radya Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Hi everyone, I want to buy best possible computer for 3D modeling and rendering. Budget being around £3000. Could you please advise me on the latest hardware specs I should get, or post a link to someone or a company that could help me with it. I am using 3ds Max and Vray for proffesional architectural visualization, therefore best possible graphics and processor power is vital. Thanks for your help in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.S Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 ASUS Z8NA-D6C (Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX) 2 x Intel Xeon E5520 Quad 2.26GHZ(5.86GT/S) LGA1366 L2 8MB 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1066 Quadro FX1800 768MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanGrover Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 I assume that budget doesn't include money for the software, right? The above suggestion looks great! The only thing I'd be tempted to do would be to shelve the workstation card in favour of a gaming one. With 3ds Max the difference is, in my experience, very little indeed. Put the money into getting yourself a nice chair so you don't break your back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 Simply put, I wouldnt buy a 3k machine. If 3k is your hardware budget, buy 1 workstation and 2 rendering nodes. Otherwise you are going to sit and watch your 3k machine render whilst you could otherwise be productive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 So, I'm on the same feeling as Tommy. 3k is too steep for my budget for a workstation, but I would definitely be willing to spend that, maybe even more if it included a lightning speed render slave. What is the consensus around the field regarding processors? ie. Xeon vs i7 and so on... 1- Best processor for the workstation - fast test renders and some distributed rendering when it's crunch time. 2- Best processor for the node - only a render box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 Really, it comes down to: -Nehalem generation is preferable to previous generations -Having as many total GHz worth of Nehalem or newer as you can manage, within the confines of your budget Where "budget" includes the space requirements (because obviously there comes a point where a couple of tall racks is preferable to filling 7 offices with budget PCs) and the electricity to run the PCs (dual Xeons use fewer watts per GHz than single CPU boxes) and software licenses, network infrastructure and other costs. As to whether those GHz come from i7's or Xeons has little effect on rendering speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 3k (sterling) would be around $4.5k In the US I would say you can get 3 x i7 machines. One of those would have a graphics card, the other two would be pretty much bare-bones, all with 12g of ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 You mind explaining to an idiot what Nehalem is? And is that only compatible with SOME processors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Nehalem is the Intel i7 microarchitecture, which is used in many Xeons as well. Since other Xeons are based on the older Core 2 microarchitecture, I try to differentiate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John.RenderStream Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 The Nehalem processors have four physical cores and because they are double threaded they have eight logical cores. With software made to utilize these cores you will get a huge performance boost. X5520 is the least expensive of a fully functional Nehalem processor and it is a very good choice. To learn what the processor advantage is read our RenderStream blog: An in depth look at Intel's i7 processor and Making of The Godbox Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinger Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Just remember if you go with a dual socket board, you must get Xeons as they are the only i7 with dual QPI enabled. Simply put, you can't buy 2 i7 920s and put them in a dual socket board because they won't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 The Nehalem processors have four physical cores and because they are double threaded they have eight logical cores. With software made to utilize these cores you will get a huge performance boost. X5520 is the least expensive of a fully functional Nehalem processor and it is a very good choice. To learn what the processor advantage is read our RenderStream blog: An in depth look at Intel's i7 processor and Making of The Godbox Good luck Do you mean the E5520? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John.RenderStream Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Yes my bad it is the E5520 not X5520 (can I edit that?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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