peporast Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Hi everybody, first I'm from Curacao and I'm new but very interested into this 3d rendering stuff!!! But I just need a good pc so I can begin learning this stuff. Do somebody have any recommendation what I need to take into account building a new PC to begin with 3d renderings and those kind of stuff ????? Many tnx in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 What type of pc do you have now? When you're first learning, it is actually better to have a slower computer, then a faster one. Teaches you to be organized and keep clean precise meshes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 1, 2006 Author Share Posted April 1, 2006 Hey Greg, tnx for replying!!! At this moment a intel pentium 4 pc, 2.4 Ghz processor with 512mb ddr ram. But I'm gonna give my bro this pc and build a new one! I'm thinking in a dual amd opteron with 1GB of ddr rams. I don't have any idea wich video card to buy. Here's the barbone kit of the pc I'm thinking about: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-ZMAXDP&cat=BBK Maybe u can check it out and give me som recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 This looks a fair bit more expensive than an AthlonX2 box of the same speed, which is probably what you should get. Spend $500 on the box, another $500 on CPUs and you've spent $1000 and still don't have a video card, memory, DVD drive, hard drive, monitor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 1, 2006 Author Share Posted April 1, 2006 AJLynn thanx for replying and for the recommendation! Maybe u 2 can recommend me of a pc to start with!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 1, 2006 Author Share Posted April 1, 2006 AJLynn, what do u think about this barebone??? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1579168&CatId=1916 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Are you set on using a compact case? I guess the thing I like least about this one is the 240W power supply - it's not enough. I also worry about cooling and the abilty of a small case to accept a large video card, and number of drive bays limiting future expansion. Call me old fashioned but I think a workstation should be big. What I would recommend is that you either buy a PC from a vendor that lets you choose things like a higher-end video card (the onboard video in that case is not enough for any real 3D work anyway) or build your own using a case with multiple fans and enough drive bays for future expansion, a power supply that gives you at least 400W and is rated for use with a dual-core system (this is a bit harder to determine than it used to be, but look at, for example, user reviews on newegg.com) and a motherboard with one or more PCI-Express x16 slots, that is listed as compatible with X2 CPUs and has a good chipset like a newer nForce. Then see what you can budget as far as a video card. A higher end gamer card is okay, a pro card is better, and stay far away from anything labelled "Turbocache" or "Hypermemory" - these are euphemisms that sound fast but actually mean that the card is borrowing system memory, which slows the graphics and lowers the system memory available. Also, these days it's pretty easy to use SATA for RAID - if your motherboard supports it, you can get two identical SATA hard drives and have the system use them as one drive, sharing the work to improve speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 BTW... shoot for more ram... 2gigs+ This will be a bigger pay of.... You can even sacrifice a notch of two on your proc if you need to get the extra ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 1, 2006 Author Share Posted April 1, 2006 AJLynn I don't think u're old fashioned and I understand your recommendation!! And yes, I'm really into the small cases! But maybe u're right about the things! Hey man, tnx for your recommendations. I'll keep searching for the right pc, and I'll use your recommendations. Thanx u all men!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 you could easily kick more ram in your current computer, and probably upgrade your video card, and have a decent enough machine to learn on. if you feel like dropping cash on a new machine then who am i to advise against it, but you say you don't have any 3d experience, which means you have a lot to learn, and probably are not aware of exactly what you might run into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Also, try getting some software and learning materials. Max is the most polular one in this field these days, you can get a free trial copy here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5972446 I'm partial to Cinema4D myself, they have a free trial too at http://www.maxon.net - but the trial doesn't allow you to save files. Also, Sketchup (http://www.sketchup.com) is great for basics, but the trial only runs for 8 hours. The best free version of a commercial package has got to be Maya Personal Learning Edition - http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6902573 - basically unlimited non-commercial use, complete feature set with mental ray, but limited rendering resolution. And then there's Blender (blender.org), which is completely free, works well with the Yafray renderer (also free) and has a very good feature set, though I'm personally not crazy about the interface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 1, 2006 Author Share Posted April 1, 2006 Wich videocard do recomend me as a beginner?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Depends on the budget. Something in a Geforce 6800 series or a newer Radeon would do for starting out. If you don't mind Ebay, you can do what I did and get a FireGL on the cheap. It also depends on what program you want to use - for Maya or Cinema4D a high-end gamer card is about as good as anything, but for Max a Quadro card has an advantage. But don't spend serious money until you know you can make it pay off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 2, 2006 Author Share Posted April 2, 2006 Ok tnx AJLynn! I do have the 3ds max 8 already, so maybe I will start with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted April 2, 2006 Share Posted April 2, 2006 An Athlon 4200 or 4600+, on an nforce4 ultra board, with a gig or two of DDR, and a 7600GT or faster. A nice case to work in (antec or chemming antec clone) and a 500 watt FSP psu would round up the computer nicely. However...amd is just about to replace socket 939 and 940 with Socket M2 and F in another month...so waiting at this point might be worthwhile if you want to utilize DDR2 and the new socket design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peporast Posted April 2, 2006 Author Share Posted April 2, 2006 Hey tnx!! man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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