Brian Cassil Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 We are getting new computers for the viz dudes in our office (Scott Buckner and myself) and I just wanted to throw out there what was planned and see if there were any last minute suggestions I could throw out at the IT guys before they put the things together. Keep in mind that these are workstations and that the majority of the rendering will be done on systems that are dedicated for rendering. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 CPU ASUS A8V-E SE Socket 939 ATX Motherboard built in raid, gigabit NIC, and sound Quadro FX 3450 video card 4 GB RAM 2X Hitachi Deskstar 80GB SATA II Hard Drives Sony DVD burner Antec TX640B case with 500 watt power supply XP pro Or for an extra $700 per system we could go with the Quadro 4500 card. I'm not sure if we are going to be able to sell those to the people who write the checks though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isagreg Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 If these machines are going to be used for rendering then get dual core Opterons. Yes, they are more expensive, but you could get lower end graphics (for example Quadro FX 1400) My $0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 These will not be used for rendering... much. At least that will not be the primary function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 That's pretty kickass already. Overkill maybe. All I can suggest is that you get my favorite keyboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 What would you consider to be overkill? The 4GB of ram? It's for the little bit of vid editing I do from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isagreg Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 RE: "These will not be used for rendering... much. At least that will not be the primary function." Oh, sorry... My mistake... Then go with higher end CPU like X2 4600 or 4800 or even FX60. I'm assuming you're not gonna overclock the X2 4200... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 What would you consider to be overkill? The 4GB of ram? It's for the little bit of vid editing I do from time to time. The 3450 might be overkill, but maybe your modeling is complex enough to get the most out of it. It's a minor point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 In your opinion, would I be better off to go with 2 gigs of ram and x2 4800 or fx60 rather than the x2 4200? Take video editing out of the picture for the moment. I think the 3450 is warrented. We are dealing with scenes that are in the millions of polys more and more it seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I don't know about the Hitachi HD's. I had 2 of those Deskstars in the last system I built and they run really really hot. After a few months, the hard drive started clicking a lot like it was going to fail at any moment so I had to send it back to Hitachi and get it replaced. In my limited computer experience, I have used Western Digital HD's and have never had any problems with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I've got 2 gigs here and I run out rarely, but it sounds like your stuff is more complex than mine. I think you'd need to take a look at the work you do, and try some stress-testing on your current hardware and see how much RAM you use. The higher-end AMD chips are great, but you do have dedicated render nodes. More RAM vs more CPU - depends on your specific needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 I think I'm going to drop down to 2 gigs in ram and go up to the X2 4800 procs. I can always add ram if we need it. I'll also suggest going with WD on the hard drives. Thanks everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 Hey Andrew, that is a cool keyboard... if only it had a volume knob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 You don't need a volume knob on the keyboard. I've had 2 of these for probably a year and no more RSI symptoms. Way better than those silly Microsoft ergo keyboards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVC Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I think I'm going to drop down to 2 gigs in ram and go up to the X2 4800 procs. I can always add ram if we need it. I'll also suggest going with WD on the hard drives. Thanks everyone! Hi Brian Cassil , for my self , i will keep 4 Gig RAM and overclock X2 4200+ it's stable at 2.5-2.6ghz but 4200+ is 512 cache L2 only , i think 4400+ is the best choise for X2 series . Another option , Opty 165 is the samecost with 4200+ and Opty 170 is thesame X2 4400+ but they can run and OC like crazy , i'm using 02 Pc 4400@2,75ghz and Opty 165@2.55ghz , my opty is slower X2 a litle bit ( 10s with test file vRayNeovisual) but it's cheaper 120$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 That's pretty kickass already. Overkill maybe. All I can suggest is that you get my favorite keyboard. . . . is that piece backlit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Unless you use WINXP 64 there is very little point in using 4 gig of ram. Even with the 3gig switch it will not use much above 2.3 gig of physical memory for your applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 8, 2006 Author Share Posted March 8, 2006 Thanks for all the help everyone! We are going to be getting the 4600 procs and 2 gigs of ram. I figured I can upgrade the ram a lot easier than I could upgrade the proc. One last queston now, is it necessary to get ecc registered ram? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 One last queston now, is it necessary to get ecc registered ram? no, only if it's required by the motherboard and processors... your socket 939 Athlon X2 and any accompanying mobo doesn't need reg ecc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVC Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 no, only if it's required by the motherboard and processors... your socket 939 Athlon X2 and any accompanying mobo doesn't need reg ecc Exactly , only opteron sk940 need ECC RAM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 14, 2006 Author Share Posted March 14, 2006 Well, I got my computer now and It seems to be flying very well. I thought it might be usefull to others if I posted some benchmarks. I've never ran any sort of standard max benchmarks before (I think they exist?). Does anyone know the what, where, and how of running benchmarks on my new computer? Especially those related to viewport performance in max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Well, I got my computer now and It seems to be flying very well. I thought it might be usefull to others if I posted some benchmarks. I've never ran any sort of standard max benchmarks before (I think they exist?). Does anyone know the what, where, and how of running benchmarks on my new computer? Especially those related to viewport performance in max. http://cinebench.com/ . . . pretty standard fare for general 3D benchmarking http://www.spec.org/gpc/apc.static/prev_benchmarks.html . . . a whole list of benchies post your results here: http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10969 cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 15, 2006 Author Share Posted March 15, 2006 Thanks for the links. Does cinebench only work if you have cinema4D? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Thanks for the links. Does cinebench only work if you have cinema4D? nope ~ you download the package and it contains everything you need Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted March 16, 2006 Author Share Posted March 16, 2006 Cool, I'm on it. On a side note the strangest thing happened with my new PC. I went to put my usb thumb drive in and as soon as them metal touched the computer the whole thing went dead! Then I couldn't start max. Even after uninstalling and re-installing. So now we have to clear the whole registry and re-install everything. We figure that the usb drive picked up a little static charge while in my pocket and thats what did it. I guess those little plastic covers really do something usefull after all, because I had ditched mine. Won't do that again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 Wierd - keepin my thumbdrive's helmet on at all times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now