New Computer..Advice needed

[g10far]

Hi All
I very rarely post on here, but over the years have found the forums extremley helpfull.
Basically Im looking for some advice as I have been offered an upgrade by my boss, but as his computer knowledge is quite poor he has asked me to do a little research into what would be the best setup.
I currently use a HP 6200 workstation,Xeon dual processors,3.25GB RAM and still on 32 Bit, but ideally I would like to move to 64 Bit. I was just curious as to what people were using nowadays and whether anyone had any recommendations as to what platform to go for, am I right in saying that some of you use apple hardware,bootcamp etc?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I would like to get this right first time.
Thanks again
Gio

[Morbid Angel]

Well, I am not for macs. My friend was running mac based windows and it was not too stable.

I am currently running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit, for the most part its running fine I think its a way to go if you are putting together a new system. In respects to xeons, I am not too sure a xeon is a good way to go these days. They can be pricey and the new i7/i9 chips can be as fast, and run at higher clocks.

I would go personally with i7 chip, 8/16 gb ram, geforce 280, and a special hdd drive config:
an ssd drive for swap space and a 10k rpm drive for your regular storage.
Thats pretty much my idea.

[lllab]

hi,

we use here 8 mac pros 8core (2 quad 2.92ghz xeons inside with intel server board) with xp64 and one with vista 64.
they are the most stable pcs i have had until now.

the new nehamlem xeons ( 2x 4 cores) show extreme speeds in vray.

so at least my experience is very good with the mac pro workstations, and the price was ok.
xp64 is a little hard to install on these, i guess better to use win7 64 bit.

cheers
stefan

p.s overall building yourself own pc with 2 quads might be the the same speed with a lower price.

[duke2]

What MA said. The i920's are BOSS. Don't get the new ones - you can't cram as much RAM in. Get your i920, 12gb ram, a decent power supply and a ThermalRight TRUE Black (with a decent 120mm fan), crank it up to 4ghz and off you go. Faster than pants.

Oh yeah and install Windows 7.

Also this probably belongs in Off Topic.

[g10far]

Thanks for your replies peeps. Its helps me out a lot.

Sorry didnt realise it should be in off topic, my bad, could one of the mods perhaps move to off topic

Thanks
Gio

[3LP]

I was thinking changer operating system and go on win7, I was wondering if there was some problems with it and all the production line (3dsmax, vray, vrayRT, after effect, photoshop, etc.)
does someone has some kind of problems with some of those programs ?
Or any one else?

I know it's off subject, but jumped on the fact that some people where speaking of it

[plastic_]

I'd also recommend the old i7, in fact the new 6-core chips wont work with the new i5/i7 socket, but rather with the old one. And it got 6 ram slots instead of 4, so you can cheaply get 12gb ram, instead of 8gb. going for 16gb with 4 slots is mad expensive, right now.

[peterguthrie]

didn't realize you can put 4gb sticks into these boards, does that mean you can squeeze 24gb into a 6 slot one?

[mdi]

Well, I am not for macs. My friend was running mac based windows and it was not too stable.

Id say your friend has been unlucky. We have a few here and they are all solid, quite and crash free.

[Morbid Angel]

I was thinking changer operating system and go on win7, I was wondering if there was some problems with it and all the production line (3dsmax, vray, vrayRT, after effect, photoshop, etc.)
does someone has some kind of problems with some of those programs ?
Or any one else?

I have all of the above mentioned running on win7 without any problem. If anything win 7 is a much more compatible vista so to speak. I did not experience issues of any kind when it came to installing software. Actually pretty happy with it and planning to make a full move to it shortly.

[werticus]

old style i7 (1366) supports 24gb ram

will overclock to 3.9ghz on air stable for 24/7 rendering

certainly as fast as pants.

and will upgrade to i9 cpus!

[Morbid Angel]

i wonder why they bother releasing 6 core cpu. Why not go 8? wasn't that the original idea to double the cores up?

[etown]

I just bought a Mac Pro 8 core and put vista on that sucker. Nothing but problems! Max 64bit gives me sidebyside configuration errors and 32bit version wont even install. I'm really hoping this is because vista is a pile of crap. I guess the question is, do I go xp64 or do I buy into win7.

What to do...

[plastic_]

didn't realize you can put 4gb sticks into these boards, does that mean you can squeeze 24gb into a 6 slot one?

you can...if you can afford 4gb modules

[rmejia]

I just bought a Mac Pro 8 core and put vista on that sucker. Nothing but problems! Max 64bit gives me sidebyside configuration errors and 32bit version wont even install. I'm really hoping this is because vista is a pile of crap. I guess the question is, do I go xp64 or do I buy into win7.

What to do...

Strange, I got a Mac Pro 8 core at home and had no problems installing Vista x64 in boot camp and running 3ds Max or anything else. Runs like a regular pc. I upgraded to Windows 7 x64 and it runs well too, have not had any problems with Max.

Maybe try turning off the UAC and then reinstalling Max.