Hardware help needed

[grahamthomson]

Hi I am changing my current pc and would like opinions on what has been suggested to me. I am using 3dmax 9 with vray2.0. I also use photoediting software whilst the pc is rendering.

Currently the time seems to be taken up by rendering, i can easily be waiting 1 to 2 hours for not massively complex and small images to render. I have to leave it running overnight for the larger renderings. Currently i am using:

dell precision 390 workstation
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6420 @ 2.13GHz.
operating system: xp proffesional 32bit
harddrive: HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 (0A33435) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Graphics card: ati FIREGL V7200
memory: 3.2GIG DDR2 533MHZ

I looked at one which i saw someone i think on here recomend. http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/de...6~0~345953&p=1

I have changed the spec slightly to this
Aurora
Proccessor: intel core i7 3820 four core 10mb cache 3.6ghz
operating system: windows 7 64 bit
harddrive: 256 solid state drive
graphics card: 1gb gddr5 nvidia geforce gtx 555
memory: 8192mb (4x2gb) ddr3 quad channel



Our IT company suggested
DELL PRECISION DESKTOP T7500
Processor: One intel xeon e5620(quad core 2.4fhz 12mb cache 5.86gt/s
operating system: windows 7 64bit
harddrive: 256gb solid state drive
graphics card: 1gb nvidia quadro 600
memory:6gig 1333mhz ddr3 eec rdimm

It seems to me that the I need to speed up rendering times as there is a lot of downtime. 3Dmax seems to run smoothly with no problems so i think graphics card and ram are ok.

Can someone help on the options i have included or if anyone has any other ideas I have a budget of about £2k roughly give or take a bit.

Thanks Graham

[super gnu]

ok well you can save a packet of money by a) getting a smaller solid state drive, they are excellent, but you spend a lot for a 256gb one. a 64 or 128 gb one should be sufficient for all software and operating system, plus a little space for the odd live job that need the fast speeds. have a normal 1tb hard drive ( or 2 mirrored) for your work. if you need very fast access for video editing say, then just put the files you need on the ssd for the duration of the work.

b) ditch the quadro. get a nice gtx 560 or something with more ram.


to be honest i think if you shop around you could get a lot more for £2k than youve listed there.. 6 - 8 gb ram is pretty bare-minimum these days for serious work.


priced these components up on www.scan.co.uk

£108.12 120GB OCZ Vertex 3, 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Sandforce SSD, Read 550MB/s, Write 500MB/s, 85K IOPS



£199.17 Intel Core i7 2600K Unlocked S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad, 3.4GHz, HD3000 IGP 850Mhz, 8MB Cache 95W Retail


£61.68 Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3, Intel Z68, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 2.0 (x16), HDMI, ATX


£78.72 2x 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black LP, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V


£269.57 2.5GB Point of View GTX 570 Charged, 40nm, 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 772MHz, Shader 1544MHz, 480 Cores


thats a total of £860, for double the ram, and waaaay more GPU power.

admittedly thats self build and doesnt include many smaller components youd need, but its all the expensive bits, and shows you can get a lot more bang for the buck than what youve been quoted.

[grahamthomson]

Thanks for your quick response super gnu. The company i work for wants to go down the dell or hp way, if it was a personal pc i would be more than happy to build one. I think the main issue is vray rendering time, does a great gpu increase rendertime, i thought it was mainly the processor? . I am happy with the current performance of my pc, but it is really the rendering time which is the problem.