Duo or Quad for 3d modeling?

[omnizzle]

Hello all,

I'm building a pc for my sister who will be using her computer for 3d modeling purposes (she is in architecture school. She will be using programs like Rhino, Maya, and AutoCAD. She also mentioned something about a program that renders things which usually takes hours, which has me leaning towards the quad, but I am not sure. Any input?

 

[z1ggy]

I would say quad core and to get atleast 4 gig of ram which may be even more important than the cpu. Also using windows vista is a must if the pc is to use all that 4 gig of ram. If you can afford it, you may even want to go for 6 gb or if you want to max it out go for 8gb.

 

[taltamir]

quad. Q6600 (the others are extremely overpriced in comparison) and 8GB of ram.

 

[sgrinavi]

I use AutoCAD Architecture 2009 and 3dsMAX 9. I find that CAD runs about the same either way and responds better to pure speed. 3dsMAX seems to run better on my quad even at a lower clock speed.

In both cases the GPU makes a HUGE difference, CAD and 3dsMAX both feel snappier and smoother with the ATI solution.

And, as ziggy pointed out, RAM makes a big difference as does a fast hard drive. I have 5 work stations at the office all with about the same processor, the main difference is the the 3gb/32 bit stations do not even come close to running as well as the 6gb 64 bit station.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Quad Q6600, 8GB DDR2 PC2-6400 5-5-5-15 or better, Vista64, and consider a high end consumer GPU
like a 4850 or 8800GT or better if any of the programs support GPGPU or GPU rendering processing with
ATI/NVIDIA cards, or use significant shader based DirectX / OpenGL techniques.

 

[omnizzle]

I have an 8800GTS for a GPU, I think that will be good enough. I was looking at Q6600 combo deals with motherboards, and I was wondering if I could get a cheaper mobo. Will that make a difference, especially since she will not be playing games on her computer?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Some cheaper motherboards are just fine, for instance I got a ABIT IP35-E motherboard for a Q6600 / 8GB system
and the motherboard was like $60 or so on sale at the time.

I'd just be careful of going too cheap on the motherboard, get something that explicitly lists the Q6600 in its
CPU compatibility table, which lists the amount of RAM you want as compatible and which has a good selection
of certified compatible memory sticks.

Get one with 4-phase or better CPU Vcore power regulation.

Stick with the P35 chipset based models IMHO.

Find a motherboard that has had at least 4-5 BIOS revisions published for it on the company website with the most
recent being no more than about a year old, that indicates they at least support the model with new updates.

Find people who own it and vouch for that model's reliability with your Q6600 CPU and the amount of RAM you want.

I'd probably look for ASUS, Gigabyte, ABIT, and get some of their low-midrange units rather than the very cheapest
models they offer.