configuring a workstation, need help

[pailhead]

I want to build my own workstation, since the only brand computer i ever owned was an IBM 286 back in '89. The problem is, i dont know anything about these high-end components since they are very hard to come by here, where i live, and they are pretty expensive thus, very unpopular, so i dont think if i even know someone using a similiar configuration.

 

 

Now, to explain my situation.

I am looking for a best-buy, in the price range between $2000 and $3000. No monitors, and im not really sure about the graphic card though, for $3000 id like to stick it in that budget. I'd like to buy the components from newegg.com

I need this machine for Max, photoshop, zbrush and autocad, or some similiar software. Most of all i need a fast rendering machine, so i can make previews much faster and which will allow me to experiment more with lighting materials and so on.

Vray for example, has pretty undeveloped DR, thats why i want to configure (only) one really fast machine.

 

QuadroFX 3400 seems mighty interesting, since it can be found on ebay for $600, and thats just a bit more than i payed for my leadtek 6800gt.

 

 

After giving it some thought, i decided that opterons are the way to go. But with these new dualcore opterons i am even more confused. Two dual-core cpus of lets say 1.8ghz, would actually work like 4 regular cpus at the same clock speed? Is it really worth it?

If it really is, i would even consider buying just one for now, and another one when i save some more money and widen my budget, but this is really just in case the new dualcore tecnhology is a complete killer and completly justifies the price.

 

Someone recommended this casing, is it suitable for this machine?

 

 

 

 

I was thinking of two raptors at 10.000rpm 36gb in raid0, plus one larger, reliable hdd for safe keeping. Also, can someone tell me how to setup this to have both a really fast and a really safe data storage? Two hards in raid at 10k rpm is pretty fast, but raid itself is kinda risky, so is it enough to just put another harddrive and copy your work files on it, before burning them to a dvd or something?

 

I have no idea which motherboard do i need for all of this. The only thing i found out so far is that i should probably be looking at TYAN but i know nothing about them. What do i need, for all of this?

 

RAM, which one and how much? If i buy over 2gb will i have to use win2003 server OS? I would prefer 3gb, 4gb at most.

 

What kind of power supply is needed to power all of this?

[AJLynn]

You're on the right track. OK, easiest first:

 

The memory barrier is 4GB - up to that you can use any version on Windows, if you want to go higher you need a 64-bit CPU (such as Athlon64 or Opteron) and a 64-bit version of Windows. Get at least 2GB.

 

That case looks fine. There are a lot out there that are plenty good. Since cases and power supplies are often paired, I'll stick my usual comment here - get a very good power supply. Especially if you want dual-duals and a Quadro. We're talking 500W and a lot of amps at 12V (not even sure how many amps you need for a dual-dual system, but it's probably well over 20).

 

A dual-core CPU (unlike a hyperthreading CPU) is two CPUs in one package, so with a dual-CPU motherboard with 2 dual-cores you have a quad CPU system. Note that there are 3 types of duals - the Intels you can take at face value, a Pentium D labelled 3.2 is two 3.2 GHz P4s. (The Extreme Edition adds hyperthreading, but this doesn't give you much of an edge.)

 

The AMDs have the bizarre Opteron labelling system and the somewhat misleading Athlon64x2 system. Look at the actual chip MHz and multiply by 1.5 to get an approximate P4 equivalent. (My Athlon64 3000+ is a 2GHz that performs as well as a 3GHz P4.) The Athlon64 numbering also takes into account cache size - same MHz with more cache gets a higher number. But the labelling on the Athlon64x2 underrates its performance - e.g., the 3800+ would seems to be saying it's got the performance of 2xP4 1.9GHz, but it's actually as fast as 2xP4 3GHz. They're accounting for most normal user programs not taking advantage of the dual CPU. But renderers do, so you'd get the full performance.

 

The best price/performance is going to come from the Athlon64x2 line. I actually have no idea whether you can 2 of these into one system.

 

Tyan makes good motherboards, but so do a lot of companies, such as Asus and MSI (AKA MicroStar International - I have one of these).

 

WRT video cards - the QuadroFX 3400 is very, very good, especially at Ebay prices, but it won't make you render faster - that falls on the CPU, MB and RAM. Most people don't need this card, but if you do very complex modeling and can budget it, go for it.

 

WRT hard drives - your plan sounds good. There's really no such things as a very reliable hard drive out there, the only real way to have data security is to keep multiple copies of everything. An extra hard drive and a script that runs backups to that drive nightly is a good start, but since a catastrophic failure (it happens) can take out more than one drive at a time, having weekly backups to external media (such as DVD) is a good idea. I've lost hard drives at about 1 per year for the last several years, FWIW, having between 3 and 5 of them at any given time, so I have everything important in several places, and when people say things like "I need to reliably archive my projects so I burn a CD before I clean out my old stuff" I cringe.

[AJLynn]

"Paihead"? Should I be offended?