New machines... maybe a mac?

[minoli_cg]

Hey guys, we are getting some new machines here at the studio and we have three option...
A cheap home built quad core (we cant find any motherboards that support dual quads)
A really expensive dual quad dell workstation
or a moderately priced dual quad mac (running windows on boot camp)

Im leaning on the mac side, but does anyone have any experience running rhino and vray on bootcamp? is it stable?

thanks!

[dkendig]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

Our lead developer, Joe, does all of his development of V-Ray for Rhino on a MacBook Pro running boot camp and Windows Vista. If given the choice, we wouldn't have Vista on there, but unfortunately, some of our users use Vista, so we have to have a Vista machine for testing purposes. V-Ray for Rhino should be stable on a mac running boot camp.

If you're looking to build a windows PC from scratch, you might want to take a look at NewEgg. I put together (most of) a new machine for a friend of mine and put it on a public wishlist.

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...PC+3%2D30%2D08

As far as Dell's concerned, my personal view is that they're great at building machines that can surf the web, do simple word processing, and maybe some gaming. I would go with either building a machine, getting an apple, or getting a machine from http://www.boxxtech.com

[Hoop]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

Boxxtech workstations are top notch. You can't go wrong with one. We had Boxx in our design studio where I used to work and they are awesome. I'd like to add one other really good manufacturer for CAD and Rendering workstations as well:

http://www.xicomputer.com

These guys also make really good workstations as well and you may get a little more bang for your buck out of them than Boxx, just FYI.

Hoop

[jbrewlet]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

I too am in the process of building a new computer for rendering. While it's not much, I'm going with a 2.4ghz intel quad core with 4gb ram to start and a raid-0 500gb configuration.

I'd like to do a dual quad but the motherboard alone is $600 and what I'm planning now is going to be under $1000. Besides I'm just a cheap college student!

I have heard that RAM plays a big part in rendering, to what extent would 8gb help me over 4gb?

[foglite]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

I run Windows XP on a 1st generation Mac Pro and its been great. Rhino & Vray work wonderfully. They are also great 64bit machines which I know is actually a little tricky to get from Dell right now. I know someone who recently bought an XPS from Dell and Dell would NOT supply 64bit driver needed for the mobo or chip, something like that. So she gave up and got a Mac Pro and it runs 64bit Vista with bootcamp just fine.

[Micha_cg]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

Like wroted some times befor at the forum (also hints for RAM and OS) - I would buy so much Q6600 as possible at let it run at 3.4GHz. Q6600 give you the best price-speed ratio. Four overclocked Q6600 are working stable here and the VfR DR is working great.

[dkendig]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

I have heard that RAM plays a big part in rendering, to what extent would 8gb help me over 4gb?

Windows XP cannot use more than 3gb (and that's only if you use the 3gb switch for windows). 32-bit Vista on the other hand (I believe) can use 4gb+ by using virtualization, but the applications that you're using may have their own limitations. 64-bit systems can use a ridiculous amount of ram (I believe it comes out to be somewhere around 18.4 exabytes of ram), but you'll need a 64-bit operating system, and 64-bit applications. V-Ray for Rhino is a 32-bit application. It can run on a 64-bit application, but it runs as a 32-bit app.

In short, I'd recommend Windows XP Professional with the 3gb switch, and 3gb of ram.

[Micha_cg]

Re: New machines... maybe a mac?

XP64 and 5GB RAM or more give you the max available RAM for Rhino 4 -> 3.6GB ... so my experience.