anyone care to help me choosing the right pc setup?

[flipside]

I mailed to a company nearby what I was planning to use the pc for, and this is what they sent me back (i want to use vray-max-photoshop-dreamweaver-etc). They couldn't give me dual processor prices because they don't sell them (what's the cheapest: a dual proc pc or a normal one plus another very cheap basic one just to network render?)

Also, pc's in a renderfarm, what should all be inside them? Do they all need the same amount of ram as in the main pc? Do they need harddisks at all?? I assume they don't need graphics cards as they don't need to be fast in viewport changes etc?

Any info on the subject would be appreciated.

I visited some other forums about this but I get completely lost...

the offer they made me:

-Labtec spin 65
-Chieftec DG-01WD-U (Front USB + firewire) (I wanted a good, silent case)
-MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R S-ATA 875P,Dual DDR400
-Maxtor 120Gb SATA 7200rpm 6Y120MO
-Intel PIV 2.8 Ghz Boxed 512K FSB800
-Corsair 512MB DDR400 64MX64 Value PC400 (4 times=2Gig)
-MSI FX5600-TD 128MB TV/DVI

What is MSI? Is this a cheaper version of geforce cards?

That corsair memory, is that any good?

Are there new technologies coming that would be worth waiting for a bit, things that will change performance a lot?



Thanks,

flipside

[restoeboemi]

as far as i know, MSI is mainboard and producing graphic cards too. maybe they are cheaper then the geforce, but why not try the geforce?
and if ur environment not too hot, i suggesting to use AMD with nForce chipset (mainboard)

[RErender]

Just a note. NVidia does not make video cards, it just makes the geforce GPU's, companies like pny, evga, msi, etc. put the boards together. A lot of the mother board companies have started making video cards, I imagine they know how to put a circuit together as well as anyone.

[Dman3d]

Not sure if it does anything for you but we build our boxes
typically:
AMD 2600XP
1GB DDR400 or DDR333 wich ever is more cost effective at the moment
2x 40GB Drives (ATA-100)
128MB GeForceFX (generic) 64MB if it is a 2D machine (flash, photoshop)
Antex SOHO BXII case w/400watt power (great case by the way, $90 or so) also comes w/ 2x 80mm fans
52x CD
MSI motherboards (forget the model #) (KT400 Chipset) ATA-133, DDR400 yatta yatta USB 1.1, 2.0 w/all other standard connections
for around $700 a piece.
(no monitor though)
Zalman flower CPU cooler w/arctic silver thermal paste

Corsair and MSI have been around forever, never had any problems.
We usually get Samsung RAM usually the chaeapest and typically
uncertified (un-tested) but I believe Samsung and Corsair have lifetime
warranties. In fact I am sure Samsung does, my brother had a stick go
bad and he had it replaced no questions asked. MSI makes some solid
motherboard. I would watch out for Gigabyte though, some issues of late
with bad parts, used to be pretty good but due to some bad experiences
with multiple Gigabyte boards I will be buying MSI or ASUS from here on.
ASUS are great but typically cost a bit more.

We use the same layout for slaves just with cheaper video cards
You could step up the processor for a few more bucks but they
do the job for us at a reasonable cost.

The biggest problem right now is there was an electrolyte formula stolen
some time back and the fakes (cylinder thingies) are in alot of boards.
It causes the little cylinder thingies to explode (cant remember what they are called right now)
we have lost 3 boxes to the problem, well the motherboard at least.

I think this might be related to the AMD heat stories. The XP series melt
at around 90c I believe. We have not had any over heat problems with
the 24 or so we have. The Zalman flower is awkward but it does a good
cooling job. But we err on the side of caution and set shut down temp
limits in the BIOS just in case.

As for the future we are holding off buying any really big boxes (duals)
until the 64-bit stuff gets hammered out (no AMD pun intended) -
I hope the industry gets a little more common user about it soon,
getting anxious to replace my Dual 2.2

But hey, just my opinion.

[flipside]

thanks guys!