New High End system required

[aligrafix]

Dears

I am not good enough about the hardware but i wana tell about the work requirements. I need to get a high end graphics system for 3DS max animations and compositing as well as Simulations.

I will work modelling to rendering in 3dsmax and render them in vray. Post production will be done in adobe after effects. i need hard core system for rendering the tight deadline.

 

-- 2 * Quad core intel processor based system is required

-- System Board (Competitive high end results)

-- Minimum 8GB of Ram is required.

-- 80 Gb Primary (System Drive)

-- 2* 500 GB (Video Drives) Secondary for data storage.

-- LAN

-- Graphic Card (Dual Monitor Support for DVI and CRTs)

-- Sound Card

 

Machine can be branded or non-branded. Dears, My Boss in now ready to spend money and i want to utilize it in the way that i shouldn's ask any kind of upgrade for the next 2 yrs.

Thanks for support and again, i am not hardware expert. Requesting experts to suggesst according to their own use and experience about the systems.

Should accomodate rendering of high mechanical cars interior and exterior mechanical architecture minimum components to maximum components. I need to show the working mechanism of car engine and everything. I think you guys understand. The project is very highly detailed.

The budget is approx. $5000.

Thanks

[ChooChoo]

I'm not absolutely positive about this, but your graphics card I think is not as important as sheer processing power. I think you'd want to get set up with rendering farms. You only need one license of Max and as many computers as you can get your hand on.

 

From what I've read, you can have simple extra computers with no monitors, CD/DVD player/burners or graphics cards.

 

I might be mistaken on the graphics cards, but I'm not mistaken on the farms.

 

I believe also if you're in a pinch, there are rendering companies out there that will do the processing for you.

[aaron-cds]

The budget is approx. $5000.

Thanks

 

You should try doubling that budget. You can see what I mean by building a precision 690 with your specs at http://www.dell.com

[AJLynn]

Aaron's right - those Quad-Xeons and the FBDIMM memory for them are extremely expensive. Maybe you can build a Core2 Quad workstation and a render node for less...

[aligrafix]

Thanks but here is the thing. Dell are not great about their after sales service and replacement and other warranties claims.Also i live in pakistan and i cant get systems locally from dealers. i have HP, Dell, IBM.

systems can be purchased accordingly from these dealers.

[AFK_Matrix]

Personally if I had free rain in deciding my computer setup at work I would go for the following:

 

Main computer for doing the models on:

 

Core 2 duo

Best Graphics card possible

As much memory as the motherboard supports

 

Render Machines:

 

These I would make Quad Core computers with a good amount of memory and have as many as money permits. Its the processing and memory thats gonna count when rendering so if you have a couple of this in a little farm it'll fly through your rendering. And Quad core cpu's can be had for £600-700 and at least in England these prices are gonna be dropping soon.

 

In actually modelling your not gonna need as much processing power. You need the graphics power and memory to manipulate the drawing model.

 

Just my 2ps worth.

[Tommy L]

Sounds like youre buying all this for one project? Id get one decent machine for about $2000 which will happily do stills and tests for you. Then you can send the finished animation to an online farm. Im assuming that the motor industry doesnt do as many last minute changes on their engines as the architects do on their buildings, so you should be fine, pocket the difference. Isnt 5 grand a hell of a lot of money in Pakistan?

[3DEXTRUDE]

actually you might not need a render farm. Since you are going to composite your work in after effects. You can just render your animation in a targa format. Import that into after effects, and render away. For that you dont need a crazy system. Trust me, i do my rendering, and stills on a 2500 dollar system.

 

cheerz..

[BrianKitts]

..... For that you dont need a crazy system. Trust me, i do my rendering, and stills on a 2500 dollar system.

 

i totally agree.... to further that point, at work I use great dual-dual core amd 2 gigs of ram from BOXX. At home I use a $500 refurbished dual core amd with 1 gig of ram from Gateway, and in the end product you can't tell which machine I did it on.

 

This mis-conception of needing a super high-end machine was mentioned in the last Visualization Insider Article (managing system resources) in the first couple of paragraphs.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=3668

 

 

Biggest thing is just to make sure you have a good video card..... and if you do large poly scenes go with 2 gigs of ram. standard answer = get the best you can afford

[Tommy L]

actually you might not need a render farm. Since you are going to composite your work in after effects. You can just render your animation in a targa format. Import that into after effects, and render away. For that you dont need a crazy system. Trust me, i do my rendering, and stills on a 2500 dollar system.

 

cheerz..

 

Hmmmn, well Id not fancy rendering a 5000 frame animation at X-mins a frame on one machine, but hey, if the client can wait till 2009 and you dont want to use your only computer while it churns out 1000s hours of frames,then who cares...

 

I work on a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop (slightly hotrod) with a 23" flatsreen onthe side and its a great workhorse for sub-$1500. But thats because I need a laptop. You dont need a render farm, but you will need to use an online farm for large numbers of frames.

[3DEXTRUDE]

Hmmmn, well Id not fancy rendering a 5000 frame animation at X-mins a frame on one machine, but hey, if the client can wait till 2009 and you dont want to use your only computer while it churns out 1000s hours of frames,then who cares...

 

I work on a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop (slightly hotrod) with a 23" flatsreen onthe side and its a great workhorse for sub-$1500. But thats because I need a laptop. You dont need a render farm, but you will need to use an online farm for large numbers of frames.

 

Actually that depends....

 

 

It depends how fast you work. If you get your modeling and texturing done days before its due, than i would render a 5000 frame or even more frames during those days that i have available on my hand. I know my work, and how fast i do things. If you do freelance work, than you know as well as i do, when you accept a job, you have to know kinda how many hours it would take you to do the project. Now accepting a 5000 frame animation, you would accept it as you see it fit. Knowing how you work, and what kind of shortcuts you can use to finish the project will depend on your experience and way of work. If you finish it days ahead of schedule..u can be comfortable with the 2500 system that i got, or you can spend 5000 or more on a system if you dont know your way of working or level of skills...

 

cheerz..

[Tommy L]

Actually that depends....

 

 

It depends how fast you work. If you get your modeling and texturing done days before its due, than i would render a 5000 frame or even more frames during those days that i have available on my hand. I know my work, and how fast i do things. If you do freelance work, than you know as well as i do, when you accept a job, you have to know kinda how many hours it would take you to do the project. Now accepting a 5000 frame animation, you would accept it as you see it fit. Knowing how you work, and what kind of shortcuts you can use to finish the project will depend on your experience and way of work. If you finish it days ahead of schedule..u can be comfortable with the 2500 system that i got, or you can spend 5000 or more on a system if you dont know your way of working or level of skills...

 

cheerz..

 

 

Agreed, but what if another quick job lands and your only machine is tied up? What if your render time is 20mins a frame? What if you want to play Battlefield after hours?

 

I think this guy is buying for one job. Id buy cheap and go online for heavy resources.

[3DEXTRUDE]

Agreed, but what if another quick job lands and your only machine is tied up? What if your render time is 20mins a frame? What if you want to play Battlefield after hours?

 

I think this guy is buying for one job. Id buy cheap and go online for heavy resources.

 

Well its not about 1 job...I belive quality prevails over quantity as always. I am not saying you should work the way i do...I am not an online gamer. I have a ps2 and now i got a ps3. So whatever games i play i play it on my ps3 systems now. My computer always been for mainly the work i do.

 

Having a 5000 frame animation means having a 5 minutes and 5 second video. Which in fact would give you enough money for at least 2 months of pay or more....So taking another quick project, would tell me..either you do this big one, or take another quick one that pays about 600 bucks for 1 simple phot realistic image...hmm..i go for the big one..and decline the small one..

 

I am not trying to tell you how you should do your work, this forum was based on how people work or what they want out of their system. So i am just telling the reader what i do. you might agree or you wont. I am just being honest, and not trying to stir things up here...

 

cheerz..

[Tommy L]

Haha, no worries, but I think the guy that started this thread will be throwing money away if he spends 5 grand to get a machine to do one job.

 

In fact I think alot of people doing this job are throwing their money at machines instead of learning how to squeeze the same performance out of less expensive ones. Theres a chinese guy here somewhere, it could be Chen, I cant remember, but he does some of the best work out there on a PIII, 512k RAM, scanline.

Optimize-optimize-optimize + artistic sensibilities = sweet + cheap. Nice equation.

 

I work on a cheap(ish) laptop at home, expensive machine at work. My stuff at home is way, way better than my work stuff. I guess im more inspired and have more freedom at home. Whatever it is, it aint the machine.

[3DEXTRUDE]

Haha, no worries, but I think the guy that started this thread will be throwing money away if he spends 5 grand to get a machine to do one job.

 

In fact I think alot of people doing this job are throwing their money at machines instead of learning how to squeeze the same performance out of less expensive ones. Theres a chinese guy here somewhere, it could be Chen, I cant remember, but he does some of the best work out there on a PIII, 512k RAM, scanline.

Optimize-optimize-optimize + artistic sensibilities = sweet + cheap. Nice equation.

 

I work on a cheap(ish) laptop at home, expensive machine at work. My stuff at home is way, way better than my work stuff. I guess im more inspired and have more freedom at home. Whatever it is, it aint the machine.

 

 

hehe..lol...Well the truth is at home you do your own stuff and nobody is there to correct you or change things around. At your office or workplace, your boss or who ever is in charge of the project will come back to you from time to time to tell you what he needs or the projects he gives you might not be to your liking, but its your job. Some architectural work i wish never existed because it looks really bad or simple as hell, but its not my time to say something bad about it. I just do the job, and get my check...thats it...

 

Its the architects who are in charge on your work and how things should look like, and for that matter they are the ones responsible for their finished designs not you. hehe...

 

I also havea mac pro laptop g4. I only used it about 2 times...and i dropped it, and just sits there..I payed 2000 bucks for it, and look it sits there..thats becuase i am a pc person.. I mainly got that to fnish a 2nd degree i was working on Graphic Design..they all used Macs..so instead of driving every day to school to get things done, i bought one so i can sit comfortably in my house..

[AJLynn]

I'll trade you 4 PS2 games for the Mac

[3DEXTRUDE]

I'll trade you 4 PS2 games for the Mac

 

thnx for what u r offering ill let it dust away in the case...lol

 

cheerz

[AJLynn]

5, final offer.

[3DEXTRUDE]

5, final offer.

Ill let it rot!! LOL...

[AJLynn]

Now what would be the point in that? My way, everybody wins.

[3DEXTRUDE]

Now what would be the point in that? My way, everybody wins.

 

LOL...ok i think we should stop playing around and respect the person who created this forum and let others have their input. If you really need a mac g4 laptop..u can private me and see if you want to buy one..if not, dont waste your time with playstation game offers..LOL...its silly..

[aligrafix]

Thanks to all who helped and played here. I am going to buy a dual core xeon based system with 4 GB ram and a good graphic card to work and design mechanicals. For rendering, i cannot use online render farm so i m gonna get a 2* quad core cpu based system with 4GB ram with no video card. It is for rendering. Well, i cannot buy Dell systems because they are very bad in after services as well as warranty claims. May be manage to get a custom built system (non-branded). I shall put that question later when i will need it specially regarding motherboard, hdd and ram configurations.

Thanks to all.After a long time my boss is putting money on system coz he got a very big big project and we also have enough time. Later on, more projects are coming which are very heavy regarding geometry, envrionment and rendering, thats why i wanted to put money once only and then work afterwards.

Again thanks.

Regards

Ali

[3DEXTRUDE]

I have heard that there are also computers with 4 quad processors....