Computer cofig for architecural visulisation

[maxkid]

Hi guys,

 

I want to buy a computer ,I mainly work on 3dsmax8 ,lot of flythroghs ,and now hope to use lot of mental and vray for stills ,apart from that photoshop and after efx.

 

Already worked on the cofiguration of a dell machine ,find the price a bit high ,but not having too many choices , I intend to go for a dell machine dell dimension 9200 ,here's the cofig :

 

Dell dimension 9200

 

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E6400 (2.13GHz, 1066 FSB)

 

MONITOR E207WFP Wide 20 Inch Flat Panel Monitor

 

MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 4DIMMs

 

HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM)

 

OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl

 

GRAPHICS CARD 512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX edit

 

SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

 

KEYBOARD Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard edit

MOUSE Dell Optical USB Mouse edit

Protection

WARRANTY 1 Year Next Business Day Onsite/In Home Service

 

Total price : $2339 + taxes

 

 

What I need to know from you guys is :

 

1)did any of you guys worked on dell before for hi -res files for architecure work ,stills, animations. etc and how did you find it

 

2) I am putting in 4 gigs of ram because I do not want to spend afterwards that will cost me more etc

 

3) I am not sure if you need 512 mb card or 256card is just fine when you are working on max8 ,my file size are usually heavy ,I am more into roadway bridges projects & a bit of architecture and interios.

 

4) Do you find the price too much or find it reasonable ,my previous exp of buying computers ( non -branded ) had tons of problems , so i prefer dell ,they say hp is better than dell ,but does not provide On - site warrenty.

 

5) any other options , cofig i should look into when buying a computer!!

 

 

I Really need some adivce out here.

 

cheers,

 

dari

[AJLynn]

Well, the 512MB card is probably excessive unless you need to frag noobs in ultra-high-res. For Max use I can barely find a difference between 128 and 256 anyway. As far as Dell, and price, it does seem pretty high. Have you considered building your own? That would allow overclocking (search this board for overclock and you'll get a ton of info) - I have that same CPU, but I'm running it at 2.84GHz, which is pretty easy with the right motherboard, RAM and power supply.

[Brian Smith]

I would hold off on getting 4GB Ram. You can get it upgradeable to 4GB, but unless you work very inefficiently, work on extremely large scenes, or ridiculous resolutions, you shouldnt need anything close to 4GB. You could get by with 2GB and work on scenes with 5million+ polygons and files sizes of 200MB+. It just aint worth the extra cost for most users.

[maxkid]

hI GUYS,

 

Well yeah i thought so i am putting in more probably ,getting ambitious without even having a freelance work for myself.If i was to consider going down am i better off cutting down both ram and display card ,that will make the price more reasonable for me + i have more questions for u guys, i am also planning to buy dvds for tutorials and textures ,

 

i have 3d total for textures in mind and thikking of gnomon 3dsmax dvds for environment creation , i have this big dream thing of having my image come at 3dtotal ,those guys are gods ,my 3d most of the time is flat because of deadlines and stuff ,

 

Brian i recenlty got your book ,i knew most of it ,but good explanation and the lighting chapter really helped........good work

 

Let me know what textures are better buy besides 3d total and gnomon 3dsmax dvds and also would should i cut down between ram and display card........

 

CHEERS,

 

dari

[Nic H]

For textures I highly recommend arroway. get the full collection and you ahve some great super hi-res maps that come with spec, bump and diffuse. Excellent quality and great value.

 

like brian said, ditch the 2gb extra, you can always get it cheaper and install yourself later on. 256mb GPU will be plenty, you pay too much of a price premium with 512 cards.

[chuck]

That seems to be a lot to me too. I just bought a dell 9200.

 

I got the core 2 duo 6600 with 2 gb of ram (667mhz) and a nVidia 7900gs. I selected the 80gb drive since we use a network drive for a lot of our storage. I upgraded to the 24" dell monitor. The screen is great...a ton of real estate. The total came out to $1824 with taxes and shipping. If you're getting the same motherboard that I got it has only 4 slots for ram. I'll probably be looking for 2 2gb sticks sometime in the future when I move over to 64bit.

 

Side note, it plays BF2142 at the highest resolution and never slows down...

 

Chuck

[maxkid]

Hey guys,

 

thanks a lot for the info , chunk yeah that helps even i thought it is a bit too much.........

 

New config :

 

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E6400 (2.13GHz, 1066 FSB) edit

 

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 edit

 

MONITOR E207WFP Wide 20 Inch Flat Panel Monitor edit

 

MEMORY FREE Upgrade to 2GB 533MHz Memory from 512MB- $140 Value edit

 

HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst

 

Cache™ edit

OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl

 

layer write capable edit

 

GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS edit

 

SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

 

 

total price : $1689 + taxes

 

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Well my other quesitons were for doing visulisation ,i want to buy some really good textures ,

 

where should i be looking at i have been looking at total textures ,arrowway as suggested ,i would be looking to but these things for myself besides the comp :

 

1) seamless hi -res textures for architecure ,interiors work

 

2) hdri maps ( are these worth the price can we use hdri in animartion seq )

 

3) tree -foliage maps ,which are the best in the market

 

4) people and cars : i want 3d models of them lo -res people for crowd etc and lo -res cars for animation seqences...

 

5) are we better of buying trees with alpha maps or real 3d trees from guys like xfrog etc , is there any price variation etc.

 

6) anyone gone through 3dsmax gnomon dvds for environment lighting and creation ,any idea how good is this.........

 

 

cheers to all.

 

dari

[AJLynn]

The Gnomon DVDs are great stuff. As far as the rest, I use some Dosch HDRs and 3DTotal textures and we've got some RPCs that the guy who used to do 3D here bought but I don't use them. Have you read the Visualization Insider article of trees? It would give you an idea of what kind (2D vs 3D) you'll want.

[maxkid]

Hi again,

 

Yeah that helps i will look into it ,i am just now just working on the budget ,since that what usually happens and than at then I don't use the textures or models as much I should........

 

Thanks,

 

dari