What PC?

[Saulman]

Hi Guys,

I've been told today that we need to order some new PCs. We have two PCs here that run MAX and VRAY. What do you guys use? What would you recommend?

I currently use a P4 3Ghz with 1GB RAM. I know this can be improved upon, but if there's anything I should know, please advise.

Thanks.

[natty]

Hi ...

well your going to have to go down the Dual cpu route... as much ram as your Boss can afford .. Which cpu? well i went for the Opertrons... they seem fast enough but i would like to try the new Xeons which are cheaper.. well at the end of the day it all comes down to money and how deap your bosses pockets are ... lolololol ... But if you can get the best of the best .. do some research and get some comparisons ..

[Saulman]

Thanks, Natty.

For some reason, these PC have to be ordered today. We 3D guys get the new ones, and the older ones cascade down through the company. So there's really no time to research.

I will go with what you say. Duel processor and as much RAM as I can get. That's pretty much what I expected to hear.

Cheers

Saul

[natty]

try to get a kick ass Graphics card ... Wild cat , Quadro ....ect

[Saulman]

Thanks, Natty.

I already have an NVIDEA Quadro4 750 XGL. It's probably a couple of years old now, but I doubt I'll get a card upgrade as well.

[Syclone1]

Well if you have to order in a rush, your best bet mite be someone like www.boxxtech.com for quality hardware and support since by the sounds of it you are going to have to order pre-built boxes.

-dave

[Saulman]

Thanks for the advice, Dave. I think we may delay the order now, for a day or two at least.

We order everything from Dell because of a contract we have with them, so I suppose whatever I get will be from them. I am assured that I do not have an unlimited budget either. (I just took a grand from the budget for two Vray licenses).

Is duel chip the only option? Is Xeon the best, anyone?

[RErender]

For a single cpu I would go with the AMD64/FX series (though dual would always be my first choice). I just built a AMD64 3400+ and it is pretty dang fast.

[Syclone1]

yes for the most power you want either AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon duals for rendering.

-dave

[s0real]

don't think you can get dell workstation's with opterons...
i use a dell precision 650 with dual 2.8 xeons which does the job pretty well.
basically it's like the others said - just get the fastest processors and most ram you can afford.

try to get dual monitors if you can - it makes a big difference to be able to have the vray dialogs and materials on another monitor rather than minimising them all the time.

[Saulman]

Thanks, that's pretty interesting. I'll look into that.

[unknown]

try http://www.armari.com
we have a handfull of dual xeons from these guys. and according to our tech guy, the support is the mutts nutts.

[Syclone1]

the support is the mutts nutts.

Is that a good thing then?

-dave

[percydaman]

damn straight it is! well, unless you dont like mutts nuts, but who the hell dont like them?

[Syclone1]

LOL reading that reminds me of the scene from Van Wilder with the bull dog and the pastries. Im in no way going to describe that scene but those who have seen it should remember well and be turing green rite about now as I am

-dave