Researching New Computer - Need Advice

[flavrsaver]

I'm researching a new workstation at the company I work at and need some advice as to what I've "built" so far. One thing I'm curious about is the option to go with the 64-bit Windows setup over the 32-bit setup. I don't have any apps that are 64-bit, so is there an advantage to still going the 64-bit route?

The kind of work I do is mainly small 3D animations which are then composited/enhanced in AE. I do extensive Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash work as well. I use 3DS Max (8 sp2), VRay 1.5, and the Adobe Production Studio Premium.

I'm going to keep my current workstation and set it up on a network so I can render on it when I'm busy on my new machine. This brings up another point. If I'm going to have it as a networked machine, do I need to purchase an additional copy of VRay Advanced or 3DS Max? I've never setup a network before.

Here's the current config I have for my new machine:

Dell Precision Workstation 690
- Windows XP (32-bit)
- 2x Dual Core Intel Xeon Processor 5060 3.2 GHz, 2 x 2MC L2, 1066
- 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 533 MHz, ECC, In Riser (4 DIMMS)
- 512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 4500
- 2x 160GB SATA, 10K RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache
- 16XDVD and 16XDVD+/-RW

Since this is a company machine, I'm limited on some of my choices so I have to do the best I can with what I have as my options without going overboard.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most helpful! Thanks!

[instinct]

i dont know about the new core duo's, but i wouldnt ever suggest a xeon again...we got dual xeon 3.2 and dual xeon 2.8 machines...both with 4GB Ram...and now we got dual Opteron 275 Renderslaves and two Dual Opteron 265 Workstations with Geforce 7950GX2....and they kick the xeon's asses easily (the 275 renderslaves with 2GB ram have HALF rentertime then the dual xeon 2.8 4GB workstations)

Thorsten

Edit:

Almost forgot...i say go 64Bit...the opterons are 64bit ready tho we currently run them with 32bit XP...works fine and save to switch for 64bit when it becomes available..

[flavrsaver]

Unfortunately my choices are limited only to Intel chips. I would prefer some Opteron's myself if I could choose. From what I've heard though, the new Dual Core's are really nice, so time will tell if they're comparable with the Opteron's. They're the best I can get with this setup.

[RErender]

If I were you I would get the 5130's or 5140's in there instead of the 5060'. The 5060 is based off the old netburst p4 core they are hot and power hungry where the 5100's run cooler and faster.

[flavrsaver]

Thanks for the tips on the processor series'. According to my available choices, I can't choose any of the 5100 series', but I see that Dell talks about them on their site when I click to learn more about the processors option. When it comes time to buy the system, I'll check to see if they can offer any of the 5100 series' instead. Also, since they recently started offering AMD chips, I wonder if any of those would be available as well and just haven't been added to my list of options.

[flavrsaver]

Anybody have any thoughts on the 64-bit vs 32-bit part? I'm completely clueless when it comes to that stuff.

For the networked machine, will I be able to install my copy of VRay and just switch over the dongle when I want to use it to render? I'm not sure how that work would. Any thoughts on if I have to buy another copy of 3DS Max as well?

Edit:
I found the answer to my VRay question. Looks like I can use my current license on the slave computer as long as it has access to the license server.

[RErender]

Dell US has teh 690 with the 5100 series http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=MLB1723&s=biz

[flavrsaver]

Yeah I saw that. The thing with my purchase though is that we have a set page at Dell that's setup with "approved" systems for our company. We don't have all of the options that an average shopper would get if they were to piece together their system. It stinks, but the discount is nice. I might be able to persuade them to offer a processor that's not on the list though.

[crossbow]

I would avoid getting those processors if at all possible. Go with the woodcrest xeon's, (come in 2.6/3.0)...the performance difference is so substaintal it'll be nearly unbelievable that both processors were made by the same company.

[RErender]

I would avoid getting those processors if at all possible. Go with the woodcrest xeon's, (come in 2.6/3.0)...the performance difference is so substaintal it'll be nearly unbelievable that both processors were made by the same company.

To translate... woodcrest = 5100's

[flavrsaver]

Okay, I'll do what I can. I didn't realize that there was such a difference between the two.

[GALACTUS]

Anybody know of any comparison between the core2 EX6800's and any of the 5100 Xeons? Seen loads of benchmarks between the athlons and the core2 cpus and between the opterons and Xeons I just wanted to see a performance comparison between the two intel chips.

Colin

[crossbow]

The performance is similar between them, just with the 51xx's, you can run two chips, for a total of four cores.

So basically, twice as fast.

[flavrsaver]

Any thoughts on doing an SLI setup? I have 2 20" monitor's that I use and I won't be adding on any others, but how much of a boost would I get in working in 3D with an SLI config? I've never used one before so my experience is none.

Also, I have the option of doing a RAID setup with my HD's. Apparently I can do a RAID 0 or RAID 1, but I'm also not familiar with a RAID setup and what kind of performance increase I'd get. It's no extra cost in configuring my drives that way, so basically I'm looking at the pros/cons of doing so. What is the difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1?

Edit: I found out that the SLI config doesn't do much for 3DS Max, so I'll just stick with the single nVidia card. I also saw that the RAID might not be that big of a deal, so I'm going to go with a non-RAID config. I should be able to 2 of the Dual Core 5150 2.66 GHz Xeon's which should be really nice.

[crossbow]

Here are some simple explanations. (You can wikopedia RAID for more indepth ones).

Raid 0 = Stripping.
Basically uses the power of both drives for transfering and reading files. [Performance] Files are split across both drives, so if 1 drive goes down, you lose everything.

Raid 1 = Mirror. Each drive mirrors the other. There is no increase in transfer rates or raw throughput performance, but both drive heads are used when accessing data, so access time is reduced over a standard single drive. Because both drives are mirroring each other, both have to simultanously fail for you to lose data. [Redundancy]

I personally raid 1 all new systems for the dept I work for, as well as personal systems. Harddrives are cheap, data isn't.