Which Computer Rig?

[Thox]

I've finally convinced my boss to invest in a decent 3d machine, as part of a new department in the company, specificaly for architectural visuals.

 

However, not sure what's the best these days. Should I go for dual xeons, or dual opertons, or the new dual-core opertons, or even dual dual-core opertons. Would also like to purchase from reputable supplier in the UK, I was thinking of Demonite, or someone similar.

 

Plus, which would be the best graphics card to get with the machine.

 

The machine will be running 3ds max8, plus vray and photoshop.

 

Any help in making me decide greatly appreciated.

 

Yours confused

 

Thox

[STRAT]

which firm do you working for m8?

[STRAT]

i use a couple of dual processing xeons for my rendering. i find them absolutely excellent for the job.

 

but for modelling a fast single or dual core pc should be fine. i've never been too concerned with video cards to be honest. i've always found the standards that you get these days to me more than adequate.

 

and the difference between opterons and intels? again, much of a muchness. any will be more than fine. each has it's strengths and weaknesses.

[derijones]

I've got a dual Opteron 248 - goes like stink and is as reliable as anything - it was basically a home build - I specced the bits and got someone else to put it together (it's a bit old now, but a modern version would be storming):

Tyan Thunder K8W mainboard

2Gb DD400 Corsair ECC RAM

Quadro 980XGL AGP graphics -

 

If you want something with a badge - give Ian Mason at IDS in Bridgend a call on 01656 652211 (mention my name, please!) - they have the SUN dual opteron boxes at what seemed like sane prices - seemed like very nice bits of kit with support from the guys there and should fly.

[David Knourek]

I would stick with AMD for the next few months untill Intel gets their *stuff together and updates their processor architecture. To give you an idea untill a few months ago I was running on an Intel Dual Xeon 2.8ghz and recently built a single dualcore AMD X2 4400+ and its killing my xeon for render speed.

 

I can post the specs on my new box if you like, its home built as Ive been building mine and others computers for the past 9 or 10 years...

 

-dave

[cadmonkey]

Could you post your new computers specs please. I'm looking to get a new desktop with the same processor.

[David Knourek]

Sure thing, heres what Im currently running:

 

AMD X2 4400+ / Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe / 2gb Corsair Cas 2 DDR / (1x) evga Nvidia 7800 GTX / (2x) WD 74gig raptors 10k rpm / (2x)WD 120gb SATA 8mb cache / (2x) WD 250gb SATAII 8mb cache / Enermax 550w psu / LG Super Multi DVD Writer DVD +- RW Dual-Layer / Coolermaster case and coolermaster fans to cool it down.

 

Im currently using the stock HSF that came with the CPU as its surprisingly efficient at cooling and temps have not gotten high enough to warrant a new cooler. I picked the SLI board cause of the possiblity of expanding in the future for gaming and the 8 SATA ports that came onboard, Asus and MSI have some non SLI boards that rock also but I would strongly recomend on the nvidia NF4 chipset and those are the only two brands that I would consider for mid to highend single socket boards.

 

Hope that helps a little and feel free to ask anything if you need more info.

 

-dave

 

*edit* Also for the record out off almost all the puters in my farm this one runs the quietest and coolest

[Matt Sugden]

Hi, Dave, I'm always interested in possible upgrades and I've been reading up on your spec and it does seem to be a winner, both on tom's hardware reviews of the chip and especially with overclockers, though some have reccomened the the DFI Lan party motherboard as being slightly more stable, but a bit pricier?

 

Just a couple of questions, do you find that your raptors are an essential item for you system, as rather naively I wonder if the extra outlay for the drives is worth the performance increase?

[David Knourek]

Hi Matt,

As far as the Raptors go, although I realy like the western digital drives I have gone through 2 warranties since this last may and now having some issues with trust with them. As far as performance goes there is not a significant difference between those and the 250gb SATAII drives I recently purchased. I would prob recomend more toward the WD SATAII 8mb or 16mb cache drives or if you realy need the performance and have the cash to burn go with scsi but for 3D modeling/rendering, gaming and mild video editing that I do with Vegas Video the SATAII drives have been working great for me. The raptors are the first WD drives to fail on me in at least 3 or 4 years and I currenty have about 30 Western digital 7200rpm 8mb drives from 80gb to 250gb running on my network in several machines, I had just purchased the raptors mostly out of curiosity earlier this year and although the performance is mildly impressive at best I prob wont be buying any more for quite some time.

 

As for the motherboards I have been running mostly asus and supermicro boards and the asus boards have been rock solid. I did concider the DFI and MSI boards when I built this workstation but ended up going with the Asus mostly because of my personal experiences with their boards, I havnt personally had to deal with Asus for warranty or anything else but Ive heard good and bad about them but that realy is not any different from most of the manufacturers out there. The only one that I will NEVER touch again is any of Gigabyte's products.

 

Also a little off topic, DO NOT buy any of Gainward's products if you are in north america. The company is in trouble and have all but shut down there north american offices. any warranty work or the like has to go through Taiwan and I can just imagine the PITA of sending anything there for warranty from north america.

Anyway I think I have babled enough for the moment but if you have any further questions feel free to ask and Ill do what I can to help

-dave