qwerty Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Hi all, I'm in amidst of much contemplation into building a system with the following specs: 2x dual core opteron 265 Tyan K8WE 2x 1ghz corsair ddr400 ram 200gig sata2 HD 3Dlabs realizm 500 ....... Using this machine to do 3Dmax vray rendering for stills and animation, as well as for video progs like adobe after effects or discreet combustion and premiere pro... I do need feedbacks and advise on the feasibility of spending this sum of money into 1 machine vs. setup of 2 pcs with a lower configuration.... Am i right bout having a single powerhouse machine would be less hassle and practical than investing in several computers hook on network instead...(power consumption would be mad???) So experts in hardware and software, do sort me out with your expertise... THANKS HEAPS.... much appreciated... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 so I guess it is cheaper to buy two licenss of each program to have them run on two computers than one license for one bigger computer? max, autocad, photoshop would cost you all together more than a dual dual core 280 system so electricity is more expensive than an 3dsmax license? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Opterons are expensive. They're nice, but you'll have better price/performance with multiple machines - you could probably get 4 AthlonX2 boxes for that money and Vray will do distributed rendering on them. You Max and Vray licenses will cover render nodes without additional expense. If you do decide to go the dual-Opteron route, only thing I would say is, with the money you're spending you should get more ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioVOY Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 you always gonna need a big horse for workstation, my recomendation is you buy that system because with dual-dual core you can do rendering and working adobe premier easily, but later start thinking on building a couple of nodes for distributed rendering, those machines could be cheaper since you only gona use it for max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioVOY Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 BTW this is only if you use max-V-ray or brazil, if you use maxwell keep in mind that maxwell uses all your processor power until it finishes and dont let you do any that consume much processor, with a dual-dual core maxwell renders quickly as hell, but if you plan to do several tasks at time it wont let you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 thanks for the tip... indeed it's only max + vray with other video software... sad to say am still contemplating on the price difference between dual cpu vs dual dual cores (which i presume is a good investment for days to come).... on the other hand, been doing reserach on 3dlabs realizm 500 vs Quandro FX 1400 (which i can do a sli pair up in future)... seems like a lot of ppl pro quadro for their drivers and software support... whereas 3dlabs seems to be just using "in-process" for compatibility issues for 3d max and other autodesks.... for graphic cards, any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 The QuadroFX 1400 is a heck of a deal. I have a FireGL V5100 (very inexpensive on Ebay) and am very happy with it, it's probably about the same as the 1400, not as good for Max (because nVidia has Maxtreme) but better for some other programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voltaire_ira Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 in now using a dual processor board using 2 dualcore opteron 275's. The board is an Asus K8N-DL. IM also using 4 gbytes corsair ddr400 pc3200 ecc ram. video card is a not a quadro but a 7800gt but still very capable of pumping framefrates for heavy scenes. we're using vray for the rendering and its really fast... ..much faster when we order the 10 unit athlon x2's for the initial farm setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 but are you running on windows 64-bit? cos i heard windows xp pro only support up to 2gb ram? true? thanks for your advise.. viva le opteron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voltaire_ira Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 yup, running using winxp 64bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noise Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 We got a machine with almost identical spec you have mentioned and it is excellent. I find that not only does it render very fast but also can handle large scenes and complex landscaping models which is essential for our work. I have just setup distributed rendering and network rendering with Backburner and this machine is so much quicker than all the other machines. Increase your ram to 4 Gb and I would recemmend the Quadro 1400 and XP 64. n Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted February 13, 2006 Author Share Posted February 13, 2006 THANKS FOR ALL GOODIE ADVISE.... greatly appreciate all the responses... at much thought, been tempted on the xp 64 too... but a bit skeptical bout compatibility issues, especially for older software... I'm truly new to win xp 64, and have no idea whether does it comply with old versions of software? be it microsoft office, the adobe family (graphics & video) as well as the autodesk max 7 and vray?? Cheers all for your feedbacks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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