Beginner Seeking Software / Hardware Advise

[Arnold Grove]

Hello all,

I'm a beginner in the area of 3D architecture, but not new to 3D. All my experience is in broadcast design so I'm familiar with most of the terminology, but I'm not a machine head when it comes to computers.

 

I have decided on the combination of 3D max and VRay. Its seems to me the most realistic renders I have seen on this site and other are using this combo. I am truly blown away at the photo realism I've seen with this package. I am seeking advice the right computer / processor combo to run these applications.

 

I have a huge project I am working on now, which is an interior scene, with no outside light sources visible. If I nail this one, which fell into my lap, it could open many new, and lucrative doors, so I have to nail it square. I am doing all my modeling thus far in Lightwave to get started, but hope to have my new system up and running within the next few months.

 

I ask because in the past, using Lightwave and EI, I have had problems on the various platforms, PC & Mac, along with the processors. I guess I'm speaking of bugs and issues with processors.

 

Now I know there isn't one system combo answer, but I'm hoping for the most trouble free combination. Athlon, Pentium, etc with what maker, IBM, Dell, Custom made, etc. Perhaps this combo wont work right on certain systems, I'm not sure.

 

Thanks very much, Cheers, Arnold

[FlytE]

Im not to savvy on hardware to be honest.... but what i will say is that if you arent a machine head I would consider dell. I say this because they have very good support and their on-site next day guarantee is useful. As far as I know Dell dont use athlons though, they are pentium based....

 

I woudl say you are right about the vray+max combo as well, it does seem to be the norm now.

[AJLynn]

Also I don't think has Xeon 51xx systems yet, and they don't offer AMDs, so the amount of power you can get from them is limited.

 

What's your budget here? Ideally you would want a quad-core (2X dual-core CPUs), either AMD Opteron or the new Xeon 51xx, with 4GB RAM and a high-end video card. Different vendors offer these at different prices - e.g., Boxx is expensive but offers a high level of customer service, others can be cheaper, and if you can't find what you're looking for you can buy the parts on Ebay.

 

Also, if you're new to Max/Vray, and need to get up on it fast, some training will be as important as a new CPU. A lot of render time is wasted by unoptimized Vray settings and materials, wrong type of light source, not using VRayProxy where you could, etc. Get the Gnomon/Chris Nichols DVDs, Vismasters sells them (Shop link at the top of this page).

[Arnold Grove]

Thanks guys,

 

After I posted i went to the Autodesk Max Requiremtnes page. I still would have posted though Im not sure what it all means.

 

Fly, my friend just bought a Dell, and seems to be happy. My machine Im on now is a Dell (at work) Sys Properties says: Xeon CPU 3.40GHz 3.39 GHz w/ 2 gig ram.

 

Im running EI, Lightwave and the Adobe suite for broadcast design. Its got issues but I dont know what. It locks up, lots of errors and Im always restarting. Thats one of the reasons I want ot make sure I get the right machine. The engineers here are still trying to figure out whats up (Im in a tv news station)

 

AJ, thats just the type of info Im looking for. My budget is a concern, but Ill stick my neck out anyway so I want to get what I need. Who needs food? I WILL get those DVD's, thanks.

 

So the AMD or Xeon huh? I thought the pentium was more stable? I need to do some homework!!

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5659453

 

So what do you guys think? 32 or 64? Obviously they list whats best,,,right? You guys are great, thanks a lot!

 

 

cheers

[AJLynn]

They're about equally stable, which is to say you don't get instability caused by a CPU problem. Don't worry about that.

[Arnold Grove]

Thanks guys, Ive learned a lot the last 2 nights. I found a good resource:

 

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/262

 

If Im understadning correct, I can take advantage of Max's 64bit operation, but if I run the Adobe suite, it will operate only at 32, along with any other app that will runs at 32.

 

Are there issues when running 32bit programs on a 64bit machine? Id rather go for the juice if I can. thanks again for any help.

[AJLynn]

There are no issues with the hardware, and if you run regular Windows XP there are no compatibility problems at all, but try to verify that your software is compatible with 64-bit Windows. (Usually this is not a problem, but I've heard of some software that doesn't work, especially system utilities and antivirus packages.) The biggest problem people seem to be having is with drivers for hardware, though most of the good companies have cleared this up by releasing their drivers in two versions.