2.80GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
MEMORY 12GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs
MONITOR 21.5" Dell ST2210 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5
HARD DRIVE 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (BD-ROM; DVD/CD Burner) and DVD+/-
SPEAKERS Dell AX210 Stereo Speaker
WIRELESS Dell 1525 WLAN PCIe card with11n mini-Card & external antenn
KEYBOARD Dell Studio Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSE Dell Studio Optical Mouse
My Accessories
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works 9.0 edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
SOUND CARD THX® TruStudio PC™
Studio XPS 8100 Studio XPS 8100
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
Studio XPS 8100
Starting Price $2,436.00
Total Savings $497.00
Subtotal $1,939.00



ALIENWARE AURORA

CHASSIS COLOR Cosmic Black, Alienware Aurora Chassis edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
VIDEO CARD Single 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260 edit
MEMORY 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - (6x 2048MB) edit
HARD DRIVE 1TB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 32MB Cache HDD edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability edit
FLOPPY DRIVE Alienware® 19-in-1 Media Card Reader edit
SOUND CARD Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium edit
BLUETOOTH Internal USB Bluetooth edit
WIRELESS 1525 PCIe WLAN card with 11n mini-Card & external antenna edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
KEYBOARD Alienware Multi-Media Keyboard edit
MOUSE Alienware Optical Mouse, MG100 edit
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis edit
On-Site Service after Remote Diagnosis: for issues covered by Limited Hardware Warranty, technician and/or part will be dispatched, if necessary, usually within 1 business day following Remote Diagnosis. During Remote Diagnosis, you may be asked to access the inside of your system (where safe to do so) or to participate in troubleshooting until a cause can be isolated.
My Accessories
ALIENFX AlienFX Color, Mars Red edit
AVATAR Alienhead Chrome Red edit
WALLPAPER Alienhead Chrome Red edit
FACTORY INSTALLED GAMES Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed edit
AUTOMATIC UPDATES Automatic Updates: Enabled edit
Software
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Alienware Aurora Alienware Aurora Desktop
COOLING OPTION Alienware® High-Performance Liquid Cooling
Adobe Reader Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

 

[subaes]

Raidur, forgot the Alienware price. $1,894.00

 

[popatim]

The video forums are correct, you want CPU and RAM primarily.
Personally if you cant afford to go with a Quandro Video card then I would go for a lesser video card altogether, such as an ati4850 or nvdia 9600gt, and opt for an SSD boot disk and another Sata HDD instead. 3 drives total; Adobe loves to have a scratch disk pretty much to itself. (Do not partition a single disk to make it look like more, this just slows you down.)

 

[saaiello]

Well in that case yea get the 12 GB RAM and the 260

 

[subaes]

The video forums are correct, you want CPU and RAM primarily.
Personally if you cant afford to go with a Quandro Video card then I would go for a lesser video card altogether, such as an ati4850 or nvdia 9600gt, and opt for an SSD boot disk and another Sata HDD instead. 3 drives total; Adobe loves to have a scratch disk pretty much to itself. (Do not partition a single disk to make it look like more, this just slows you down.)

Aaaaah, I get where you're coming from. I'll see what options I got. Unfortunately, I'm a bit stuck with going brand name which is so much more expensive and less versatility in terms of options.

 

[subaes]

Well in that case yea get the 12 GB RAM and the 260

Thanks, good looking out.

 

[enzo matrix]

Aaaaah, I get where you're coming from. I'll see what options I got. Unfortunately, I'm a bit stuck with going brand name which is so much more expensive and less versatility in terms of options.

They are both made by Dell...

 

[subaes]

They are both made by Dell...

Yes, I know, it's who it came down. Because of the "brilliant" show of service in my country in this field both when it comes to purchasing service and afrer purchase service, it's my best bet.

 

[subaes]

Best answer selected by subaes.

 

[subaes]

Just came by to say thanks for all the help. You guys came in and offered great suggestions and made me feel welcome. Much appreciated. No part 2, rounding up the cash.