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Ok now this question has probably been asked a million times but here goes.

I am contemplating building up a new computer with the main goal of dramatically decreasing my render times.

I am looking to spend around £1000 Stirling and would like people’s advice on what products to go for e.g. motherboard, processor, graphics card etc... as my technical knowledge is not quite up to scratch.

Thanks guys.

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Get motherboard with SLI ready

Use 4 or 8gb RAM

Use 2x VGA Card SLI ready

Windows XP Pro x64 Edition

If your not satisfied with that... buy rendering box Nvidia Quadro Plex 1000.

 

 

Goodluck

 

Is there something we should know, something new with SLI, have you discovered how to get 3D programs to take advantage of it, this could change everything...

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SLI will have no effect whatsoever on render times. In that price range you can get an Intel Q6600 on a good overclocker motherboard like an Asus P5K and 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM, and a good heatsink like a Thermaltake Ultra 120 Extreme or Ultima 90 with a decent fan, and overclock it somewhere above 3GHz. Don't skimp on the case, that's part of the cooling.

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Read my reply to your post in another thread.

 

Rendering is done by the CPU.

 

The display on screen is done by the GPU.

 

SLI is one of many applications of parallel processing. If you read that whole Wikipedia post you'd understand that a multi-GPU system for accelerating on-screen display.

 

There is such a thing as GPU based rendering but nobody here is using it yet because none of the GPU based renderers we'd be using get the quality level we look for.

 

Enough of this. Read up enough to come to an understanding of these things, or ask questions, or lurk.

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SLI is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics.

 

I think it's better to ask a computer geek from the computer rather than asking someone that who don't know nothing.

 

Well, I don't care if they are going to BANNED me in this forum because they are MODERATOR.

 

Ohhh.. Touchy... I love it when newbies go bad...:D

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This is a breakdown of a new computer i was quoted from an online store.

 

What do you guys think of the spec and price? I'm dubious about vista!?

 

AK-ZEN01-BK Akasa Zen Case Black

Antec NeoHE Modular PSU 500W

Asus P5K Motherboard

Intel Q6600 Quad Core CPU

Zalman CNPS7500 LED 110mm Copper

4Gb G.Skill DDR2 PC2-6400 PQ CL5

Seagate 7200.10 320Gb SATA-II Hard Disk 16Mb Cache

Samsung S203B DVD-RW SATA

Asus EN8600GT HTD Silent 256Mb

Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit DVD 8031LR0

 

Total Cost: £766

 

Cheers.

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Hi Again,

I am thinking of buying a fully built system form a manufacturer as to take advantage of any warranty issues.

I have found a system which is a reasonable price and would like to see what you guys think of it.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4MS4&CategorySelectedId=11101&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11101,412110000

Again I am wanting to really decrease my rendering times. Do you think this system will help??

Cheers,

Joe

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Go here

 

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html

 

and check your existing CPU against the Q6600. If you like what you see, you're off to a good start. From experience though (and I hate to plug big-name builders), HP tends to be a little expensive, Dell may be better. The only real concern is Vista, this is why I think of Dell. You MAY be able to get a similar system with a version of XP on it. Dell has been QUIETLY offering XP as a "downgrade" from Vista... DOWNGRADE! More like upgrade as far as I have seen!.. XP over Vista ANY DAY!!!

 

Hmmm, how will I skin this cat?

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Actually youre suppose to post your current machine spec...then only we can cater to the exact stuff you need.

 

for example. if youre concern about rendering...use max,vray or any multi cpu software.

you should get an 8 core system.

 

a quad core system 5160 is about 10 to 15 seconds slower than an 8 core 5310 system rendering the same file. Trust me,,,i have both. But check the price...

 

if youre serious about rendering time get the 8 core...the wokstation comes with keyboard mouse monitor and so...not sure you will be needing them or not...but u can always get a no name brand aftermarkets later for the server.

 

check out the price diffreence

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