help me decide

[Dave Buckley]

hopefully easier to solve than my last post

 

i just want to hear peoples thoughts on the following for a proposed rendering setup.

 

If i have a budget of £1000, do you think it’s best spent on two machines at £500 or one at £1000?

2 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33ghz, 8Gb DDR2, 64 Bit XP

v

1 x Intel Core i7 950 3.06ghz, 12Gb DDR3, 64 Bit XP

[johnvid]

I would say having 2 machines is better, I have 2 similar to your spec, as once you set off a render you can still be working away on the other, though you can still carry on doing some work on a computer thats rendering.

 

You will need more HD space as stuff ends up getting installed twice. Though also more expensive for second set of certain SW & OS, the other issue is more noise, I would say dont go overboard with the components ie beefy power supplies, SLI graphics etc, my power supply on second machine was corsair 450w cheap & quiet enough. Graphics handled by 40 quid card, might upgrade in the future, when current technology falls through the floor, but its fine for most things.

[Horhe]

Yep I agree. Plus rendering 2 views simultaneously beats rendering one.

[Slinger]

It really depends on your workload and if you plan to work while running a render on that machine or have another machine to work etc.

[Dave Buckley]

all creative work will be done a different work station.

 

these two are just going to rendering slaves, that only get used for rendering.