skala67 Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 It has been quite a while since I have purchased or built a computer. I was looking for some advice. I need the fastest, most efficient, best quality components (complete machine) that work with Cinema4D and all of its plugins and 3rd party software to create highly detailed architectural renders and animation. I have a budget of $4K-5K. I don't have any parts except for monitors, so I would need to start from scratch. Any suggestions are gladly appreciated. Thanks, t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph alexander Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I'm pretty spoiled at my place of work but the way I've been doing things is that I have a computer that I model on and one that I render on all connected via remote desktop. It's actually an extremely efficient setup. With one computer you're always waiting for renderings to finish before you model or rebuild textures or post process work.. it's also better then having to slide your chair back and forth.. you may need another c4d license though... So i'd say a daul 3.0 xenon 2gb ram and a walmart 3.0 ghz computer with a good gaming card... if you use max you need a quadro fx 500 or better since they're in cahoots with the graphics card companies.. I've done a lot of research on rendering speed comparison and for the buck it seems intels are faster, make sure you get the 800 mhz front side bus, this makes a huge difference. -joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 Dell. Refurbished but with that cash you can get a nice new one. Dual 3.6, at least 2 gigs ram, get something like RAID 0 (dual 250s) for speed and a 400gb for back up and extra data. FX 1400 You'll get a superb machine for $5k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I don't think I would ever spend 5k on a new computer. I mean sure it will be top of the line for a few months, but I think you get a lot more bang for the buck if you don't buy the highest of the high end components. That said, I guess you could rack up a $5k machine really easily if you are buying from Dell, Boxx, or other big name companies like that. Sometimes I custom configure one just for kicks and when I update the total I can't believe how expensive those things are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaPixel Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I just recently purchased a new Dell Workstation for 3K even. The equivelant 'Boxx' and 'Alienware' systems ranges between $300 & $500 more. Here's what I got: Dual 3Ghz Xeon (EM64t) 1300 Quadro FX 128M (PCI Express) 2G (DDR2) Ram Dual (10K rpm) 74G Striped HD's.... This equals one 74G HD at 20K!!! Win XP SP2 yada yada... Comparing this system to my previous Dual 1.8 Athlon/1.5G DDR Ram/Geforce 3 Quadro, I see anywhere from 150% to 200% rendering improvement (depending on the type of rendering going on). With the Quadro FX, I'm able to see soo much more in the viewport real time which saves countless hours of rendering just to see what the effects of a change has done to my scene. I Hope this info. was useful to you - Mega Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 18, 2005 Share Posted February 18, 2005 I agree with Tim. I dont reccomend the highest end. Save a little cash for plugins and other goodies that will save you time and money. As most people have suggested, Dual Xeons are the CPU of the day for Cinema. The sweet spot seems to be around 3.0-3.2ghz. I also reccomend 2GB+ of ram. Striped boot drives will help a lot as well, look for Raptors as mentioned. For video, money can be saved by using a game card. Radeon 9800 and X800 rate very highly. Dont forget some nice quite quality cooling. Dual CPUs and multiple 10k drives will produce a fair amount of heat. If you opt for a prebuilt system, my personal choice would be Boxx. For a workstation its all about uptime. Saving $300 means very little if it crashes and sets you back a few hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skala67 Posted February 19, 2005 Author Share Posted February 19, 2005 Thanks for the advice. I also had XI quote me a workstation. They didnt quote a dual processor though. Here it is. Does this look like a good machine? Or what could/should I change. AMDR AthlonT 64 Processor 64Bit CPU - Monitor - Keyboard - Mouse w/Xi Mouse pad - XiR Case - Power Supply - Operating System and Motherboard as perdefault configuration. l Xi MTower 64 Bit (Base Configuration) Upgrades And Options: l AMDR AthlonT FX55 64Bit 1024KB Cache HyperTransportT Req.MB Upg. l 2048MB DDR 400MHz PC3200 2x1GB l 80GB 7200RPM SATA 150MB/s 8MB Cache 9ms req.MB.Upg. l nVidiaR Quadro FX 1400 128MB PCIe 2x DVI Dual Head SLI Capable l 22" (20v) Viewsonic P225F BEIGE COLOR .25ag 2048Perfect Flat l DVD+R DL/-R SONY DRU710A (writes to CD-RW) 4.7/8.5GB 48x32x48x 16xDVD w/media l On Board Sound AC 97 Codec l On board 1GB Ethernet (10/100/1000) on board LAN l LogitechR Deluxe Black Windows Keyboard l LogitechR (OEM) 2+ Wheel PS/2 Mouse Black Optical w/Mouse pad l WindowsR XP PRO Workstation CD-ROM w/manuals/act.reg.** l HD Ctrl. According To Motherboard and HD Type Selected l Standard Xi Warranty One Year on System, Mfg. on Monitor l AsusR A8N-SLI NvidiaR NForceR 4 2xPCIe DDR 400/533 -2x1GbNic+-SATA3Gb RAID-1394-AC97 7.1 l XiR MTower Aluminum Black Tool Free-Front USB-10 bays 420W-3xBB Fans. l 300GB 7200RPM SATA 150MB/s 8MB Cache 9ms req.MB.Upg. l 550W Ball Bearing Thermo controlled fan UL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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