PC for SU and Vray - Any recommendations?

[montal]

Hi

Looking to buy a new PC for Sketchup and Vray. I will primarily use it for rendering. Any suggestions on the specs that I should be looking for for a descent set up?
Does a good graphics card make a difference?
What should i be looking for (in terms of features) that would help with render times?

Thanks

[smai]

Re: PC for SU and Vray - Any recommendations?

@montal

Hi

Looking to buy a new PC for Sketchup and Vray. I will primarily use it for rendering. Any suggestions on the specs that I should be looking for for a descent set up?
Does a good graphics card make a difference?
What should i be looking for (in terms of features) that would help with render times?

Thanks

Hi,

the 1st one I would recommend is
Dell Precision T7500
Intel(R) Xeon (R) CPU X5550 @ 2.67GHz 2.66GHz (2 Processors)
This is a fast and quiet machine for rendering. I am using it at my work.

The second one I would recommend is
Dell Studio XPS 435T
Intel(R) Core™ i7CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.67GHz. It is a great machine for rendering too. I am using this at home for my renderings.

You may find a better one than those I recommended. For me this are the two that I Know.
Hope it helps

[LOL_server]

Re: PC for SU and Vray - Any recommendations?

@smai

Hi,

the 1st one I would recommend is
Dell Precision T7500
Intel(R) Xeon (R) CPU X5550 @ 2.67GHz 2.66GHz (2 Processors)
This is a fast and quiet machine for rendering. I am using it at my work.

The second one I would recommend is
Dell Studio XPS 435T
Intel(R) Core™ i7CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz 2.67GHz. It is a great machine for rendering too. I am using this at home for my renderings.

You may find a better one than those I recommended. For me this are the two that I Know.
Hope it helps

nothing better then i7 with lots of ram (12gb recomended) in a win 7 home edition or in a Win 7 Pro if you want to install more ram then 12gb.
hiperthreated ram to make an 8 core CPU?..yup.

you migth find better pc’s althoug prices migth simply be twice and the performance vs price migth be dissapointing.

hope it helps

[TqM]

Re: PC for SU and Vray - Any recommendations?

It really depends on what extent you’ll be using it. Like LOL mentioned, prices are expensive. Processors for some reason have an almost exponential price curve in relation to their performance.

Graphic Processor does not matter for Vray but does for modeling in SU (but not massively).

A few questions you should ask yourself before spending that kind of money on a machine:

Will I honestly be using it primarily only for rendering?
-Wanna watch any movies on it?
-Play any PC games?
-Like watching the visual effects in iTunes while you listen to music?

Will I be using it as a DR machine or a Primary?
(DR Machine)-Maybe buy a cheap box, an integrated graphics mother board w/ a wicked awesome processor, a few sticks of ram and a few other relatively cheap bits and bobs? Or even better, scavenge lots of machines with not so great processors and make yourself a Farm.
(Primary)-See Next Question

Do I actually want to limit myself to SU until this computer becomes obsolete?
-Think long and hard about this.

Do I have extortionate amounts of money to spend on 12gb of ram that most likely will never be used if you modeled your image in SU, or could I limit it to no more than 8?
&
Do I need to be portable at any point?
-How many points of operation?

Really without any information on your specific circumstance and assuming you want to buy a stationary machine, SMAI has some pretty good suggestions.