Help building new PC

[Hash_man]

Hey everyone... I'm a n00b to this forum, and this is my first post. Here's the story... I am a student in architecture and have recently become very interested in 3d modelling/rendering. I have experience with autocad, photoshop, revit, and have used 3ds max a long time ago... however I'm pretty good at learning things myself.

 

I am in the process of building a new PC and have a few things sorted out but would like input on others... It will primarily be used for photo editing, autocad/other design software, aswell as I hope to get more in to 3d rendering and architectural presentation renderings.

 

So far this is the plan:

-Intel Q6700 quad core (getting a smokin deal through work)

-2gb DDR2 6400 ram (not sure of brand yet)

-Intel® Desktop Board DG33TL Media Series (may go asus instead)

-Antec Sonata III case w/500W power supply.

-my current 150gb HDD

-Samsung 226BW monitor, have 1, but plan on buying a 2nd to run duals

 

Now, here is where I am kind of stuck... video cards.

I have a friend offering me his Nvidia 8800GTS 648mb overclocked card for a pretty good price... However I have heard many mixed things comparing gaming cards like this to cards designed for drafting/rendering work such as the quadro cards or ati;s GL series.

 

How big of a difference do these cards make?... as I would preffer to save some money and go with a gaming type of card, but am willing to spend the money if I will notice the difference.... I have used my desktop for gaming maybe once in the past year so that is pretty much a non-issue.

 

Any help would be awesome.

 

Thanks,

Jason

[AJLynn]

The difference between Geforce and Quadro cards depends on what apps you want to run. In Max, Cinema or Autocad, not much difference. If you want to go crazy in Revit, Sketchup or Maya, there's a difference. But Quadros are expensive, you're a student and the current Geforces are very good. I'm using a Geforce 8800GTS 320MB OC and I can't see needing more power. Keep in mind that the video card has no effect at all on render speed.

 

Stay away from Intel motherboards, get an Asus or something that's going to let you overclock. (If you want to overclock, also invest in a good power supply, case and CPU cooler.) Whatever brand of RAM you get make sure it has some decent looking heat dissipation hardware on it. The stuff is so cheap, you might want to upgrade to 4GB after a while.

[Lester_Masterson]

for an extra $60 +/- spring for an extra 2Gb RAM.

 

If still using XP, use the /3Gb switch in startup. Then when you make the switch to Vista (more if than when), you are ready.

 

If using Vista, It (and you) will be much happier

 

Enjoy

[Hash_man]

AJ, I have actually been using sketchup quite a bit lately... but found it would barely run on my c2d t7100 w/2bg ram laptop... and well my desktop is a p4 with 1gb of ram. Ended up hijacking my roomates quad core running dual 8800gtx's to use sketchup with ease.

 

As far as the intel motherboard goes, I am getting it with the processor for free, so I'll probably just sell it. And I do plan on using vista... so 4gb of ram will actually make a difference? I was under the impression it wouldn't?...

 

Any recommendations on ram? as it seems to be pretty cheap right now... I've been looking on memoryexpress.com and ncix.com and found some pretty good deals.

[AJLynn]

The brand of RAM doesn't matter all that much. I like Corsair, OCZ and Crucial but I don't have a particularly good reason for that.

 

ncixus.com is pretty good, I like their verbose comment system. I got my Q6600 there.

 

Does the laptop have a "real" video card, a HyperMemory/TurboCache video card of an Intel video card? Only the ones that are ATI or nVidia (nVidia is better these days because of bugs in the ATI OpenGL drivers) without "HyperMemory" or "TurboCache" (which sound good but are euphemisms for slowness) are good for 3D apps. Any kind of Core2 with any kind of nVidia 8800 is going to kick some ass in Sketchup. Mine handles incredibly complex models with no problems.

[Lester_Masterson]

And I do plan on using vista... so 4gb of ram will actually make a difference? I was under the impression it wouldn't?...

 

There is nothing available that offers a price to performance improvement ratio like RAM.

 

I have 2 identical systems, except one has only 1Gb of RAM, the other 4Gb (using the 3Gb switch). On 3Ds scanline renders, I see a 50 to 60% improvement in speed...I'd upgrade the other, but it's my wife's PC

 

If I had my way (sigh), I'd have a 64x version of Vista with 32Gb of RAM

[Lester_Masterson]

Sorry forgot about the Video card issue.

 

I used a PNY Nvidia FX1000 a few years ago. Paid over $1000 for it. Don't think I ever got the value out of it that I paid.

 

I am using an ATI XT1800GTO now. It was under $200. A little sluggish on large scenes, but I used the money I saved from buying a pro video card and bought another PC. Seriously. Since background rendering doesn't take advantage of the video card, it made sense for me.

 

Just my 2¢

[Hash_man]

Cool thanks for the input. My friend backed out on the 8800gts... but the new GT's are less than $300 which is nice.

 

I have probably got most things sorted out now except which Asus motherboard to go with. I am only chosing asus because of the poor experience I had with gigabyte, and the awesome customer service Asus has given me. So far I am sitting around $900 ish including a pretty high end motherboard.

 

Plus I can get rid of my intel motherboard once it gets here and recoup a couple dollars.