please recommend/suggest

[Guest nazcaLine]

hi, i'm really lost in hardware, know very little. i've received two proposals for a new machine, i'd like opinions, of course i want to use them for 3d max/viz 2006+vray

 

pc p4 intel 3.2

 

cpu=amd athlon 64 2800 , 64 bit

memory= 1gb ddr pc 3200

Mainboard= msi neo3 chipset nforce

video=agp nvidia mx 460, 64mb ddr msi

 

pc p4 intel 3.2

 

cpu=intel p4 3,2 intel lga 775 1mb cache

memory=1gb ddr pc 3200

mainboard=msi neo v chipset intel 915, 1 slot pci express, 1 agr, 8 usb

video=agp nvidia mx 460 64mb ddr msi

 

please help me i know knothing about this, all i want is a powerful machine to work in 3d max+vray, and photoshop, corel, autocad, etc.

[steven martin]

my opinion would be as follows

 

cpu=amd athlon 64 3200 only cost a little extra and worth it (also ensure you get a socket 939 cpu which would allow for easier upgrade). If you could afford it go for one of the new dual core 64 processors that are not really that much more expensive for the lower end ones.

 

memory - I would recommend a min of 2 gig. Go for branded, it's funny how people often overlook ram

 

motherboard- dependant on which cpu you get but may be worth looking at a duel sli board even if you only get 1 card.

 

video card - go for a top/mid range 6800 or low end 7800 nvidia card and make use of those max specific drivers.

 

There are variations, but the key I feel has to be "upgradeability"

[AJLynn]

Those machines are pretty even. Agreeing with Steven, see if you can get a Socket 939 AMD machine that can upgrade to dual core if you want it later. The video card you listed is really weak, but the 6800 and 7800 cards don't run Max specific drivers. Go 128MB minimum, and stay away from things like "TurboCache" and "HyperMemory" (counterintuitively, those both mean "the memory is much slower than normal"). The nVidia 6800 series is good stuff, as are the better ATIs. The 7800 costs a lot, you could be getting a midrange Quadro new on Ebay for that.

 

Actually, if you get an AGP system, you're budgeting things like a 64MB MX card and don't mind doing things like buying a video card on Ebay you can do what I did - go to the high end of the Quadro4 line. I got my 128MB Quadro4 900 for $80 used, I see somebody selling a new one for $135 Buy-It-Now and 4 ending soon currently at $10, and the 980 isn't much more. (Do all of these searches: quadro 900, quadro 980, quadro4 900, quadro4 980 - stupidly, quadro does not hit quadro4.)

 

Here's a thread with some of us doing Specviewperf benchmarks on our various systems. Actually, if anybody reading this has an nVidia 6600, 6800, 7800 etc, the numbers for those would be useful to answer the "high end Geforce or low end Quadro" questions.

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12329&highlight=specviewperf