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F Suarez

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  1. Hi guys, After years delaying, my rather ancient PC is starting to die and I need to buy a new one. I work solely with Sketchup and Vray, and despite not being a professional in the same level as most of the persons here (I'm tetraplegic, and I'm extremely slow doing this type of thing), I want a machine that performs decently, for as long as possible, hopefully without breaking the bank. The recent PC hardware shortages make choosing the right configuration a pain in the butt, but I managed to choose and order these components already... ------------------------------------------- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 4.6Ghz AM4 64MB Kingston DDR4 32GB 3200MHZ HyperX Fury Black Samsung SSD 512GB SATA 3 Serie 860 PRO Basic R560 / W530Mb/s WD HDD 6TB Blue 3.5" 64mb SATA 6gbb/s Corsair RM650X 650W 80 PLUS Gold Full Modular ATX -------------------------------------------- I'm having trouble finding an adequate CPU cooler, but with some luck I'll get one of these... Scythe Fuma 2 Scythe Mugen 5 rev. B be quiet! Shadow Rock 3 Graphics Card Unfortunately GPU prices are skyhigh right now, so I was hoping to re-use my current GPU (AMD 6670) - it's 8 or 9 years old, and quite slow but it's working for now - to avoid spending hundreds of euros buying a new one. But a friend of mine said that ''The big problem is whether or not AMD's drivers will support the card under Windows 10. AMD stopped active support for the card. You can use it, but have to use a legacy driver with the last approved release in 2015. So, you can get the card to work, but it may have some repercussions with any s/w that may wish to use newer gpu features or need DirectX 12.'' Due to this I'm worried that my graphics card doesn't work in the new machine, and I'm now researching about GPU's. Most of the work I do is interior design, basically designing a room, modeling the objects, and rendering the scene. So, it isn't very demanding. But for example when trying to do postprocessing after the render is finished, my current card doesn't allow me to do it, it's too slow. Vray uses the CPU to render the scenes, so I made sure to get the most powerful CPU I could get, but I'm now wondering if I also need a new GPU, and if Vray is likely to ''need' a powerful GPU in the future, or if for example a relatively slow graphics card like the Nvidia 1060 would be enough. Or if I need something at least as powerful as the 2060 or 3060. Thanks in advance for all comments and suggestions.
  2. I was convinced RAM speed was quite important for rendering, with Ryzen CPU's. It's great to know it isn't.
  3. Hi Dhaivat. I don't have the PC yet, I ordered the components from a friend of mine, and he's always extremely busy, so it may still take 2 weeks, or 2 months, I'm not exactly sure. But as soon as I have everything working properly I'll install that benchmark to check how the new PC is performing, and I'll post the results here.
  4. Hi again everyone. I got back home from the rehabilitation center 3 weeks ago, feeling much better now, and I'm getting back to the ''PC upgrade'' subject again, fully energized! In this meantime (to cut costs) I decided to keep my faithful Antec 182, so instead of buying a new PC case I think I'll make an upgrade to my current PC. This will also allow me to keep the same graphics card, which is relatively slow, but perfectly adequate for my needs. Perhaps in 2 or 3 years I can upgrade the GFX, if necessary. This is the configuration I'm currently looking at... Ryzen 1800X Scythe Kotetsu Mark II, or Scythe Mugen 5 Rev B Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2666C16 2666 Asrock AB350 Pro4 ATX WD Green 6TB Crucial MX300, or MX500 Corsair RMx550, or be quiet! Straight Power 10, or be quiet! Straight Power 11 My biggest doubts are by far regarding the motherboard and the RAM. I was advised to get these, but I'm still worried about compatibility. Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2666C16 2666 Asrock AB350 Pro4 ATX The 2666 Mhz also worries me a bit, it isn't very fast RAM by any standards, and I think Ryzen CPU's benefit a lot from fast RAM, so my rendering times wouldn't be as good as theoretically possible, but if that's the price to pay for stability, I guess it's worth it. In any case, I appreciate all comments and suggestions regarding the configuration.
  5. Thanks, Francisco. I think I'm pretty decided to get a Ryzen 1700, your advice makes all the sense. Yesterday I got a call from a rehabilitation center saying that a (extremely long awaited) spot for intensive physical therapy is available, tomorrow morning. It's very sudden, but I've been waiting for a long time, and I immediately accepted, which means that the new PC subject will have to wait until I'm back in 30 days time. I'll get back to this as soon as I'm back at home. Thanks again.
  6. Thanks, Nikolaos and Francisco. In that case I'll get a 500GB, better safe than sorry. Regarding the RAM, I'm starting to get worried about these incompatibilities. The more I read, the more it seems the Ryzen platform isn't yet as good as Intel regarding this. A friend of mine today advised me to wait a few weeks and buy instead the new Intel i7 8700 CPU. I have to admit it didn't even cross my mind, since it's ''only' an hexa-core, but this afternoonI checked a few reviews of the 8700k and it seems quite attractive. My current PC is having some failures, but perhaps it's worth it to wait some time? If I understood correctly this CPU has integrated graphics, which perhaps could be enough for Sketchup. That would allow me to not have to buy a graphics card for now, and Ispend that money getting an additional 16GB, to have 32GB RAM right from the start.
  7. Thank you very much for your suggestion, Nikolaos. It seems a very balanced system, thank you. Regarding the SSD, I don't need to install a lot of software, so perhaps an 240/250/275GB SSD is enough? Or is Windows these days a lot bigger? Is buying a single 16GB stick worth it, to eventually buy another in 3 or 4 years, if necessary? Or by that time I'd have a hard time finding the exact match for this single stick? (I'm assuming I'd need to buy the same exact type of memory)
  8. Hi guys. After many delays my 8 years old PC (a Core 2 Duo 8400 with 4GB RAM) is starting to have random failures and I can't delay anymore buying a new machine. I'd appreciate if you can advise me regarding what's the best configuration for my needs and budget - 800 to 1000 euros. (BTW, I live in Europe, Portugal) I’m a long time Sketchup and Vray user, using them mostly to model and render small rooms - kitchens, or bedrooms, or living rooms - and usually my .SKP files are between 20MB and 50MB only, but this PC will also be my main machine, where I do all my daily activity, from browsing to writing and dictating. So, it needs to do all that, and simultaneously render as fast as possible using Vray (and/or eventually other renderers). ----------------- CPU From what I've been reading it seems that at the moment the best bet is the Ryzen 1700 or 1700X? RAM Given my needs, should I go with 16 GB, or 32GB? MB SSD I already have several 3.5'' HDD's for storage, but I want a reliable SSD for the OS and my main software. Graphics card It seems that in the next few years most if not all the main renderers will take advantage of GPU, but at the moment I’m still using Vray 1.49, which only uses the CPU, and I want to upgrade to Vray 3.5, but since my budget is quite limited perhaps it's better to buy an entry-level graphics card for now, and upgrade in 2 or 3 years if or when I need the extra horsepower? ---------------- Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate all comments and suggestions.
  9. Thanks for your post. I wasn't aware of those limitations in the US. But BTW, by ''report your earnings'' you mean PayPal informs the US government? I live in Europe, so that doesn't affect me directly, but that's precisely my fear. With this I'm indeed limiting my clients, you are completely right, but they are almost exclusively private home owners simply wanting to redesign one or two rooms, it's really more or less basic work, advising and suggesting. Compared to most persons here it's quite insignificant, I guess.
  10. Hi everyone. In the past two years I've been modeling 3D interiors whenever someone asks me, it isn't very steady and sometimes I'm stopped for more than a month, and for health reasons I work very slowly - I wrote about it in this thread - but it's something that I enjoy, and it's a small but rather welcome addition to my limited income I live in Europe but almost all my clients are from the US, and all of them so far paid through Paypal transfer, either to an old account of mine or to my brother's account, but last month Paypal decided that since I surpassed 1800 euros of international transfers in one year they to want to get the account verified. So, it means sending them a document to prove my identity. I'm not sure I want to do this because I have a disability pension - due to my health problems - and where I live the law is quite draconian, basically saying that I'd lose my right to the pension if I have any other income. It's quite stupid, because with my limitations I'll never be able to have a reasonable income, but at the same time it's understandable, because it's designed to prevent fraud from people who are completely healthy and try to trick the system. I have no idea if PayPal would inform the entity that pays my pension [in this case, the government], be it now or in the future, but I'm wondering if isn't easier and safer to simply create another account, and delete it when reaching 1800 euros. Or in alternative, to create another account, using the name of another family member. It's someone already retired, in his 60's, and who could receive other income without a penalty. I'm leaning to this last option, but would love to hear the thoughts of someone more experienced in these matters. All comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.
  11. Good point, Scott. I try to emulate the look of real rooms, and this type of room can be surprisingly varied, but you’re right, I must look at real photos.I have a nice collection, but must admit I often forget to look. I didn't know it, and in a first reading a good chunk went over my head, but I'll try to grasp it. I also didn't know that site, it seems to have other good tutorials. Thank you for the link. Settings attached.
  12. Thanks guys. Interesting, I guess you’re right, maybe I was expecting something else and this is how it would look in reality. I just tried what you suggested, starting by using different IES lights, or trying to change the one I’m using, and the results aren’t very different. I’ll try the other suggestions. But before diving into that, one thing I’m battling with is the big amount of noise I get in the renders. Images attached. The screen in particular looks awful, but this occurs even in the dark parts of the images. Initially I thought this was due to have the IES lights so close to the ceiling, but I get similar results when I lower the lights – images y2a. When I use a different IES light - image y3 – the noise is still there. Maybe my settings are wrong? I think they're the default ones, though.
  13. I model almost exclusively interior scenes, I’m asked to model media rooms and home-theaters frequently, and I try to make them as realistic as I can, but I noticed that my renders usually seem too dark. In part this is because of the colors, this type of room has to be quite dark, for optimal TV and movie watching, but even so, something almost always seems wrong. I’ll attach here one example. This room only has perimeter lighting, I made 5 IES lights per side, plus 2 in the front and 2 in the back. In the first image - image b01 - if you look at the walls, the shadows of the grey acoustic panels on the walls seem too strong. All shadows look excessive, really. In a real room the light bouncing from all the other surfaces would make those shadows significantly softer, I think. I created a reflection layer in the floor material, but not sure if it’s helping much. I tried to decrease these dark shadows by adding one omni light and several rectangle lights, all invisible – see image b02 and b03 – but it isn’t a great solution. To make sure it’s not due to the IES lights being too close to the ceiling, I lowered them – image b04 – and the problem persists. I’m still using Vray 1.49, maybe it’s due to that? Or maybe very dark rooms are particularly hard to get right? As I wrote above, most of the stuff I make has many dark colors, a lot of black and dark grey surfaces, maybe there are renderers more suited to this? It’s almost surely something I’m doing wrong, tho. I’d appreciate all suggestions and opinions regarding this issue. The images are WIP’s but any other tip to make them look better is also very welcome.
  14. Having access is the main obstacle, really, the only other alternative was simply getting a pair of cheap and light PC speakers and somehow 'glue' them to the wall. I have. My ceiling is concrete, though, so it wasn't possible. If I had to do everything again, I'd still make this type of speaker stand, but perhaps go with smaller speakers, for safety reasons, and choose a sub + satelites combo.
  15. Don't the extra two cores give a big advantage to the 5820K in rendering? Related to this subject, a couple days ago I read about the launch of the 6950X and 3 other new CPU's in just two months, from 6 to 10 cores. The 6800K stuck in my mind because it seemed just like a 6700, but with 6 cores, and thus 50 percent better performance for multi-threaded software. http://wccftech.com/intel-core-i7-6950x-broadwell-e-confirmed/
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