Atm im using a laptop, it overheats, crashes and just makes anything i do a pain in the *ss 
After i graduate (3 months) I will be looking to go full time, making android games using jME 
Therefore I should probably invest in some equipment which will make my life a lot easier :P. I want to go with Windows 7 as that is what i know best (sorry to dash your hopes @normen)
So iām looking to you guys for advice. What do you have, what do you like/dislike? If possible be specific to models :). I donāt have much money to spend about, Ā£500/600 euros/$800. Is this enough? Never owned a desktop so not sure. I need a tower/monitor/keyboard etcā¦ the whole lot :P. I have a TV, but want that as a secondary so that I dual screen it up. I need a balance between price/performance. Iām not looking to make the best computer possible, I just want something I can make low/medium poly games on for android phones with ease. That includes using tools like blender which run fast, smooth and efficiently.
Also i have another question as well 32 bit or 64 bit windows?
I donāt really understand this concept. If i use a 32 bit OS, and click compile, I make a 32 bit program/game. If iām on a 64 bit OS, what do i create when i click compile? 32 bit or 64 bit? or are they interchangeable?
Thx for any tips! <3
Edit: Here is the final setup
For the 32/64 thingā¦ You do not need to think about that when you use java, really. It will just use the appropriate bit length for its values, float is still 32bit and double is 64bit, so effectively you get speed improvements only for double computations. If its actually 64bit is determined by the JVM that you run. You can also run a 32bit JVM on a 64bit windows.
SSDs all the way!
ram ram ram; I often have 2 IDEs open, photoshop, blender, and web browsers open, and still want to run a game. So too much ram is good. And it is next to free.
ram ram ram processor processor processor graphic card graphic card graphic card :).
I can feel with you so muchā¦
My own applications dosnt run on my poor laptop anymore because the graphics kill my graphics chip. ( I bought the laptop for business aka Office and stuff and simple programming, not for high-resource multimedia stuff like new age games ā¦ )
So my own programms kill my graphics deviceā¦ Well. Its not even capable of rendering the improved water of jmeā¦ It just kills my whole graphics drivers ( newest version ) and hangs the application thread.
Its so horrible.
32 bit computers are limited in how much memory you can fit to them. Other than that you wonāt see much difference and as already said for java development it doesnāt really matter.
I recommend getting two decent sized monitors (but that would probably blow your budget by itself) as being able to have the code on one screen while reference/running application is on the other makes a massive difference.
SSD drives are very fast and Iāve really noticed the difference from mine but again they are expensive and while (so far) Iāve had no problems I know some people worry about their reliability. I do make sure that my SVN repositories are on a standard drive while my working space is on the SSD, so if either drive dies I have something to fallback on (as well as taking regular backups of the SVN repository of course).
Personally I build my computers myself (itās actually pretty easy - just follow the instructions and plug the components together - only tricky bit is making sure everything you get is compatible with everything else) and make a substantial saving that way.
Something like http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-amd-work---play-bundle--inc-asus-f1a55-m-le-motherboard--athlon-ii-x4-631--4gb---radeon-6670--7Y50.html?q=motherboard%20bundle&src=16 gives you a good core to build around at your budget (quad core processor, graphics card, 4GB ram, motherboard). Then you ājustā need case, hard drives, OS (get the OEM version), power supply, optical drive, mouse, keyboard, monitors and (optionally) wireless card,.
(Note Iāve not done any shopping around comparing products for that bundle so do your research and compare options if you do decide to do a build. Dabs are a good supplier though, Iāve ordered from them a lot and never had any problems. The few times stuff has gone wrong theyāve replaced it no quibbles and even paid the postage to send it back!)
didnāt read everyone remarks so i donāt know if it has been said, but only a 64 bit system allows you to have more than 4gb ram because of the address rangeā¦thatās reason enough IMO to go 64bit.
Almost a year ago, I built two 5 core AMD boxes with nVidia GTX 460s in them for about $800 each. But I already had monitors. A decent monitor will blow half your budget, I guess.
If it were me and I had a limited budget, GPU is where my money would go first. I usually target the $200 price point since thatās pretty souped up while also being 6-9 months away from āpretty mainstreamā.
RAM will effect how many apps you can run, etc. while developingā¦ but you can manage that somewhat. Iām still on 32-bit XP so Iām limited to 3.2 gig anyway. Itās not usually a problemā¦ I consider āextra ramā to be a ānice to haveā and not a requirement. Butā¦ faster is better.
After GPU, Iād focus on CPUā¦ thatās the next bottleneck that will affect your actual game. Definitely nothing lower than two cores. Opt for more cores over more megahertz if the trade-off is close. Your development life will be easier. Most machines now have at least two coresā¦ but most importantly, you will find threading bugs in a multicore system that you will never ever find in a single core system. Make sure you have a motherboard that is stable, a good brand, and can give the proper juice to your CPU. Most now are pretty standard but it doesnāt hurt to double-check the specs to make sure your ram speed isnāt hobbled or something. (The best motherboards Iāve ever owned were ASUS. Technically, some of the worst were, too, though. :))
And third, hard-drive speed. On a budget, find the fastest drive you can. I donāt know is ssd counts in this caseā¦ that would be pure luxury. This speed is more for your development life than it is for game performanceā¦ but second only to CPU/RAM speed, the hard drive speed is the next performance-critical layer in a developerās life.
thx for the useful help guys, will let you know what i decide to get <33
Hm since you need the whole stuff 600ā¬ is kind of hard.
Monitor, Drives and input devices already eats half of the budged.
I personally would spend my money on something like this:
IntelĀ® Coreā¢ i5-2500 ā¬ 184,90*
ASUS P8H61/USB3 Rev.3.0 ā¬ 83,90*
Corsair DIMM 16 GB DDR3-1333 Quad-Kid ā¬ 79,90*
ASUS ENGTX560 Ti DCII TOP/2DI ā¬ 229,90*
That stuff brings you already to ā¬ 578,60*.
For me it is very hard to build systems in these price class because i in general buy a new PC every ~2 years and since i have a regular income i wait until i can afford a good/ top system.
Some things i would recommand in todays market:
RAM RAM RAM as much as you can. 16GB for 80ā¬ is kind of free.
CPU: i have to say that i am an intel fan. If you wait a month the new ivy bridge cpus come out. Maybe the price for the current i5 models will drop a bit.
GFX: For multimonitor setups (>2) you should go with an ATI card. If not i always use nvidia cars. Why? For my eyes the nvidias draw a nice in 3d. PhysX in games if they support it. (But mostly because i am a nvidia fan too )
If you can afford it, a ssd makes wonders in the usability performance (Opening programs ecc.)
Was tempted for a second to put my specs but I donāt want hate.
ā¦ Madjack hat einen groĆen Schwanz. xD
hahahahaha
@normen said:
... Madjack hat einen groĆen Schwanz. xD
:O What kind of language is that @normen
My e-peen is bigger than most. ;) lol
My suggestion would be a core i5 + 4-8 gb ram and a Amd 6800 HD, this will blow about 80% of your budget,
then recycle power supply (if 450W+ and a good one, else you might risk your new hardware) chassis, and all drives and you are good to go. No reason to buy everything new,they are not limiting you currently, then you will be fine with them for a while more.
If still money left after those, you might want to use a z68 motherboard, as you can optionally plug in a ssd as a cache for the main harddisk, (for when you have free budget next time)
This config lets you play all current games at max details without any problems, so you should be fine for developing as well 
hey guys! didnāt eat for 3 weeks and saved enough government support cheques to buy this now! and kick some ass with jME
Heres what i have found so far, i have the GPU as the most expensive:
GPU
PowerColor HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
http://www.ebuyer.com/248745-powercolor-hd-6870-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-displayport-pci-e-ax6870-1gbd5-2dh
Ā£135/$218/ā¬167
Monitor
Benq G2420HD Full HD TFT LCD 24" HDMI Monitor
http://www.ebuyer.com/169099-benq-g2420hd-24-lcd-monitor-9h-l3alb-qbe
Ā£126/$203/ā¬155
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz Socket AM3 6MB L3 Cache Cache 125W Retail Boxed Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/186428-amd-phenom-ii-x4-965-black-edition-3-4ghz-socket-am3-6mb-l3-hdz965fbgmbox
Ā£90/$145/ā¬111
Hard drive
OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD - AGT3-25SAT3-120G
http://www.ebuyer.com/268244-ocz-120gb-agility-3-ssd-agt3-25sat3-120g-agt3-25sat3-120g
Ā£90/$145/ā¬111
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Socket AM3+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/349910-gigabyte-ga-970a-ds3-socket-am3-7-1-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-970a-ds3
Ā£52.86/$85/ā¬65
Tower and power supply combo
Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/220863-coolermaster-elite-330-case-with-coolermaster-extreme-power-500w-psu-rc-330-kkpl-gp
Ā£50/$85/ā¬61.69
RAM
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V
http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl
Ā£39/$62.97/ā¬48.12
@sploreg i will just get 8 gig for now, then if needed i will buy more as you recommend
Fan
Xilence Red Wing 120mm Case Fan - 3 and 4pin connection
http://www.ebuyer.com/138586-xilence-red-wing-120mm-quiet-fan-3-4pin-connection-xilence120
Ā£5
Brackets for hard drive
Kingston 2.5" to 3.5" Hard Drive Bracket and Screws
http://www.ebuyer.com/168671-kingston-2-5-to-3-5-hard-drive-bracket-and-screws-sna-br-35
Ā£4
Harddrive cable
Xenta SATA 3 Cable 6Gbps - 64cm
http://www.ebuyer.com/248883-xenta-sata-3-cable-6gbps-64cm-est-sata3-02
Ā£2
Total = Ā£592.86/$957.23/ā¬731.43
Canāt really afford to spend any more than this.
Have i missed anything, is my stuff compatible? I will shop around some more, just wanted to get your guys opinions on this setup, as iāve no idea what im doing, thanks! much appreciated <33
I would chekc if a z68 or z77 chipset and a i5 + a 64gb ssd as ssd cache wouldnt be cheaper (and faster)
ā 64 gb would be enouhg as ssd cahcing only keeps files often accesed randomly on it.
I use ssd caching on a 1tb hdd, and find the effect to be very close to having everything installed directly ona large ssd.
(Also depending one the ocz model they either have or have not a 3,5 adapter packaged with, doublechekc if the one you purchase has one)
I think you might be able to safe a few euros there dependiing on where you live
This was what i paid for mine
Versand 13.99 ā¬
Betrag 569.24 ā¬ </div>
Include a ssd, recycle the hdd from you current one, and you shouuld be able to be around 650ā¬ for a slightly faster pc. As I used a few somewhat expensive components, that could be replaced with cheaper ones (like tower+powersupply) Also prices should be a bit lower by now I assume. -> Especially the cpu
Just a heads up, the motherboard will come with SATA cables.
Do you have an optical drive to install Windows from? The internal drives are pretty cheap, it shouldnāt kill your budget.
Little puny computer.