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Advice to upgrade my hardware configuration.


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Dear friends,

 

I would like to switch to a 64bit system with windows 7 (which OS would be best?) - I work with 3DS max 2009 and Vray 1.5.

 

Here's my humble configuration;

 

  • Windows Vista 32bit family premium service pack 1
  • Intel Core Duo E8500 @3.06GHz 3.17GHz
  • 4GB RAM
  • ATI Radeon HD 3850

 

I have a small budget of about 1000$, so where should a put the priority on, in order to have a faster rendering time, and an easier, smoother work flow in my viewports?

 

Many thanks for your valuable advice.:)

 

Best regards

 

Mark

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The motherboard will not take I7. Im assuming its a 775 socket, the Q series quad cores will go in there I think. This will give you 4 threads instead of 2 for rendering. You could also stick some ram in there. Thats much less than $1000. You may be able to buy a low end or second hand Q series based machine for around $400.

 

Want to blow your whole load? buy another machine and use it as a render slave. You'll maybe get an I7 setup (8 render threads in Vray using hyperthreading) plus your own machine, you'll have a grand total of 10 threads, but the main bonus is you can work whilst you render...

 

I really dont understand why people want one great machine over two mediocre ones. Having your rendering power remote from your workstation is a must for me.

 

However, I have no idea what performance specs the graphics card is (ATI Radeon HD 3850).

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Many thanks for your advice! It's a great idea to have a second setup for rendering - will do that when the time allows me. Right now for me the best would be to switch to a 64bits system and adding some RAM. I will see if the rest of my budget, added to what will be left of my software one, can help in purchasing extra stuff (I'd love to get some training materials from 3DATS), or an extra monitor... Difficult choices!:rolleyes:

 

Anyway, thanks a lot! :)

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haha, thanks. My family has had pretty good luck with Dell, actually. I am very excited about it. I also went ahead and ordered a 2nd 22" led monitor with it as well. My current setup is a quad core hp laptop with one 22" monitor. My mother in law felt sorry for me because my render times were still ridiculous, so she bought me this new setup :) Once I get 10 posts, I will post what I was rendering.

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