I have been asked to provide advice on purchasing computer hardware for teaching game programming. Does anyone have any advice on what would be found in the ideal teaching environment? I was planning to recommend decent specced PCs with a mid-range gaming video card and a decent (low response time) LCD display. 1. Is it necessary (or desirable) to have the latest generation graphics (x800XT or 6800 Ultra) card in each PC? 2. Would a mid-range graphics card (9800XT or 6600GT) be good enough? 3. Is there any particular advantage to using either ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards? 4. Is an integrated audio solution sufficient or is an Audigy ZS or other sound card required? 5. Is there any advantage to choosing an equivalently priced Intel Pentium IV over an AMD Athlon 64? 6. How much memory is required? Would 1GB be sufficient? 7. Would there be a significant advantage in using a dual-monitor configuration on each PC? Any other advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

1. Is it necessary (or desirable) to have the latest generation graphics (x800XT or 6800 Ultra) card in each PC?
NOT REALLY.

2. Would a mid-range graphics card (9800XT or 6600GT) be good enough?
YES.

3. Is there any particular advantage to using either ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards?
EITHER IS FINE.

4. Is an integrated audio solution sufficient or is an Audigy ZS or other sound card required?
MOST DECENT MOBOs HAVE ACCEPTABLE SOUND CAPABILITY. UNLESS THE COMPS ARE GOING TO BE USED TO TEACH SOUND EDITING/PROGRAMMING YOU DON'T NEED THE ADVANCED SOUND STUFF.

5. Is there any advantage to choosing an equivalently priced Intel Pentium IV over an AMD Athlon 64?
JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET UPGRADEABLE HARDWARE. I.E., SOCKET 940 IS NOT GOING TO BE CONTINUED BY AMD ANYMORE.

6. How much memory is required? Would 1GB be sufficient?
1 GB DOESN'T COST A LOT MORE THAN 512 SO GO 1 GB.

7. Would there be a significant advantage in using a dual-monitor configuration on each PC?
NOT SURE BUT I DOUBT IT.

Any other advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
AN EQUIVALENT QUALITY CRT IS CHEAPER THAN AN LCD, ASSUMING YOU ARE GETTING A DECENT SCREEN SIZE. CONSIDER CRTs.

You don't really need a decent machine to be taught programming. These guys are not learning MAYAS are they?

If it's an organization I'd say something more cost effective is better. Do you REALLY need even 9800? As far as I'm concerned my ATI 7000 is more than sufficent.

and since when did 9800 became mid range :(:( It's still one of my dreams

Quote:Original post by gtaylor
I have been asked to provide advice on purchasing computer hardware for teaching game programming. Does anyone have any advice on what would be found in the ideal teaching environment? I was planning to recommend decent specced PCs with a mid-range gaming video card and a decent (low response time) LCD display.

Having an LCD display for gaming and game development is ok if you need the space, but if otherwise if you have the room definately get CRT monitors. That way you are able to test in various resolutions and also have much better quality.

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1. Is it necessary (or desirable) to have the latest generation graphics (x800XT or 6800 Ultra) card in each PC?

I would say if you are teaching game development with DirectX9 you should use FX5200's. Anything above that is overkill to the max, especially for teaching beginners who won't be able to max that card for a good year or so.

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2. Would a mid-range graphics card (9800XT or 6600GT) be good enough?

I would stick with either low-end or mid-range.. although the cards you specified are still high-end cards just lower on the scale. I think you are aiming way too high here by recommending 9800XT's or 6600GT's.

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3. Is there any particular advantage to using either ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards?

Not really with Windows development as they both perform very close. BUT always go with nVidia if you are planning on cross-platform development and/or Linux game programming. You'll thank me later. Also if the course is heavy on OpenGL, nVidia does crank out the better OpenGL scores.

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4. Is an integrated audio solution sufficient or is an Audigy ZS or other sound card required?

Integrated audio is perfectly fine unless you are learning the EAX API.

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5. Is there any advantage to choosing an equivalently priced Intel Pentium IV over an AMD Athlon 64?

The Athlon 64's are much better in my opinion (this coming from a guy with 5 Intels.. but my next machine is definately an AMD).

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6. How much memory is required? Would 1GB be sufficient?

You can easily get by with 512MB RAM.. 1GB again is overkill for teaching.

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7. Would there be a significant advantage in using a dual-monitor configuration on each PC?

None whatsoever, what you want is a single monitor 17 or 19" CRT display.

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Any other advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Please remember that when you are teaching game development the students are not going to be producing games that need your high-end spectrum hardware. Also note that having lower-mid level hardware is actually better to learn on than high-end hardware. Just remember that the majority of people actually own low-end to mid-end systems, and especially for indie developers and new people the target audience most likely has a low end system.

Some of the top causes for failure in education facilities and especially in businesses are over-purchasing. You should buy only what you need, and upgrade later if you find you ever need it. You have spec'd out some rediculously high-end PCs that new developers have absolutely no need for. Go with only what you need.

Thank-you for your advice. I wasn't given much guidance on what is required except that it has to be less than AU$3000.00 per machine (around US$2,200.00). I have a good knowledge of PCs in general but know next to nothing about game development. I think they wanted 'state of the art' equipment.

Given your advice I will probably recommend purchasing our standard PC (PIV 3.0GHz, 512MB, 17-inch CRT, integrated mobo) and simply adding in a low-end NVIDIA video card.

Quote:Some of the top causes for failure in education facilities and especially in businesses are over-purchasing.

I couldn't agree more with you on that one. The problem is that the people making the purchasing decisions have a poor knowledge of what is actually required or have unrealistic expectations about what is achievable. Sometimes they just want to spend the bucket of money that has been handed to them.

I will check back on this thread for the next few days if anyone else wants to add anything.

I agree with most posts above. The only thing I beg to differ from is CRTs. You also need to consider space and power consumption. A half-decent LCD will pay out in terms of cost effectiveness. Depending on the size of the class room and the number of machines I'd calculate beforehand how much difference in running costs of LCD and CRT versus cost price difference (thermal issues left aside for simplicity - cheaper CRTs can get awfully hot).
It might be worth to consider this, even though CRTs have a better cost/performance ratio at first glance.

Other than that I fully support Saruman's arguments, especially since students might be getting into the habit of choosing the most simple solution over a more efficient one if they are used to high-end hardware.

Cheers,
Pat.

Quote:Original post by darookie
The only thing I beg to differ from is CRTs. You also need to consider space and power consumption. A half-decent LCD will pay out in terms of cost effectiveness. Depending on the size of the class room and the number of machines I'd calculate beforehand how much difference in running costs of LCD and CRT versus cost price difference (thermal issues left aside for simplicity - cheaper CRTs can get awfully hot).

I do agree with you on cost and space in LCD vs. CRT.. but in my opinion it just isn't worth it to give up the gains you have not using an LCD... maybe it is different for others though.

I mean with a CRT you are able to switch resolutions and see it perfectly. I'm not sure about you guys but I always check my games and demos in every resolution available to make sure it looks good. You can't do this with an LCD because you aren't going to get a crystal clear picture and you don't know if its just the monitor screwing it up or not.

Also with a CRT the picture quality is just that much better, I use my LCD for typing code and that's about it.. and that is only because it is attached to my system! (I pretty much use a notebook all the time) I multi-monitor to run the actual game applications on the CRT and I would do away with the LCD if it were a stand alone.

I would recommend that the video cards that you purchase be compatible with the latest version of directx. Other than that, you really don't need a whole lot of power behind them. It's doubtful that students will be doing anything high-poly enough to necessitate a better card.