Devin Johnston Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 I've been buying my computers from a company called XI for at least 3 years; we now have 4 of them. We usually spend $4,500 - $5,500 on a system and every one we've purchased has been a dual processor setup. Last year we ordered one with the same specks as one we already had, same processors but different mother board. I kept hearing that it was slow but never paid attention since I'm working with the same setup and mine is fast although it's almost two years old. Well we decided to compare the three newest machines and that machine that we purchased about a year ago which has the same specks as mine; it's almost twice as slow as mine. We can't find any reason for it except that it's using a different mother board. When it's rendering it's using 100% of all 8 processors, it's got 8 gigs of ram except I think that ram may be registered and mine is unregistered. Anyway because of this I'm now taking a closer look at Boxx since they supposable test all their machines and optimize them to work with Max. Has anyone had similar experiences with less well know machines, and what do you think about Boxx and their higher prices, is it worth the cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 personally i think that price is absolutely ridiculous. i would much rather have 8 Dell laptops for that price. You can get a Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz, 4 GB Ram for $500. Our training center is getting 4 more today in fact for $2000. Much more bang for the buck imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 25, 2008 Author Share Posted September 25, 2008 personally i think that price is absolutely ridiculous. i would much rather have 8 Dell laptops for that price. . Your doing training, I'm doing rendering and video editing with pretty tight deadlines and there are definite advantages to having a dual processor machine in those situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billabong Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 Why dont you just build your own. The company Im going to work for ask me to put together a list of parts for the new comp I wanted. I built the entire thing for under 2 grand and thats including 2 20" widescreen, Intel Quadcore,8Gigs of RAM, Nvidia 9800GTX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 You can get a Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz, 4 GB Ram for $500. is that an off the shelf ready made system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 25, 2008 Author Share Posted September 25, 2008 Why dont you just build your own. I have no desire to build one my self, that's exactly why I'd pay extra in order to have a system that works perfectly from day one. It's not a question of money it's a question of productivity, I want to spend my time working on projects not messing with computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billabong Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 I have no desire to build one my self, that's exactly why I'd pay extra in order to have a system that works perfectly from day one. It's not a question of money it's a question of productivity, I want to spend my time working on projects not messing with computers. Fair enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 When I set up my own business I bought a workstation and a 7 machine renderfarm, fully functional and kicking ass for around $7500, incluiding all the OS's. That was a year ago, Im assuming things have got even cheaper... And you think $5500 is reasonable for a workstation? I hope its got wings and a cape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 is that an off the shelf ready made system? Hardware is much, much cheaper in the states. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted September 25, 2008 Author Share Posted September 25, 2008 Hey Tom, did ya get my e-mail? About cost, I had this discussion about a year ago on the hardware forum, lots of people build their own machines, many more buy cheep, and still more buy top of the line. I fall into the latter category, I know I can get cheaper machines and that's really the problem I've had. Instead of buying the best I went with a company that was significantly cheaper. It seemed like a good decision at the time and it saved me about $1500, but now that I've seen how two identical systems can have such drastic performance differences I'd rather spend more and get better quality. I guess I'm alone in this since most people seem to be happy building their own or buying cheaper systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 (edited) Your doing training, I'm doing rendering and video editing with pretty tight deadlines and there are definite advantages to having a dual processor machine in those situations. yeah, we do training, but only part time...production is our priority and all of these machines will be added to the render farm for production renders. they are more than powerful enough to work on 95% of the scenes. good scene optimization and practices is every bit as important as computer power. Edited September 25, 2008 by Brian Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F J Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 (edited) if u have 2 equally spec'ed systems with such performance differences, then 1 of them is clearly defective or mis-assembled (at which point u'd wanna take it back to the vendor for analysis).. i've bought a whole new rig, n every single piece of it came in its own box.. man, its quite a rush to put all that sh*t together up n running.. i love it.. but if u dont wanna have to go thru that, im sure any local shop near u will piece it together for ya.. at least thats how it works out here.. i stand by Devin's on having that much "horse-power", but only for workstations.. i'd encourage doing a lil math on performance/cost (aka best bang for buck) for the render farm, kinda like what Tom has set up.. eventhough money may not be an issue, u can really achieve the same overall performance.. dual-CPU setups r really really pricey.. Edited September 25, 2008 by F J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 is that an off the shelf ready made system? completely ready to ship...here's the details Item Remove Item Remove Item Qty Unit Price Studio 15 - 1535 System Identifier: FXDCJF97 System Details Studio 15 (1535) Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache) Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Modify Selection 1 $629.00 View Details - $125.80 Remove Coupon STUDIO 15 (1535) : 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, Mail-In Service after Remote Diagnosis, 24x7 Phone Support (Included in Price) 1 $0.00 Sub-total $503.20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreg Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 At work, I've been buying straight from Boxx for the last 4 years and never had a problem with the machines. Only once, I received a rendernode that was damaged in shipping and they sorted it out in no time... 2 days later I had a replacement node. Service is excellent and the machines are very stable. At Home, I bought a Dell worstation and a laptop and had nothing but problems... especially with that god damned Vista. My 2 cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spooner04 Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 You say that the guy put a different motherboard in the Comp. That can make a world of difference. I'm not sure about half the speed, but if the pipes on the cheap mobo are slower than the pipes on the nice mobo I think it could cut it by half. Also 8gigs of ram isn't 8 gigs either if it is a different manufacturer or even the same manufacturer but a different spec'd dimm it could have a big impact as well. I don't think that registered ram would make a difference. Also, a side note. Our dual quad vista 64 bit boxes with 8 gigs of ram render slower than our single quad,4 gigs of ram, xp machines by about 25%. the scene files size they can manage is much greater. Our most reliable boxes have been a dozen dual core, 4 gigs ram, xp machines. They take longer to render a frame, but are quicker in the long run as we get alot of errors from our quads. These are all dells. Another thought. If I was going to build a group of render nodes today I would probably take a serious look at a bunch of amd single quads. It's been a while since I've looked at any amd vs. intel benchmarks. but the amd price is significantly cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 heck, you can barely buy a single core celeron system unit off the shelf for about $450 in the UK!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 heck, you can barely buy a single core celeron system unit off the shelf for about $450 in the UK!!!! Too right. It may be worth looking into using your strong pound/weak dollar ratio and buying from the states. Youde get hit with import tax, but if people are doing it with cars, why not render farms? Obviously you'd have to be comfortable with no support, but it could be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Devin, I bought a Boxx 3 years ago for the exact reasons you already demand out of a system... reliability and power when you need it. I bought a middle of the road Boxx but have enjoyed a rock-solid machine despite getting used very hard. I could have got more ghz, ram, or hd for my money, but the reputation Boxx has earned itself is much deserved so i went with them over building my own workstation. Of course the premium price hurts one in the pocket book but if it's a write-off for business, it makes much more sense than purchasing one as a grad archi student;) Now that i'm nearly out of school, i can see that my next system (assuming i don't try to freelance and would not need the aforementioned 100% reliability) will be a custom built and OC'd dual-quad monster that i can tinker with PM me if you're interested in my boxx contacts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Hey Tom, did ya get my e-mail? About cost, I had this discussion about a year ago on the hardware forum, lots of people build their own machines, many more buy cheep, and still more buy top of the line. I fall into the latter category, I know I can get cheaper machines and that's really the problem I've had. Instead of buying the best I went with a company that was significantly cheaper. It seemed like a good decision at the time and it saved me about $1500, but now that I've seen how two identical systems can have such drastic performance differences I'd rather spend more and get better quality. I guess I'm alone in this since most people seem to be happy building their own or buying cheaper systems. Split the difference - do some research (surf online, talk to techie/nerds, etc), and approach a local computer shop. Tell then exactly what you have in mind to do with the computer, what is NOT important to you, and what IS important to you. Give them some things that you come up with in your research (i.e. specific make and model of motherboard, brands of memory chips, video cards, etc). They'll build it for you, burn it in, and give you a warranty that covers yourself. That's exactly what I did, and I saved almost $800! And I have a 2 year warranty, with a local shop that's been in business for 5+ years, and I told him (truthfully) that I had priced a similar system in Melbourne (nearby capital city) but would prefer to do business locally. He gave me a GREAT price, a good warranty, and the thing has been running great since Day 1. I've since bought a number of additional things from him, and he always knocks a little bit off the price sticker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now