PC recommendations

[mattjc]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on buying a new PC - budget of about £800-900, mainly using rhino4/vray/autocad/adobe suite. Do not do a massive amount of rendering but still want to get something that will be quick for the money! what should i spend the money on? RAM/graphics card/processor?

Also any advice on the OS i go for - currently have xp and no problems - not heard good reports on vista. Also is it worth getting a 64 bit OS - what difference does it make?

Any advice would be of help.

Thanks

[dalomar_cg]

Re: PC recommendations

with 32bit vs 64 bit, you can check out the FAQs...the third question from the top is what you'll want to look at.

As to everything else, try and get as much processor (as in threads, then clock speed) as you can afford. In your case that should mean a quad core. How much memory depends largely on whether you go 32 or 64 bit, but these days if you go with 64bit, then 4 gbs of memory is a good base point to start with. A 32 bit system will max out at 3 gb. After that V-Ray really doesn't care. For graphics card recommendations you'll have to check up on that with Rhino/Adobe/Autodesk

[artupato]

Re: PC recommendations

if you want massive rendering, my opinion is spend with ram,graphic card and processor.you would benefit it greatly. hehe

damien is correct about 32bit has max 3gb ram and 64bit has 4gb ram max on vista.

[mattjc]

Re: PC recommendations

OK - this is what i was thinking... any comments?

*OVERCLOCKED* Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz @ 3.20GHz / Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P Intel P45 Motherboard / Kingston HyperX 4GB 8500C5 DDR2 Bundle

XFX GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit

Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Thanks

[thomthom]

Re: PC recommendations

if you want massive rendering, my opinion is spend with ram,graphic card and processor.you would benefit it greatly. hehe

Graphic card won't help for V-Ray rendering.

[artupato]

Re: PC recommendations

if you want massive rendering, my opinion is spend with ram,graphic card and processor.you would benefit it greatly. hehe

Graphic card won't help for V-Ray rendering.

awww ok.. hehe i thought it will help.guess im wrong.. ahihih

[Micha_cg]

Re: PC recommendations

I would use an i7 920 processor + Asus P6T Deluxe + ocz platinum ram + Noctua NH-U12P SE 1366 and overclock it at 3.6GHz.


http://news2.mcneel.com/scripts/dnew...ed=View+thread

[mattjc]

Re: PC recommendations

Thanks for the link - interesting reading.. i think that type of set-up may be over my budget though!

[Micha_cg]

Re: PC recommendations

I read at the Maxwell forum offtopic section:

Wow, thanks Eric. So much useful information, since I'm thinking of building pretty much the same machine. Just one little question: how much did it cost you?

Thats the beauty of building your own machine. The inital investment of my q9450 machine for the case, Power supply, Cooler fan, Graphics card, Mother board, CPU, Hard Drive x2 and 8gb ram was around $1200.00 For my i7 build the only new parts I needed was the motherboard, ram, cooler, and the cpu so my total was around $750.00 (all purchased from newegg) and by overclocking I get almost twice the performance of my old system. I also plan on selling the parts I replaced to help make up some of the cost of the new one. My estimate is I can get around $350.00-$400.00 for my old processor, motherboard and ram. If so my total investment now shrinks to around $350.00 for almost twice the performance. Not bad I think.

Make sure when you buy a new machine you get parts that might be able to be used on an upgrade. For example I could have gone with a 500w power supply, but I spent a little more and got a 700w that should last me a few upgrades if more power is needed in the future. Do this with all your parts. Try to think ahead. In retrospect I might have gotten a slightly larger case, because my new cooler barley fit. Something to think about anyway.

An Asus P6t and some ocz platinum ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227381 work great with the i7920 chip so far. I did have to lower the timings and speed on the ram to 9-9-9-24 @1444mhz instead of the speced 7-7-7-24 @1600 You can read in the reviews that others had to also once they had 12gb installed. Lowering the speed of the ram should not affect your benchmark though. The machine has been fast with everything I have thrown at it.

[jrharvey]

Re: PC recommendations

Your best bang for your buck is building your own computer. Right now you would want to pick up an i7 920 machine before intel stops selling them to make way for the less powerful i5 CPU's. A 64bit OS is a necessity now I feel. In this line of work nobody should be running 32bit unless they are dual booting it. If you are interested I can walk you step by step through the process.
Email: jrharvey5923@gmail.com

[Micha_cg]

Re: PC recommendations

Your best bang for your buck is building your own computer. Right now you would want to pick up an i7 920 machine before intel stops selling them to make way for the less powerful i5 CPU's.

... but after some search at google I found the latest news - the 920 will not stoped after the new Lynnfield is released.

http://www.channelpartner.de/knowled...lients/277823/

[jrharvey]

Re: PC recommendations

Thats good news. 8 Core/16 thread nehalems will be out on the Xeon side soon but you can bet they will be at least $1000 a chip most likely more. Ive also heard they will be releasing QUAD socket motherboards alongside this for 32 physical cores/64 threads in one machine. Thats pretty insane. However you can imagine what that would cost you. You would still be better off buying 4 separate machines.

[Micha_cg]

Re: PC recommendations

QUAD socket - I suppose so this machine can't overclocked so easy, because to much heat in a single housing. So, four i7 920 at 3.6GHz or more could be faster.

[jrharvey]

Re: PC recommendations

QUAD socket - I suppose so this machine can't overclocked so easy, because to much heat in a single housing. So, four i7 920 at 3.6GHz or more could be faster.

Server boards have never been much for overclocking. They just arent meant for that kind of thing. If your looking for a good overclocking multi CPU motherboard on the intel side then you will have to wait for the next Skulltrail board. I think the Skulltrail 2 should be coming out soon and support some type of nehalem based chip but its dual socket. Unfortunately it wont support the i7 920 or any other "Affordable" chip.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: PC recommendations

Little bit late here, but...

Yea, I can't image why anyone would choose 32bit over 64....it just doesn't make sense anymore...

The only downfall with building your own is that you can't just call somebody to see what the issue is, its almost always much more involved then getting something from dell. That being said, I'm glad I've built my own system and I would certainly do it again.

Wow...Quad socket...the cost of that MoBo alone has to make it completely not worth while, since its probably upwards of $750...can't I get a full quad core machine up for that??...part of me still wants it though

Very OT here (and something for John and I), I'm going through with installing XP, Win7 and Linux on my new HD either today or tomorrow....we'll see how it goes. BTW release date for win7 is slated for Oct 22nd...